John Is Fit

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 03:07 AM PST

This is a guest post by Dan Petraglia.

This was quite a story that was lingering right under my nose and I just never saw it for what it actually was until recently. Today I'm more than happy to share it on John is Fit. A close friend of mine recently lost over 50 lbs. Is this an impressive feat or is this just a good accomplishment in someone's life? Well both really. To him, it was just something he needed to do. For some of us, that's an incredible weight loss goal attained.

Since I know him rather well I got to see a lot of what he did to get there. So let's dive right into it then and examine a little more into detail as to how this was actually done.

START FROM SCRATCH

I saw a complete overhaul and lifestyle change almost instantaneously. You have to realize if you want to lose the amount of weight my friend did, you better buckle up because it's going to be a bumpy ride. I saw everything from dieting changes to exercise milestones being met on a constant basis.

He understood there are no shortcuts and you need to stop everything. Stop what you're doing right now. Then say to yourself "there's no point in doing things in life halfway if you know you're going to do them anyway". Many of us are already eating healthier discovering which food groups and meal types provide the best nutritional value and which ones to stay away from. That doesn't mean you've solved the weight loss riddle quite yet.

Exercise is the other big component which needs to be addressed in all seriousness. You have to get exercise on a fairly regular basis for your body to start understanding that you can do this activity and it can burn many calories at once. This is going to take some fire that you need to summon from deep down within side of you if you ever want to make exercise work in your favor.

In order to lose this amount of weight in this amount of time without hurting any bodily functions, you have to do both. No excuses.

PERSISTENCE OR DETERMINATION?

It's good to be determined to do something in life. It's better to be persistent at it. You're probably thinking they are basically the same thing. Not quite. Determined to do something is more of a mind set. But being persistent is constantly beating on your craft until you know how to make it work without thinking too deeply into it. It's repetition after repetition, after some more repetition.

What I saw with my friend was persistence. This is what you need to do! Everyday work on it, maybe try something new. Experiment with a new exercise or food. Have fun with it. Your body responds very well to you when you take care of it. Your body will start to feel good (stronger, more flexible, harder), starts looking better, and thus making you feel better psychology. It's a perfect circle.

So persistence is a key essential to weight loss and I guess many other things in life now that I happen to think about it. Try to do something every single day that you know is contributing to your weight loss target.

IT'S A NUMBERS GAME

Now you don't have to be a math wizard here but you do need to understand your rate of progression through numbers. My friend tracked everything he ate through an iPhone application called MyFitnessPal. I could tell after a few months he understood caloric intake values as good if not better than even myself.

Now I'm not saying you have to do the same. But having an idea if you are first starting out with serious dieting of anywhere between general to the exact amount of calories you take in one day should be considered.

As for exercise a similar system should be implemented. For every two to three weeks, you need to really try to have increased in a time doing something cardiovascular. For weight training, move up slightly in the weight itself, repetitions, or even better both. This can be accomplished on average in the exercise realm around every month. With my friend, I saw slight increases in these places sure enough, every month.

So you see it was a combination of things put together that can make such a significant amount of weight loss happen for someone. Think of a combination on a lock. You have to find the right combo in order to open the door. However, everyone's combination is different. You just need to find your right combo, and you're in. Once you find the combination that works for you, sky's the limit!

Dan Petraglia runs a weight loss and fitness information blog. Unique exercise, dieting, and nutrition information, products, programs, and services are provided. For more information, please visit Fitness and Weight Loss Central. He is also on Facebook and Twitter.

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