The Truth About Losing Fat and Getting In Shape

SUMMARY:  Most fat loss plans help you control your food choices and energy intake.  Plus, they get you moving.  But there's one thing many of them ignore.  And that's what separates people who have success and those that don't. You must change your daily Routines and Habits!

THE 5 RULES OF FAT LOSS

Successful fat loss plans have a few things in common. Five, actually. You probably already know what they are, but let’s refresh just in case.

1. Don’t eat so much

In other words, if you’re eating a typical diet, you’re probably eating a bit too much food to lose fat. That’s right, the food you eat that isn’t used by your body for energy and re-building gets stored as fat.

Here’s a simple way to do that: Grab a notebook and write down everything you eat for the next three days. After three days of tracking your food, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how much food you normally eat.

Then all you have to do is replace a few calorie dense foods with calorie dilute foods. Or just trim back your portions a little. Voila. Same amount of food, instant calorie-reduction, no stress.

2. Eat healthy food

Depending on who you ask, “healthy” food can mean different things. But there is one universal truth: More nutrients with fewer calories is a recipe for success.

In general, the best foods are lean meats, vegetables, high-quality fats, and maybe a small amount of starches, depending on your carbohydrate tolerance. The best part about these foods? They’re also fairly low in calories compared to processed stuff.

And for those meals directly after a workout:

What about plant-based eaters? We’ve got them covered too.

3. Move more often

Most people think the only way to lose weight is to work out for 5+ hours per week or go for morning jogs. Fortunately, this isn't true. Taking the stairs, going for a morning bike ride, or walking to lunch instead of driving may seem like small steps, but they make a big impact on how your body feels and how many calories you burn. Of course, this isn’t all you need to become a cover model, but it does kick-start the fat loss process. It also supports rules number four and five.

4. Do strength training a few times per week

To look and feel better and speed up the rate of fat loss, you need to do muscle-preserving exercises like weight-training or bodyweight workouts. They don’t need to be too intense, and they certainly don’t have to take a long time.

The best thing you can do is start slowly and visit the gym two or three times per week. Perform a small circuit of full-body exercises like squats, lunges, rows, and presses. It all takes about 45 minutes.

A word of advise: It’s recommended to get the help of a personal trainer to get a program started (how about asking me : )

5. Do intervals (aka “Cardio”)

If strength training was your muscle-preserving exercise, intervals are your calorie-burning activity. Doing short bursts of work followed by longer periods of recovery helps your body burn a tremendous amount of calories.

To start, all you have to do is get on an exercise bike, treadmill, or other cardio equipment and try the following:

-30 second burst of fast pedaling or running
-60 second recovery of slow pedaling or jogging

That’s one round. Go back and forth between the “intense burst” and “recovery” and repeat that for a total of six rounds.  And that’s it.

THE WRONG WAY TO LOSE FAT

Your behavior. Your habits. What you do every day. The decisions you make — both consciously and unconsciously. But how do you change a habit?

Most people struggle to lose fat because they try to do too much at once. People take an "all or none" approach to their body: They remove all unhealthy foods, go full throttle on exercise, and even try to remove bad habits like not getting enough sleep. After a couple of weeks, those good habits are replaced by withdrawal, frustration, and a belief that you’ll never be able to look the way you want.

It’s heart-breaking because we see it so often. Trying to do too much at once — trying to adopt and change 20+ new habits from the start — never works.

THE RIGHT WAY TO LOSE FAT

Focus on one habit at a time. Mastering it, and then making progress. And by using that approach, you can lose fat faster than ever and get in the best shape of your life.

Alone, these small changes may not look like they’d make much of a difference. But add them on top of one another, practiced daily for a full year, and the results become mind-blowing.

Here are just a few examples of the habits our clients work on over the course of a year.

Take fish oil and a multivitamin. Eat slowly. Work out at least three days per week. Stop eating at 80% full. Eat fewer carbs. Eat veggies and protein with every meal. Do 20 minutes of de-stressing.

No more up and down. No more rebounding. Just a great-looking, great-feeling body and a happier life.

And that’s exactly how you can use our principles to make your own body transformation.

Simply pick one habit — maybe start with one of the ones above — and practice it every day for two weeks.

Don’t worry about trying to follow anything else. Just focus on your habit. 

And after two weeks, pick one more habit to try.

It may seem simple - and it is.  But research shows that simple is the only way to achieve long-term, sustainable results.  And the results do speak for themselves.