[00:00:00] James Breese: Strength Matters Media. Video. Print. Podcasts.
[00:00:05] Josh Kennedy: Today's topic is does wearing a weighted vest help you lose weight? And I think, spoiler alert, the answer is unequivocally yes. But just to give you a little bit of context, if you haven't listened to the original episode we did on this, go back and listen to episode 31, which will give you a little bit of context and background to what we are doing.
[00:00:28] Josh Kennedy: So yeah, James, how are you getting on with the weighted vest? How are you feeling?
[00:00:31] James Breese: It's mental. Okay. It's absolutely mental. If I'm being honest, it's the easiest weight loss phase and cut I've ever done in my entire life. I think hands down, I can't emphasize this enough. It's, it's, it's ridiculous. I've lost four kilos in four weeks.
[00:00:48] James Breese: I think that just puts things in perspective. I'm training, I'm eating, I have no lull in energy, I'm thinking clearly for work. It's been incredible. And [00:01:00] there's so many little bits that have happened along this. And I think we maybe should recap the stuff on the protocols we're following to the T so you guys all know about it.
[00:01:07] James Breese: But it's phenomenal. People are noticing it. Even you and Andrew are saying, Oh my God, your face is getting slimmer. Or you can see it on the screen as we're speaking
[00:01:15] Josh Kennedy: to it. Yep, absolutely. So this is based on the original work done, or experiment, I guess, done by Eric Lee Salazar, a bodybuilder. So just go into Google and take a look, you'll find it.
[00:01:29] Josh Kennedy: As you say it's probably the the easiest weight loss and let's point out that this is Very rapid weight loss and it's not something we would normally recommend. This is advanced stuff You know usually sensible Sustainable weight loss is one to two pounds per week. James has lost four kilos in a month.
[00:01:48] Josh Kennedy: So that's that's a lot You know, but as you say Compare it to how you, because obviously you've been tracking your calories and we've been doing weight loss on and off for, [00:02:00] what, a couple of years? Has it been, no, you've been tracking, you can't, just tracking everything? Um, So, yeah, how does it compare?
[00:02:07] Josh Kennedy: Cause as you've said, when you've been doing dieting, it's not, we always say it's not, it's not easy, it's hard to do. And you get to a point when you're in a deficit where you're like, Oh my God, I've had enough now, but you're, you're sort of, you're, you're making us break our own protocols because you're now in week four of a deficit and I'm like, no, refeed, refeed.
[00:02:24] James Breese: Yeah, I know that's, that's what it's like. Cause normally. Yeah, so let's, let's just recap quickly what the exact steps I'm doing at the moment. So the first thing was we, we knew what my maintenance calories were, which was 2, 525 calories approximately. That's what I know is my maintenance when I'm training and I'm moving well and doing a lot of stuff.
[00:02:43] James Breese: Based on my size, I'm 5 foot 9, that's 173 centimeters for those in, in Europe, you know, to give you perspective. So that's, that's what, that's my size and that's my weight. And I started off at 74 kilos. That was, that was the exact starting weight here. So 2, 500 [00:03:00] calories. And we took a deficit under 2024. I think it was Josh that the calculator came up.
[00:03:04] James Breese: I think. Give or take that ballpark. So it's a standard, it's, it's a standard deficit that we want to do. So normal protocols are, we will be in a deficit for th for two to three weeks, have a one week refe, then come back to it following the Matador approach. 'cause that's how we like to do things over here.
[00:03:20] James Breese: So we just have this longer term play as opposed to short-term fix. 'cause we wanna help people. They don't help people so they don't have that rebound effect afterwards when it comes to weight loss. That's why we do it. So, but even when you're dieting and having quite a, quite a, even if it's any sort of deficit really, you have points where you want to eat more food.
[00:03:39] James Breese: You just naturally want to have a bit of binge, or you go, oh, I've had enough of this, I'm just going to do whatever. Or you have a lull in energy, and it forces you to want to try and eat, or something along those lines. But I haven't experienced that. So, we've gone into a deficit of 2, 000 calories. Now, at the same time, I'm having one day a week fasting, so on a Monday like today, for [00:04:00] example, I'm completely fasting except for a drink and some coffee.
[00:04:03] James Breese: That's, that's pretty much it. So, I'm having one day a week fasting on a Monday. I'm staying the rest of the week in 2000 calories per day, so I'm averaging out roughly just below that 2000 calories mark. But I'm also overeating on some of the other days to make up for that, that one day deficit, or that one day fast.
[00:04:23] James Breese: And that I'm training as normal on top of it. And then with my training, I'm training as normal, but I'm also having a walk at least 30 minutes a day with my weight vest on and wearing the weight vest every single day. And it's, it's crazy. I'm not getting the same hunger patterns. I'm not craving food.
