Alright.
Let’s talk health.
First of all, WHY Even bother to be in shape?
Let’s go back to 10-year-old you.
Imagine with me, you’re 10 years old again, running around at recess.
The other kids are talking – “You know what I’M GONNA BE WHEN I’M OLDER?”
“I’m going to BE OUT OF SHAPE and EATING DORITOS!!”
…Said no kid ever.
Let me ask you, when you were 10 years old, what did you want to look like when you were older?
I think I speak for the vast majority when I say everyone thought they’d look like superman/superwoman.
Next…
Now imagine that you’re 80-years old.
Fast forward. You have a bunch of grandchildren and you’re done your career. You’re in the twilight years of your life.
How do you want to spend them?
Do you want to be able to run around, play with your grandkids and be an integral part of the family?
..or do you want to be bed-ridden, and reliant upon medicines and others to take care of you?
And then there is this key fact:
A strong body is a status symbol you cannot buy.
It’s a testament to your discipline, will-power and dedication.
Your Body is a reflection of your mind.
What do you want it to reflect?
I only pose these questions to motivate you towards the best version of yourself.
My background:
I’ve been training since I was 15.
Here’s a little story:
When I was younger, our family moved from Canada to Saudi Arabia for a few years.
During that time I lived in this condo – which was the bane of my existence at the time. It was literally the most boring place in the world.
We lived there for one year – and I was BORED. Like. F*cking. Bored.
We normally always lived in a compound (basically a gated community) before this. This one year, my dad decided to try out this bigger spot – and it was NOT fun.
It was far from my friends, with no amenities nearby and zero sports I could walk/bike to.
So to entertain myself, I’d just hop on my trusty bike and go try every restaurant I could find. Mostly McDonalds.
And thus over the course of grade 7, I put on the LBs.
When I went back to Canada that summer – I got Rooaaaasted by my entire family.
We’re a big family. I got flamed by my cousins, my aunts, uncles, extended family, babies; everyone. Lol.
I was called Fatty, “Chubbz”, “Laddoo” (a orange ball of sugar basically).
I heard them all.
That year – I came back to Saudi determined.
I got into a bunch of sports.
No more McArabia’s (yes, it’s a real thing. Flatbread + chicken, like 2000 cals).
I’d wait for everyone to go to sleep, and I’d be banging out pushups.
I’d put every book on my little single-bed frame and bench press it.
I’m sure my parents were like what’s that creaking bed noise coming from this teenager’s room, lol.
When I went back to Canada the following summer, I had seen a major growth spurt.
I went from a short, chubby 5’7 to a 6′ skinny guy.
They couldn’t believe it, and to be honest, I couldn’t either.
It was my first realization that..
..Your Body is Malleable.
It’s 100% in your control and it’s a decision on how you look.
Since those days to now – it’s been more that 17 years of training.
And when I say training, I mean:
Lifting in the gym.
Power lifting.
Bit of Calesthenics (body weight).
Then heavy into MMA.
7 years of Jiu jitsu & Muay Thai. A couple years of wrestling.
And of course the hundreds of hours on the basketball court.
I don’t say this to brag, I say this to share my experience that I’ve tried a bunch of shit.
But my major qualification is this:
I’ve rebuilt my body back 10+ times from scratch.
-
Near fatal motorcycle accident that left me in a bed for 3 months (story coming soon).
-
Shoulder injuries.
-
Have had like 20+ fractures (wrists, ankles, shoulder, etc).
-
Covid – put on the “Covid 20” – 20lb from just being sedentary.
From having gone through all of this – I’ve developed a system that I fall-back upon and it consistently brings me back to the best possible shape that I can be it.
Here is the transition from Covid times to recently since I implemented my protocol.
So let’s get into it:
Here’s what everyone thinks that getting into shape is:
“I have to starve myself.”
“I have to diet, only eat 2 almonds and sip water per day.”
“I gotta suffer for a few weeks.”
“I need massive motivation.”
Some people think it’s drinking protein shakes and buying a headband.
