Beach Lean: A Beginner's Guide
It was the end of January and my friends and I decided to hit the hot spring after a 5-hour hike at Mt. Buko.
All freshened up, we were chilling with a glass of ice-cold beer to quench our thirsts. It was great. I thought I was starting the first month of 2021 right, until my friend stepped up and asked me in all seriousness.
“Dude…what happened to your waist?”
I was sort of known as the guy who works out a lot within my social circle. But my friend’s question was driven by concerns, not amazement.
It might have been my unconscious habit of eating here and there between meals, sitting most of the day at my desk during and after work amid Covid, or both.
In any case, I realized that I had more fat around my waist than necessary. The next day I bought a scale and weighed myself, which made me realize that I had gained 22lbs since my last medical check-up. I weighed 70kg (154 lb) at 20% body fat. Not exactly the best shape I had hoped to be in. Not at all.
I was not going to allow myself to live like this for the rest of the year. That day, I decided to change my lifestyle completely. Before summer.
Being a former wrestler in high school, I understood the difficulty of restricting food intake and working out daily. Still, I was determined to make the change.
130 days later, I reached sub-10% body fat since I started my cut in the beginning of Feb 2021.
As of June 10, 2021, my weight and body fat percentage currently stand at 60kg (132 lb) and 9.7%, respectively.
Below, you can see the transformation of my physique over the course of 130 days.
According to Tanita’s scale, my body age is apparently now 22 years young!
Considering how much of a positive impact this journey had to my life, I would like to share the exact steps I took in the past 130 days to reach my goal of sub-10% body fat.
Beach Lean 101
The time required to reach the single-digit zone in body fat percentage varies depending on your starting weight. But the basic requirements remain the same.
- Determine your daily caloric intake needed to maintain your current weight
There are online websites and health apps such as myfitnesspal, where you can check your maintenance calories based on your height, weight, and activity level. In my case, my maintenance calories were just under 2200 kcal/day. In order to lose weight at a pace of about 0.5 kg per week, I decided to set my daily calorie intake at 1600 kcal/day.
2. Weight training involving progressive overload
Since weight loss involves not only fat loss but also loss of lean muscle mass, it is essential to make efforts to curb muscle loss. The best approach here is to incorporate resistance training. I divided my workouts into six days a week using the Push, Pull, Legs split. I would focus on the pecs and triceps during Mondays; lats, traps, and deltoids on Tuesdays; and quadriceps, glutes, and hamstrings on Wednesdays. Then I would repeat the same workout routine for Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and take Sunday off to recharge. I also made sure to apply progressive overload in my routine, by raising the weights gradually each month to further stimulate my muscles.
3. Set an appropriate PFC (protein, fat, carbohydrate) balance for your diet
As mentioned earlier, you lose lean muscle mass along with fat when you are on a cut. Protein is the most important macronutrient to curb the loss of lean muscle mass. For my diet, I consumed at least 120g of protein a day (2 times my body weight in grams), around 50g of fat, and the rest allocated to carbohydrates within my daily calorie limit.
My go-to breakfast: scrambled eggs, spinach, baked salmon and sautéed potatoes.
4. Slightly adjust your caloric deficit once you reach 15% body fat
When my body fat percentage reached the 15% range, I reduced my daily calorie intake by another 100–200kcal, depending on my weekly weight fluctuation.
I made an attempt to lose 2–2.5kg per month. In the latter half of my cutting phase (post 15% body fat), I found my pace of weight loss stalling somewhat frequently, about 2 out of 5 weeks. I decided to reduce my daily calorie intake to 1500kcal from 1600kcal on some days just to err on the safe side. While this may sound like a minor tweak, it meaningfully supported the pace of my weight loss. Just as a side note, I also had days when I would squeeze in a snack between meals (again, around 100–200kcal) when I felt hungrier than usual. This helped me sleep better, which is an important factor for long-term weight loss that is often overlooked.
To recap, here are the basics for weight loss you can’t beat:
- Stay in a caloric deficit
- Incorporate resistance training
- Practice a high-protein diet
- Be flexible with your caloric intake (in both directions) to finish the final mile on your way to sub-10% body fat.
As long as you have the basics down, you can customize your routine that suits your conditions and needs.
Remember, the best diet is the one you can stick to.
Wishing you the best of luck. Trust me, if I can get there, you sure will too.
Happy training!
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Stay awesome.
Eric
DISCLAIMER: All forms of exercise carry a risk of injury. Therefore, by following a training program from this article, you do so at your own risk. Consult a medical professional before undertaking any exercise. Eric Hollands is not a medical professional, qualified nutritionist or dietician, or physiotherapist. Results are not guaranteed, and will primarily depend on factors such as your personal commitment, exercise history, genetics and other factors.
