The Best Tip for Sustainable Fat Loss

When it comes to the fitness industry, there are a lot of opinions out there about the best way to lose fat.

Unfortunately, most of those opinions tend to hover over well-intentioned people like money-hungry vultures eager to snatch a quick buck out of your back pocket at a moment’s notice.

What do I mean?

Most fitness propaganda will lead you to believe that fat loss is best achieved through one of these four methods:

1. Fat Loss Supplements

2. Specific Training Programs

3. Specific Workout Equipment

4. A Strategic Manipulation of Energy Balance

The problem?

Three out of four of those options are driven directly by money.

And in my experience, money tends to distort any notion of pure altruism.

Because as much as the people in the fitness industry want you to lose fat, build muscle, and live a healthier life, they also want you to buy their fat loss supplements, training programs, and workout equipment.

Fortunately, most of us are aware of this.

As much as any good dentist wants his patients to come into his office with vibrantly healthy gums and teeth, he also probably wouldn’t mind if you needed a few cavities filled, a wisdom tooth pulled, and a lifetime prescription of name brand mouthwash.

Business is business and we all have to make a living somehow.

The question is…

What’s the truth?

Are fat loss supplements, high-profile training programs, and specific workout equipment truly really necessary for sustainable fat loss?

Or is there a simpler, more affordable way?

As you may have guessed by now, the goal of this article is to provide you with an alternative approach to losing body fat sustainably that skips over the fat-burning teas, Movie Star Body training plans, and waist trainers.

I just have one simple tip.

Are you ready for it? 

Keep your “cardio” as fun and varied as possible.

In the past, I was awkwardly prideful about how little “cardio” I could do while still burning up fat. 

And this comes from a long history of bodybuilders being "against cardio at all costs." I'm exaggerating a little bit, but if you know you know. 

The idea is that anything you demand of your body that isn't stimulating for muscle growth while in a caloric deficit puts you at risk for muscle loss, which is why bodybuilders don't really do anything but walk while cutting fat. 

And it works like a charm if you have the time.

Plus, people like to be able to show off their lean physiques on Instagram with cheeky captions like, “Guess how much cardio I did to get this physique? None.”

And that’s great.

Eating like a bird is always an option for getting exotically lean if that’s your cup of tea.

But I'm going to be real with you, I think that's unrealistic and unsustainable for most people.

I think most people would be better off resistance training 3-5 times per week while sprinkling in as much "fun cardio" as possible.

Here are some examples:

• playing basketball before work with friends 

• playing soccer with your college buddies after work 

• hiking a new trail with your significant other

• take a long bike ride

• dropping into an OrangeTheory class

• hitting up a community yoga class

• trying out CrossFit for a few months 

• walking on the treadmill while binging your favorite new TV show

The key is to think about which ways you enjoy moving your body most and then implement them creatively into your lifestyle.

My own application of this concept is that I do CrossFit classes 5-6 times per week.

Why?

1. I love it, which makes it sustainable for me.

2. CrossFit burns a ton of calories and incorporates resistance training.

3. I don’t do it because I’ve been falsely promised it’s going to lead to automatic fat loss outcomes.

4. I do it in context of an entire lifestyle pattern that supports my fitness goals.

The result?

A great physique in context of a well-designed and implemented dietary pattern.

So ask yourself…

“What do I actually enjoy doing for exercise?”

And then do that as often as your lifestyle allows.

Why is fun “cardio” effective?

Keeping your “cardio” fun is effective for sustainable fat loss simply because movement burns calories.

Remember, fat loss is almost always a basic equation of calories in versus calories out.

If you burn more calories than you consume, you lose weight.

Therefore, adding a few more fitness-based activities to your weekly routine while keeping your caloric consumption the same tips this equation in favor of weight loss.

I also think fat loss becomes much less mentally demanding when you keep things fun. So it’s not that you’re burning more calories simply because you’re having fun - it’s that you’re not thinking of your exercise as some obligatorily hellish experience that “must be done.”

Keeping things fun creates positive associations around exercise instead of negative associations, which can be helpful for people who may have a strained relationship with working out.

Bonus Things to Consider

• You still have to make sure that you’re not out-eating your exercise.

  • No one here is suggesting that playing sand volleyball once a week with friends will give you the license to eat in excess while slowly transforming into a Greek statue.

  • The point is that if you were to add more exercise into your life while keeping all other lifestyle variables constant, you would likely lose fat over time.

• Resistance training is still king for obtaining a muscle-bound physique.

  • Going on a weekly hike and playing an extra game of basketball on Wednesdays isn’t going to make your glutes look like two newly discovered planets that rival the size of Jupiter.

  • You’ll want to be training effectively with weights several times per week to ensure muscle growth.

  • My recommendation in this article is to sprinkle in additional movement-based activity once you already have your resistance training regimen in place.

