Fat Loss Secrets For The Struggling Dieter (Do You Struggle To Lose Fat?)
- Jonathan Lutz
- Dec 5, 2023
- 19 min read
Here's how you can know if this blog is for you or not:
Have you dieted before but didn't keep off the weight? If so, this is for you!
Have you tried to diet but it "didn't work for you"? If so, this is for you!
Have you never dieted before and don't know where to start? If so, this is for you!
So, with that being said, let's get into it!
If you're reading this, chances are you've been on the dieting rollercoaster more times than you'd like to admit. You've tried every trendy diet, counted every calorie, and sweated through countless hours at the gym, yet the results you crave have remained elusive. But fear not, because today, we're going to unravel the mysteries of fat loss together. Get ready to leave your past dieting failures behind and pave the way for a healthier, leaner you.
Why am I so confident that you will get results using the strategies I am going to provide to you in just a few short minutes?
Well, because I help people overcome these struggles for a living. As an online nutrition coach, I can tell you firsthand that the struggles you are battling are real. Yes, they are emotional. Yes, they are physical. And yes, it can seem hopeless at times. But rest assured, today, that all changes for you...
Now, let’s discover how you can go from overweight, upset, and hopeless to lean, high on life, and hopeful about what your life will look like moving forward (like my clients shown below)!
But before we get into the details of how to lose fat effectively, we first have to dissect where you have gone wrong in the past. Often times the missing the link for many individuals is that they repeat the same mistakes over and over again without learning from the past. The intention of this section is to not let that happen again. If we don’t take the time to do this first, you will indefinitely run into the same, unnecessary difficulty and struggles moving forward that you have in the past. So, let’s break this down into a 3 part dissection of your past dieting history:
What things may have you done that ARE part of effective fat loss plan?
First things first, if you lost fat in the past, that means you know how to set your mind to a goal and stick to it for an extended period of time. This a critical part of a fat loss plan, and if we can streamline that intent and discipline into a proper plan, you will attain your goals without question!
Secondarily, if you lost fat, it was because you were in a calorie deficit (we will talk more about this later) aka, you restricted your calorie intake. You will need to continue to do this, but not in the way you have been - we are going to do this the right way!
The last thing you did right was that you started. Yes, you heard that right. Most people don’t have the ability to do the thing they know they need to do, and if you dieted before, that means you took action. This is key. Now, we need to apply that action mindset to a detailed plan and your life will change before your eyes!
Alright, now we are going to get into the the details of the things you did wrong. This is critical for your success moving forward so don’t skip this - are you ready?
What things did you do that ARE NOT part of an effective fat loss plan?
First things first, you didn’t have a structured plan. You may be thinking, “wait, I had a plan. I did “blank” - insert diet name!” But that’s not what I mean. I mean you didn’t plan for what comes after the diet.
- How do you transition out of it of your diet? Yes, stopping your diet at the proper time is key to dieting - I bet you didn’t know that?
- What are the different steps and strategies you need to take during the fat loss process to guarantee success? No, dieting is solely about fat loss!
Without a plan for how you will lose the weight, and keep it off, all is for none. What’s the point of losing if you aren’t going to keep it off? There is none, that’s the answer...
Secondarily, if you fall under the category of “people who struggle to keep off weight”, then you definitely have never followed a plan that accounted for plateaus, lifestyle, holidays, etc. This approach doesn’t work. How do we know? Well, you are reading this today - still struggling after every other diet you have tried. So, with that being said, a plan should account for these things.
Lastly, since you are reading this, we also know that you didn’t learn anything from the so called “plans” you did in the past. How do we know? Well, learning something implies that you not only get information from it, but you then apply it over time, and while you may have attained information from your past diet plans, you haven’t been applying it over time. Therefore, you haven’t learned anything. That will all change when you use a proper plan (like the one detailed soon). But before we get to that plan, let's take one more look into some poor aspects of diets you have done in the past, so we can then be prepared to move into the proper plan you need!
What things are harmful for your view of a healthy diet?
This question may be the most important of them all. Here’s why. If we learn improper information that holds us back from understanding the reality of living a healthy life, then we are doing just that, limiting our ability to live a healthy life. Now, I could go on with a long list of misconceptions that you likely learned in the past, but I want to touch on two specific, more critical diet misconceptions you must understand before I provide the fat loss secrets you are looking for!
First, it is very harmful for you to view your “diet” as a one off thing, short term change, or dreadfully restrictive. Instead, you have to look at your diet from a more well rounded outlook that allows you to continue to follow through with your diet forever (yes your whole life). The diet we follow shouldn't have a name (keto, atkins, etc for example). It should just consist of healthy habits, tactics, and an all around healthy approach.
