How to Go From 20-12% Body Fat In 90 Days

I played Division I football for 5 years where I had the opportunity to learn from the absolute best of the best in the health and fitness industry. From trainers, nutritionists, coaches, rehab specialists, the list goes on. Not only from my college, not my university, but the NFL professional level as well. And it's not very often that you get to be around people like that for such a long extended period of time and pick their brain for free, learn from them, and soak up every single piece of knowledge that you possibly can. But luckily, I'm so blessed I had the opportunity to do that because it sets apart my knowledge base and how I treat people and how I can actually help people get the results they're looking for. And aside from that, I've had coaches my entire life, from around 8 years old all the way up until now when I still have coaches for things that I think I can do better in. Now, the reason I bring that up is because learning these specific things really changed the trajectory of my life. Now, when I came into college, I wasn't the biggest I wasn't the strongest, I wasn't the fastest, my health wasn't the best, I had horrible acne, the list goes on, right? But because I was able to learn from them, because I soaked up every piece of knowledge and I applied myself, I went from being 4th, 5th string wide receiver on the depth chart my freshman year to being a starting receiver, producing tons of numbers, getting in peak shape, being one of the fastest, the biggest, the strongest, the most athletic on the team. Now that's all due to the fact that I listened to them and I applied those rules that they gave to me and they told me to do. I stuck to it ruthlessly. That's what having a coach does for you. And they taught me 17 lessons that really, really stuck with me and how to actually get the results I wanted. Now, this applies to anything that you want in life, whether it's trying to get in shape, trying to go from 20% to 12% body fat, trying to change the man that you are, trying to do anything in life. It doesn't necessarily matter, but these 17 lessons apply. Now, if you really apply them to your life, I guarantee you will see a significant change in the way that you can actually transform your overall health. Now, without further ado, let's just get right into it. Number 1, cellular function means everything. Your body technically runs on calories, but every single cell has its own function, it has its own mechanisms, and if those aren't treated and fed and fueled properly, you simply won't perform outwardly on a level that you want. You won't be able to lose fat, you won't be able to look good, you simply will not feel your best. Now, let me give you an example. If your omega-3 to omega-6 ratios are off, you're gonna be extremely inflamed, you're not gonna feel good, your immune system's gonna be poor, and you simply won't get the results you're looking for. And this goes on for every single micronutrient that you could possibly imagine. Now, of course, there is a way to fix that by focusing on a whole food diet, making sure that you're getting all your micronutrients, but your macros alone simply won't get you to where you want to go. You have to focus on cellular function, and the first step is making sure that all of your micronutrients are actually in check. Number 2: Endless cardio is killing your gains. It's not that cardio is inherently bad, it's the form in which you do it and how much you're actually doing it. Now here's an example. I used to run all the time, constantly, for football. I would overdo it, train myself to death, and that shut down my central nervous system. That's what often happens to runners when they run for miles and miles and it runs so much every single week. It shuts down your body. It doesn't allow you to recover properly. You simply won't get the results that you want. If you stick to walking and sprinting, that's a more effective way to actually lose fat and become the man that you want to be. It's one easier, but it's also more realistic to stick to and burn more calories over an extended period of time so you don't shut off your central nervous system. Number 3, simply walk. As I just mentioned before, it's not that cardio is inherently bad, it's the form of what you're doing and how often you're actually doing it. Now, cardio in a fat loss phase is something you don't want to get wrong because it can fry your central nervous system, make your recovery very, very poor, and make it super challenging to actually get the results you want. Walking won't do that. And one of the best ways to get that done and actually burn the fat effectively— go on a treadmill, 10 to 15 degrees, 3 to 3.5 miles per hour, 20 to 30 minutes a day, every single day. You add that in simply on top of what you're already doing, that will help you get in that calorie deficit with ease, without overdoing it, without burning your central nervous system, and you can easily get the results that you want. Number 4: Form matters more than lifting heavy. When you're in a fat loss phase, you also want to build muscle. And what I see countless people do wrong is they try to increase the weight without trying to perfect their form. This happened to me many, many times. I've blown out my back, ankles, shoulders— the list goes on. I got injured through football because I didn't correct my form. And once I started to do that, that's when I really got the results that I wanted. See, when your form is off, you might be engaging only about 70 to 80% of the actual muscle groups that you want to work. Whereas if you drop the weight, really focus on the form, you're gonna be able to get 100% of the actual muscle that you want