Weight Loss: Fast or Slow? [$]

There’s a reason there are no fat fitness models. Even if you have a chest so massive it puts Schwarzenegger’s to shame, if your gut sticks out further than your chest, the image is ruined.  So whether you just want to see Richard and the twins again without a mirror, get ”˜toned’ or want to get so shredded you can count the striations in your glutes, you’ll need to get lean. Since cutting isn’t nearly as much fun as bulking, you don’t just want to be lean. You want to be lean now.

Unfortunately, your body does not share your enthusiasm for rapid fat loss. It much prefers to have some reserve fuel sources hanging around, so you’ll have to put your body under stress to make it dump the fat. As with any type of stress, too little won’t cause any adaptation and too much can (literally) kill you, so to transform your body into your ideal physique, knowing the optimal amount of stress is paramount. In this article I will tell you what the optimal amount of stress is and answer the question of how fast you should try to lose weight.

Read the full article in Alan Aragon’s Research Review of April/May 2013 [$10/issue].

Note: The exact figures listed in this article are dated by now. Specifically, many of my clients are capable of losing fat faster than listed on my newer diets. However, all the general information and advice in the article still holds true today.