Secondarily, it is harmful for you to think that there is any special or specific path to being healthy. There are many ways to achieve a healthy life and being dogmatic about the way to get there is limiting. I pride myself on creating content that helps people view things differently, and that allows everyone who consumes my content to truly take away whatever value they can from all viewpoints. Being dogmatic only sets you up for failure in this game. Learn from all perspectives and viewpoints. Take in what can be applied and disregard what can't.
Now that we have covered those crucial things, we can now move into the main thing you came to learn. Let’s talk about those fat loss secrets!
Fat Loss Secrets
In order to make this article as valuable as possible, it is important that week look at things from a few different perspectives, so with that being said, we are going to break this down into 3 parts.
(1) Fat Loss Fundamentals
When it comes to fat loss, there a few things you have to understand or you will never succeed in your fat loss endeavors. We are going to look into these fundamentals (calories, protein, carbs, fat) so we can then deconstruct the secrets you need to know as a struggling dieter!
The first thing we need to know about fat loss is that calories are king. If you've seen any of my content, you know this by now, but it is necessary that we set the stage before moving into the remainder of this talk.
Calories:
Our calorie intake (consumption via food and drinks) and calorie expenditure (metabolism and activity) are the main determiners of whether not we will lose body fat. If you:
Burn more calories than you eat = lose weight
Eat more calories than you burn = gain weight
Eat relatively the same amount of calories as you burn = maintain weight
Simple enough, right?!
So, with that being said, how do we determine how many calories we need to eat if we desire to lose fat? Well, there are a few ways you can do so, but here is the most simple way. Use this link TDEE calculator made by Legion Athletics. It will give you as close estimate of what your totally daily calorie burn is. From there, I want you to use the below listed targets to determine how many calories you need each day (pay attention to the rate of loss)
TDEE - 400 - 600 Calories = Moderate Deficit / Rate Of Loss
TDEE - 600 - 800 Calories = Large Deficit / Fast Rate Of Loss
TDEE - 800 - 1000 Calories = Extreme Deficit / Rate Of Loss
Pick a rate of loss / level of deficit that is congruent with your level of discipline and desire. The more extreme you go the harder it will be, and the more dialed in / consistent you will need to be with hitting your targets. I recommend you aim for a 500-600 calorie deficit then add in some cardio over the course of time to increase the effects of that deficit. This will keep things more easy to manage, but fat loss results will come a bit more quickly than a slower approach might take!
Now, the second thing we need to know is that the composition of our food (macronutrient composition) is also critical to the fat loss equation. Here are the important things you need to know about the composition of your food!
Adequate, high protein intake is critical for improved body composition.
Fat and carbohydrate need to be consumed in appropriate, minimum recommended amounts.
Micronutrient intake needs to be monitored (specifically fiber and hydration status).
Protein:
Protein is an essential macronutrient, meaning it is required in order for our body to function (fat is also essential, but carbs are not). Protein intake is critical for a few reasons, (1) it’s help improve body composition as we lose fat by adding/retaining muscle mass (2) it helps keep us full/satiated which helps us stay in a deficit (3) it supplies us with tons of nutrients - more than almost any other source of food (4) it promotes a higher metabolism and calorie burn
Needless to say, you need to make protein intake a focus or you will be far less likely to succeed in your fat loss goals! Now, what is adequate protein intake?
In order to consume adequate protein intake we first have to know what science show us that daily intake is. Here are what studies suggest: anywhere between 0.8 - 1.2 grams per pound of body is ideal for most individuals.
As long as you fall within this range of daily protein intake studies suggest that all benefits of protein intake will be attained. Where you fall within this range is dependent on the individual. If you don’t enjoy protein you can fall on the lower end of this spectrum, while individuals who enjoy protein can lean towards the higher end of this spectrum.
** Avatar Example: if an individual weighs 200 pounds, he/she would need to intake 180-220 grams of protein on a daily basis.
Fat and Carbohydrates:
When thinking about these two components of our diet we have to understand that how much fat we consume needs to be controlled very intentionally as it is an essential nutrient for our body and under eating it could result in some negative effects. On the other hand, carbs are nonessential and are the third consideration of our food composition (protein and fat first then carbs last). Therefore, the amount of fat and protein we intake is essentially predetermined, while carbohydrate intake will be determined by our total calorie intake goal and how many calories we have left over after we address fat and protein intake.
So, how much fat and carbs do you need?