    • Also, my critique of high-dollar resistance training programs in the introduction is a critique of their unqualified promises to help people lose fat without consideration of other lifestyle factors like diet, sleep, and activity. It’s not a critique of resistance training programs overall. Training programs absolutely necessary for obtaining the lean, hard-body physique many people desire.

• It’s not all about calories.

  • What I mean here is that fat loss is best achieved through a combination of eating an appropriate number of calories, eating enough protein, resistance training, and implementing “cardio” as needed.

  • The point of this article is not to oversimplify the entire process. The point is to single out one particularly helpful tip for losing fat sustainably.

• Living a more active lifestyle will be much easier if you surround yourself with like-minded people.

  • In other words, you might have to get plugged into a new community!

  • Fortunately, there are lots of options like rock-climbing gyms, cycling clubs, CrossFit gyms, OrangeTheory gyms, yoga studios, and many others.

Summary

• You don’t need to spend your money on fat loss supplements, overpriced training programs, and fancy workout equipment to lose fat sustainably.

• My best fat loss tip is to keep your “cardio” fun so you can burn calories in an enjoyable manner.

  • If you were to think of your fat loss effort as a Venn diagram of three overlapping circles of effective, enjoyable, and adherable, you’d want your approach to be in that innermost circle.

• It creates positive associations around a lean body rather than negative ones. 

---

I sincerely hope you found this article helpful or illuminating in some way!

If you feel like it brought you value, consider sending it to a friend or family member - especially someone who might be missing that “fun factor” when it comes to finding an exercise routine that works sustainably for them.

Later, friends.

-Andrew

Keys to a Successful Fat Loss Diet

I thought it might be time that we put some big ideas that we really believe in writing just so we had a list in one place for us and for you all. 

The internet is saturated with posts like these, and often a lot of them miss really big ideas that are crucial for a successful diet. 

So, we decided to set the record straight with what our keys to a successful diet are.

THE ESSENTIALS

The following three points are what we are going to call “essential.” These are three big points we really believe almost everyone should be taking part in while dieting.

Key #1: Be at an Energy Deficit

If you want to lose weight, the golden rule of fat loss is to be at an energy deficit, which means you need to be burning more calories than you consume.

This first point isn’t really a debatable topic as it is, well, true. 

Most people will have to exercise in some fashion along with trying to hit a specific calorie goal in order to achieve this while others will be able to feel it out naturally.

Key #2: Eat Enough Protein

This one tends to be fairly neglected among people who haven’t been floating around the fitness space for very long (including me as little as two years ago).

Thankfully, Andrew has already written a fantastic blog about how much protein you should consume, so check that out here if you want a deeper look into how you could go about calculating your own protein needs.

The reason you might need to consume more protein than you have been is because protein is the macronutrient that aids in muscle recovery. If we want to keep working out and allow our muscles to mend and grow, we need to give them the resources they need to do so.

For those that are trained, eating enough protein can also allow you retain as much muscle as possible as you begin to cut body fat.

Also, for those who have been untrained for a while, the right amount of protein could aid in overall body recomposition as you build a little bit of muscle and lose fat at the same time.

Key #3: Have a Workout and Nutrition Plan That You Can Stick To

Adherence is arguably the most important part of your diet because, if it’s something you don’t want to do or aren’t motivated/disciplined enough to follow through with, then you won’t.

So, the solution to any potential fallout of adherence is to have a workout and diet plan that you know you will be able to continue on with for a long period of time.

This may need to happen in phases in that you may have to slowly adjust your calories along the way as you lose more weight, so it is important to create a reasonable and reachable goal from the onset. 

If you are completely clueless about how to do this, you can check out some of our content on Instagram and learn a ton from that. 

And that’s one great thing about having a coach. We help you create those things if you still feel overwhelmed and confused by the misleading info on the internet.

If you think that would be helpful, give us a shout here!

SECONDARY KEYS

We think that the following points are also important for a successful diet, but they didn’t quite crack the top three. Andrew and I both apply these “secondary” keys as much as the “essentials,” but the previous points probably carry a little more weight.

Key #4: Prioritize Recovery

If you are at an energy deficit and also working out pretty hard, you can potentially put yourself at risk of injury if you are not recovering well enough.

A big piece of recovery is eating enough protein for muscle recovery, which I talked about in point two. 

Another important piece is sleep. I am all too hypocritical in talking about this and I struggle to get enough sleep myself, but I have found that getting 7-9 hours of sleep is so beneficial for recovery.

At risk of trying to talk as a scientist who studies the subject, your non-REM sleep or “deep sleep” is apparently the key. From what I understand, your brain slows down so much during this state that extra blood carrying oxygen and nutrients goes to other parts of your body to aid in recovery.

So, if you find yourself constantly waking up thinking about work or just unable to sleep, you may be hindering your body’s recovery process. 

