Anytime you take on a difficult project, it is hard to figure out where you should start and then what you should do next. This day-by-day guide will help get you going.
Day 1
Weigh yourself.
Finalize your team. Choose your partner.
Write in your diet log and have the totals finished by the end of the day. You can eat whatever you want, but make sure to write down everything you eat and drink and track the numbers. The only food you cannot eat is anything for which you can’t find the numbers of calories, carbohydrates, fats, protein and fiber. If you can’t find these numbers on the packaging, on the Web, or in a book or anywhere else, then you cannot eat that food.
Don’t forget to track any exercise you do. Fill in as much information on the diet log as possible.
Schedule a time to see your doctor. Make sure to discuss with him or her the changes you will be making in your diet and exercise routine.
Day 2
Track everything you eat and drink in your diet log. Make sure you have everything totaled up before you go to bed that night. That’s it. Easy.
Day 3
As on days 1 and 2, track everything you eat and drink and add up the totals at the end of the day.
Prepare for your first official weigh-in tomorrow. Have you confirmed the place and time with your teammates?
Prepare for your first workout tomorrow.
- Have you secured a gym membership?
- Or have you acquired gym equipment so you can work out at home?
- If you have done neither, decide what exercises you will do.
Day 4
Attend your first official weigh-in.
- Based on your current age, height and weight, calculate your BMR (basal metabolic rate) using the formula on page 100 and determine how many calories you need to consume to lose weight. (Remember, never go below 1,000 calories for women and 1,200 for men.)
- Review how much fat, protein and carbs you should consume daily.
Do your first workout. Exercise for at least 30 but no more than 60 minutes today and enter those numbers in your diet log.
- Track everything you eat and drink in your diet log.
- Check in with your partner.
- Did you stay within your calorie levels? Did your partner?
- Did you eat at least 25 grams of fiber? Drink eight glasses of water
Days 5-10
The following days will follow much the same pattern until you hit your goal weight:
- Track everything you eat and drink in your diet log.
- Work out. Try to beat yesterday’s exercise numbers. Log your results.
- Check in with your partner.
For a small percentage of people, day 5 is very hard because it is the second day your body has been eating at a calorie deficit. If you struggle, it is your job to call your teammate and ask for help: “Bill, I’m really hungry and I don’t have any calories left; what should I do?” Let your teammate talk you through the problem. Utilizing your team is the secret to success, so make sure you use yours.
- Resist the urge to weigh yourself before the weigh-in!
- On day 10, prepare for the weigh-in the next day.
Day 11
Weigh in. Three things may happen during this weigh-in:
- You will lose 1.5 to 5 pounds. This is the result most people will have, and if this is you, then congratulations. You obviously are doing great and are following the program like a champ. Keep improving each day and you will continue to see big results.
- You will lose a huge number, from 5 to 15 pounds. My parents lost more than 12 pounds each their first week. Needless to say, they were a little surprised. If this is you, congratulations, but you need to mentally prepare for the fact that this will not continue. And you really don’t want it to. In the following weeks, your goal should be to lose 1 to 2.5 pounds per week, and if you exercise and eat like you have been, you can almost expect it like clockwork.
- You will gain weight or lose less than a pound. This result is extremely rare if you are following the program, but it does happen. You need to go through your diet log again and make sure you are not estimating numbers. Double-check how you are measuring quantities. If you are guessing and saying things like “a cheeseburger is about 500 calories,” then you will fail. You must be exact. Also, if you are eating less than the minimum amount of calories per day, your body may go into starvation mode and drastically lower your metabolism; as a result, you won’t lose weight. But if you have done everything right and you still don’t lose, then don’t worry. Keep your focus and the following week you will see a great loss.
Finally no matter what you do the rest of the day, don’t celebrate your weight loss with food. Keep your focus, stay below your calories, and work out harder today than you did yesterday. Don’t forget, today you still need to:
- Track everything you eat and drink in your diet log.
- Work out. Try to beat yesterday’s exercise numbers. Log your results.
- Check in with your partner.
Now you know everything you have to do to lose weight. Follow this routine and prepare for a wild ride to health. You are going to be amazed at what happens over the next several months or several years, depending on how much you have to lose.
When people ask you why you seem more energized, tell them our story and give them a copy of the book. When my family started this, we thought we might lose a few pounds and that would be the end of it; instead, every time we share our story, it seems that someone new is getting healthy. Now you can do the same thing. Your success will encourage and breed success in others. Instead of being part of the obesity epidemic, you become part of the solution.
You can do it!
Tony Dean’s family banded together and lost a total of 500 pounds. Read how they did it in The Team Dean Diet, and How to Lose Weight the F.A.S.T. Way.