to engage. This will promote 100% muscle growth opposed to only 70 to 80%. Number 5, less is not better, but nuance matters. I see this constantly. People online saying that you only need 2 to 3 sets a couple times a week, it's simply not enough. Science has shown that 10 to 20 sets per week per muscle group is optimal for overall muscle growth. Specifically, when you're in a fat loss phase, you want to be able to put on that muscle while you're losing fat. If you're not doing enough, you simply won't get the results you want. But on the other hand, overdoing it, like I mentioned with the cardio, will fry your central nervous system. So stick to 10 to 20 sets week per muscle group, pushing yourself to failure. And you can be on the low end of that if you are really pushing yourself with good form, with heavy weight. Number 6: you won't build muscle if you're dehydrated. I see this all the time, men coming to me drinking about half of the amount of water that they should. Now think about it, your body's 70% water, your muscles are 70% water, your cells are 70% water. Our body runs on water. Now when you're dehydrated, you simply can't exert the amount of force that you want. As if you were actually hydrated. Now, all I want you to do is drink more than you think that you should, and then once you get to that point where you can do it consistently, then you don't have to think about it anymore. But it's not just that the muscle and how much you can perform in the gym, it's recovery, it's gut health, it's overall health and immune system. The list goes on. Simply drink more water, you'll be able to build more muscle, lose more fat, stay more satiated, and be healthier overall. But there is some nuance to that though. Not all water is created equally, especially if you're drinking tap water or bottled water. That's horrible for your overall health. Yes, it may get you hydrated, but it's not going to have the minerals, it's not going to have the overall electrolytes that you need for your body to function properly. What you should focus on is a good filter. Add in some minerals, or really just sea salt if you'd like. That's going to give you that real hydration and keep your results flowing in the gym. Number 7: Don't stretch before a workout, do a movement prep. Science has shown that when you simply static stretch, you elongate your muscles it decreases the overall energy that your muscles can exert by up to 5, maybe 10%. And when you do the math, there's actually a huge difference. For example, if you're benching 200 lbs before and you're statically stretching, that might be reducing your overall load by 5 to 10%, whereas you switch to a movement prep, you warm up the muscles and actually can produce your full output. Your bench might immediately go from 200 to 225 or 250. Number 8: Your heaviest set should be your first. I see this happen all the time in the gym. People warm up for a long extended period. They go from 135 on bench to 225 to 235, 245, and then their last set is 275. Well, you just did 5 to 6 sets right before your heaviest. That's going to slow you down. That's going to make you more tired. Right when you're fully warmed up, you should be hitting your heaviest set. This allows you to get the full maximum output from your muscles, which if you can produce maximum force, that allows you to get the maximum results. So for example, do your movement prep, do 1 to 2 sets of warmup, and then hit your heaviest set right when you're ready. Number 9, the 225 test. As a man, you should be able to hit 225 pounds on bench and squat respectively. That's the bare minimum though, and if you can't hit that, the good thing is for you that with a structured plan, you can get it in no time. It's not that the 225 number really means all that much, but it's what it does to you internally. It's the confidence, it's knowing that you have the capability to defend yourself, defend your loved ones, defend your wife, defend your kids. It all comes down to that. And I can see the difference and I can have experienced it firsthand in my own life. The way that I walk in a room with my confidence because I know I'm strong, I'm capable, I can do anything, opposed to other people who, you know, not to say their names, who might be a little smaller, a little weaker, who don't take care of themselves as much. Their confidence is low. They don't get the things that they want in life because they simply don't have the confidence for it. Now this is one of the first things that you should be able to do. Strive to getting 225 on bench and squat. That's the overall strength metric that you should be aiming for. That's going to really build up your confidence and know that you can defend yourself and have the capability to do what you want. Number 10, you need a structured plan. When you go into the gym blindly hitting arms, hitting legs, hitting abs, you simply won't get the results you want. I see it every single day, people coming to me telling me their plan wondering why they're not getting results. It's because they don't have a structured plan. They don't have a plan at all. You go in the gym blindly thinking, I'm going to hit this, this day, I'm going to do that, that day, and the results don't come. You wonder why. It's because you don't have a structured plan. You need to know exactly what you should be doing. Now, what this looks like for me and some of my clients might be 3 to 5, maybe 6 days a week depending on what you're training for. Now, me specifically, what that looks like at any given time might be chest and back on Mondays, shoulders and arms on Tuesdays, legs on Wednesdays, rest, and then Friday a full upper, and then legs again on Saturday. I'll intertwine some cardio whether