In addition to that, stress often can keep us from sleeping too, so another thing to try to help your recovery is to do your best to limit stress throughout the day or find a way to de-stress before bed.

Key #5: Meal Timing Becomes Important

If we decide we are going to eat less and continue to workout, we are still expending the same amount of energy as before, but we are consuming less. 

So, one way to try and keep the intensity of our workouts high is to eat appropriate meals around the workout. 

Something I will do is eat a high protein and high-carb meal about two hours before working out. This gives my body time to digest the food before I begin my workout while also providing plenty of energy to get me through it.

Post-workout, I will try and eat another high-protein and high-carb meal within an hour of my workout, or I will consume some kind of protein within 30 minutes (maybe a protein shake) if I know I will not get a meal within the hour.

This means that a lot of my daily calorie intake is consumed right before and after my workout. So, if I’m planning my diet well, my other meals/snacks will generally have to be lower in calories.

Key #6: Listen to Your Body to Avoid Injury

This one is more geared towards injury prevention, but it’s definitely an important key for everyone. 

If you have been lifting a while, you know what it’s like to be sore in a good way. The feeling that your muscle has used all of its energy and it aches to be fully recovered. 

If you’re new to lifting, you learn relatively quickly (arguably after your first day in the gym) how muscle soreness feels. 

Now, say you are completing a lift or walking on the treadmill and you begin to feel a sharp pain that you feel like causes discomfort and not just muscle soreness. In that case, stop immediately to prevent further injury.

As I said previously, your body is more susceptible to injury while in an energy deficit, and even something like sleeping on your neck wrong can lead to an injury if you try to work through the pain. 

Lastly, it’s almost always a good and safe idea to take a day or two off to let small muscle and joint pains like that heal before you injure yourself and end up out weeks instead of days.

In Summary

If you are just beginning your fat loss journey, trying to follow and remember all of these keys may be hard, but try sticking to the essential keys first:

1. Be at an energy deficit.

2. Eat enough protein.

3. Find a diet and workout program you can adhere to.

The latter three keys can also be very important to help maintain a longer diet and will allow your body to be more efficient throughout the process.

So meal timing, prioritizing recovery, and listening to your body to avoid injury also become an important part of a prolonged fat loss phase.

---

If you found this article helpful but feel that you would love the support of an exercise program and nutrition suggestions, we are looking to add clients to our roster! Click here to learn more.

Cheers,

Josh

Why "Doing Fitness" Is Easier When You're Rich (and How I Would Personally Go About It)

Over the last few months I’ve come to a semi-unfortunate realization.

Getting into incredible shape really is much easier if you’ve got a lot of money to throw at the cause.

But, before all of our non-millionaire Joes and Janes throw in their physique towels due to their “average” bank accounts, I want to be clear that you can, of course, get into phenomenal shape at pretty much any level of socioeconomic status - it just might take more planning, strategy, and effort if your finances are tight at the moment.

Why though?

Why is it easier to get lean if you’re rich and willing to spend your money on your goal?

I’m glad you asked.

Reason 1: You can buy the most convenient, high-quality, and macronutrient appropriate foods available without stress.

As someone who specializes in fat loss, believe me when I tell you that your overall caloric intake is the number one thing you should be prioritizing when it comes to losing body fat.

It’s the biggest thing people fail to understand when it comes to a successful body recomposition effort.

Because of that, one huge obstacle for a lot people is simply being able to purchase, prepare, and consume nutrient-dense, high-protein meals multiple times per day that fit into their prescribed caloric targets on a sustainable basis.

And, guess what?

I totally get it. It can be a bit of a chore to execute a grocery haul each Sunday with enough foresight to ensure you’re going to be able to hit your protein and caloric targets everyday for the coming week.

On top of that, it’s no secret that eating higher-quality, healthier foods can be more expensive than eating their ultra-processed or fast food equivalents, which creates a troublesome combination of inconvenience and financial stress.

Well, “being rich” eliminates the inconvenience and stress of eating the right foods for three reasons:

1. You either have more money in the food budget in the month to buy and prepare high-quality foods yourself (if you’re a good cook and enjoy making your own food), or…

2. You use a high-quality, physique friendly meal delivery service like Trifecta, or…

3. You hire your own personal chef that prepares meals tailored specifically to your goals and you never have to think about it.

So, if you’re wondering how I personally would do the food portion of my physique pursuits if I had a money tree in my backyard, this is exactly what it would look like:

I would have a plant-based meal service on speed dial.

Seriously, if I were rich, I’d be eating a minimum of 21 pre-packaged meals per week centered around lean proteins, nutrient-dense carbohydrates, healthy fats, and plenty of well-seasoned vegetables.

If you’re serious about your body recomposition goals and you have the money in the bank to support it, using a macro-friendly meal delivery service is an absolute no-brainer in my opinion.

