Keeping it Real: Beware of Unrealistic Expectations
Pat Warner Blog No.2
Welcome to another edition of my column. The whole point of these is to give back to this wonderful sport that’s been so kind to me over the years and to rebuild that great camaraderie into the world of bodybuilding and fitness to help create a sense of community.
Now let me begin by saying I firmly believe there is room for social media in our world, but only if it’s used in the right way. Too many so called ‘experts’ are giving misleading advice. The problem is that most people know nothing about training and fitness when they are getting started, but because they come from an era that is heavily influenced by social media, they believe everything they read. For example, that you can lose 20lb of fat and gain 10lb of muscle in 12 weeks. Ask Dorian, Ronnie, and Phil if that’s possible.
While we know that this is ridiculous, there are a lot of people new to the sport who don’t, and when they can’t achieve such results, may feel like a failure and give up, which is a real shame.
So, I want to explain what in my experience is possible and realistic and give some advice on how to achieve it.
Firstly, how much muscle can you expect to gain realistically if you are new to training?
As a rule, if you are consistent with your diet and training, you can begin to see an increase in muscle after 15 training sessions or 6–7 weeks of training, and expect to gain on average 3 lbs (1.36kg) of muscle after 3 months.
How much muscle you gain and how quickly will depend on a number of factors including your age, gender, body type and size, genetics, muscle fibre type, training experience, training programme, diet and your natural levels of muscle building hormones (testosterone and growth hormone).
This brings me to the next frequently asked question:
What is the best way of building muscle mass?
Obviously, this can be a complicated subject, which I am going to go into in some detail in a later article, but here is brief explanation of the approach which has been successful for me, which as you can see, is quite simple.
Firstly, with regard to training, I tended to perform 6 sets per body part for upper body exercises (excluding warm up sets) and kept my rep range between 8 to 12 reps. For lower body, I increased the reps to 12 to 15 and performed 8 to 10 sets in total for hamstrings and quadriceps and approximately 5 sets for calves.
Training is only half the story; you also need to get your diet on point if you are going to maximise your gains in muscle mass.
I aimed to consume approximately 3,200 kcal per day at a weight of 275 pounds (125kg). I achieved this with around 5 meals. My protein intake was 1.5 grams per pound of body weight. I never felt that I needed a lot of carbohydrate and kept it around 200 grams per day. I tended to respond better to higher fat intake from foods such as egg yolks, oily fish, nuts and red meat. I also used whey protein and a few other supplements, which I’ll cover in a later column.
What’s a realistic fat loss goal and how do you achieve it?
When it comes to reducing body fat, you can expect to lose approximately 1 pound (0.5 kg) per week, but trying to do this while trying to build muscle is very difficult. This is why we have different phases for gaining muscle mass and getting lean.
However, like my approach to building mass, my approach to losing fat was also pretty straight forward:
I still used the same exercises, sets and reps but reduced the weight as my energy levels tended to drop. I introduced cardio in the form of walking and cycling for 30 minutes 4 times per week to begin with and then adjusted it depending on how much fat I was losing.
When comes to eating, I reduced my energy intake progressively by about 500kcal per day down to 1,800kcal and carbohydrate down from 200g per day to 50g for the last 6-8 weeks. I totally excluded carbs from my last 2 meals, as I was at home and didn’t need the energy. So, for those meals I just relied on protein and fats. I tended to increase my protein intake as I dropped my carbs to help maintain muscle.
I cannot promise you will lose 20lb of fat and gain 10lb of muscle in 12 weeks following this approach, but we know that is highly unrealistic. What I can promise is that it helped me to win numerous prizes in bodybuilding and it may work for you or you may need to adjust it, as we all respond a bit differently.
As I said in the introduction, I believe there is room for social media in our world, and I understand that these influencers need to earn a living, but they have a duty to not rip people off and mislead them with unrealistic expectations. With this in mind, I’ll be back on the road in 2025 doing workshops and seminars for Time 4 Nutrition.
I also want you to use me as a sounding board and send me your questions either at Instagram patwarner65 or email me at eltoro.pw@googlemail.com
The feedback so far has been exceptional and giving back to the sport and getting to know you good people has been so satisfying, which brings me to the shout outs. At the end of each column, I like to give a shout out to a few people. This edition they are going to Sarah Parker and her Beyond Condition Podcast, Alan Sheldon, Joel Matyna, Justin Grayshon, and James Coborough. Sarah convinced me to take part in her podcast at a time when I didn’t feel comfortable about baring my soul, but she was such an inspiration and made me realise it was the right thing to do. Alan, Joel, and Justin Grayshon are old friends and training partners who were with me through the lowest point in my life. Last, but certainly not least, James Coborough is a guiding light and friend who was instrumental in getting me out of the house when I suffered from such crippling anxiety.
Until the next time, peace out and remember: Don’t count the days, make the days count!
Regards
Patrick