Fat intake should be determined as follows: 25-60% of our daily calorie intake should come from fat in order for us to adequately fuel the body. If you want more carbs in your diet, aim for the lower of end of the spectrum closer to 25% of your daily calories (low fat. high carb diet). On the other hand, if you want more fat in your diet, aim for the upper range closer to 60% (this would be a keto diet). What I recommend is that you eat somewhere between 25-40% of your daily intake of calories from fat. This leaves room for some tasty carbs in your diet!
Carb intake should be determined as follows: The remainder of your daily calorie intake after protein and fat is where your carb intake lays. So, how many calories you eat from fat and how many calories you eat from protein subtracted from your necessary total calorie intake equals your carb intake calories. If you’re confused let me show you what I mean (check out the example avatar below)!
Micronutrients:
Now, the final component of the fat loss fundamentals we need to address are micronutrients. When thinking about this component of your diet it is multilayered and there are a numerous things you could focus on, but for sake of simplicity, the main things we need to pay attention to are your fiber intake and hydration statues (for a more in depth look at micronutrients/micro nutrition check out my free download here).
Fiber
Fiber is found in many foods, most namely vegetables and fruits, and is a critical component for our gut microbiome health as well as blood sugar regulation, keeping healthy cholesterol numbers, and hunger regulation. While you may read the above mentioned benefits and not consider them to be of huge importance, from a fundamental nutritional standpoint, we must not underestimate the importance of fiber and the effects it can have.
When it comes down to recommended intake needed to achieve the most benefits of fiber, the general recommendation is 10 grams for every 1000 calories you consume (2000 calorie diet = 20 grams fiber daily). With that being said, what we must also consider is the personal tolerance to fiber on a case-to-case basis. Some individual’s gut microbiome is not currently in a place to consume the recommended fiber daily intake, while others can consume well over the recommended intake.
There is not right answer! However, what I would recommend is that you initially aim to hit the 10 grams per 1000 calories daily minimum and if that intake bothers your gut, back it off 5-10 grams. On the other hand, if you do fine with more fiber than the recommended intake per day, you can increase to 15-20 grams of fiber per 1000 calories.
Hydration
This component of micronutrition is something that we all know is important for our health, but most do not know how critical this is for our fat loss success. Hydration refers not only to your intake of water, but also the vitamins and minerals that you consume in conjunction with that water.
So, what do you actually need to know? Let’s discuss.
First and foremost, if you are not consuming enough water on a daily basis, you WILL NOT get the results you desire to get or feel the way you desire to. Plain and simple. Water is a critical component of all cellular function within the human body, therefore when you are not hydrated, your body cannot function to its fullest extent.
Furthermore, dehydration can correlate to autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, and asthma. Not only can dehydration have this negative effect, but it also greatly increases your inflammatory markers. High inflammatory markers are a key indicator of disease, general sickness, and poor health. Hydrating your cells is one of the simplest ways to reduce inflammation and improve negative side effects of inflammation.
From a fat loss perspective, if you want to get amazing results but you are not hydrating yourself, then you are simply blunting the results you could get. Lack of hydration quite literally reduces fat oxidation (fat loss = fat oxidation). Similar to lack of sleep, when you lack hydration you will see a consistent decrease in the effectiveness of your calorie deficit. Here are guidelines for proper hydration:
Drink a minimum of 0.5 ounce of water per pound of your body weight. If you exercise, sweat at work, and/or both make sure to consume 1-1.5 ounces per pound of body weight.
Make sure to salt your foods with iodized salt as well as sea salt. If you are consuming primarily whole food items, then overconsumption of salt won’t be an issue (you should not be consuming much processed food. Remember the 80/20 rule.). If you have blood pressure issues, please discuss with your doctor his/her recommendations. Alongside that, you should exercise weekly and sweating regularly, which will require you to accommodate our hydration accordingly.
Don’t allow yourself to get thirsty throughout the day. Thirst is an indicator that you are not hydrated, and you need to address this by drinking consistently throughout the day.
**Note: that, drinking 80 ounces of water in one sitting is not the same as drinking it throughout the day. You need to consistently be consuming enough water in order to gain the full benefits of hydration.
(2) Fat Loss Secrets For The Struggling Dieter
It’s no secret that many people struggle to lose weight and try year after year with no results to show for it. There are many reasons for this endless “diet battle”, but today you can say goodbye to those questions. Right now I am going to breakdown the exact reasons why you struggle, and then how you can change it forever!
So, with that being said, here are the main reasons why you struggle to lose fat and keep it off!
❌ Your past diets and current diet have lead to a poor functioning metabolism and overall system!
You may be thinking, “a poor functioning metabolism?”, so let me explain...