My quick note to rich folks who are unhappy in their own skin?

Open up your refrigerator, throw out the junk foods, and restock it with your first round of delivered meals to kickstart the fat loss process.

Reason 2: You could literally hire your own highly-personalized physique coach to be your best friend 24/7.

If you’re rolling in the dough, it’s no problem at all if you have no idea where to start when it comes to getting jacked and lean because you can pay for someone to show you the way.

But, if you’re not able to afford a coach, you’re left to figure it out for yourself, Sherlock.

I say this because one of the reasons I personally spun my wheels for years when it came to my physique was due to the fact that I just couldn’t afford to put any money toward a coach.

As a result, I was left to the internet - a place mostly known for its fitness mythology and hyper-scammy marketing deception - and the tabloid-esque claims got the best of me for the majority of my twenties.

You don’t have to be that person when you’re loaded.

As I like to say, the ambiguity of exactly what you should be doing is offloaded completely when you have a personal coach.

And, you have the freedom to execute your diet and training plan without thought-fatigue, which is monumentally important when it comes to long-term adherence.

The reality is that we all only have so much energy to give, which means the task of researching how to create an intelligent diet and training program, then actually creating an evidence-based diet and training program, and then executing that diet and training program sustainably while making the appropriate adjustments along the way due to your body’s response can become overwhelming in approximately five nanoseconds.

With a coach, you just do what you’re told and learn along the way.

Could it be any easier?

If that sounds appealing, apply for coaching with us.

Reason 3: You can afford the best gyms (and maybe even your own home gym).

For some people, the cost of membership to a well-equipped gym can be a financial obstacle (or even out of the question completely).

Fortunately, you can still get a great workout at-home even if you’re limited to your own bodyweight and a few creative objects around the house, so there’s no real excuse per se.

But, having access to the best gym in town does give you the ability to overload your muscles through all planes of motion via traditional and newer-age machine movements.

There’s no question about that.

And, since quality training is the catalyst for muscle growth, that makes having access to great equipment a pretty big deal when it comes to pursuing a goal of getting leaner and more muscular.

Some people might even be able to afford their own home gym set-up, which adds another level of convenience to the mix.

When you think about it, going to the gym presents its own unique set of friction points that could potentially pose as a detriment to your physique goal.

The Downsides of Not Having Your Own Home Gym

• Firstly, you have to drive to the gym.

  • Obviously, that’s not a huge deal, but it does take time, effort, and planning that could be spent in other valuable ways if you’re a driven and successful person.

• You have to share the equipment with other gym goers.

  • If you’re forced to go to the gym at peak hours, this really can be a detriment to your workout both physically and mentally.

    • If you’ve been progressing week to week on the hack squat, but you walk in and see two or three people waiting to use the hack squat machine, that’s a problem. If you really care about overload, you’d be best to wait for the machine, but what if you only have 45 minutes to workout? In this case, you’d be better to substitute another exercise for the sake of maximizing your work output. In other words, it just wouldn’t make sense to waste 20 precious minutes of your time slot being legalistic about your workout. But, it’s still a bummer and certainly not ideal.

    • And, what about the mental aspect? Fighting for equipment is stressful and discouraging, which can absolutely ruin the vibe of a workout you were looking forward to all day.

As you can imagine, having a home gym eliminates all of these issues because your equipment is onsite and exclusive to your private use and pace.

As a bonus, you can even customize the littler things like which genre of music is playing in the background and the temperature in your lifting space.

All in all, having plenty of money in the bank allows you to optimize your exercise experience in ways other people can’t enjoy.

Reason 4: You can afford regular physical luxuries like deep tissue massage therapy.

I know for a fact that if I had the money, I would probably get 2-4 deep tissue massages per month.

The fact of the matter is this…

When you’re training toward a body recomposition goal, you’re going to develop some muscle tightness, aches, and pains along the way if you’re training as intensely as you should be.

And, if you can afford to have someone release the tension a few times a month (maybe even in the luxury of your own home), you’re going to have a slight edge over any regular Joe that has to “play through the pain” and be a bit more disciplined with his own stretching and foam rolling routine.

“Healing up” through massage from time to time is probably going to keep your body performing at its best while preventing acute and chronic injury - another luxury not everyone is blessed enough to enjoy.

As a side note, if you live in Columbia, Missouri and are looking for a top notch deep tissue massage experience, I highly recommend visiting Liz at Iron Muscle Massage. The woman has hands of fire and brimstone and I promise you will not be disappointed.

And, no, she is not paying us to say that, she is just that good.

A Quick Recap

1. Being wealthy allows you to buy the foods you need to support your goal without inconvenience or unnecessary stress.

2. Being wealthy allows you to hire your own fitness and physique coach.

3. Being wealthy allows you to workout in the best gyms with the best equipment - some of which may even be a part of your private at-home gym set-up.

