News alert, I used to be fat…lol!
I was 60 lbs heavier than I am right now and in this article, I’m going to be covering exactly what I would do if I were in that position again knowing what I know now via my personal experience, my 1-on-1 coaching work with clients over the last 12 years as well as all of the research that’s been done since I was a chubster.
We’re going to cover nutrition, movement, sleep, supplements, eating out, alcohol intake, what I would do if I hit a plateau…all the goodies!
First let’s cover the most important component by a long shot, nutrition…
I would eat about a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight or a gram of protein per pound of goal bodyweight. I used to be 210 lbs, now I am 150 lbs and so I’d likely just split the difference and eat about 180 grams of protein daily. If I felt like that was too much, I’d scale it back and if I happened to be a little bit hungry, I’d likely notch it up a tad.
I would then fill in the remainder of my calories from carbs and fats based on my personal preferences. I’ve experimented with lower carb and higher fat, higher carb and lower fat and I’ve also eaten moderate amounts of both and truth be told…I feel quite good on all 3 approaches, however I’d likely go with the middle of road approach i.e. a moderate amount of carbs and a moderate amount of fat because that provides the most flexibility in terms of daily food choices.
It's worth mentioning that after you set your protein intake, it does not matter whether you choose to eat more carbs and less fat, less carbs and more fat or a moderate amount of both as long as your total calorie intake is in check, meaning…
As long as you’re in a calorie deficit i.e. using more energy than you are taking in, you will lose the same amount of fat regardless of the approach that you choose to take and that’s great news, because you have lots of options at your disposal. For example…
Some of my clients eat more carbs and less fat because that’s their preference, others eat less carbs and more fat because they prefer that set up and then some folks split the middle…it doesn’t matter in terms of fat loss results, so just go with whatever you prefer and find the most sustainable. If you don’t know just yet, you can also always experiment with all 3 and see what you feel the best on!
That’s the quantity conversation covered, what about the quality? I would heavily favour single ingredient whole foods, which are just foods with one ingredient, for example…
Steak is just steak, eggs are eggs, potatoes are potatoes, fruit is fruit, veggies are veggies, you get the idea. I’d favour single ingredient foods in their whole food form for a few reasons…
One, they are the most filling and like we mentioned we need to be in a calorie deficit in order to lose fat and so of course I’m going to choose the most filling foods because feeling hungry isn’t enjoyable or sustainable.
Two, they are the most nutritious and nutrient dense aka they’re healthy and health is super important to me.
Three, they are the most digestion friendly and I’ve learned over the years that digestion plays a massive part in energy levels, sense of well-being, whole body inflammation, brain function and the list goes on…
How many meals would I eat daily? Back in the day I used to eat 4, 5 or even 6 times per day sometimes because we used to think that smaller more frequent meals would quote unquote ‘stoke the metabolism’ and result in more fat loss…that turned out to be wrong.
What fits for me best now is, I typically eat 2 main meals and have 1 snack per day or just essentially 3 meals depending on what your definition of a snack is. I do this because it works well with my schedule and preferences. I personally don’t want to be stopping what I’m doing to eat 4, 5 or 6x per day, cooking and cleaning that many times doesn’t interest me either and also, I find larger meals more satisfying vs. having really small meals super frequently.
However many meals that you choose to eat per day makes no difference in terms of fat loss, so feel free to do whatever you want, for example…
If you have 2000 calories to play with, you can eat 6x 500 calorie meals or you can eat one big ass meal that’s 2000 calories in total.
It doesn’t matter in regards to fat loss and the easiest way to think about this is if you have $2000 to spend in a day, it doesn’t matter how many times you ring your card through as long as ya don’t go over $2000.
6 smaller purchases, 5, 4, 3, 2…1 $2000 purchase…it’s all the same at the end of the day, so go with whatever ya want!
I typically have black coffee in the morning and eat my first meal around 10 or 11 am. I then potentially have something else around 1 or 2 and then I eat dinner at 6ish. I like to eat dinner at least 3 hours before bed because I sleep a lot better than if I was eat closer to bedtime. Tons of my clients have noticed the sleep quality benefits of eating further from bedtime as well.
Booze…if I had 60 lbs to lose I would be very mindful of my alcohol intake however, I do love to go out for some drinks here and there, especially with the boys and so I’d be sure to ‘pick my spots’ as I like to call it, for example…
I would eliminate all alcohol during the week and I’d only really indulge here and there if it was worth it i.e. special occasions, if I went away with some friends for the weekend or something like that…otherwise, I’d skip it all together.
Reason being is, alcohol contains a ton of calories, but it also tends to impact food choices to a large degree as well as movement tendencies i.e. when you’re feeling rough around the edges after drinking, ya typically eat more and move less!
