Welcome to the 10 Day Kickstart!
Everything you need is in the video in the Facebook group.
This post is just in case you didn’t have time to watch the video or you wanted to read over some notes.
Most People Approach Fat Loss in a Completely Unsustainable Way
Imagine a marathon.
26 miles.
Most people approach fat loss like someone trying to flat out sprint the full 26 miles of a marathon.
How much of the 26 miles do you think you’d complete, running flat out, before you failed to finish?
Why do people approach fat loss like this?
They cut out so many foods. They drop their calorie intake extremely low (basically starving themselves), and they start some sort of horrible exercise program (some sort of bootcamp with burpees and lots of circuits).
We’re not going to do that.
We’re going to approach this in a sustainable fashion.
You won’t be starving. You won’t be trying to “melt” your fat away in the gym.
Cardio isn’t even necessary at all if you don’t want to do it.
You’ll just have to make some changes to your diet and stay consistent with a workout routine – which I think you’re actually going to really enjoy!
How Fat Loss Doesn’t Work
Before I explain what DOES cause fat loss, I want to talk about what DOESN’T cause fat loss.
Here’s some common myths about fat loss:
- You can’t eat after 6pm.
- You must only eat “clean” foods.
- You must cut out as many carbs as possible.
- You shouldn’t eat breakfast.
- You should follow some sort of fasting regime, like OMAD, 5:2 diet, alternate day fasting, 18:6, 16:8, 12:12 etc.
How Fat Loss Actually Works
Fat loss is all about calories. There’s a certain amount of energy that your body needs. Some of that energy is just to “keep the lights on” (keep your heart beating, respiration happening, etc.). This doesn’t usually change much. What can change a lot is the amount of energy you need for your activity, either exercise or non-exercise.
Food is how your body usually gets that energy. Weight gain happens when there’s surplus of energy above what your body needs. Whether that gain is muscle or fat depends on how much surplus energy you provide, and whether effective resistance training is being performed.
Weight loss happens when there’s an energy deficit (or calorie deficit). That means you’re providing less energy via food (and drink) than what your body needs to “keep the lights on” and support your daily activity.
Regardless of what you eat, you will lose weight if you are in a calorie deficit:
- Even if you eat carbs.
- Even if you eat “dirty” foods.
- Even if you eat half your calories at breakfast.
- Even if you eat all your meals at night time.
This doesn’t mean you should just eat junk and stay below your calories.
In terms of energy balance and being in a calorie deficit or surplus, it doesn’t really matter if you’re eating junk food or “proper” food.
However, your body needs more than just energy.
It also needs nutrients. We’ll talk more about macronutrients and micronutrients in future, but for now just be aware that you can’t survive healthily on just junk food.
It’s also far less filling for the calories than whole, unprocessed, single ingredient foods like meat, fish, eggs, vegetables and fruit.
Focus mainly on protein and single ingredient, unprocessed foods
But that doesn’t mean you can’t eat treat foods that you enjoy. I encourage you to keep this foods in your diet – whilst continuing to lose fat.
How Do You Do This?
How you do this is by tracking your calories and macronutrients. You get a ballpark estimate for how many calories your body needs for your weight and level of activity. Then you try to eat around 20% below that for sustainable fat loss. If you focus on single ingredient, unprocessed foods it will be easiest because they’re more filling and you will get more of the vitamins and minerals that you need to stay healthy.
However, you should also include some foods you really enjoy so you’re not miserable. When you get into your stride doing this, “dieting” doesn’t even really feel that hard, because you can incorporate some flexibility and include foods that would normally be “banned” or “off limits”.
I recommend keeping your “fun” food choices to under 20% of your daily calories. I also recommend you hit a certain protein intake within these daily calories (as this will help with fat loss and gaining muscle).
Your Tasks for Today
- Get your estimated calories and macronutrients. This calculator will give you a number to start with.
- Make sure you input your weight and activity level correctly. Note the “units” setting and make sure you’re entering the right weight for your selected units, metric or imperial.
- Set your activity level to whatever description best matches you.
- Set the goal to “lose weight” (-20%)
- Set protein to either 1g per lb or 0.82g per pound.
- Don’t worry about fat/carb split.
- Make a note of your daily calories in the red box and your daily protein in the first green box.
- Now you need to start tracking your foods and aiming to come in around 10% above or below these calorie and protein numbers each day (more accuracy is better).
- Do this by downloading MyFitnessPal, setting up an account, and inputting the foods you eat with accurate quantities (use digital scales whenever possible but estimate when you have to).
That’s it for today! Make sure you carry out the actions above.
Comment on today’s post in the Facebook group with your calories and macros, or just comment “yes” or “done” if you don’t have much time. I’m going to keep an eye on the engagement levels in the group, and from time to time I’ll be purging it of anyone who doesn’t engage!
That’s it for today. More tomorrow! (Get ready for a workout).