4. Being wealthy allows you to take care of your body long-term through massage and other therapeutic services.

How Exactly I Would Do Fitness If I Were Wealthy

Nothing would make me happier than for someone to read this final piece of the blog and awkwardly whisper to themselves, “I could actually do exactly what he’s saying. What have I been waiting for? I literally have no excuse.”

And, that’s kind of the point I’m trying to make here.

The more disposable income you have, the fewer excuses you have when it comes to your body recomposition goals - it’s just that simple.

But anyway, this is how I would do it personally:

1. I’d hop on a plant-based meal delivery service and buy my first week of meals and make it a regular habit.

2. I wouldn’t hire a coach right now because I’m really enjoying the experimental freedom I have with both my nutrition and my training, but at some point I would hire someone just to learn from their years of experience and success.

   • But, if I were loaded and needed quick help getting lean and jacked, I’d hire a full-time trainer to support me in my goals 24/7. This could be anywhere from $200-1,000 per month or more depending on your needs and preference of online versus in-person.

3. I’d make sure I have access to my favorite gym in town.

4. I’d buy a few sweet pieces of equipment for my home set-up immediately: a treadmill, leg press, hack squat, Pit Shark, machine bench press, assisted pull-up machine, and a rack of dumbbells up to 100 just to start. Don’t get me wrong though, that would be a pretty penny.

5. I’d get a 90-minute deep tissue massage once a week from Liz.

---

Thanks for reading, everyone! I sincerely hope you enjoyed the content and learned something.

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member!

And, if you're interested in working with me one-on-one, visit The Vegan Gym and apply for coaching. I’ve had nothing but success in guiding people toward their fat loss goals.

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew

How to Leverage Walking to Your Fat Loss Advantage

When it comes to walking and its relationship to fat loss, we’re all looking for a quick and easy answer to one particular million dollar question:

Exactly how much should I be walking to lose fat and get lean?

To be honest with you, I’ve found that one of the biggest problems with trying to put out information regarding body recomposition in general is that individuality almost always gets lost in favor of one conservative (yet heavily nuanced) take-home point for the masses.

Walking is no different, but let me do my best.

What’s the magic amount of walking we need to get summer shredded?

As much as I hate to tell you this, there is no specific amount of walking we could prescribe to any given person if the goal is to leverage walking as a tool for fat loss.

Sorry, folks. I know that would be much easier than wading through another duly nuanced write-up about the inner-workings of body recomposition, but that's just not how it works for one simple reason: Every single person embodies a uniquely different combination of lifestyle factors that affects their body’s immediate “walking requirement” for fat loss.

In my experience, those lifestyle factors include your caloric intake, your daily activity levels, whether or not you resistance train (and how much if you do), and the current state of your metabolism, but what all of this really comes down to is getting yourself into a caloric deficit.

And because of that, there is no “one size fits all” recommendation unless you want to be a moron and recommend we all do two hours on the treadmill everyday (and even that might not “work” if you’re not monitoring your caloric consumption).

Let’s take a few examples.

I’m personally losing fat on 13K steps a day at the moment, but I have a client losing on 10K and another on 8K. So, what gives?

Again, when it comes to walking, the amount you need for fat loss is simply “whatever it takes” given the remaining context of your life.

Therefore, what it takes for me might not be what it takes for you or anyone else for that matter.

So, if you’re not losing body fat living the lifestyle you’re currently living, the answer to how much you need to be walking is just “more.”

But, how much more?

Practically speaking, I would recommend walking sustainably more.

In other words, don’t get overeager and say, “Alright, I’m going to walk 20K steps a day until the fat is gone.” It’s unlikely you’d be able to stick to that for more than a day or two. In fact, you’d probably get to 16K the first day and then fall off the wagon all to have gained nothing but discouragement and frustration when you could have made a more conservation and long-term move in the first place.

Instead, it’s probably a better idea to increase your daily step count average by 1,000 steps per day as a starting point.

How i coach my clients toward walking more

This is how I usually guide my clients in their first weeks with me.

• For the first two weeks, I will tell them to live life normally and track steps accordingly.

  • This is helpful because it gives us a baseline. Just as an example, let’s say they track their steps without altering their behavior for 14 days to reveal that they average around 5,389 steps per day.

• As simple as this sounds, I’ll most often just prescribe a new weekly average of 6,000+ with the caveat that I don’t want them exceeding that on purpose.

  • You might be wondering why, and I would be happy to explain.

    • One huge problem that I see time and time again in the body recomposition space is that people will fail to get more out of less. If I had to give it a name, I might call it the “Go Hard or Go Home Fallacy.”

    • It’s the idea that you must be doing as much as humanly possible in order to get the desired results. And, as the name suggests, it’s a fallacy.

    • In other words, I would rather see my clients sustainably walk more and more in a progressive fashion until it’s no longer suitable for their lifestyle rather than jump straight to something unnecessarily aggressive.

