How To Start A Fat Loss Phase

Fat loss doesn’t need to be overly complicated! Here are the 5 things you need to do really well to succeed in your fat loss phase

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Fat loss doesn’t need to be overly complicated! Here are the 5 things you need to do really well to succeed in your fat loss phase:

1. Find Maintenance

2. Enter & sustain a calorie deficit

3. Eat enough protein

4. Increase NEAT

5. Set a timeline

First of all, let’s make sure we’re on the same page about our terms

Fat Loss Phase: Losing body fat via a calorie deficit (i.e. eating less calories than you expend in a day)

Maintenance: The amount of calories you need to consume to maintain your weight (i.e. eating the same amount of calories you expend in a day)

NEAT: Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis - This is all the calories you burn outside of planned exercise (walking, cleaning the house, playing with your kids, etc.)

Step 1: Find Maintenance

• The most fool proof way to calculate deficit calories is to first find maintenance. To do this, track your current calorie intake for ~1 week and concurrently weigh yourself daily. Assuming your weight is not changing*, the average of these weekly calories is your approximate maintenance calorie number**

  • *Daily weight fluctuations of +/- a few pounds is totally normal. As long as you’re not consistently gaining/losing, this is still considered maintenance

  • **Maintenance isn’t a static number; it’s a range of ~200-300 calories. The average of your varied intake over a week is our best approximation of a starting point

Step 2: Enter and Sustain a Calorie Deficit

• Reduce your maintenance calorie number by 15-20% per day*

  • 1lb of fat = 3,500 calories and 3,500 cals / 7 days = 500 cal/day deficit

  • *My goal with any cut is to allow you to eat the most calories as possible for as long as possible. So starting more conservatively with a 15% reduction might be more sustainable and give you some wiggle room to drop calories as you get further into your cut.

Step 3: Eat Enough Protein

• Set your protein target between 0.8-1g per pound of bodyweight

  • Eating enough protein during a deficit is crucial for maintaining muscle mass. It’s not your bodies first choice, but if needed it can break down muscle to use amino acids to generate energy. Keeping protein intake high (in addition to strength training) is the best way to mitigate this.

Step 4: Increase NEAT

• Add 2-3k steps/day to what you’re already doing

  • There are 2 ways to enter a calorie deficit: reduce calorie intake or increase energy expenditure. NEAT is the biggest lever you have to pull in terms of increasing expenditure (~15% of TDEE depending on activity levels).

  • You don’t want to overdo it with extra exercise as this can increase hunger levels which will make it harder to sustain your calorie deficit. But a little extra movement will help bump NEAT without impacting hunger.

Step 5: Set a timeline

• I generally recommend 8-20 weeks (most sit in the 12-16 week range)

  • You don’t just want to cut indefinitely; this isn’t good for your body or your brain. Your body does not like being in a deficit; it’s added stress and we want to limit that. Plus a deficit does require more sacrifice and it’s much easier to wrap your head around saying no to more things when you can see the finish line.

Don’t overcomplicate fat loss! There is nothing that will guarantee fat loss aside from being in a calorie deficit!

• Exact macro ratios don’t matter - if you’re in a calorie deficit and eating sufficient protein, carbs and fat can fluctuate

• You don’t have to cut out carbs - unless this puts you in a calorie deficit, it won’t lead to more fat loss

• Drinking a gallon of water per day doesn’t matter - yes drinking water is important and more liquid can reduce hunger so if it helps keep you in a deficit, great! But it’s not a smoking gun

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