Thread by @Rob_NBF

Started a resolution this year to start working out, lose weight and get in shape?

Here's your ultimate guide of how to get on the fastest track to results and all the mistakes to avoid!

Thread 👇

#1 lesson:

Fat loss comes from a calorie deficit.

Don't spend endless hours on a treadmill or sign up for "fat blasting classes" thinking that's going to work.

If it works, it's because the extra calories you burned tipped you over into a deficit (calories in/calories out)..

...But this isn't likely. If it DOES happen, what's going to happen the second you stop the p90x, insanity workouts etc.

That's right, no more calorie deficit. Fat will go back on.

So unless you want to do those workouts forever you need to find a better way.

The only long term solution is PERMANENT diet change.

Not a detox, juice diet or other form of crash diet (because you won't do that forever either - and there's lots of other things wrong with those approaches too)

You need to find a way of eating that you enjoy and can do forever that, combined with a form of activity that you also enjoy, puts you into a calorie deficit.

The simple answer to what this is for most people is eating mostly nutritious, filling and delicious whole foods, with a bias towards protein, and combining that with strength training.

You don't need to do fasting, keto, 5:2, carnivore etc. These are all just different approaches to maximising satiety whilst reducing the likelihood of overeating.

The principle that underpins success in all of these is the calorie deficit they create.

If you create a calorie deficit whilst still eating ice cream it'll still work.

If you want to give yourself the best chance of success, you should make sure to have some sort of daily movement.

Notice I didn't say daily workouts.

Workouts are taxing on your body & take a lot of recovery. You also don't burn that many calories nor do you need more than 2 workouts per muscle group per week to make good progress.

Doing more than this is actually counter productive for beginners as you'll cut into recovery.

Instead you should aim to walk every day (or cycle, swim etc.)

Walking is good for you. It's low impact, creates minimal stress for the body, promotes recovery, has cardiovascular benefits and the calories you'll burn really add up.

For example, if you weigh 160 lbs and average 4,000 steps per day you'll burn about 155 calories from this.

Up this to 12,000 steps per day and this goes up to about 470 calories per day.

Over 30 days that's an extra 9,450 calories.

Summing up this section:

- Calorie deficit = fat loss
- Find a form of exercise you'll do forever
- Find a way of eating that works for you, is made up of minimally processed foods and includes a high protein intake.
- It's got to be a lifestyle change, not temporary.

Right, onto working out.

Don't make the mistake of thinking more workouts = better.

You need to take your sets close to failure to create the stimulus for adaptation. That's when the DAMAGE happens.

Yes, damage. You break yourself down in the gym. You get stronger outside it.

As a beginner, you don't need too many sets to create this stimulus.

3 sets in a session for a muscle group is enough if they're taken near failure.

Doing more won't help you, it will just take you longer to recover and be ready to go again.

If you keep the volume per muscle group low, you'll be ready to train again in 48 hours and you'll be stronger.

If you go high volume you could find you're still not ready 48 hours later and you're weaker.

For this reason, a full body plan 3x per week works well for beginners.

You should absolutely base your routine on compound exercises.

These work multiple muscle groups at the same time.

You don't need an exercise for hamstrings, glutes, lower back, lats, traps, abs, forearms etc.

As a beginner you'll grow all of these with deadlifts alone.

If you pick one or two compound exercises for all of the major movement patterns, you'll cover just about everything:

- Vertical push
- Vertical pull
- Horizontal push
- Horizontal pull
- Squat
- Hinge

I've got a free full body plan for beginners that has compound exercises for all the major movement patterns you can follow here:

nothingbarredfitness.com/the-perfect-wo…

You've got to also do slightly more each time (progressive overload).

Don't rush to add weight all the time, but just add another rep or increase the weight by the smallest increment you can.

If you always work near failure you should automatically be increasing reps anyway.

Remember that growth happens outside the gym.

Create the stimulus for your body to adapt. Then LET IT ADAPT.

Don't spend all your time in the gym interfering with your recovery.

Sleep. Eat well, make sure you get lots of protein.

How much protein?

Well, the common suggestion is 1g per lb of your bodyweight per day - but you don't actually need this much - it's just a convenient way of remembering it.

An analysis of lots of studies found that more than 0.73g (1.6g per kg) provided no extra benefit.

So if you're 100kg, or 220 lbs, that's about 160g per day.

There is a benefit to splitting this up across the day.

4 roughly equal servings of about 40g would be a good way to split this up.

Right, moving on:

Form. Is. Everything.

DO NOT EGO LIFT.

If you've just got a goal of gaining muscle, there's no reason to ever lift below a 5 rep max.

You gain muscle by taking sets close to failure. The amount of weight used makes no difference. Numerous studies have found this.

Form matters so much.

If your form isn't good, you won't work the target muscles effectively.

You'll also be likely to injure yourself, which means you can't train.

Not training = not building muscle.

Lower the weight, hone your form, and take your sets close to failure.

Most common form mistakes =

- Not having a neutral spine
- Not retracting shoulder blades
- Not bracing/breathing correctly
- Not using full range of motion
- Cheating/using momentum

Read up on these things. Film yourself, watch it back, compare to textbook form examples.

Lastly, supplements.

They're not worth too much of your attention.

Any outlandish claims are best ignored.

Whey protein = useful to hit protein targets, that's all.
Creatine = small strength boost, worthwhile.

Some others might be worthwhile for you - vitamin D, magnesium, omega 3 - but it's individual.

A lot of people don't get enough of these, if that's you (and it probably is), supplement - but it's more for health than direct performance benefits.

That's all for now. This covers all the basics and will be enough for a beginner to see great progress if they're consistent.

Consistency is really important. It won't work if you do this for a couple of weeks, then go missing for a month, back for 3 weeks, etc.

You can absolutely, 100% do this. Even if you don't have much time to work out.

Got 20 minutes per day? Then you can do this!

I made just 20 minutes per day work for me when my kids were very young and I could only work out in my lunch breaks.

I made a program showing exactly how I did this and still made progress.

With just 20 minute workouts I managed to build muscle and get stronger, despite getting awful quality sleep.

It's 40% off for a limited time, through this link!

learn.nothingbarredfitness.com/20-minute-musc…

If you found this thread useful, give the first tweet a RT (it really helps me!) and follow me for more like this.

Good luck for your transformation in 2022!

Here's a link to quickly jump back to the first tweet!

https://twitter.com/Rob_NBF/status/1478017850820468751?t=_-S8Xfru3oDRE-Vgtr0-TA&s=19