    • This way we’re able to accumulate weeks and weeks of increased walking habits, which inevitably leads to fat loss when paired strategically with the right amount of calorie consumption and other lifestyle factors.

    • An ideal progression might look like this:

      • Week 1: 6,000 steps on average

      • Week 2: 7,000 steps on average

      • Week 3: 8,000 steps on average

      • Week 4, 9,000 steps on average

      • Week 5: 10,000 steps on average

      • Week 6: Just live life normally as a deload.

How to Walk Sustainably More

If you’re up for tracking your steps with a Fitbit or even your iPhone like I do, this is super easy.

Using that ideal progression I mentioned above, consider the following:

Assuming you keep all other lifestyle factors steady from the prior week (most importantly your caloric intake), you’ll know if that each daily step average is sufficient for fat loss if you see a slight dip in your morning weigh-ins.

But the trick here is consistency and control of data collection.

So, let me be clear when I say this: You cannot look to a step goal to be your fat loss saving grace if you are being willy nilly with your caloric intake.

This is why I cannot recommend tracking both your caloric intake and your daily step count consistently if you are serious about achieving predictable fat loss results.

But, if you’re not up for tracking your steps, you’ll probably have to create structure in a different way. For example, you could say, “I’ll walk for 20 extra minutes each day over my lunch break.”

Now, that sounds like a lovely behavior for the broader category of overall physical well-being, but the problem with this way of going about things is that you’re still a bit subject to “seeing what happens” because you still don’t really have any hard data on your current energy balance (calories in versus calories out).

Plus, we’re talking about getting leaner here - not just being a bit more active because your doctor said so.

Those are two very different things.

If you walk for 20 extra minutes a day over lunch but you’re otherwise lazier throughout the day, then you haven’t netted any extra calories out to ignite the fat loss you’re after.

Or, on an ever more realistic level, if you walk for 20 extra minutes but you went to a social gathering and had some pizza, two glasses of wine, and split an ice cream brownie with your friend, you’ve probably way overcompensated for the few extra calories you burned over lunch with the calories you consumed while socializing.

Does that make sense?

At the end of the day, leveraging walking for fat loss outcomes is all about math.

In Summary

So, let me wrap this all up as concisely as I can.

1. Before you even think about implementing walking as a fat loss strategy, make sure to get your calories and protein in check first. You can absolutely start walking more for general health, but there’s no guarantee of fat loss until all of the variables are accounted for.

2. We didn’t touch on this much in the article, but resistance training is what gives most people that hard, lean look a lot of us are longing for deep down. But you don’t have to train with weights to lose body fat, it just tends to improve your body composition outcomes when matched with a proper diet plan.

3. Once your calories, protein, and training are in order, pick a daily step goal and stick to it using a Fitbit or even just an iPhone you can carry in your pocket all day. Remember, consistency is key.

4. Monitor your bodyweight a few times a week if possible and take note of any downward trends. If you’re losing scale weight, chances are you’re losing body fat due to your self-imposed caloric deficit. If not, you’ll either need to lower your calories or increase your steps.

5. If you choose to increase your steps, do so in a sustainable manner. Think 1,000 step increases in daily averages across a week of time.

And that’s the gist of it.

---

Thanks for reading, everyone! I sincerely hope you enjoyed the content and learned something.

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member!

And, if you're interested in working with me one-on-one, visit The Vegan Gym and apply for coaching. I’ve had nothing but success in guiding people toward their fat loss goals.

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew

11 Things You're Getting the "Most Wrong" about Fat Loss

1: You’re dismissing the importance of overall calories in search of a quick-fix diet with a sexy name.

As obvious as it becomes once you’re following the right crowd of experts in the fitness industry, the simplicity of getting into a caloric deficit for fat loss really feels like a tabloid’s best-kept secret.

But to be fair, the marketing for these diets like keto and carnivore and even the IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) movement is so good that most well-intentioned people fall prey to the quick-fix claims of “shedding 16 pounds of body fat in one week by switching to the (fill in the blank) diet!”

That’s just not how it works.

But, I promised myself I’d keep this blog short and sweet: Your fat loss results depend almost solely on your ability to eat a little bit less than you currently need while supplementing that lowered food intake with strategic training and exercise to expedite the process.

Let me encourage you to quit diet-hopping and become a student of energy - a student of calories and how those calories (both consumed and burned) dictate whether or not you lose the body fat you want to.

2: You don’t realize how important eating an adequate amount of protein is for maintaining muscle mass while losing fat.

This one speaks for itself, and there’s no use beating a dead horse because that’s a terrible expression in the first place.

Looking back on my own dieting history, I bet there were seasons of life when I was eating less than 50g of protein per day while trying to “get huge” because I thought training was all that mattered.

