Happy accidents sometimes happen, and when they do, it’s good to take note. I accidentally lost about 15 lbs in 6 weeks, and a sixer decided to reveal itself. Accidental achievements can be more revealing (pun intended) than intentional ones, on occasion, because the lack of trying means there is less noise in the process.
When attempting to make massive changes, people often throw everything but the kitchen sink at problems and personal goals, and if and when they succeed, they know THAT they succeeded, but rarely HOW they succeeded. Too many variables changed at once, and so progress is accompanied by a lack of comprehension of meaningful inputs.
They can’t reproduce it with skill.
What changed for me was obvious because I wasn’t trying, and it reinforced the same principles I discussed in In Pursuit of Weightlessness, and continue to coach via The Weightlessness Process program year in and year out. And despite providing explicit principled strategies, many still wonder why results don’t come. So I’m going to hit this from the other end, with “Whoopsie Achievement.”
You too can fall ass-backwards into a six pack, if you make the same accidental changes that I did.
But first, let me clear a few common misconceptions:
You can target regions of the body for fat loss: You cannot effectively target one part of the body (spot reduction) to tighten and tone. Genetics will dictate where fat is placed, and therefore burned, regardless of training approach. To get lean, or to reveal your sixer, you’ve got to reduce total body fat percentage, and not merely train the part of the body that isn’t popping.
Do cardio to tighten and tone: This is a half truth. Many who train effectively will receive enough cardiovascular conditioning through resistance training efforts, especially if that work contains supersets and circuits on occasion. That said, the heart is a muscle best flexed through low intensity, long duration exercise. So too, the body’s fat conversion rate is better triggered after 20 minutes of low to moderate exercise. These are not hard and fast rules, but I mention that to say one must focus on relatively intense work against resistance, but that pleasurable cardio-based activities can provide benefit, as I’ll show below.
Take supplements: Unless you’ve diagnosed specific vitamin or mineral deficiencies, it’s unlikely you need anything, including protein. Protein is particularly pernicious because it rarely digests well, and so isn’t absorbed well, and so not only impedes general digestion by compromising gut health, but can have big divergence between protein consumed and protein utilized.
Focusing on quality of digestion (which may benefit from probiotic supplementation in the form of fermented foods, or pills, if you find one that shows immediate impact) is so much more valuable than following rote advice on total macro intake by any means necessary.
Now, what IS required:
- A caloric deficit a good portion of the week.
- Sufficient nutrition that fuels hard efforts.
- Hard efforts.
- Soft efforts.
How I accidentally lost 15 lbs in six weeks as a 45 year old, and got a six pack.
First, and this is important - I train.
While I was carrying extra weight, it was largely a superficial problem. I was still training 2-4 days a week with a focus on 5-vector strength training and interval or HITT training to supplement, prior to the shifts I’ll mention. I mention this to say that having a base helps accelerate fat loss, and the shaping element is already prepped, it just needs to be revealed. If one is starting from a lower strength base, than strength training ought to be added (and prioritized) for 6-8 weeks before the changes I mention next, for best results.
Second, I moved to a new house. This new house is located near a beautiful park that I enjoy walking around. So I walked around the park a few times a week. Very scientific.
Third, I stopped eating my dinners when I was no longer hungry, rather than when I was full, several days a week.
Fourth, I added or sustained a short, high intensity circuit post strength training one day a week (not much, I know, but it mattered).
Fifth, I prioritized protein (animal proteins). Knowing that I was busier than normal that month, and didn’t want to lose muscle in the process, I made sure that a good portion of every meal (I rarely eat more than 2 meals) was protein, accompanied by a good portion of veg. And if I was still hungry, I’d have carbs.
And that was literally my diagnostic - I’d lead with the protein and veg, and if I didn’t feel hungry anymore, I stopped. And If I didn’t feel like eating more of each, but I was still a bit hungry, I’d have carbs. I still enjoyed a glass or two of wine a few nights a week, and my other meals (or lack thereof), remained unchanged. Dinners were (and are) the prime mover of fat loss, as the caloric load before fasting (sleeping) determines whether your body will draw from calories consumed vs calories stored.
That’s it. Really.
Can you do that? Yes, anybody can do that.
Can you do that without 6-8 weeks of strength training prep? Yes, you can. The only difference that will make is the shapeliness of the finished product, but everyone has a six pack (or 4 pack, or 8 pack - genetically determined) underneath layers of belly fat. Strength training will amplify the shape of those muscles, but it doesn’t create them.
