Chances are you’re reading this because you’re not happy with your body right now and you want to work towards a change.
Let me tell you where you’re at right now is NOT the result of just one “bad” meal or a missed workout. I don’t care what your Instagram caption says, you did not wake up like this.
Where you are right now is the cumulative effect of your daily habits. Stop chasing the 1% to start losing fat. The majority of people are so focused on the latest ab exercise and latest fat burning supplement, which I consider chasing the 1%, that they completely lose sight of the 99% that matters. I want you to realize one thing that I learned from Jeff Olson, author of The Slight Edge. “The things you do every single day, the things that don’t look dramatic, that don’t even look like they matter, do matter. They not only make a difference—they make all the difference.” Let’s set you up for success by polishing up some daily habits that will make getting lean a lot easier.
Drink 32 oz of ZERO Calorie Fluids by 12 Noon, and 32 oz by Dinner Time
Anyone who follows me or has worked with me knows I’m no nutrition Nazi.
When it comes to drinking calories though, I’m an asshole. It’s so easy to consume a lot of calories that it’s easy to over do it and negate all of your hard work.
A large double/double (2 cream, 2 sugar) coffee from Tim Hortons has about 280 calories. If you switched just those two sugars for a zero calorie sweetener and kept the cream, you would save 104 calories. All the little things add up, and this is one of the easiest changes you can make. Water, tea, black coffee, and diet sodas are fair game. So are protein drinks. And you can rest assured aspartame isn’t going to kill you or make you gain weight. There is more than enough credible research disproving both of those myths. Diet drinks have been shown to be an effective tool for weight loss and maintenance. In fact, it is unlikely that a person could come close to reaching the aspartame levels deemed unacceptable by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. An adult weighing 165 pounds would have to drink more than 19 cans of diet soda a day, or consume more than 107 packets, to go over the recommended level.
The “eight glasses of water per day” rule doesn’t apply to everyone. It varies a lot depending on where you live, how strenuous your job is, what you eat, etcetera. However, the majority of people don’t drink enough fluids. Our bodies are amazing at adapting, so if you’re used to drinking very little, your body assumes that’s normal. You won’t feel like you have to drink. However, you will feel the effects of dehydration through fatigue, poor digestion and constipation. We also generally have a hard time telling the difference between hunger and thirst. Sometimes we mistake one for the other. When you get a craving or think you’re hungry, drink some water first and wait a few minutes. Then, if you’re still hungry, grab some food. Aim to drink 32 ounces of zero calorie fluids before noon, and another 32 ounces by the time you have dinner.
Tell me again about how you don’t think water is important. Image Courtesy of: cms.bbcomcdn.com
Eat More Protein and Eat 20-30 Grams with Breakfast
This step is actually a 2-in-1.
There you go. You get an extra tip at no charge.
The main reason I like this is that diets high in protein help improve satiety. You can go longer without feeling hungry. This will automatically work as a calorie control method for you to help reduce the amount of food you eat. Getting a high protein breakfast is an easy way to knock off a big chunk of your protein requirement for the day. It’s an also an easy way to start your day off with a win.
The second reason I like this step is that increasing the amount of protein you eat can actually help to increase your metabolism. There is a metabolic advantage to a high protein diet, which will increase the calories you burn by 80-100 calories per day. Almost all of my clients started out by eating much less protein than they required for optimal body composition (body fat to muscle ratio). Once they corrected for this, they started seeing noticeable changes. One gram per pound of target body weight seems to be a great starting point. From there you can adjust the amount based on your energy levels, satiety, and progress. I learned this simple method from nutrition expert Alan Aragon and I’ve found it to be a great estimate for my clients. If your target body weight is 120 pounds, aim to get 120 grams of protein per day. Make sure to get 20-30 grams with your first meal or breakfast. Be flexible and give yourself a range. For example, if you only get 80 grams one day don’t stress out. Just eat a bit more the next day. Try your best to be consistent. Using a scale or measuring cups for a period of time will help you learn portion sizes better, but it’s not absolutely necessary. Because hand sizes vary, compare your fist size to an actual measuring cup.
Protip: To find the protein content of the foods use Google or MyFitnessPal.
