Special Considerations

At this point, you should have a good understanding of how much weight you might lose, how long you can follow the Core Phase, and what you can eat. But there are a few more things we can talk about to help you be more successful.

Food Journaling

We highly recommend that you keep a daily food journal. It's a great way to keep yourself honest, but it can also work as a troubleshooting tool. If you hit a plateau, you can look back at your food journal and see if you might have eaten something that caused the plateau. You'll know to avoid that food in the future. This isn't a fool proof way of figuring out what might have caused your plateau, but it's one more tool in your arsenal.

As you keep your food journal, pay special attention to tracking your daily protein intake. If you go too high or too low, you're setting yourself up for trouble. Write down the type of food you ate, how much of it (in ounces or servings), and how much protein it had. You must keep a running total of your intake to make sure you get the right amount every day.

You should also track all other food intake, including any of the allowed vegetables, anything eaten during a Flex Meal, and all fluids. Track any "forbidden" foods, too. Don't make the mistake of leaving off foods that you shouldn't have eaten. If you eat something you shouldn't have, just own the mistake, write it down, and move on without giving yourself a guilt trip. Doing so will help you be stronger in the future and could help you figure out problem areas later down the road.

Monitoring Your Progress

You need to keep regular track of your measurements to ensure that you are making acceptable progress. We recommend you weigh yourself every day for the first week. The weight normally comes off very quickly during this time, and it's very motivating to watch the scale drop so dramatically! If the scale doesn't drop at all during the first week, there's a chance you're doing something wrong, and it's good to catch such mistakes early on.

After the first week, feel free to weigh yourself less often--once or twice a week. Weight loss slows somewhat at this point, and can sometimes fluctuate for all the reasons explained in our separate weight loss report. You only need to start worrying if you don't lose any weight at all for 5 days or more. At that point, try the techniques in the "Troubleshooting" section below.

Another way of monitoring your progress is to use a measuring tape to take your body measurements. We recommend doing it on a weekly basis. Sometimes this will reveal that you are still losing inches, and therefore fat, even when the scale doesn't drop.

Regardless of how often you weigh yourself or take measurements, be sure to record them somewhere. It can be really motivating to look back over your records and see the numbers go down! We recommend that everyone takes before and after pictures, too. It's fun to pull out your pictures and marvel at the change that has taken place.

How To Weigh Yourself

It might seem obvious, but there are a few things you should do to help minimize errors and keep your weight measurements consistent. Weigh yourself first thing in the morning, right after you empty your bladder, but before you eat or drink anything. Wear the same thing each time.

How to Take Measurements

It's best to use a measuring tape with undergarments only (wear the same thing each time) or nude. Keep your muscles relaxed while measuring. Make sure the measuring tape is flat against your skin. Don't pull it tight or let it droop.

Chest/Bust. Measure at the fullest part, or right at the nipple line, all the way around your chest.
Waist. Measure at the narrowest point, or right at the navel line.
Hip. Measure at the biggest part, even if it's clear down near your thighs.
Belly. Measure right in between your waist and hip.
Inner thigh. Measure around one leg at the biggest point.
Biceps. Measure around one arm at the biggest point above the elbow.

Adjusting the Diet as You Lose Weight

As you lose weight, your BMI goes down, and there may come a time when you've lost enough weight to drop into a lower dieting group. The following values may change as you lose weight:

How long you can do the plan.
Your protein intake.
Your water intake.
How many Flex Meals you get.

As you progress, be sure to enter your current information in the diet setup calculator on a weekly basis, as your numbers will change as you lose weight.

Exercise

Exercise is an important part of maintaining your lean body mass, which forces your body to burn more fat instead of muscle and helps you stay healthy while losing weight. Specifically, you need to be doing resistance exercise to get the best benefit.

Why not aerobic or cardio exercise? Basically, your body needs carbohydrates in order to perform aerobic exercise. Since you're not eating carbohydrates during the Core Phase, you simply don't have the right kind of fuel to do much aerobic exercise. You can do some aerobic exercise, but studies have shown that too much of it can actually cause you to lose less weight while dieting.

Yes, you read that right. Too much exercise on a low-calorie plan can actually slow your weight loss. It's your diet that has the biggest effect on your weight loss. The Fast Fat Loss Blueprint is designed to maximize your weight loss regardless of whether you exercise and will actually be less effective if you try to do a lot of aerobic exercise.

That's why the only exercise we recommend is a small amount of resistance exercise. You will be fine if you choose not to exercise at all, but you will be more healthy and successful if you do some resistance exercise and stay away from excessive aerobic exercise.