Everybody at some point wants to drop a little body fat. While we teach people to focus more on the performance side of fitness, the aesthetic side is always there so here are our Top 5 Fat Loss Tips for you!
1) Track your calories and protein!
Our primary focus when dieting for fat loss is controlling calories! We need to make sure we maintain a caloric deficit. This is the only way that we can lose weight. Tracking calories can be a bit tedious, AT FIRST, but when practicing portion control by either consistent estimations or through measuring your food you will get better and faster with it. The other primary piece that we track is protein, when we are getting enough protein we typically stay more satiated!
- PRO TIP – Little snacks, bites, nibbles and sips can add up fast. We typically forget to count them. Worst-case scenario, they are big trigger foods and drinks for us.
- Bonus PRO TIP – Like everything in life, fitness/nutrition/exercise/etc is a skill and skills take time to develop.
2) Eat the things that you actually enjoy eating!
When it comes to diets, all diets work, from low carb and keto to intermittent fasting and Mediterranean to insert whatever will pop up next month. The reason they all work…
reduced calories!
We need longevity and a long term change so why not eat things that you enjoy! If you have ever seen Matt eat:
– We are sorry. It is a train wreck.
– He likes everything and LOVES sweets so he diets in a way that will let him control calories over the long haul.
We don’t need to go wild just because we read about it or heard about a new trend on a podcast, eat the nutrient dense food you actually enjoy!!
3) Lift Weights and Focus on Daily Activity
All training should be built around building you up and improving both your capabilities and your functioning (more strength, better flexibility, improved cardio). When we focus on weight training, we are building our muscles and improving our ability to handle food and burn calories over the long haul. This doesn’t give us a free pass but when we have limited time, we have to hit with the most impactful first. With limited time, our priorities should be nutrition, lifting and then additional cardio.
We also want to focus on our daily activity – we want to do something EVERYDAY! Not crazy workouts every day but we want to walk and increase our activity throughout the day. Moving and doing more every day will increase your caloric expenditure.
4) Consistency and Patience.
What do numbers 2 and 3 help…CONSISTENCY!!!! When we eat in a style that we can enjoy and when we are focused on building daily activities and ourselves our consistency skyrockets. Just like 1 salad won’t change your body, 1 bowl of ice cream won’t either. The focus needs to be on the long term and how to sustainably create the proper habits and decisions.
The road to long-term change is rocky, we will stall out and then kick butt. We will stumble and then stall and then kick butt…any combination of these 3 phases will happen continually. Focus on your consistency and be patient. As long as you keep chipping away, you will make it. When you have wins and victories…CELEBRATE THEM!!!!!
5) Focus on Your Environment and Triggers
In the book, Atomic Habits by James Clear, he talks about how important it is to control our environment. When we control our environment and make it easy to make the right choice we really start to master ourselves. We have a lot of stresses in life and we have a lot of decisions to make. As a result, we will often make whatever choice is more convenient or easy in the moment.
- Schedule your workouts or meal prep in your calendar
- Put your workout stuff in your car or by the door the night before.
- Do online grocery shopping to reduce your access to trigger foods.
These are just a few examples but they go a long way in helping you make the right choices.
This list could go one forever but we have an important question…
What has worked well for you? What in this list can you implement now?