Many individuals try a new extremely restrictive diet year after year, and this continued cycle of extreme restriction, followed by a regaining of fat, then followed by poor daily leads to: increased difficulty losing fat, slower metabolic rates, and a poorly functioning system. This cycle is quite common and frankly, it leads to larger fat stores and an unhealthy body.
So, the golden question, “how do you fix it”?
Well, it’s actually a quite simple process. The one caveat to this simplicity is that you need some time restoring your system and metabolism. Unfortunately for most people, allowing time to take its toll is the hardest part. So, let me explain how you can reverse this poor metabolic state!
Spend 8 - 20 weeks NOT focusing on fat loss. Yes, I said not focusing on fat loss. But this doesn’t mean you need to not focus on your diet (that’s what you’re already doing). Instead, it means you need to do the things that follow:
Eat at a maintenance calorie range - this will allow your body to get to a state of homeostasis (balance), and as you do the following things mentioned as well, you will restore the body as a whole.
Increase protein intake to adequate amounts and consume daily - this fuels your body to create a proper environment for a healthy metabolism. Protein burns more calories, helps you build muscle, and provides your body with tremendous amounts of nutrients.
Eat high quality food for 90% of your daily intake - this will fuel your body with the nutrients you need to restore the body to it’s most optimal state.
Resistance train and exercise often - adding exercise and specifically resistance training to your routine will work in conjunction with your diet to build muscle and restore the system.
Now that you know one of the top reason why you struggle to lose weight, let’s move into the second, and most common reason why you struggle!
❌ You are utilizing poor, unhealthy approaches to fat loss!
This shouldn’t be a shocker to you, but the approaches you keep taking are poor approaches that only lead to poor outcomes. If you want better results, you need to take better approaches! Simple as that.
Lucky for you, this entire blog is designed to teach you the better approach that leads to better results. So, before moving forward, let breakdown exactly why these diets are “poor and unhealthy”.
The diets you have done in the past have likely emphasized the wrong things. Some emphasize “cutting out carbs”. Some emphasize “only eating meat”. Others emphasize “only eating certain meals at certain times”. The reality is that none of these focuses are necessarily inherently bad, but they also should not be the main focuses. You see, the main focus within a healthy diet isn’t what you can’t have or the special guidelines you have to follow. A healthy diet is truly about what you can have and fueling your body for an amazing existence. A healthy diet controls calories, is adequate in protein intake, and is focused on whole (healthy) foods. It’s almost as simple as that...
So, with that being said, the things you’ve done in the past are not wrong or bad, and ultimately you can learn something from them all. However, you need to channel the focus of your “diet” habits towards the well rounded, healthy approach just mentioned.
“Stop majoring in the minors. Start majoring in the majors.”
Now, let's take a look at the final reason why you struggle to lose weight!
❌ You don’t phase your diet (zero dietary periodization)!
You may have never heard of phasing a diet or dietary periodization before, but it is EXTREMELY critical, so let me break it down...
Here’s my definition of dietary periodization, “The process of appropriately changing / adjusting your diet in accordance with the season of life, state of your physical body, and the goals you have for your health.”
Still confused? No worries, let’s get into it a little bit more!
(3) Phasing A Diet For Fat Loss
From my perspective and for simplicities sake, there four phases of a diet:
Priming / Educational / Skill Acquisition
Fat Loss / Body Composition Change
Restore / Return To Lifestyle / Return To Maintenance
Lifestyle / Homeostasis
Phase 1 - Priming / Educational / Skill Acquisition
This phase of a diet is the first phase every single person should go through. While this looks different for each individual, it is always phase 1 (unlike the other phases, which are ordered dependent on the individuals needs).
This phase is where you do a few things. (1) you learn the skills and habits necessary to succeed in a fat loss diet (2) you prime your metabolism and body for the fat phase to come (3) you learn how the process of fat loss and what is required to lose fat
The length of this phase is dependent on the person and their current metabolic state / hormonal state.
For individuals who have never dieted before, have never lost a substantial amount of weight, and don’t have any metabolic dysfunction this phase is 1-2 weeks and is focused on skill acquisition and learning the habits needed to lose fat! This phase includes eating at a maintenance range and focusing less of fat loss calorie targets and more on fat loss skills. Once the 1-2 weeks is up and you feel confident you have established the skills/habits needed to lose fat you can then drop calories to initiate the fat loss burn!
For individuals who have dieted before, have lost a lot of weight before (20 lbs and up), and/or have metabolic issues, this phase will last anywhere from 8-16 weeks (depending on the severity of your metabolic dysfunction). During this time you will focus on eating at a maintenance range of calories, building the skills to lose fat, and slowly increasing calorie intake as you introduce more strength training. This phase will help to restore the metabolism and prime the body to lose fat in the coming months!