Getting lean is the single most important factor here.
And if you’re too busy to walk an hour, two to three days per week, on top of two to three days of resistance training (20-30 minutes per session), then you can achieve the same with just the dietary strategy alone… you’ll just want to allow for two months instead of one (or three months... you get the idea). The calorie deficit is the key.
I did not count calories. And I did not suffer.
For those who don’t understand how that’s possible without measurement… there is still measurement. Pay attention to what you normally eat on a 3-5 day cycle. Most of us have some consistency in food selection. Now look at your body. If it hasn’t changed in the last two weeks, than you’re eating at your caloric maintenance levels. Now… eat less.
Seriously, I just saved you countless hours of neurotic dietary analysis and frustrating caliper measurement. You’re welcome. That can take the form of occasional meal skipping, a la intermittent fasting, or it can take the form of simply eating smaller portions. My approach was to take honest stock of hunger, which is both an awareness practice, as well as a regulatory one.
In ‘prioritizing protein’ rather than ‘reducing carbs’, you achieve the same outcome of macro nutrient recomposition without feeling like you’re denying yourself. You can still eat carbs… you just make sure you’re giving extra attention to other nutrients first - giving the body what it needs before you give the mind what it wants.
And often, once you have those primary nutrients, the cravings for carbs disappear of their own accord. Two birds, one stone.
There were a few nights where sleep was less than ideal because the energy needed for digestion of bigger dinners was freed up, and my mind was more alert. When that happens I try to relax into it, and remind that my body is doing work while I sleep. You will get used to this as well, and sleep will regulate.
So, to sum up here, adding a pleasurable walk a few days a week (usually 1-1.5 hours or so), which I don’t normally consider exercise and incorporate it more for my mental health, in tandem with eating enough to be satisfied rather than full, while prioritizing protein, was all it took.
And finally, a note on critical volume and personal approach:
One of the worst things you can do, if trying to change with intention, and not by accident, is to distribute the training and dietary stresses I discussed over a long period of time. “I want to lose 20 lbs, but I’m in no rush, as long as its by year-end (said in June) I’ll be happy.”
That’s not how bodies change. The stress of training and / or calorie deficiency must be acute enough to trigger adaptation. This isn’t negotiable. Extending efforts over a longer period will both wear you out as well as distribute the stresses of training / diet over a period that lacks critical volume, and therefore impact.
If you are not noticing changes in the mirror from one week to the next, literally, than you’re doing it wrong. And doing it wrong for a longer period of time will not make a right.
Many mistake Weightlessness Nutrition for a diet. It’s not. It’s a diagnostic and prescriptive application built for all diets. If you don’t practice and understand the principles of baseline nutrition in the form of meat, fish, eggs, and veg, and later, calorie and carb cycling to manage insulin and overall energy and body composition, then you won’t understand how to make ANY diet work.
The principles of strength / weight gain and fat loss are the same for all of us. If a nutrition plan isn’t getting results for you, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG, it’s not the ‘diet’s’ fault. Trouble shoot. Any diet that 'works' does so by the exact same mechanism - it produces a calorie deficit that requires the conversion of body fat to make up. So if no results, investigate where those pesky excess calories are coming from, or where you can expend more during the day.
And if you don’t want to do that work, we can help.
The first phase of The Weightlessness Process contains every prime mover of strength, health, and body composition anyone would need to achieve that lean, strong body they desire, now and forever. There are no gimmicks, we just do the important stuff better than others. But to achieve those results, not by accident, but with intention, comprehension, and in record time, so that you not only achieve them, but keep them, well, coaching helps. It helps a lot.
When you finally stop tolerating slow, or no, progress, and take full ownership over not only what you're doing, but how you're doing it, then you're in a place to accelerate personal change. But you got to do the right things, and you gotta do em the right way. And you gotta be open to frequent and direct feedback.
If you could use support acquiring the key tools of physical transformation, as well their right implementation, along with the other benefits of The Weightlessness Process - focus and clarity of mind, stress reduction and improved energy, mind-body integration, self-awareness, and self-control, then reach out.
Make this a season of transformation.
Come for the 6-pack, stay for the power, passion, and peace.
Be Weightless!
Tom Fazio
Weightlessness | Mind Body Performance