Others will go to the gym and somehow look the same for the last 12 years.
Here’s all the diets that I’ve tried:
-
Keto Diet
-
Carnivore diet
-
Short fasting
-
Longer 24+ hour fasts.
-
Paleo Diet.
-
Low-carb diet.
-
Fruits & smoothie detox diets.
-
And a bunch of more random ones.
Here’s what I learnt.
Diets don’t work.
If you’re on a Diet, that inherently means it’s temporary.
And if it’s temporary, you are going to fall back to old ways soon enough.
You’re just motivating yourself in the short term – until that motivation fades.
Motivation is like a muscle, it gets tired.
Discipline and habits do not.
It’s about finding an ENJOYABLE way of life that works and you can stick to forever.
The Principles of Getting In Shape.
The one Principles to ALL of Weight Loss all is this:
Calories in vs Calories out.
That’s it.
All you have to do is figure out:
1. What My Maintenance Level of Calories.
-
Eat less that that.
That’s what every single diet is trying to accomplish for weight loss.
They find a way to get you in a Calorie Deficit.
So how do you find out how many calories you can consume?
Take your bodyweight (lbs) and multiple it by 15.
I’m 180 so I’ll times by 15. = 2700.
Or to make it simple, use this:
Now you know how what you maintenance calories are.
You’re excited, you want to smash this goal ASAP.
So you think – I can do the better than most, I’m going to speed run this thing.
“I’m going to a 1000 calorie deficit. I’ll be in shape in weeks!”
This is where most people fail, including myself.
Over doing it does NOT working.
Why?
Because You CAN ONLY FIGHT HUNGER FOR SO LONG.
This is where I would OVERDO it and that becomes unsustainable.
So when I made the switch from fast results to slow steady gains,
it changed everything.
I learnt that:
You should never be more than a 200-300 calorie deficit.
And that
One Pound of Fat is 3500 calories.
So Every 10-12 days you can easily be losing 1 pound of fat.
Now – I like moving fast. I want to get things don’t QUICK.
That’s the problem.
If you go too hard and do a 1000 calorie deficit and try to lose a pound of fat every 3.5 days, Guess what happens?
Your body goes into shock. Nature is very smart, your body is a very complex machine.
It thinks we’re in a famine situation – so it holds onto fat EVEN MORE.
Also Ghrelin (hunger hormone) shoots high and you’re going to binge out.
So you want to take things easy and slow.
Two Requirements Every Day.
So here is what has worked for me. Two concepts that I do every single day.
#1 Intermittent Fasting:
Again, to build on the Calorie Deficit thing – you just have to eat less calories than you spend.
The best way to do that is to just take out breakfast.
Just don’t eat in the morning when you wake up!
Stay in a fasted state for the first 4-6 hours of waking up.
Just have a coffee instead of a full meal, chug a liter of water.
You’re good trust me, you’ll adjust very quickly.
Breakfast is NOT the most important meal of the day. (Scam by Kelloggs).
Next up.
COUNT YOUR CALORIES PROPERLY.
Most people mess this up.
Go and get MyFitnessPal on your phone.
It’s a simple app that will make your life 1000x easier.
It’ll let you enter all the foods you ate so you know exactly where you are at for the day.
Life becomes so easy, and you will develop an eye for the ACTUAL caloric content of something.
Most people grossly underestimate how much calories are in their meals – and that’s what keeps them out of shape.
The Ultimate System
Now all this got me to a very decent place.
I felt good – but I stil l wasn’t Riiiippped like I wanted to be.
I started to realize that I would just fluctuate, I’d try really hard, and then end up binging.
Back to Square one. Then do it all over again.
I was fasting really hard, but I’d be so hungry.
That’s when the golden question came to me:
“What if I could stay full and still be in a caloric deficit?”
And I started doing the thing I’m best at – Go to Google.
While researching, I found one fact that changed everything once again for me.
It was this:
“The average human has to eat roughly 5lb of food a day to stay full.”
