“I will lose weight” - an instruction book.
To be honest, I didn't expect much when I started reading this book. I’m a little familiar with Lena’s style - you’re either one of her friends, or you’re a fat ungrateful pig who doesn’t heed the rays of light and wisdom from a slender guru.
Since this was constantly in my mind, the address “pig” no longer hurt my eyes. And, oddly enough, the book is more good than bad. More precisely, there is both.
Let's keep in mind that there are no perfect books and try to make an impartial review.
The main question is: is the book worth buying?
If you are a beginner who doesn’t know anything at all about training or nutrition, then “I’ll Lose You Weight” will give you information to get started. Moreover, the book is inexpensive. I personally took it from Litres. But if you understand at least something about this, then you can safely not buy the book.
The target audience is absolute beginners.
What especially catches your eye?
Lena is Hitler in a skirt. Or leggings. Those who are familiar with history know that Adolf was a first-class orator. One of the best in the history of mankind. And among other things, he pleased us with a new rhetorical device, which is called “Hitler’s sandwich.”
Its essence is as follows.
- First you need to say something honest and truthful. Give a fact. Something that does not raise questions or complaints, something that can be easily checked and confirmed. For example - “To lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficit.”
- Then we say something crazy and not necessarily logical, but definitely something that is VERY difficult to verify. For example, “Most people who abuse sweets are overweight.” Basically, just my own thoughts.
- After that, we move on to the last part - another piece of truth. “Many people start losing weight as soon as they give up cake.”
Lena does the same. Fact - nonsense - fact - nonsense and so on.
But let's start with the good. Because there is good stuff in the book too!
What's good about the book?
- Lena teaches how to count calories. This is very correct. I am a strict follower of calorie counting and I personally believe that there is no more effective system. Of course, I go further and recognize the correctness of IIFYM, but Lena rejects this principle and is a strict “zozhist”. But it’s better to first just learn to count calories and then think what’s better for you than not counting calories at all.
- Lena gives a good formula for counting calories. Really good, no fools. I got about 2900 Kk per day for support - well, that’s true, if I’m now steadily losing weight at 2650.
- Lena writes that aunts are not destined to get pumped up, so there is no need to be a coward. And that's great! Otherwise, everyone is afraid to get Arnold muscles in a couple of workouts. It is necessary to introduce the right thoughts into the masses, this is very necessary and correct.
- Lena gives a normal training program for the first time. Keyword - normal. I would give another one, but if someone trains for the first 2-3 months according to this program, he will not get injured. And that's already good!
Unfortunately, this is where the good ends - and we must move on to the bad.
What's bad about the book?
- The right approach to calorie counting comes with new restrictions- sweets are not allowed, fatty foods are not allowed, and so on. Typical zoologist. For me, “zozhist” is a bad term.
- A very strange approach to calculating macronutrients - as a percentage. Wouldn't it be easier to just give the numbers right away? There are a lot of studies, everything is in the public domain, no, you need to give percentages. Quite strange, actually. “Protein should make up 30 to 35 percent of your daily calories.” Well, let's do the math. According to her formula, I get 2,900 Kk per day. The total is 257 grams of protein or, in my case, 2.7 grams of protein per kilogram of weight. It will be too much. I have a lot of research that 1.5 - 1.8 is usually enough. But proteins are nothing - according to the same formula, we are recommended to have 15-20% fat. That is, for me this is only 48 grams of fat per day. For what? There are tons of studies that show that normal-fat and high-fat diets work great (like one, two, three).
- You can't eat sweets after 12 am. So, after 12, are carbohydrates somehow absorbed differently? Are they immediately deposited on the stomach? No, I understand that this can be used as one of the restriction techniques. But if “don’t eat after 6” can still somehow work, then “Don’t eat sweets after 12” doesn’t work at all. Am I unable to eat my entire daily caloric intake before 12? Easily.
- You should give up potatoes. I won't even comment. Why are some carbohydrates ok to eat and others not? I would rather ban bananas then. There are many such far-fetched restrictions. Well, fatty fish - about “semushka”, as it is called in the book, a whole passage is highlighted. With a special picture. So you seem to teach people how to count calories? Or are you luring Zohists into a sect?
- When squatting, your knees should not go beyond your toes.. And Lena, apparently, did not hear that there are people who will not succeed physically in any other way.