My drink of choice is usually craft beer…is it more calorie dense than say a vodka soda? Absolutely, but I think that vodka soda taste like sh*t and if I’m going to drink, I want to really enjoy the entire experience and so having vodka sodas is a trade-off that I’m not willing to make, I’d just prefer to drink less of something that I actually enjoy!
What about eating out? I would cook the vast majority of my meals at home and probably eat out about 2-3x per week. 1-2 of those meals would probably be something like sushi because it’s my absolute fav and then the other would likely be a quote unquote ‘treat meal’ of some sort…pizza, pasta, whatever I was feeling.
So that’s the nutrition piece, now let’s cover movement…
The movement that I would prioritize above all else for fat loss would be walking…yes, walking, not workouts. I’ve been beating the walking drum for like a decade now and it’s still heavily underrated!
I’d be sure to hit an absolute minimum of 10,000 steps per day or 70,000 over the course of the week as a whole. I would also workout or lift weights on top of that, but not for fat loss specifically…I’d do it for aesthetic and sense of well-being purposes.
I like the way that I look and feel with a bit of muscle, but if I wanted to lose as much fat as possible, I would actually allocate the time that I would have spent in the gym to walking instead because it’s more effective for fat loss.
I tell my clients, hitting 10,000 steps per day or 70,000 over the course of the week as a whole is movement priority #1 and if they want to workout on top of that, great…but it is a nice to have, not a must have.
Sleep, 7-9 hours nightly. This helps to regulate the appetite i.e. it’s easier to adhere to a calorie deficit, it also just feels amazing being rested. Mood is better, emotional regulation improves…literally everything in life either gets better or worse according to your sleep status.
Would I take any supplements for fat loss? No, none of them work.
How about fat burners? They don’t work either.
What about ice baths, cold plunges, saunas…all the fancy stuff that folks like Andrew Huberman rant and rave about…for fat loss, nah.
I might implement something like a cold plunge if I wanted to challenge myself physically and/or mentally, but again for fat loss…it simply isn’t effective.
Stress management, this is the 4th pillar and I would prioritize it big time, but not because reducing my stress levels would directly result in me losing more fat, but because keeping my stress in check impacts the other 3 pillars in a massive way, for example…
If I’m super stressed out and I resort to food as a coping mechanism, that’s going to violate rule #1 of fat loss, which is create a calorie deficit.
If I’m super stressed and as a result, I don’t hit my step counts, that means that I’m going to be burning fewer calories and therefore it’ll be harder to create a calorie deficit.
If I’m super stressed and as a result, I don’t sleep well, that’s going to impact both my nutrition and movement habits and therefore it’ll be harder to create a calorie deficit.
I really want to drive this point home in regards to stress…
Stress itself cannot make you fat or even slow down fat loss, that’s physiologically impossible however…it will almost certainly impact the things that can which are nutrition, movement and sleep.
Also, the first whistle stop for managing stress is actually dialing in your nutrition, movement and sleep because poor nutrition, lack of movement and inadequate sleep is massively stressful for the body and mind!
Meaning, you don’t actually know whether it’s your nutrition, movement or sleep choices that are stressing you out or limiting your stress resilience until you dial them in, for example…
A lot of my clients feel super stressed before they start working with me and then we get them on track lifestyle wise and they mention that they don’t feel stressed anymore despite their outside circumstances not changing…they are simply handling it all so much better!
Now of course we can’t fix everything with nutrition, movement and sleep and so on top of that I personally benefit a ton from 1-on-1 therapy, which I’ve been doing for ages…well over a decade now. I find meditation, journaling and chatting things out with family and friends to be really powerful as well as spending time in nature.
What would I do if I hit a plateau? I have 3 options at my disposal in order to make more progress.
One, decrease my calorie intake and keep my movement the same.
Two, increase my movement and keep my calorie intake the same.
Three, decrease my calorie intake and increase my movement.
#3 results in the best fat loss of course, #1 results in the second best outcome and #2 i.e. increasing movement and keeping calorie intake the same technically should result in fat loss but, it’s the hardest to account for and implement accurately.
That’s everything that you need to know about plateaus, literally, that’s it…it’s super straightforward stuff.
So to sum things up…
Nutrition is the most important input in terms of fat loss by a mile and so I’d focus on that first and foremost. I’d also prioritize movement, sleep and stress management…that’s it!
Not sexy in the slightest is it!? But, what is sexy are results and these 4 pillars are exactly what is going to yield said results.
It’s not the latest fad diet, it’s not supplements, it’s not cold or heat exposure, it’s the fundamentals implemented consistently!
