The secret to a successful, easy fat loss phase is NOT about how many calories you’re consuming.
I should say, it’s not entirely about how many calories you’re consuming.
The consequences of a mismanaged fat loss phase are not fun.
Here’s the quick and dirty list – (watch me explain it in less than 90 seconds here).
So yeah … slower metabolism, low sex drive, fatigue, poor sleep, stress, moodiness, brain fog, suppressed immune system, hormonal issues …
Not exactly a recipe for feeling like a million bucks.
Let’s also be very clear …
Those adaptations are completely normal and it’s your body trying to keep you alive.
That’s what your body is designed to do. So it’s just doing its job.
Funny thing is … when your body is sensing a persistent and consistent threat …
It will hold onto stored energy (aka body fat) and make easy fat loss seem impossible.
It will preserve energy and will avoid letting go of fat which I’m assuming is the goal that you’re trying to accomplish when tackling a fat loss phase.
A little paradoxical, huh?
Now, there are levels to this shit.
It’s not like these adaptations occur immediately upon entering a fat loss phase.
It depends on how extreme your efforts are, how long you’ve been pursuing fat loss, how many other stressors you have in your life, and how frequently you are dieting.
That’s why I say the secret to a successful fat loss phase is not entirely about how many calories you’re consuming.
Calories DO matter but they’re only one piece of the fat loss puzzle.
Make no mistake about it … calories matter.
And dropping calories too low will certainly expedite those negative adaptations.
However, that’s just one piece of the puzzle.
More accurately, it’s about overall stress on your system through calories, diet history, diet extremity, diet frequency, and other lifestyle/mental/emotional/physical stressors.
For example, if you’re a shitty sleeper and you also drop calories too low, your fat loss phase will be an uphill battle.
It would be wise to fix your sleep and easy fat loss could happen.
If you can’t fix your sleep then it would be a good idea to be very conservative with your fat loss efforts.
Don’t drop calories too low, don’t do too much cardio, mitigate stress in other areas, eat a high quality diet, and take frequent refeeds or diet breaks.
The one aspect that not a lot of people talk about that is likely even more important than the diet phase itself is …
What happened BEFORE you started pursuing fat loss?
I spoke to someone recently who watched my IG reel that I linked above and asked me a bunch of questions about her situation.
She couldn’t understand why she wasn’t losing fat or seeing any body composition improvements on 1500 calories per day.
And this is someone who claims to be brutally consistent and I have no reason to believe otherwise.
Turns out, after a lengthy discussion, she has been under eating for a long time and had no idea what her true maintenance is and never spent any considerable time in maintenance.
It’s always been about losing fat. The only difference is that when she diets, she drops calories a tiny bit more but never took the time to see what her body looks and feels like at maintenance.
Big problem.
Her adapted maintenance is now around 1500 calories.
Which sucks because that’s not a lot of food and there’s not much to work with there.
Her question was … should I drop calories even lower to lose fat?
My answer was … hellllll no!
Let’s play out that scenario …
What happens when you drop calories too much?
This is someone who ultimately wants to lose about 20 lbs.
So let’s say we drop calories to 1300 …
She’ll lose a few pounds and then her body adapts again.
Then we drop to … what? 1100? 1000?
Best case scenario we get about 5-6 lbs. off but she’s still pretty far away from her ultimate goal and will be in deep doo doo (yes, I just wrote doo doo and I’m keeping it in there).
Reason being … her metabolism will be even slower than it is now and she’ll feel like absolute crap (even worse than she feels already).
How easy is it to stay consistent when you’re always hungry, dealing with cravings, having mood swings, have zero motivation, crashing at 2 pm, and not sleeping well?
I’d say consistency becomes damn near impossible as is easy fat loss.
The mostly likely outcome in that scenario is an epic binge fest and a bunch of weight gain.
The second most likely outcome is that she has the willpower and discipline of a monk and somehow battles through.
Then, she intentionally starts to increase calories but her metabolism is so fucked that she gains the weight back anyway.
So we went to hell and back only to be back at square 1.
3 steps to making easy fat loss possible
What should she do instead??
Prime her metabolism.
Restore homeostatic balance.
Find her true maintenance.
Metabolic priming is when you take intentional steps to improving your metabolic function to make body composition improvements significantly easier and sustainable.
It’s like stoking the metabolic fire.
It’s accomplished through a combination of nutritional strategies, habits, stress mitigation, and activity.
The outcome?
Your body willingly changes the way you want it to without fighting against it.
It’s an integral part of the process we implement for our 1 on 1 clients.
Truthfully, most people who don’t work with us end up struggling with this process for far too long.
They can’t understand why they’re always feeling stuck. They can’t understand why their bodies won’t respond. They can’t understand why fat loss feels like pulling teeth.
Even though all of those feelings are normal because of how MOST people attempt easy fat loss …
That doesn’t mean they SHOULD be normal.
It actually can be quite simple.
How 1:1 nutrition coaching makes easy fat loss possible
In fact, when we go through a metabolic priming phase with our clients, most of them see physical changes BEFORE we even start their fat loss phase.
They feel infinitely better because they actually have energy and are not running their bodies into the ground.
Then, the fat loss phase becomes quick and efficient.
Often times we don’t even need the full allotted time to achieve their fat loss goals during each phase.
For example, we might plan for an 8 week fat loss phase with the expectation of 10 lbs. down.
But the 10 lbs. come off in 6 or 7 weeks instead so we can cut it short. Or we can follow through on the 8 weeks and overshoot the target.
Either way … it’s way more fun and effective than what most people do.
The reality is this …
You can keep trying to do things the way you’ve always done them.
And get the results you’ve always gotten.
Or you can do things in a way that has a proven track record of repeated success.
Continuing to try to do it on your own is costing you a lot.
It’s costing you time, energy, well-being, frustration, stress, peace of mind …
But more importantly … it’s costing you how you show up for the people you care about the most.
The solution is one action step away.
One commitment away.
It’s simply a matter of reaching out and following through.
Take that step, solve that problem, and never look back.
That’s what our clients did to achieve the results that you desire.
Will you be next?
