99% of the fitness industry is stuck in a beginner fat loss stage. How to lose fat is a topic of nearly endless discussion largely because the process is simple, but not easy. One question most folks never ask is what happens if you do lose the weight? What then?
It’s an important question because many people at some point in their fat loss attempts might actually lose weight. But the chances of them regaining it at huge. In fact, the overwhelming majority of people that lose weight will simply gain it back and that’s a shame. But then the fitness industry doesn’t exactly prepare us for what comes next.
So what does come next? Performance.
If you’ve been training smart in your fat loss, you were training like a beginning level athlete and not doing something stupid like riding an exercise bike three hours a day while trying to eat 1000 a day. In other words, if you did what nearly everyone else on earth did and cardioed yourself to death while also killing off any muscle you might have had in the process, then you just set yourself up for serious failure. Because what are you going to do now? Keep cardioing yourself to death? Good luck with that. And come see me when your lack of any muscle causes you to slip a disk. I train many clients like that.
If you trained like a basic athlete because you’re smarter than the average bear then you’ve prepared your body to do more interesting training. At this point, you won’t get winded near as much as you did when you started. The weight is way down, your lungs and heart are strong, and you can push yourself. You can start chasing performance goals like bringing your running times down, lifting more weights, hitting certain rep goals in kettlebell lifts, or even join an adult or masters sports league. Yes, you could compete again (or for the first time) as an adult.
Powerlifting, amateur bodybuilding, racing, church league softball, adult Brazilian jiu-jitsu classes, etc. are all options once the weight comes off and your fitness improves.
If none of that floats your boat or you don’t have time, then your workouts need to change to being faster and stronger than you were before. And here’s a MAJOR difference: how many calories you burn is NOT the major concern of the workout. That’s no longer the goal. This is maintenance level. We are now looking at doing something long term, not killing it every time you go to the gym.
Be VERY careful with this! This requires a major shift in mindset for some people. When your only experience with exercise has been about burning calories then moving to an intermediate/performance level can really shake you up. But it’s also a more fun level where you no longer really worry about calories. Remember, athletes focus on winning, not burning calories. So go enjoy being an athlete!