Neal was overweight and out of shape. And he hated that. What upset him most though, was that he let this happen.
Just a year ago he was leaner. Not washboard abs level of lean, but non-overweight level of lean. Neal wanted to get back to that weight.
He used to exercise consistently. He used to be mindful of what he ate. He used to feel better in his own skin.
So what happened?
A year ago he got some terrible news: he was being laid off from the IT company he worked at. He was devasted. And it freaked him out. He wondered how he would pay his bills.
This caused his health to take a hit.
His routine of exercising each morning vanished because he was busy looking for jobs. And he ate like crap. The food helped him cope with his stress.
As time went on, pound after pound was added to his frame. The stress of his situation made it easy to let his health slip, and he didn’t even notice the weight gain at first.
Fortunately, Neal landed a new job and solved the problem of his job loss.
Unfortunately, in its place, another problem had been created: his health was in shambles. Overweight and out of shape, Neal wanted to get his health back, to feel how he felt the year before. To look good naked again.
But what could he do?
He did what many of us would, in fact: he looked for answers. Neal looked for answers on the internet, in magazines at the checkout line of grocery stores, and talked to friends.
None of this helped Neal though.
Because he didn’t know where to focus.
One article online said that when you eat during the day is crucial, but then the next article said it didn’t matter. Another article said what mattered was using the right supplements.
Neal didn’t know who to believe or what to focus on.
Every site claimed to solve his problem with their own answer, but which one was the answer? It was frustrating.
Weight loss, as Neal found out, was no piece of cake.
Or was it?
Because as Neal soon learned, cake was the answer after all.
What Neal, And You, Can Learn From Cake
On one cold, dreary winter morning, Neal was approached by a coworker at his new job. Her name was Sarah. Sarah and Neal had become friends since he was hired, and Neal had confided in her about his struggles to lose weight; he relayed all the frustration around not knowing what to focus on—about all the conflicting information he found.
Sarah had always listened and showed empathy for his struggle, because she too, had struggled with weight loss at one point. That is, until she found cake.
After listening to Neal for a minute, Sarah said to him, “I think cake would help.”
“Good joke,” Neal said, rolling his eyes.
“No, I’m serious,” Sarah said, “because I’m talking about cake the analogy, not the food.”
“See, often we get caught up in all the details of eating—when to eat, which supplement is best, whether sugar is good or bad—that we miss the big picture, “ she said.” “The cake analogy helps to keep the big picture in mind.”
“Focusing on the big picture makes sense” Neal said, “but what is the analogy exactly?”
Sarah said, “Imagine a cake—one with icing and sprinkles. The cake itself is our macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals, as well as other compounds). The icing is our nutrient timing; that is, when we eat during the day. Lastly, the sprinkles are the supplements that we take.”
“So,” Sarah said, “When it comes to fat loss, most of your time should be spent focusing on the cake. Then, once that’s taken care of, you can focus on the icing and sprinkles if you wish.”
“Oh,” Neal said, “I think I get what you’re saying. I was busy worrying about when I was eating, about which supplement I took—the icing and sprinkles–that I neglected the cake!”
“Exactly!” she said. “The cake is the priority; the quantity and quality of the food we eat is the most important part of fat loss. Unfortunately, with all the conflicting information out there we get caught up focusing on the icing and sprinkles.”
Focus On The Cake to Lose Weight
You want to lose weight—and fast—because you’ve gained a few pounds. Okay, if you’re being honest, it’s a more than a few.
So, what do you do?
You do what Neal did. You focus on the cake.
See, Neal learned something else from his friend Sarah: he learned how to use his hand to measure portion sizes for food (which is what we teach at BSP NOVA as well). It’s a helpful tool for focusing on the cake.
Here’s how the hand portions work:
- Men get 2 palm-sized portions of protein, and women get 1
- Men get 2 fist-sized portions of vegetables, and women get 1
- Men get 2 cupped-hand sized portions of carbohydrates, and women get 1
- Men get 2 thumb-sized portions of fats, and women get 1
Not only do you have your hands on hand when you need them, but it’s a simple system to use. There’s no need to count calories and become frustrated with measuring—using your hands to measure is a piece of cake now.
Also, since hand size varies depending on the size of the person, it helps take into account your individual need—as far as quantity goes. By ensuring you get the correct proportions of proteins, vegetables, carbohydrates, and fats, you are likely to cover most—if not all—of your bases when it comes to preventing deficiencies in nutrients too.
The cake helps us keep in mind that it’s not just the quantity of food—the number of calories—that matters: it’s quality and quantity.
Oh, and you didn’t think I’d leave you hanging with regard to Neal’s story did you? By understanding where to focus his attention, which was on the cake—and as important, not the icing and sprinkles—he was able to start burning that unwanted body fat off.
Here’s an added bonus: focusing on the cake saved him time. Neal was spinning his wheels at first because he was focusing on the wrong things, which wasted his time. But once he learned to focus on the cake, he started seeing results and no longer wasted his time focusing on things that didn’t help.
Making Fat Loss A Piece of Cake
Fat loss can be tough.
It takes effort and consistency over a long period of time. And, when you put in effort, day after day, week after week, you want to see results from that effort. As you should. When you put in effort to achieve something, you want to achieve whatever that something is. Duh.
And unfortunately, fat loss is made tougher by all the conflicting information out there.
Someone says to never touch sugar again. Someone else says to eat all the sugar.
Then another person says to take their fat burner supplement to turn your body into a fat burning furnace.
Blah. Blah. Blah.
Now you know better. Because you understand cake.
So start with cake. It’s your foundation. Worry about the sprinkles and icing after the cake itself is taken care of, and you’ll be well on your way to the results you desire.
And if you’re struggling to get rid of that stubborn body fat and want some additional help, then click below to claim your free week at BSP NOVA.
We’ll help to make fat loss feel like a piece of cake.
Source:
-Aragon, A.A., Schoenfeld, B.J., Wildman, R. et al. International society of sports nutrition position stand: diets and body composition. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 14, 16 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-017-0174-y