Common Fat Loss Mistakes & Tips

We've all been there, setting a goal to shed the extra flubber that has accumulated over time but it never materialized for most people. People stop working out for plenty of reasons – maybe they felt intimidated in the gym environment, maybe they started working out for the wrong reasons (i.e. to impress someone else instead of an internalized drive to make a positive change for themselves). In this article, we will be looking at the common fat loss mistakes and what are some tips to make achieving your dream body a reality.

Setting Unrealistic Goals

Most people have this image in mind of what they are trying to achieve and a lot of times it might not be realistic. When you are reducing body fat, you are really just revealing what is underneath all that flubber. So if you don't have that solid muscular base, it is not possible that you are suddenly going to have ripped muscles and big abs after all that dieting down which is why if you are relatively skinny without a lot of muscles, you will just end up looking even skinnier after dieting down. Set realistic goals with an end body fat percentage/weight/physique in mind.

Outcome-Based Decision Making

Understand that the first time you cut or first several times you try and cut, the fabled 6pack or 8pack or whatever you want to call it, might not happen and that is okay. Instead, focus on outcome-based decision making, meaning try and judge according to your results and adjust accordingly. Take a look at how you do, what is your weight loss like, what is the weighted average throughout the week. Keep on the same track if you are getting results and if you are not, then alter what you are doing. The 2 ways to adjust is to either decrease calories OR to increase your activity (calorie expenditure). I always prefer increasing activity level. There are a couple of different ways to do that. Increase your NEPA (Non-exercise physical activity) before anything else, anything outside the gym that is not stressful. For example, person A says he/she wants to get ripped in 8 weeks. We take a look at their calories and get a shock that they have only been eating 1600cal a day which is horrible and normally what we do is to bulk their calories back up and reset it. Why? Read on

Tank-Theory

Picture your body as a petrol tank with fuel being the amount of calories you consume. If you fill your tank to the brim, your weight maintains. If you overspill the tank, you gain weight and vice versa. When you start a fat loss phase, it is best to keep your caloric intake as high as possible while staying just below maintenance and then gradually reducing it over time as you start to stall. That is a better approach compared to what people usually do which is slashing their calories in half, losing their muscle, resulting in their metabolism taking a hit. When clients tell me they have only been eating only one meal per day in hopes of losing weight, I will usually raise it back up after calculating roughly what their caloric intake should be (1600cal→2500cal) and also increase their activity level. This can be easily done via cardiovascular sessions, whether it's low-intensity activities (incline walks, jogs) or high-intensity interval training (sprints).

It is advisable to increase the NEPA, taking a look at how many steps you take in a day, and it is kind of a decent overall indicator of the amount of activity you got/don’t got going on. Get a pedometer or get an app on your phone which measures the amount of steps you take. The goal for every individual is 8k-10k steps/day, not including cardiovascular work. Most people, as soon as they start walking more, will ‘interestingly’ enough start losing a little more weight. After we bump up the calories, reset the calories and bump up the activity, then we look at the amount of calories they are eating or the amount of cardio they should be doing. I personally advocate a slow increase of cardio throughout the cut, not too much, maybe a couple of times a week, 10-15mins, some HIIT. Cardio consistently being slightly increased over time with your calories slightly lowered over time, will produce results. Fat loss plateaus HAPPEN and you should slowly adjust your macros (reducing carbs) and increase your calories. The next thing we have to talk about, sticking points, complacency and overall eating the amount of foods you are supposed to because let’s face it, you are in that lower calorie range, a lot of people will tend to cheat. Sticking points, so you have been doing your diet and now you are not losing weight? You got to understand one thing, weight loss isn’t linear, not like 1lb a week for 3 weeks, it doesn’t work like that. It works more like a zigzag pattern, 2lbs down this week, a pound up next. You got to weigh yourself every single day at the exact same time, take that weighted average and observe over time. If after a week, not much has budged then you can slightly alter things, after two weeks you definitely should see changes. But don’t panic, understand that it’s a process. Sticking points happen, what I like to do is increase the cardiovascular work, as long as it doesn’t affect your training performance. If that’s already being increased then we will slowly lower your total amount of calories, probably taking a hit at the carbohydrates.

Self-Discipline

Fat loss plateaus HAPPEN and you should slowly adjust your macros (reducing carbs) and caloric intake. Self-discipline refers to sticking points, complacency and eating the amount of foods you are supposed to because let’s face it, you are in that lower calorie range, a lot of people will tend to cheat. You have been doing your diet and now you are not losing weight? You got to understand one thing, weight loss isn’t linear, not like 1lb a week for 3 weeks, it doesn’t work like that. It works more like a zigzag pattern, 2lbs down this week, a pound up next. You got to weigh yourself every single day at the exact same time, take that weighted average and observe over time. If not much has budged after a week, then you can slightly alter things and you should definitely see changes after two weeks. Don’t panic, understand that it’s a process. Sticking points happen, what I like to do is increase the cardiovascular work, as long as it doesn’t affect the training performance. If that is already being increased then we will slowly lower the total amount of calories, probably taking a hit at the carbohydrates.

Patience

Don’t get too uptight. Sometimes we panic, the best tip that I can probably give is not to panic too soon. Because we can get emotional when we take a look at our body, our body image and we want the results yesterday so most tend to slash those calories and increase the cardio too quickly. That is why it is recommended to frame your fat loss in terms of outcome-based decision making, taking a look at what is happening, the numbers, the weighted average, the amount of calories you are eating, the amount of steps you are taking, the amount of weight you are lifting, the amount of cardiovascular work you are doing, the amount of SLEEP you are getting. You quantify things so that you can observe what is happening and slowly tweak them over time, that is how you get results.

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