- Recommendations to “burn out” the muscles and do 20 reps on squats. The funny thing is that in the first chapter Lena writes that the ladies still won’t be able to get pumped up, but in the second chapter everything changes dramatically - in order not to get the legs of a football player, you need to burn out the quads. Apparently it is implied that all ladies are initially equipped with the legs of a professional weightlifter. I am begging you. Look at a cross section of a woman's legs () and you will see that there is twice as much fat as muscle. Why then burn something? Isn't it easier to start with adipose tissue? My big article about football player's legs.
- And one more thing - maintain exactly 60 seconds on the timer between approaches. And if I do 65 the whole process will break? Where does this urge to wait XX seconds between sets come from? Honestly, Lena, you could better explain how to fit fast food into your diet, it would make more sense. Or she told me a few words about linear periodization, otherwise they’ll just screw up 20 reps in squats.
In general, it’s a funny thing with multi-repetition. People are advised to do a lot of repetitions so as not to “pump up.” As a result, after 3-5 sets of 20 repetitions, a very strong pump forms in the legs, the lady leaves the gym and says that her legs are swollen after 3 days of training.
We wanted the best, it turned out as always.
Well, about the worst.
There is no system in the book. This is a motivational book. “Pull yourself together, you fat pig, pull yourself together, stop eating, get your ass together.” Yes, it works. A person can collect himself for a couple of months.
But motivation doesn't work like a long lever. You cannot motivate yourself to work on yourself for 1-2 years. For long-term work, you need a plan, divided into small, easily achievable tasks. You can't get by on pure motivation.
But, unfortunately, there is nothing about this. And (IMHO) it will not be possible to build a plan on this book, despite some correct thoughts that are there. Because I don’t know people who can give up all the delicious food in favor of boiled broccoli and chicken breast for several years.
For a couple of months - yes, but not longer.
Conclusion.
Is it worth buying a book for beginners? Yes, you can buy it. It is not expensive, especially the electronic version. If you don't know anything at all, you can pick up a few useful points. On the other hand, you will need to read with the delirium filter.
But if you think about it, are there books that don’t have a clearly expressed author’s point of view? Maybe just textbooks.
Have you read the book? Write your impressions in the comments!
Readers asked me to tell about mistakes in fitness and nutrition that I learned from myself.
I'm telling you.
My biggest mistake in nutrition was that I not only underestimated, but, in principle, did not understand how important it is to eat right.
The issue of training was primary for me, and the issue of nutrition was not even secondary. It simply did not exist in my universe, just as, however, in 1998, in my environment, such concepts as “cubes”, split ends, BJU, percentage of body fat and other things that many are now fixated on did not exist. I think I heard about cellulite for the first time in this millennium. In the past, we somehow didn’t know about it.
I was a student who worked out three times a week and ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.
What kind of BZHU is there? What the hell caloric intake? Dumplings with mayonnaise, chocolate bars, chips during the big break at the university, sweet biscuit rolls from the kiosk. After any meal at home, be sure to have tea with sweets.
We ate conscientiously, but also rocked without absenteeism. Training, which did not involve dieting, was a pleasure. The form was, as it seemed to me then, good:
Today I would describe such a body with the phrase “fucking shit.” Well, you had to be such an idiot to train conscientiously and regularly and at the same time have the most ordinary body due to poor nutrition.
Then I was no different from my peers who did not lift. Except that they ate less, not having such a brutal appetite after training.
How am I different from my peers now? Because at 18 both they and I looked worse than I did at 33.
However, by the age of 33, I had acquired a body that was inaccessible to 18-year-olds. Such bodies are not given even by youth. If they have good genetics and proportions, they are built through years of competent work in the gym. But to do this you need to come to the gym on time and stay there, which is what I did. The main task of 18-year-olds in the hall is not to run away to the disco, hoping that youth is eternal.
Take another close look at my photographs. There I am a student with a young and healthy metabolism, who studies without fools three times a week without skipping, but eats in vain.
Can you draw your own conclusion about the importance of proper nutrition in building a beautiful body?
A big mistake is to treat training as indulgences for overeating. You cannot think that if you exercise, you are allowed a lot in terms of nutrition. All you are allowed is, roughly speaking, a piece of candy or two a day in the morning and on the weekend - lunch, at which you can do anything. But only one lunch and only one piece of candy. Yes, even those - provided that you do not slack in training.
The second mistake is sports nutrition. I really wanted to start eating it, but my mother wouldn’t give me money for “this disgusting thing.” And I thought: I’ll buy some protein, start blending it in water or milk, and I’ll immediately become all muscle.
When I got my salary, I bought myself everything: isolate, pre-workouts, sports fat burners, amino acids, bats, and protein bars. I ate all this a lot and for a long time, firmly believing that I really needed it.
