Getting lean is simple with a little consistency.

I’ve been writing quite a bit lately about how we’re using the InBody Body Composition Scanner to show that weight loss only matters if you know WHAT you’re losing. Often times, rapid “weight” loss is usually water or lean tissue. With this piece, I’m going to show you how Coach Josh has achieved his best body composition ever with simple changes and consistency.

The numbers:

In the last 10 weeks Josh has gone from 16% body fat to 12.8% body fat. He’s lost roughly four pounds in the process. The goal going forward is to re-gain the weight loss as lean tissue. We tested this using Body Composition Testing.

Getting lean: the workout.

Josh’s training is probably the simplest it’s been in years. He does one workout a day and typically follows the Strength Track. He looks at it a few minutes before he does it, then works hard and will only “empty the tank” once every week or so. No extra work or complexity. Simple, efficient, hard work. Two times a week he’ll do some low-intensity practice with an empty barbell or gymnastics. No extra “cardio”, lifting, or anything fancy.

The small diet changes.

Our philosophy has always been that simple, sustainable, incremental change leads to the best results. In Josh’s case, the nutrition changes were SUPER simple. The two changes Josh made to his diet were: 1. Eat vegetables at every meal and 2. Eat adequate protein. This means that, each week, he roasts a couple big pans of assorted vegetables and spreads them out over each meal. After tracking his meals, he found he needed to added 50-100 grams of protein a day. Nothing crazy or unsustainable. Just simple, sustainable change.

Getting lean: the takeaways.

If you’ve noticed a theme from these posts it’s this: changing your body composition is very simple, but difficult. Eat veggies and adequate protein, hydrate, avoid excess alcohol, and work out to the extent that you feel recovered. We tend to gravitate toward complexity rather than face the reality that change requires consistency. If your goal is to get leaner, choose a small change and stick to it for at least 8 weeks. From there, you’ll be able to make other changes.