Once this phase is done, you then move into the next phase, fat loss!
Phase 2 - Fat Loss / Body Composition Change
This phase is quite obvious and is the phase every single person wants to start immediately. For some individuals, they will be able to hop right into this phase and for others they will need to spend that designated time mentioned above before starting.
In this phase, the goal is simple. Lose body fat, maintain / build muscle. We want to improve body composition.
So, with that being said, in order to make that happen, the only thing we will change from the previous phase to this phase is how much food we are eating. Fat loss comes down to creating a calorie deficit, therefore, we need to reduce calories from our normal diet in order to make that happen. Nothing else changes....
You will continue to eat primarily “healthy”, single ingredient, whole foods.
You will continue to hit the same, adequate protein intake.
You will continue to hit your steps and strength workouts.
A lot of people will get this wrong and think that everything has to change if they want to lose fat and it is simply not true. Once you take the time in the previous phase to establish those essential habits and fat loss skills, you then simply need to drop calories!
This phase will take anywhere from 12- 24 weeks. If you are an individual who needs to lose more weight after the 24 weeks (you haven’t hit your goal weight or you simply need to lose more), you have a few options. You can either (1) keep pushing for another 4-8 weeks or (2) take a diet break, return to maintenance using the next phase, then hit the diet again after a few months.
Four this phase, revert back to fat loss fundamentals above! With that being said, let’s move onto the next phase....
Phase 3 - Restore / Return To Lifestyle / Maintenance
This phase is crucial to your success so make sure not to miss this!
In this phase, we will be learning how to go back to a lifestyle of healthy eating, with more calories then the previous phase. This phase is essentially the opposite of fat loss. Here we will introduce more calories in order to bring us out of fat loss. You may be wondering, “why would we do that?”. Well, the goal is to create a better environment within the body for health. Remember, fat loss is stressful on the body to we don’t want to stay there forever (also we like food so we want more room for calories right?).
(*** For a better understanding of this phase, read this article by team BioLayne)
So, this phase is not as complicating as it may seem at a birds eye view...
What we are going to do is bring our calories back up to our maintenance calorie range. So, a good rule of thumb is for us to bring up calories at a 10-15% rate. Meaning, we add in 10-15% of what are fat loss calorie intake currently is.
For example: If your fat loss calorie intake is 1800 calories you would multiple that by 10% and add that to the 1800 calories.
1800 x 10% = 180 calories
1800 + 180 = 1980 calories new daily target
This slow approach allows us to guarantee that we don’t over do the calorie addition and add on body fat. Following this addition of calories, you then follow the new calorie goal for 3-6 weeks before adding in more calories. After those week, you can repeat the process.
(*** for a full understanding of this, read and follow this article or reach out to me for help!)
Phase 4 - Lifestyle / Homeostasis
This phase is where things get to be a bit more easy-going and you will be able to begin to focus less on learning new healthy skills and habits, but instead begin focusing on building a lifestyle that is healthy in nature. The end goal in this phase would be that you don’t have to track any food, you workout on a normal routine, and you don’t feel like you’re "dieting" or doing something outside of your normal. This is where your lifestyle itself is healthy and you simply have created a normalized routine, habits, and mindset around health!
This phase will last however long you want it to! You could do this forever and simply maintain a healthy bodyweight and habits, or you could move into another fat loss phase if you really wanted to try to lose that extra fat and get shredded!
The main priority in this phase is to not over eat food on a daily basis and continue all the other healthy habits you have learned through the other phases!
While this phase is an incredible place to get to, this phase may not be attainable for years. This is the end goal and for many, may take quite some time to get to! Don’t stress how long it takes to attain this phase, instead, focus on the actions that will lead you to reach this phase!
Alright, we've come to the end of this discussion and I hope you got some incredible value from this read! Now, if you are wondering where you should start after consuming all that information, do this:
(1) Identify what phase of the diet you should focus on! Once this is determined you can these use the "Fat Loss Fundamentals" section to determine how many calories you should eat depending on the phase you decide!
(2) Stay in the necessary phases as long as needed to attain the outcomes wanted! Trust the process. If things aren't working, assess the plan. If things need adjusted, reach out to me here.
(3) If you are unsure or not confident that this will be success for you, consider joining my coaching community so you can get guaranteed results (book a call with me)!
Make sure to follow me on Instagram for daily short form content (Link Here) and tune into my podcast "Health" Minds for more weekly information (Link Here)!
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