Then at some point it stopped. I didn't notice any difference in shape. And if there is no difference, what is the point of shoveling preservatives into yourself from a jar?
For several years now I have not consumed sports nutrition at all. The last thing I gave up was pre-workout energy drinks. It was really difficult to get off them. But now I can easily do without pre-workouts, I feel great and I’m convinced: the best pre-workout is a cup of coffee and a banana.
Any woman, even one who trains a lot and seriously, can take the required amount of protein from normal food without raping her body with chemicals and preservatives.
The third mistake is, in fact, training. Whatever the coach showed me to do in the first two lessons, that’s what I did. Year after year. Some years. I always trained the same way, I was in the same time, as they say, and did not progress. However, due to the fact that my shape, due to the inadequate perception of my own reflection in the mirror, completely satisfied me, I did not even think about progress.
Remember: if you are not satisfied with marking time, if you want to look better, you must constantly increase the load.
Any training consists of three variables:
2) intensity,
3) volume (number of approaches and repetitions).
You need to improve your performance and be able to juggle variables, surprising your body. I had a tutorial on how to do this.
The more exercises you have in your arsenal, the more masterfully you juggle them, the more varied your training, the more noticeable your progress will be.
Here it is important not to slide into chaos, not to turn into a monkey that rushes from projectile to projectile, without having a clear understanding of what and why it is doing, as long as it is not like yesterday.
To have this understanding, you need to have experience, knowledge and brains. Not everyone has this. As, indeed, are beautiful bodies.
I have always said and say: building a beautiful body and maintaining it is only possible for a very competent person who subtly feels his body and knows what load and in what volume to give it at a given moment in time.
Not even the most qualified coach will feel you the way you will. You cannot drink water for someone else. You cannot experience pleasure or pain in your stomach for someone else. No one will meet your needs for you or catch your problems.
A coach can give instructions that will make you passable. You can only become beautiful yourself. To do this, you must be smart, healthy and have good proportions by nature. Desire and diligence alone are not enough. Don't listen to those who say otherwise.
April 24th, 2013 , 03:01 pm
How a Deer eats cake, or how to eat properly for those who want to lose weight
That's how:
He eats it with his eyes! He will stand opposite, stare for 2-3 minutes and go to put packs of low-fat cottage cheese in the basket:
He will sharpen 5 packs of cottage cheese, shrimp, chicken breast and 9 yoghurts in two days. Enough oatmeal, nuts and cheese to last a week.
What am I talking about? Oh yes: you need to eat wisely.
1) Read the labels on the products: take low-fat milk. Although, in principle, there is no such thing: no matter what they write, the minimum percentage of fat is 1.8.
2) We eat simple carbohydrates immediately after training and never again. After training, the muscles are ready to absorb any nutrients: both proteins and carbohydrates. The simple carbohydrates you put into yourself after a workout will go towards muscle recovery, not fat. After my workout I eat two mini bananas with a serving of isolate.
Some people take simple carbohydrates before a workout, thinking they will burn them out. They may burn off, but your fat won't: Eating simple carbohydrates before a workout blocks the production of epinephrine, a compound that tells fat cells to release fat into the bloodstream. In addition, insulin will be released, which does not contribute to fat burning.
3) Take complex carbohydrates 30 minutes before training (oatmeal, whole grain bread, brown rice, durum wheat pasta, buckwheat). They will give you the energy you need for your workout, rather than a quick release of insulin.
4) When losing weight, you need to create a calorie deficit, but not at the expense of protein. Reduce your intake of fats and carbohydrates (even complex ones), and take protein at a rate of at least 2 grams per kilogram of body weight. Protein not only builds muscle, but also speeds up metabolism, which is why high-protein diets are so effective. However, without fanaticism: it’s not worth depriving yourself of carbohydrates at all. Complex carbohydrates - for breakfast and before training, simple - immediately after.
5) If you really want simple carbohydrates (this happens), take them with protein or fats. Both protein and fats slow down the absorption of carbohydrates, so add cottage cheese, for example, to jam. But it’s better to go with cottage cheese - jam))
6) Don't eat carbohydrates before bed. None. If you do this, you will get extremely high insulin secretion in your sleep, which means you will provide yourself with fat reserves. Go to bed on an empty stomach. The last meal is no later than three hours before bedtime. Can't sleep? Eat protein: some steamed chicken breast, low-fat cottage cheese, or drink isolate. Protein does not threaten insulin secretion.