And although your training is certainly the most important aspect of improving your body composition, your nutrition is extremely important as well - particularly when it comes to protein.

Nowadays, I eat about 150g of plant protein per day, and that makes a big difference for someone trying to optimize their body composition.

Some of my favorite sources are soy milk, Ezekiel bread, chickpea pasta, tofu, tempeh, seitan, plant-based protein powders, and hemp seeds.

If you need guidance on figuring out your own protein needs, click here.

3: You think that carbs “make you fat.”

Carbs don’t make you fat. Too many calories relative to your current metabolic needs make you “fat.”

Eating too many carbs can certainly make you “fat,” but carbs are not an evil fat-gaining entity all by themselves.

You could “get fat” eating nut butters or guzzling beer just as easily.

4: You think that lemon juice “makes you skinny.”

Lemon juice doesn't make you skinny, but if you trade your typical breakfast sandwich and choco-mocha-frappa-latte with 27 pumps of honey and a tower of whipped cream from Starbucks for a glass of tap water with lemon juice (all else being equal), you just might lose some body fat.

Why?

Well, you’d be consuming way fewer calories in that scenario.

Again, your ability to stay in a caloric deficit matters most when it comes to losing body fat, which means your attention to your overall caloric intake is paramount.

Yes, I said paramount.

Lemon juice may have some unique health benefits, but the only “fat-burning power” it has in its superhero repertoire is the fact that it’s essentially zero-calorie.

5: You think that intermittent fasting was invented by magical fat loss leprechauns.

I definitely like intermittent fasting as a fat loss strategy, but I’ve personally not seen any super compelling evidence that something on a Disney level of magical is happening when you skip breakfast.

Does it help a lot of people get into a caloric deficit? Totally.

Have tons of people had fat loss success incorporating intermittent fasting? Absolutely.

Have I personally had success with it in the past? Yes!

Is there even some emerging research on the potential benefits of extended longevity? Apparently!

But it isn’t magical in the sense that it’s automatic.

You can absolutely out-eat your restricted eating window by smashing pizza and beer.

Intermittent fasting worked for me because it more easily allowed me to eat within an overall caloric deficit.

6: You’re unaware that walking can get you shredded.

Setting a step goal is probably the second most powerful bit of methodology you could apply to a fat loss goal.

And yes, I would rank walking above actually lifting heavy weights in the gym. Do I have your attention now?

Better yet, walking can be done doing everyday life tasks like parking farther away from your destination on purpose, taking the stairs, or even setting an alarm on your phone to get up and walk every two hours or so.

Sometimes my wife and I even walk the stairs a few times before bed just to hit our step goal for the day because we know that walking is a powerful tool for fat loss.

If you want further data on that, I encourage you to read the blog I put out revealing my exact numbers for Summer Shredding 2020.

Walking - and no, I don’t mean on a treadmill - was a huge part of the reason I was so easily able to lose my first 10 pounds.

And for an even deeper dive on the powerful benefits of walking, check out this article I wrote called How to Leverage Walking to Your Fat Loss Advantage.

7: You’re convinced you have to lift weights to lose fat.

You don’t.

Obviously, I lift weights and do CrossFit because I enjoy that kind of exercise and have physique goals centered around building muscle, but I realize that’s not for everyone. And it doesn’t have to be!

You don’t even have to go to the gym period to lose body fat.

Don’t overhype lifting weights for fat loss if you don’t like lifting weights.

Keep in mind, however, that you do have to lift weights if you want to build muscle, and it will certainly boost your metabolism over time as you continue to put on lean tissue.

Walking alone won’t be able to accomplish that aspect of the mission for you, but it can be implemented powerfully for fat loss.

8: You think that high-intensity exercise and “lots of cardio” are non-negotiables for getting diced.

They aren’t.

Before I started doing CrossFit, I hated both of those things, but I still lost 31 pounds of fat while obtaining the best physique of my life.

Pretty cool, right? You don’t have to do cardio or HIIT (high-intensity interval training) to get leaner.

Now, does doing a bit of cardio-based exercise for the sake of promoting a healthy heart do a person good? Of course!

To be honest with you, I think just about the healthiest life you can live is one that mixes a predominantly plant-based diet with CrossFit training systems, but this article is about fat loss.

And we’re not talking about general health here. If you’re thinking to yourself right now, “Aren’t being healthy and looking good pretty much the same thing"?” let me point you to another article I wrote called Are Being Healthy and “Looking Hot” the Same Thing?

Here we’re just talking about what it takes to lose body fat, and doing formal cardio just doesn’t have to make the list if you don’t want it to.

9: You’re convinced you can target reduce your belly fat or underarm flab if you do crunches and tricep pushdowns.

Friends, this idea that you can target fat loss from any specific area of your body is not true, and it’s probably one of the most misleading and widely-believed fitness myths out there.