Eat Vegetables With Every Meal
Besides the fact that your mother was right about everything else in your life, vegetables are good for you.
Eating vegetables with meals helps to boost your satiety, and the fibre will help to keep you going for number-2 regularly. It’s also much harder to eat 200 calories worth of mixed vegetables (the equivalent of almost six cups) than it is to eat two ounces of cheese or half a candy bar.
Start with a single large handful of vegetables with every meal. Yes, even breakfast. Get creative with your omelettes, frittatas, and quiches. Tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, mushrooms, onions, leeks, and asparagus are some of my favourites to include with breakfast.
Besides the fact that your mother was right about everything else in your life, vegetables are good for you. Image Courtesy of: slapdashmom.com
Eat Your Carbs Wisely
You can officially let go of your fear of carbs from this point forward and enjoy your favourite foods.
In a nutshell, the belief that carbs will make you fat because “carbohydrates drive insulin which drives you to gain fat,” is simply not true (like BigFoot and unicorns). Believe it or not I used to think the same way (read here).
Fun fact about insulin: it actually stimulates your muscles to build new protein. For sustained weight loss you need to be feeling optimal, both mentally and physically. Carbohydrates help with this since they’re a source of immediate energy. It’s very important to not buy in to the crash-diet “zero-carb” mentality. Especially since low-carb diets don’t offer any metabolic advantages to fat loss when they’re compared to a moderate carb, high protein diet (source).
Carbs also help to spare the use of proteins for energy. That just means you maintain more of your lean muscle. Beyond that, foods like breads, pasta, fruits, and desserts taste awesome. But that also means they’re easier to over indulge in. Limit your carb-dense foods to just one fist or cup per meal. How many meals per day? I suggest 3-4 meals per day with no snacks in between. This way the meals you have can be larger, more filling, and more enjoyable. The eat six meals per day to “stoke the metabolic fire” is a myth and research has debunked it.
Get 52.5+ Hours of Sleep Per Week
This should arguably be Step 1.
The effect of sleep can’t be overlooked, especially when it comes to transforming your body. Lack of sleep can lead to lowered glucose tolerance, increased cortisol, lowered leptin (the satiety hormone which helps to regulate energy balance by inhibiting hunger), and higher levels of ghrelin (the hunger hormone which increases appetite).
Don’t treat sleep as a luxury. It’s just as important for your health as diet and exercise.
Although there is some genetic variation, most adults need between 7.5 and 8.5 hours of sleep per 24-hour period to function optimally. The good news is this can be cumulative. If you miss out on an hour or two on Monday you can repay that debt later on in the week. So the total hours of sleep in a week becomes important. Don’t get stressed out if you go one or two nights with less than optimal sleep. Stay focused on the process and get that solid sleep when you can. The goal by the end of the week is to get over 52.5 hours.
Don’t treat sleep as a luxury. It’s just as important for your health as diet and exercise. Image Courtesy of: muscletransform.com
Habits for Fat Loss
The habits listed are what you need to start transforming your life and body.
They’re so easy to do. And that’s the problem.
Every habit here is so easy to do, it’s just as easy NOT to do. And the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people lies right there. Unsuccessful people will take these habits, do them for two weeks, and then jump on the next thing they see in a magazine or website. While the successful people will take this information and apply it day after day until the effect kicks in. Let’s set the record straight, there are no secrets to fat loss, and there’s not much new information out there. None of the information I’m giving you here is ground-breaking or revolutionary. It’s been around for decades. It’s simply information I’ve learned from my coaches, mentors, and other professionals in this field. Oh and let’s set the record straight about one more thing, fat loss comes from eating fewer calories than you burn. Simple? Yes. Always doable? No. I’ll tell you from personal experience, it’s tough to endure hunger for long. There’s comes a point where you find yourself laying on your back next to the fridge, unable to move. So each step here is there to help you reduce your caloric intake, while trying to minimize the feeling of hunger without any form of crash dieting.
About the Author
Kia writes at KiaKhadem.com about all things working out and fat loss related. To get useful strategies for improving your physique and performance, join his free newsletter.
We value your privacy and would never spam you