So many of us are always using the same approach to fat loss and focus on “Dieting”, which the word alone makes me cringe when I hear it because so many people miss-use the word and follow everyone else’s diet vs what works for them or whats successful with data driven proof!
The odds of you losing fat permanently with traditional low-calorie diets are stacked against you biologically, psychologically, and environmentally. It sounds scary, but the good news is you can bypass these problems if you avoid the typical diet mentality.
Thats why today, I wanted to give you my advice to Fat loss and advice that not only has helped me win numerous Natural Bodybuilding shows but which has also worked for many Fitness models, physique athletes and those who practice an athletic lifestyle for life get results so your learning from the best not your next door neighbour that saw it online or heard about it from a friend. Advice alone isn’t helpful when its not sound, data driven advice so lets begin:
1. THINK “HABIT” not “DIET”!
You achieve permanent results by adopting new habits that you can maintain for the rest of your life. These habits must include the way you eat, the way you think, and the way you move. “Good habits aren’t easy to form, but once they’re established, they’re just as hard to break as the bad ones”! If you simply remove a bad habit, it leaves a void begging to be filled by another one. The best way to get rid of undesirable habits such as drinking soda, spending hours on the couch watching TV, and thinking like a pessimist is by replacing them with new ones, rather than trying to overcome them with willpower. Initially, there’s a period where starting the new habit will feel uncomfortable. Be patient: Everything is difficult in the beginning. Accept the challenge! For a new behaviour to become entrenched in your nervous system, it could take months.
2. ALWAYS, ALWAYS MAINTAIN YOUR MUSCLE!
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is well known for saying that rule number one in making money is never lose money. It’s the same with making a body transformation. A simple strategy for permanent fat loss is never lose muscle. Muscle is your fat-burning secret weapon. Muscle is your metabolic furnace, and if your not eating enough protein to support optimal growth & recovery, not keeping track of your lean mass when you do body comps or not making sure your increasing the load you lift each workout or weekly you will fall into the trap of mistaking muscle loss for fat loss. Especially if you’re not using an up to date Bioelectrical impedance machine (we use www.Inbody.com) to assess all our members. Mistaking lean mass (muscle) loss for fat loss can ruin not only your progress but set you back weeks in longterm fat loss as your metabolism will slow down, and you will not burn as many calories at rest.
3. CUT CALORIES CONSERVATIVELY!
If we can send someone to the moon and back we know science doesn’t lie! So we all should know that you must have a calorie deficit to burn body fat, but most people cut calories much too fast. Your body can’t be forced to lose fat more quickly than nature intended; so you need slowly perform this vs all at once. The smartest, safest, and healthiest approach for permanent fat loss is to start with a small deficit, add exercise weekly, monitor your stats and body composition, then continue to cut calories if necessary as your weekly results dictate. By taking a slower approach and progressively cutting calories in stages vs. all at once you ensure you are able to gauge what’s happening internally with your lean and fat mass, you don’t cause a sudden shock in calorie deficit where your body responds by putting the breaks on and slowing down your metabolism thinking its in starvation mode, which backfires and you don’t lose energy all at once leaving you fatigued daily with no hope to continue your fat loss program.
4. BURN THE FAT DON’T STARVE THE FAT!
There’s more than one way to create a calorie deficit. You can decrease your calorie intake from food or increase the calories you burn from training and other activity. Unless you’re physically unable to exercise, a combination of both is ideal. Using exercise to maintain muscle and expand your calorie deficit has huge advantages over dieting alone. Most people are too focused on cutting calories making them grumpy, unhappy even sad vs increasing the amount of training they do, thus not reaping the metabolic, hormonal, and psychological gains training and movement have over dieting alone. Plus, you can eat more and still keep losing fat. As crazy as it might sound, the fastest way to transform your body is to eat more and burn more. You eat more to provide energy, nutrients, and building material. You burn more to stoke metabolism, build muscle, gain strength, and improve fitness.
5 USE CALORIE “CYCLING” METHOD (DON’T STAY IN DEFICIT FOREVER)
You yourself or you probably know someone that may have to feel like they’re always on a diet. Most people lose weight lose some weight in the first few weeks due to water loss or them cutting carbs all together but long-term fat loss is hard as people face plateaus that blog them from long-term fat loss. When your fat loss slows down or you hit a fat-loss plateau the first time, dropping calories is usually the right decision. But if your calories are already low and you’ve been dieting for a long time, cutting calories more can dig you into a deeper metabolic rut. It seems counterintuitive, but sometimes the best thing you can do to “reset” a sluggish metabolism is to eat more before going back to the caloric deficit again. Inserting occasional higher-calorie days between lower-calorie days is a simple technique that gives you a nice physical and psychological break from days or weeks of continuous deficit. Calculated & periodic Calorie “Cycling” eating optimizes your hormones and restokes your metabolic fire. Its often referred to as the Zig Zag method but having re-feed meals 1x week or cycling between non-workout days and workout days allows for long-term fat loss vs metabolism confusion due to long-term calorie deficits.
6. LOSE WEIGHT/FAT AT THE RIGHT RATE FOR YOU!
Most people are impatient and expect too much weight loss too fast, so it’s important to set weekly goals thoughtfully. Setting lots of short-term goals is crucial. But if you set them so high that they’re physiologically impossible to achieve in the time frame you’ve chosen, and your results fall short of your expectations, you end up disappointed, discouraged, and often quitting in the long term! Losing weight too fast can mean your losing lean mass vs fat mass and those with more body fat typically lose body fat the fastest when they start a fitness program than those who are naturally leaner with targeted areas to lose.
The best way to burn fat and keep it off for good, without losing muscle, and without making your life miserable, is to lose weight at the right rate for you. Many fitness experts recommend two pounds per week but I feel 1 lb (one) is much safer over the long run. Obviously when you start a program and have been inactive for years anything you do seems to work but once you have been exercising for years and are at an intermediate /advanced level the total weight loss per week does become harder due to your bodies ability to adapt to both exercise and nutritional stimulus. If it takes you 8 months to drop 30- 35 lbs it’s ok do it the right way and don’t worry about time frames.
Hope you enjoyed my tip today and as always I have one rule: If you enjoyed what we provided you today or feel it gave you value, please share this with someone you know or anyone you feel it can help by forwarding them this link or email.
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