I'm trying to lose fat, trying to get bigger. Some things change here and there, but overall that would be the 5-day split that I stick with. Number 11, progressive overload. This is simply put one of the most important things for you to do if you want to see results in the gym. Now, what actually is progressive overload? It's simply increasing weight or reps week after week to try and increase the overall load. And this ties directly into point 10, the structured plan, because if you don't know what you were doing last week, you can't predict it next week. You can't incorporate progressive overload. Yes, if you train to failure, you'll get good results, but progressive overload is the number one key determinant in actually getting results. So here's how you do it. You need a structured plan, but you need to make sure that whatever you did last week, you're trying to improve and beat it this week. Whether that's adding 5 pounds to the bar, doing another rep, slowing down the pace, or some sort of way to actually make it more challenging. Number 12, track your macros. I know the first point was all about cellular function and it's not necessarily about the macros, which it isn't, but you need to be making sure that your macros fit with your overall goals. 'Cause even if you're hitting all of your micronutrients, your cellular function is perfect, but you're eating 1,000 calories over what you should be, you're still gonna put on weight. The macros determine your overall look in terms of how much weight you put on, how much you lose, your muscle, but the cellular function determines how you look, how you feel while you're doing it. So specifically with your macros, you need to be tracking to a point where you can intuitively track it in the future. But if your goal is to lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit. If your goal is to put on muscle, you need to be aiming for 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, carbs around your training, and a calorie surplus. There's loads of things to be doing with your macros, but it determines specifically on your goals. You need to know what your goals are, track your macros, and fit it specifically to reach that goal. Number 13, whole foods only, at least 90% of the time. You should be eating foods that came from the earth or have a mom and dad. Things like fish, dairy, meats, beef, except pork. I don't eat pork. It's a really dirty animal. You shouldn't either. Eggs, fruit, root vegetables. I don't eat leafy vegetables. They have a lot of oxalates in them, which essentially bind to other minerals in your body and pull them out. There are specific situations where you can, if they're cooked, maybe spinach or broccoli, but most of the time I tend to avoid it. Because if you simply focus on eating beef, fish, dairy, fruits, that's going to get 99% of your overall nutrients that you need. When you eat this way, all your problems disappear— your health problems, your mental problems, your You feel amazing, you look amazing, and you don't have to worry about your macros so much when you eat like this. Number 14, train hard then push even harder. You know when you have days in the gym when you're feeling weak, when you can't push yourself that hard, and there's days in the gym when you can, when you push yourself to absolute failure and you feel you just got the best workout ever. You know what that is? It's not about your day, it's not about your energy, it's all up here. And you can constantly train your brain to actually push yourself to the level that you can produce. Your body only adapts when you provide enough stimulus for it to adapt. So you have to break past that mental barrier of thinking you're doing enough. Once you feel you've reached the point of failure, push yourself even harder. And if you know you're not training to failure, push yourself as hard as you absolutely can because that's the only way that you're really gonna get the results that you want. Number 15, find a coach. Like I mentioned in the beginning of the video, I've had a coach my entire life. Through football, through finances, through schooling, whatever it is, I got help with something. Now think about it like this, if you had a cavity and you needed to get that fixed, would you go and try and figure it out on your own and then, you know, do some research on YouTube and then try to fill that cavity? No, you would go find an expert. If you needed help with your finances, would you just watch YouTube videos and invest in some stocks and then hope that you become a millionaire? No, that's not how the wealthy people do it. They will get a financial planner. Now, when it comes to health and fitness, you're putting your overall health on the back burner, thinking that you can just watch videos, thinking that you can get the most value yourself and then implement it. When you have kids, when you have a family, when you have work and you have your own mouth to feed, you have so many things on your plate already and you think that you can just watch a couple YouTube videos like this one right here and get all the knowledge and then apply it. Yes, you technically can, but is it realistic? Not necessarily. And I'm not saying you, you need to work with me. You absolutely do not. I'm saying find someone, whether it's somebody in your area, somebody online, even myself. I would love to work with you if that's something you want, but you absolutely do not have to. If you do want to, as you can see right here, the link is in the description below. You can simply go and watch the video I have on my, my website, sign up. It takes 30 seconds for you to book a call with me. It's completely free, no strings attached, and I would love to see you.