After my challenge had ended It kinda took me by surprise when dozens of people started asking me for advice on how to lose body fat. Sure, I carried everyone on my fitness journey and posted some wicked before and after pictures, but for some reason, I didn’t fully equate all that with me being a go-to source for fat loss. At that point, I figured the best way to give tips was to write out a few bullet points to follow but life set in and days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months. It reached a point where I wondered if I procrastinated too long for it to be meaningful anymore. Then recently I found myself giving a friend some advice and realized I knew a thing or two after all. So if you had ever asked and I promised to give you some advice here are my top tips for losing body fat!
1.EAT HEALTHY!
This goes without saying but the key to dropping body fat is more about your diet than anything else! The ad that Spry posted for their body fat challenge went like this: NO SUGAR, NO FLOUR, NO FRIED, NO SALT. It’s more complex than that but at the same time, it’s as simple as that! For the majority of people, if they follow those four rules they will automatically start eating so much healthier than they have in the past and they WILL lose body fat. Make sure not to confuse eating healthy with eating less or eating vegan as neither are exclusively true. I could go into paragraphs and paragraphs about eating healthy but to just generalize it try to eat healthy foods from all three macros (Protein, Fats, Carbs). Also as much as possible stick to baking, grilling, steaming, and boiling methods. Eat non-processed foods, cruciferous vegetables, and go easy with the oils and sauces. For success try to make sure you always have food and meals in place as you are more likely to cheat when you are hungry and don’t have healthy options available. As a side note my healthy journey also kick-started my cooking journey as the only way I could know for sure that my meals were what I needed them to be was to cook them myself.
2.Eat within a slight caloric deficit.
Basically, you need to consume fewer calories than your body expends. if you have an idea of how much calories/food you need to consume daily to keep your weight the same then you want to eat slightly less than this. The thing is, once you start to eat healthily then chances are you are going to be in a slight caloric deficit just through the changes you have made to your diet. Make sure to eat a good amount of protein at this time as this will help you to hold onto muscle whilst you try to lose fat. Also, remember that the amount of energy your body expels changes dependent on your activity for the day so basically on days when you workout you should also be eating a bit more. Please don’t starve yourself as it is at all not necessary and I can’t imagine it being any fun.
3.Prepare Yourself and Form Healthy Habits
One of the reasons why I jumped at the Body Fat Challenge and thought ‘I can do this’ is because I had been practicing the core principles prior. Because of covid, I had already challenged myself to no salt and no sugar for 14 days in the summer so I already knew I was capable of doing it! This isn’t completely necessary for everyone. Perhaps you’re the kind of person who would rather start cold turkey but it just seems like a huge shock to the system in my opinion. My suggestion is to do a little research on losing body fat and start to try and follow those principles BEFORE officially starting your diet. Think of it as your warm-up period. So for example, if you drink three sodas a day try to limit that to one. Or if the healthier foods aren’t a part of your regular diet and you are going to start introducing them then first try sweet potato to see if it’s something you will be able to eat regularly. Start to grocery shop in a manner that’s going to support your diet. Every small step you take is still a step in the right direction!
4.Document your journey
It seems pretty common sense to do but many people don’t want to go through the trouble of actually documenting the fat loss because it takes work. But how will you know how far you’ve gone if you don’t know where you began? To have the clearest map of your journey you will need to know where you’re beginning and where you want to end up. I recommend weighing yourself with a body fat scale (even though they are not completely accurate they will give your journey relativity) and keeping a close eye on the body fat percentage. Also take starting measurements of yourself (chest, waist, hips, and other areas as you choose). Finally, Make sure to take front, side, and back pictures for comparison. You will want to weigh yourself regularly throughout and take pictures and measurements periodically to assess all changes. I find one of the biggest motivators is when you SEE the changes taking place. Use It to propel you to push further!
5.Set your intentions boldly
Now you don’t have to do this but again, you’re reading my blog post with my tips. Look. Dedication and Discipline are hard. I’m once again trying to drop fat and this time I find it so much more difficult. The driving force I had when I initially did my challenge just isn’t there this time. Why? Because this time I have no huge driving force behind my actions. When I attempted the original challenge I wrote on my Instagram page that I was in it to win it. I visualized 1st place. And if I wasn’t going to get there I was going to be second. and if I wasn’t going to get there I was at least going to give everything I had. I further gave my challenge purpose by creating a charitable program where the more fat I dropped, the more cash I would give back. I encouraged people to join me. I had something to prove to the world but more importantly, I had something to prove to myself. Whatever it is, whatever is going to drive you, set that intention boldly. It doesn’t have to be on Instagram but whatever it may be set your intentions clearly and I urge you to surprise yourself!
6.Push yourself to your limit
You don’t know what your limit is until you have pushed yourself to it! This could marry bullet point #5 in that they walk hand in hand. Now that you have set your intentions boldly you can remind yourself each day why you are pushing yourself. It’s to conquer you, for a better you. Any day that you fall off the wagon just remember that tomorrow you can get back up and fight again.
Your diet will take discipline and willpower. Your exercise program will take vigor. This is where the ‘push’ comes in. I purposely haven’t gone into any kind of exercise program as I believe those will be specific to your goals. Whilst I have a preference for weight lifting I believe everyone should do the form of exercise that they gain some kind of satisfaction from. HIIT workouts tend to work great at diminishing fat. Now the caveat is, whatever you end up doing, make sure you are pushing yourself and not just easily getting through each workout. In that way, you know you are expending energy towards your main goal!
7.Be Coachable
Tasha who won Spry’s challenge says a big part of her success was remaining coachable. There were times when she didn’t want to follow (as did i) but she did. One of the main reasons why this post isn’t longer is because I can’t possibly give personalized advice as all our bodies are different. Many times our goals are actually different. Furthermore, it would take pages and pages and not fit in a blog post in any case. This is where a great coach comes in. If health and fitness are your priority then I would suggest getting a coach, even if it’s just as you begin your journey. Listen to them, follow their instructions and pay attention to what works and doesn’t work! I know I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I did if I didn’t have someone with expertise guiding me along the way. If you don’t get a coach then watch some youtube videos, try out the advice. If you don’t like it, switch to someone else youtube channel until you find someone that’s giving advice that works!
I hope whoever reads this finds these points helpful and if you ever do implement them then let me know how it works out for ya!
cheers,
Matt
Awesome read! Thanks Matt!