7) Every meal should include some protein, as it is a powerful metabolism booster.
8) Eat small meals more often. I don’t follow this, but I understand the principle and think it’s correct: every meal slightly boosts your metabolism: the more often you eat, the more of these “boosts” you get. But the portions should be small. It is important.
9) Once every two weeks, reduce your carbohydrate intake to a minimum for two days in a row. Such low-carb days in combination with training will lead to depletion of glycogen stores, which accumulate in reserve in the liver. This will boost fat burning. While glycogen is in short supply, fat burning occurs quickly. As soon as there is enough of it, the fat burning process slows down.
Everything seems to be simple, but for some reason you don’t comply. That’s why you don’t lose weight: you go hungry, then you get caught up in all sorts of nasty things and live like pigs. Look around, and here - obana! - and “Hello, retirement!”, and life has passed, and you spent it in the body of a pig. Pichalka, what.
And here’s one more thing: don’t even think about relying on my 5 packs and 9 yoghurts for two days. I also eat bananas. And oatmeal bowls. And a whole chicken breast - in two meals. I am me. I train 7 days a week for two hours. I can and need to eat this way, and you - skirt wipers on office chairs - will become even bigger elephants even from healthy and balanced food taken in such quantities. Well, for those who like to yell: “Why train so much if you can just eat less!”, I will answer proactively: there is such a thing as body quality. In an untrained person it is low. The body is inelastic, and therefore disgusting to the touch.
Although the notorious blogger Lena Miro has a sharp tongue, she has an excellent figure. In order to maintain herself in such impeccable shape, the girl is forced to go on a low-carbohydrate diet.
Every day her diet consists of two cups of espresso, a couple of slices of dark dark chocolate, vegetables and lean meats.
At the same time, Miro eats only organic food and recommends that his fans never skimp on food.
In addition, Lena works out in the gym 5-6 times a week for several hours. The girl assures that she has long been accustomed to this lifestyle. Yes, it’s tough, but instead of this, Miro has elastic buttocks, a flat stomach and a toned body.
A post shared by Lena Miro (@lenamyro) on Oct 27, 2017 at 7:25am PDT
Lena Miro allows herself tasty treats once a week
Note that once a week she allows herself to deviate from the rules and break away in terms of food. True, Lena does not eat burgers and other unhealthy foods. For her cheat meal, she eats an egg dish in the morning, fried rice for lunch, and a slice of pizza for dinner. Actually, that's all.
Miro does not hide the fact that he does not like fat people, considers them lazy and criticizes them in every possible way in his posts.
They say that Lena Miro’s yellow book “I’ll Make You Weight” breaks all sales records on Ozone and the publishing house’s website. No wonder! With such a superiority of the author over the gray mass, and a bunch of photos of his own slender figure in LiveJournal, people are waiting for revelation. Is Lena Miro really offering some kind of super-effective diet that will “tear” the world of weight loss into 2 parts? Naturally, “before” and “after”. And everyone will become slim, confectionery shops will go bankrupt, and people will joyfully rush from coffee shops to the gym and gulp down protein instead of Frappuccino. Judge for yourself.
In terms of nutrition, “I’ll lose weight”, suddenly, is no different from the fitness benefits of the mid-80s of the last century. Naturally, foreign fitness benefits. In our beautiful country, the only thing in use at that time was shaping and its high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet with long periods of “abstinence” from food.
Lena Miro’s work is captivating, if only because she allows the unfortunate “fawn who has taken the path of a fawn” and is losing weight to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and 1-2 snacks.
The first month of the diet
Lena is for gradualism. In the first month, you will do home exercise and follow a simple diet. You will have to eat everything you normally eat. But “harmful” foods will have to be excluded or replaced with healthy ones.
List for replacement and reflection:
- Sugar. It is clear that simple carbohydrates increase blood sugar levels, provoke appetite and generally add calories to the diet out of the blue. You should either completely abandon the “position” of this product in tea and “sprinkle” it on cottage cheese, fruits, cereals, or switch to an artificial sweetener. Lena Miro is sure that if the food industry produces it, it means it is edible. The author’s logic, however, is broken by numerous studies on the dangers of aspartame, sucralose, and cyclamate. So if you need a “no harm” sweetener, eat stevioside.
- Mayonnaise. A source of saturated fat, starch, preservatives and a quiet, unnoticeable 200-300 kcal “on top” per serving, for example, French meat with mayonnaise vegetable salad. Lena suggests replacing it with yogurt or matsoni, and here we completely agree with her. If you feel sad, chop fresh herbs into the salad, and add a little mustard powder or ground black pepper to the yogurt.