I immediately made the connection:
“Wait a second. That means that if 5lb of food keeps me full,
and my caloric target is 2500 calories… then 2500/5lb = 500calories per pound.
As long as I eat things under 500 calories per pound, I’ll be full AND be in a deficit.”
Mind BLOWN.
And that’s when I developed this concept of…
Volumetric Eating & Caloric Density.
The key focus being on things I never even though of:
Staying Satiated while on a caloric deficit.
It dawned on me:
You don’t need to eat less, you need to EAT MORE OF THE RIGHT THINGS.
All I had to do was:
Keep my Calories Consumed Less than my Calories Spent, and I’m losing fat.
As long as I Lift 3-4 times a week, I keep muscle. Use it or lose it.
I must be in a small DEFICIT DAILY.
So I started to dig futher into it,
what foods are under my 500 calorie/pound goal?
Here is an amazing video by Dietitian Jeff Novick that really solidified my perspective on diet and confined my hypothesis.
Highly recommend watching it.
So my key goals every single day are:
– 2500 Calories total. (Calculate your own)
– 1 hour of training SOMETHING. Anything.
FIRST RULE- you need to fast first 5-6 hours of waking up.
This I do and is very easy – just get a coffee and you’re good.
SECOND RULE – Need to eat only 800 calories on the first lunch meal.
FYI Big lunches = you’re going to gain. Because you have the whole rest of the day and you want to save up cals for those meals.
The more I looked at things in terms of caloric density, the better off I became.
Feeling better, in better shape, higher confidence, feeling younger. Joints moving better, better skin, better everything.
It’s NOT ABOUT feeling hungry, it’s about being SATIATED with the RIGHT FOODS.
I’ve been tried to fast my way to shreds, staying hungry – but that just leads to a cycle of binge, hunger, binge, hunger – it’s pure will-power.
Willpower is not sustainable as a strategy.
Stop Fighting HUNGER.
EAT MORE SATIATING FOODS.
Want to be notified on the next one?
Join the email list.
Have you ever tried to eat 18 apples? No?
Let’s see how full you are after.
I made a small list of foods that make sense and fit perfectly into the model:
Green Light – Daily.
- Veggies first.
- Broccoli
- Lettuce
- Carrots
- Asparagus
- Pickles
- Bell peppers
- Starches
- Sweet potato
- Rice
- Beets
- Mushrooms
- EGGS! Become your best friend. Love eggs. All types
- 1 Tortilla per day – it’s like 100 calories for one.
- Pakistan BBQ – Chicken Tikka, Seekh Kababs. If you know you know.
- Steaks – Don’t go hard on the oil/butter. Lean cuts.
- Persian food – Koobideh, Adana Kabab
- Roast Chicken. – Again, easy on the oils.
- Air Fryer Wings. – 1
- Nandos. Solid.
- Turkish – generally healthy.
- Lebanese. Shish Tawook, Shawarma. Easy on the sauces.
- Salad bowls with chicken. Always sauce on the side.
- Salmon/Fish
- Dessert
- Small Chocolate – 4 pieces.
- Small Ice cream – 1 scoop/bar.
- 1 Cookie after a meal.
- FRUITS! – these are the real hack IMO.
- Bananas
- Oranges
- Apples
- Berries
- Papaya
- Pineapple!!
- Melon
- And whatever else…
Yellow Light – ONCE in a while/week
- Pakistani cuisine. (I need it).
- Koftas
- Keema
- Chicken Karahi
- Chocolate
- Some Ice cream.
- Oreos.
Red Light – Once a Blue Moon/month
- Curries – maybe once ins a while.
- Anything too much oil.
- Oily cheeseburgers, etc.
- Get a burger only with lettuce, etc.
- Pizza, slice MAYBE.
- Hakka Chinese.
- Cakes and sugar indulgence.
This is my personal list just to give you a perspective, you can build your own.
I’m just trying to find foods I like and rank them by Calories Per Pound.
Anyway – hope this helps you in your journey and look forward to seeing you in the best shape of your life in a few short months from now.
I guarantee it’s possible.
Signing Off,
-B