[00:04:39] James Breese: I'm not, I'm finding at the moment some food I'm leaving because I don't want to eat it all, which is unheard of. I grew up on a farm where you just eat as much as you can. And if you don't eat fast enough, you want to have seconds and you just want to keep eating and keep eating. It's just a. Or maybe a Welsh farmer's trait or something like that where I just want to eat more food But I'm not I went for a curry last night with a couple [00:05:00] of, well not last night, the other week with some friends There's an ice cream place around the corner I left most of my curry and I left part of my ice cream Which is again unheard of in my terms, but my body just didn't want it Like it's like no, don't eat it and I'd be wearing the weight vest all day And that's really important to say that I'm wearing this weight vest all day every day And, you know, I'm taking it off in certain points because there are times where you look stupid wearing it and you can't walk down to the shop.
[00:05:28] James Breese: It looks like you've got a bulletproof vest on. Or a stab vest as you go
[00:05:31] Josh Kennedy: down to the original study, he did, he went to the supermarket in his weight vest.
[00:05:35] James Breese: He did. I haven't got the balls to do that, unfortunately. I haven't got the, I haven't got the balls to do that. But it's... But I'm wearing it most of the time, I'm walking most of the time with it, and taking it off as and when is necessary.
[00:05:46] James Breese: And it's, it's fascinating, it really is, and it's, it's definitely, well that's what the original study says, it says it almost like controls your appetite. And I find that it is, it's suppressing my appetite, somehow. I can't explain it all, the Gruvita stat theory is there to [00:06:00] try and maybe explain it, but it is, it's been a fascinating journey.
[00:06:03] James Breese: And like I said, I feel like I'm losing weight, I can see in the mirror I'm losing weight. And I don't think I've ever lost this much weight so fast, so easily in my entire life. And we're not even following a weight loss training plan, are we Josh? We're following just a normal fitness athletic plan. Well
[00:06:18] Josh Kennedy: yeah, because we're prepping for your, uh, Over 40s Cricket World Cup in February.
[00:06:22] Josh Kennedy: Is that right? February? Yeah. So we're not, usually, when we, if we're doing... You know, wanting rapid weight loss, we'd be following a really hard training program as well. And, you know, doing heavy lifting, lactate, anaerobic training, all sorts of stuff. So when you, when you do that kind of training and combine that with a deficit, you definitely get those energy goals.
[00:06:44] Josh Kennedy: And it's, as you say, it's hard work, but you're not experiencing any of that. You're following a performance program. Um, yeah, and, you know, still wanting to be in a deficit.
[00:06:56] James Breese: Yes. Like I said to you, when I uploaded my workout yesterday, I did my [00:07:00] run up the hill, which is at my parents place, which is my benchmark test run.
[00:07:04] James Breese: So I run up a massive hill, see how fast and get to the top and come back down. I know if I hit sub 30 minutes going up the hill to the top, I'm doing really well. And if I hit sub 50 minutes coming down, I'm doing even better. So that's around the benchmarks. I was up in 27 minutes and I was down in 47 minutes total.
[00:07:21] James Breese: So it was, I wasn't even pushing to the absolute limit. It was a PB for me. So it's, that's in four weeks. So following the plan, it's working. The weight loss definitely seemed to have an effect. And it's just, yeah, it's just the easy, and it, technically I should be in a refeed next week, this week. But I'm going to New York next week, so I'm doing the refeed next week when I go to New York so I can enjoy the food around me.
[00:07:41] James Breese: But it, it's crazy. I can't emphasize this enough. This is... For me personally, it's been a learning curve beyond anything else I've learned in weight loss, really. And it's, it's us learning how to make it applicable to the most, to most people out there. Because it's not always going to be suitable for people to wear a weight vest all day, every [00:08:00] day.
[00:08:00] James Breese: Because they're not at a standing desk, or they're at work, in an office, wearing a suit, or something like that. So, it's about finding ways around this. Here's a
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[00:08:44] Josh Kennedy: Do you, do you wear your weight vest over or under your suit? .
[00:08:47] James Breese: Exactly. Yeah. So I wear it underneath, so when I'm going for a walk at night time, I put it over the jacket, so the jacket hides it, but I look like a tank.
[00:08:54] James Breese: I look like, let's see, hench AF, you know, literally it's, it's crazy. So it's, [00:09:00] it's, it's just a fascinating experiment. I'm excited to see where this continues. As I say, I started at 74 kilos. I weighed in at bang on 70 kilos this morning. That's four kilos in four weeks.
[00:09:11] Josh Kennedy: In fact, I think it's slightly less than four weeks.
[00:09:13] Josh Kennedy: But I think what will be interesting is we should do another update in about another month's time, I reckon. And then, as you say, when we get to the end of this experiment, just before you go to the World Cup, it's like, what we learnt from this, what can we take from this to apply to general population?
[00:09:28] Josh Kennedy: Obviously because there are, you know, there's only going to be so much times that people will be able to wear a weight vest, et cetera, et cetera. So it'll be like, What, what do we learn from this process, but it's going incredibly well so
[00:09:40] James Breese: far. Yep. Definitely. Definitely. So, so yeah, watch your space. We'll keep you posted, keep you updated, but that's the results so far into this one month experiment.
[00:09:51] James Breese: So, exactly.
[00:09:54] Josh Kennedy: There you go. Yeah. Let's, uh, let's see how it goes. Thanks for listening. That is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review [00:10:00] and subscribe. And if you want to find out more about our system of training, go to strengthmatters. com forward slash system.