A Secret From an Italian Economist to Help You Lose Weight and Build Muscle

In 1906, an economist by the name of Vilfredo Pareto noted that 80% of the land in his homeland of Italy was owned by only 20% of the population. He later found that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas.

Since Pareto made note of this phenomenon, others have found it to fit in many other contexts. Businesses find that 80% of their sales come from 20% of their clients. 80% of crimes are committed by 20% of the criminals. And 80% of health care resources are used by 20% of the people. This observation – that 80% of results tend to come from only 20% of the effort put into it – has come to be known as The Pareto Principle, or The 80-20 Rule.

I’m going to show you how to apply this to your diet and workouts to get 80% of your desired results – fat loss, muscle gain – by focusing on just the most important 20% of your efforts. 80% of what most people do when they are looking to get in shape are just not worth the time, money, and energy they put into it… even worse, many of the things we do are COUNTER-productive! After reading this, you will have no excuse to turn down happy hour next time due to your strict diet and exercise routine!

The 20% of Your Diet to Focus on for Quick and Sustainable Fat Loss

It seems like every week a new fad comes into the diet world that causes people to go out of their way to eat in a way they hope will promote fat loss. It’s not uncommon to find vegetarians who avoid all sources of meat, people hauling food-filled Tupperware wherever they go, and people stocking up on “Superfoods” such as acai berry and wheat grass.

But we have been focused far too long on the “long tail” aspects of diet such as these that give us only minimal returns. In the meantime, our grocery stores have been filled wall-to-wall with heavily-processed “food products” that are enriched with whatever the nutrient fad of the day is.

When it comes to a diet that promotes fat loss and supports muscle-building, the 20% that you should focus on is this: eat the foods that have sustained healthy human populations. Specifically, lots of meat and vegetables, and some fruit, nuts, seeds, and eggs should make up the bulk of your diet. They should be as fresh and whole as possible.

Diets based on these principles have been found to nourish and maintain healthy people. Not calorie-counting (which is inaccurate and time-consuming) and not avoiding fat (which groups as different as the French and the Masai have been gorging on with no ill effects). Hey, it’s worked for humanity since the beginning, so why give up on it now?

The 20% of Your Exercising You Should Focus On for Building Muscle

The biggest obstacle men face in their journey towards building muscle is the pervasive influence of bodybuilding tactics. When I first started hitting the gym in high school, every book I was referred to and everyone I talked to preached the same sermon: do 3×10 workouts, isolate every muscle group as much as possible (even better, isolate different PARTS of each muscle), and work every muscle group just once per week (except abs, of course, which should be exercised every day).

This kind of advice is based, not on what the human body is best suited for, but on bodybuilding techniques designed for dudes that already have massive amounts of muscle and the luxury of working out for hours every day. Bodybuilding will not help you become healthier or attract more women, so you shouldn’t use those strategies if these are the goals you have.

The human body is an all-purpose piece of machinery, capable of lifting, climbing, pressing, squatting, throwing, sprinting, walking, and swimming. It is the lack of these types of movements in the modern man’s daily life that are the cause of his lack of muscle tone, and not the lack of sufficient crunches, bicep curls, and bench presses.

The 20% of all exercising you should focus on include the following:

• Deadlifts, sumo deadlift high pulls, kettlebell swings, cleans
• Overhead presses, bench presses, push ups, dips
• Pull ups, inverted rows, rope climbs, muscle ups
• Squats (bodyweight, back, front, overhead)
• Wall ball, throwing sports such as baseball and basketball
• Sprinting, jumping, walking, swimming

By moving your body in the ways it has evolved to move, you can easily build the kind of body that maximizes strength and attractiveness without needing to micromanage all your muscle groups.

Enjoy All Your New Free Time!

To sum it all up, 80% of your fat loss and muscle building results can be reached by simply eating a diet of real foods, including meat, vegetables, fruit, eggs, nuts, and seeds; and training movements such as lifts, presses, climbs, squatting, throwing, sprinting, walking, and swimming.

Trying to keep track of calories when you are eating heavily processed (but fortified!) foods that don’t cause you to be satiated, dropping wads of cash on supplements, and spending hours upon hours in the gym every week plodding along on treadmills and doing isolation exercises are the 80% of your efforts that are giving you only 20% of your results.

Personally, I’d rather use that time to grab a drink with my friends, take my girlfriend out on a date, or simply sleep in, knowing that I’m still the healthiest I have ever been. But perhaps that’s just me…

Tagged as: bench presses, confusion, deadlifts, diminishing returns, kettlebells, medicine ball, overhead presses, pareto principle, pull ups, push ups, rows, sprinting, squats, weightlifting