Dieting for the busy (or lazy) man

I’m constantly inspired by our clients – we learn a lot from them, particularly when we’re stuck in our own narrow perspectives, their lessons come as a slap in the face.

This is Propane Athlete Ian. He has a life.. he’s not a sad fitness fanatic like me and Jonny.

He deadlifts 200kg x 12 @ 80kg, and can do a set of 38 pull ups. He is not playing.

Here’s his cutting strategy:

‘I don’t count macros. I just fast 2-3 days per week (under 500 cals) and eat what I want the rest of the week. I drink most weekends, show some restraint it works fine!’

Another Propane Athlete, James, who also doesn’t count macros. He just shoots for a calorie goal and follows a simple progression:

Now if fitness is your passion like us, then tracking your macros, getting involved with the intricacies of programming and running self experiments with various tracking devices and supplements is all part of the fun. But some of us just want results without the faff.

Even for us, we go through periods (usually not the menstrual kind) where we want the grip width of our bench press grip and our macros to take up as little mental space as possible and just get on with life. Free up dat RAM.

A watched kettle never boils – fat loss is a hard slog, so switch on the cruise control and sit back, rather than try to #beastmode your way there in first gear.

Hence why outsourcing to an expert is a no brainer. (One of the hidden benefits of coaching is that YOUR diet and training become someone elses problem, all you have to do is turn up.)

The good news is that the majority results are possible with the simplest of inputs. The fine tuning gives you that extra 10%, the icing on the cake. Not something that most fitpros want you to hear: who would rather that you were as neurotic as possible, so that you’d worry about every fine detail and buy their complicated programs.

Ian and James are walking proof of this – they both work corporate jobs with a full social and family life – while strong, in great shape, and giving NO thought to macros.

Become the productivity monster

Adding a couple of fast days per week unlocks a whole load of productivity too. If you’re a student, you can do a long stint in the library, bash out your assignments. If you’re working, you could arrange to work through your lunch break and leave an hour earlier. When we tried out alternate day fasting for a while (bit extreme.. not recommended!), one thing we became very aware of is how much time each day is spent focused towards buying, eating, or preparing food. We revolve our entire daily schedule around it.

Application:

So here’s how we’d set up the lazy man’s diet and training program for fat loss:

Diet:

2 days per week of fasting, small meal at night. Coffee, water and diet drinks as needed throughout the day.
Rest of the week: Eat what you want, but don’t be a dick.

Training:

– Low/moderate volume program
– Main compound lifts for 2-3 sets
– Reverse pyramid or double progression

Putting it all together:

Specific fast recommendations, full training program and diet layout available for download in the spreadsheet below.

The lazy man’s diet and training program:

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Click to download
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