What To Do When You Can’t Count – A Letter From Two Soldiers In Afghanistan

Dear Andy,

Although I am not a client of yours, I am keen to show you the progress that me and my friend James have had over the last 5 months.  Simply because using the information on your website has changed our lives.

I must firstly, congratulate you on a fabulous website and for simplifying the Leangains approach and making it very user-friendly for people like me to follow and get results.

I am sure we are one success story in hundreds using your guidelines but where we may differ is that we have made this progress whilst serving as soldiers in Afghanistan.  We are both Engineers in the British Army and have spent the last 5 months preparing to withdraw our troops.

Being in Afghanistan has brought challenges with your approach to dieting, as you may imagine.

1. Inability to prepare or cook meals. This was all centrally prepared and served.  This often meant that we did not know what was available until we turned up and we had to really rely on the basics of the system; high protein every day with low fat/high carb on training days and high fat/low carb on rest days.

I actually believe that this was the key to our results!  When dieting in the past I have often over-complicated things, second-guessed too much and thus not achieved the goals that were set.  Being restricted in what we had available actually made it easier.  We went for food at regular times, got a slab of meat at each sitting and added either rice and veg, or just veg, dependant on the day we were on.  We often had ice cream on training days as this was a luxury too good to pass up on and would not last forever!!!

2. Portion Control.  With no way to measure out our food, it ultimately came down to trial and error to ensure we were hitting the required macros.  As you indicate in your articles, too little food and we risk plateauing and stalling our fat loss progress along with not maximizing our strength gains.

To get over this we monitored our progress frequently to ensure the numbers on the barbell were increasing whilst the scales, mirror and tape measure were also showing positive.  At times this was difficult and I spent almost 6 weeks at the same weight to try and find the ‘magic’ daily quantity of food.  This was probably the biggest challenge we faced.

3. Hidden macros.  These were a major hazard we definitely needed to keep an eye on!!  This most certainly bit me in the arse on a number of occasions and probably explained a 6-week stall I had.

The majority of the food available to us was usually coated in sauces and we generally had no way of knowing what the food had been cooked in.  Again, this was trial and error and to get over this one we simply adopted a rule where if a food was covered in sauce we simply reduced the amount we consumed that day to compensate.  It seemed to work so we stuck with it.

4. Time constraints.  Due to our workload, we were naturally forced to keep things simple due to time constraints, usually only having an hour to train, including warm up and cool down.

Pace of life in Afghanistan never really allowed us to set a training time either, meaning we trained at various times of the day from dawn till dusk.  All we did was compensate how much we ate dependant on when we trained; train in the morning = biggest meal at lunch.  Evening training = a light lunch and big evening meal.  For actual training, we used a 5/3/1 template set around heavy compound movements that saw good strength increases for both of us during our adventure.  James’ numbers were particularly impressive but he was very much a novice lifter.

I suppose all this is a very long-winded way of basically saying that sticking to the basics and not over complicating things works.

I have attached some photos to indicate our 5-month progress.  While these may not be earth shattering I think they are significant improvements and in the case of James, he has now adopted the Leangains lifestyle and wonders why he ever ate breakfast in the first place.

Now I am back in Blighty [Britain]I have decided to conduct a 5-week test where I have been counting my macros accurately to see how much I was eating and to try and cut down a few more percent with the body fat prior to Christmas!

Thanks for reading and have a very festive season,

Gaz

Gary, James,

Thank you both for the e-mail. You’ve just made my morning.

When people know they can’t cook their meals and count macros exactly, so often they often give up instead of just applying a little common sense, eyeballing things as best they can, and seeing where it takes them. You’re quite right when you said that it doesn’t have to be made complicated for most people to be successful – as long as they stay disciplined. You two are a testament to that.

Gary – In fairness to yourself, the fat loss tend to hit a wall right around the point you’ve gotten to (a little before actually) and people usually need to start counting to go from nearly ripped to ripped and then shredded. (You’ll see definitions for those categories in the latest guide on the site.) I see no reason why you won’t be able to take it from ripped to shredded fairly easily now you’re starting to count.

James – Just a little more fat loss and those abs will come through nicely. There is a point of discomfort just before that where you’ll feel your skinniest as it’s the leanest you’ll get before the abs come through. Everyone goes through that, push through and get them popping to see how you feel. If you wish to start counting from that point and slow-bulk, then starting leaner is the best way forward.

To you both – you’ve just been away for a long time. Make sure you take a diet break, for both the mental release and the hormonal benefits before plunging further.

“When people know they can’t cook their meals and count macros exactly, so often they often give up instead of just taking applying a little common sense, eyeballing things as best they can, and seeing where it takes them.”

This is a point that needs to be made clearer on the site. We could turn this into a quick post: “What to do when you can’t count – a letter from two soldiers in Afghanistan” or something like that. I can basically just copy and paste your whole email as it speaks for itself. Faces are better left in but can, of course, be blurred out. But, please, feel absolutely no pressure to say yes to this.

Lastly, thanks to you both for doing what you do.

Andy