- Sweet drinks. Liquid sugar is only good if you're running a marathon. No, you’re not running abstractly, but you’re running right now, and you’re ready to collapse from fatigue. In all other cases, you should drink water, tea, coffee, and other drinks without added sugar. Oh, yes, you can also use kefir, but it is not a drink, but an independent snack.
- Sweets, cookies, chocolate, white flour pastries, regular jam, cakes, and other sweets. Don’t imagine life without “this” - kind Lena allows you to eat 1 piece of candy before 12 noon. Or 1 marshmallow, or 1 square of dark chocolate. And slightly more conscious modern nutritionists are generally confident that it doesn’t matter when you eat your 1 square of chocolate, the main thing is that it is only 1 square. So feel free to snack on it whenever you want, and don’t make a drama out of “I don’t eat before, I don’t eat after.”
- Sausage, fried, “everything, crackers, chips and nuts. Instead of high-fat smoked meat products, Miro suggests eating basturma, chicken ham or other low-fat products that retain the “fibrous” structure of the meat. Instead of frying, use a steamer or grill, and instead of crackers, etc., find yourself an interesting activity that would captivate you so much that the very thought of a snack seems blasphemous.
In fact, the list does not have any sacred value other than reducing the number of calories consumed. In reality, even with abundant nutrition, you can “go down” with such a diet from the sky-high 3500-4000 kcal per day to a completely human 2000 kcal/day.
The second and subsequent months of the diet from Lena Miro
First, you calculate the body's daily needs for calories, proteins, fats and carbohydrates. This is necessary in order to cut calories by 500 kcal from the “need”, and balance the BJU according to the formula of 30-35% proteins, 15-20% lipids, and 45-50% complex carbohydrates.
A fairly ancient formula is proposed for calculating calories:
The need is equal to (six hundred fifty-five plus (9.6 times your weight in kg) add (1.8 times your height in cm) minus (4.7 times your age in years) times the coefficient K1, K2, K3 or K4
K1 – office work plus lack of physical activity, 1.2
K2 – office work plus 1-3 light “home” workouts or Pilates in the club, 1, 38
K3 – office work plus 3-5 aerobic workouts per week (go to step or dance) 1.55
K4 – 5-7 intense workouts, in strength + cardio mode – 1.73
Accordingly, after calculating calories and “weaning” 500 kcal, you get a figure that should equal the caloric content of the diet. Next, using proportions, you calculate the percentage of calories from proteins, fats and carbohydrates, and, accordingly, find out how much of which product you can eat.
All this mathematics, by the way, can be done with any online calculator, or “calorie counter in recipes.”
You will have to “sit” on such a diet from the second to the sixth months of Miro training, inclusive. Well, from the third month you can add 1 “loading” day per week - eat any dish you want for breakfast or lunch.
As a matter of fact, this scheme is very workable and can be considered almost ideal for a fitness beginner. The Miro diet does not exclude carbohydrates, allows limited consumption of healthy fats, and is generally balanced. It should not be used only by fitness professionals who train “not according to Miro,” that is, lift heavy weights for 5-6 repetitions maximum to generate strength, run to prepare for a marathon, do HIIT workouts or do CrossFit. These “categories of citizens” will be catastrophically low in protein and healthy fats. Therefore, it is better for them to eat according to the more “sports” BUCH, UD2, “paleo” or P90X Diet, and not cut calories by more than 10-15% of the original norm.
The diet of Lena Miro herself from the book “I’ll Lose You Weight”
But from this moment the contradictions begin. In her blog, Lena has repeatedly posted a diet in the spirit of “all the joys of drying” - that is, a protein omelet for breakfast, a protein bar and isolate for lunch, and chicken breast with bell pepper for dinner.
But in “I’ll Lose You Weight,” an almost ideal healthy lifestyle diet for Lenin’s age and weight is given:
Breakfast: buckwheat with chicken breasts, without butter, naturally
Lunch: pasta with beef or fish, vegetable salad with olive oil
Dinner: chicken breasts and “empty” vegetable salad, i.e. no oil
The author of the book snacks exclusively on 1-2 apples or bell peppers, and only when he really wants to eat. Well, you already know the rest of the part, about “eat amino acids when you are very hungry” from Lena Miro’s LiveJournal.
In general, you should follow a diet only if you are taking your first steps in fitness, and have not yet figured out which of the existing nutritional systems is yours.
Elena Selivanova