If you want to make your arms a little less flabby, you’re going to have to do the same thing as someone who wants to get a six-pack or a less jiggly bum: Get into a caloric deficit either by reducing your food intake or increasing your energy expenditure.

As depressing as this may be, everyone has a different genetic predisposition to hold and distribute body fat in different areas and different amounts.

This is why being “genetically blessed” is very much a term in the fitness space.

Some people simply hold their body fat in more visually appealing ways.

For example, my body fat likes to hang out on my love handles. Do you think I would choose for it to be that way if I could pick? Probably not.

But it is what it is, and I just have to be patient with the process and know that the squishiness on my sides is going to be one of the last places for the chub to fall off. I can’t change my genetics (as far as I know) and neither can you.

The good news, however, is that getting lean is the great equalizer, so if you’re bummed out about your flabby arms - just keep losing body fat!

Eventually, you will be lean, and if you’ve been training with weights and eating an adequate amount of protein while eating an otherwise healthful diet, chances are you’ll be sporting a strong, aesthetically-pleasing frame underneath it all once the hard work is done.

10: You think fat loss happens a lot faster than it really does.

I was very guilty of thinking this for a long time.

In college, I literally thought I could get lean in probably two weeks, but the reality is that a true fat loss phase should probably last anywhere between 8-16 weeks when you lose at expert-recommended rates of 0.5-2 pounds per week.

Think about that. Using those numbers, it could take you up to 20 weeks to lose 10 pounds when done properly and sustainably.

Are you willing to be that patient?

Long story short, it takes commitment, consistency, and patience to get leaner, and this is why so many people give up on their fat loss goals.

They just don’t give their bodies enough time to change.

11: You’re not aware that your metabolism is adaptable.

This one is complex, but it’s important for you to know that your metabolism can be up-regulated or down-regulated depending on a host of factors including your muscle mass, caloric intake, exercise habits, sleep/recovery, and stress levels.

So, try not to be the person that wields their “terrible metabolism” as an uneducated excuse for an unhealthy lifestyle unless you’ve been diagnosed by a medical professional with a legitimate medical condition.

Summary

So, there you have it! These are my top eleven picks for the most common ways we’ve been wrong about fat loss.

Have you been caught being wrong about any of these things?

If so, don’t sweat it. I was wrong about literally all of these things at one point or another in our early twenties. In fact, it’s a huge reason we launched IVRY in the first place.

We wanted to help honest people achieve exciting body recomposition goals without all of the fitness mythology and fat loss lore we fell prey to for years.

So, just learn and move on like we did.

---

Thanks for reading, everyone! I sincerely hope you enjoyed the content and learned something.

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member!

And, if you're interested in working with me one-on-one, visit The Vegan Gym and apply for coaching. I’ve had nothing but success in guiding people toward their fat loss goals.

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew

"How Much Protein Should I Be Eating to Maximize My Summer Body?"

Summer is almost here, and you’ve finally made the decision to get serious about your physique goal. Congratulations!

Or maybe it’s some other random time of the year and you’re looking to get peeled like a banana for some other warm-weathered trip.

Either way, that’s awesome and I’m excited for you and your new goal.

Now you just have to wade through all the hype surrounding protein.

And, if you are at all like I was when I first started, you probably have a lot of questions.

“Do I really need to be eating a lot of protein to look lean and toned?” 

”If so, how much? Is there a magical number?”

Trust me, I hear you and I’ve been there, so let’s get into it.

How much protein should you be eating per day?

I’ve found that aiming to consume between 0.7-1.0g of protein per pound of lean body mass (LBM) per day seems to be one of the most commonly accepted recommendations for people who want to achieve that lean, summer-ready physique.

If you’re in a time crunch, feel free to let that last sentence be your practical takeaway from this article and get back to your regularly-scheduled life.

LEAN BODY MASS VERSUS TOTAL BODYWEIGHT

But for those who want more nuance, know that most people aren’t really taking that LBM stipulation to account at all.

In other words, most people simply use their bodyweight instead of that LBM figure for the sake of keeping things as simple as possible (and this is totally understandable).

Why?

Because estimating your LBM isn’t always easy unless you have access to a DEXA or an InBody scan.

So, while some experts recommend a bit more protein per day (1.2g or more per pound of LBM) and other gurus push for a bit less (as low as 0.7g per pound of LBM), this “1g per Pound of Bodyweight Rule” still seems to be the most popular pick. 

Did you catch that detail? What I’m saying is that although using your lean body mass in your calculation is probably a bit more accurate, most people will use their total bodyweight instead.

But, why?

Well, I think the most obvious reason is because that 1:1 ratio of grams of protein to bodyweight is just a really easy way to calculate your daily protein intake.

And, let’s be honest with ourselves.

“Easy” works really well for most people because “easy” is usually adherence-friendly and sustainable for the long-term, which is extremely important.

Think about it this way. People like basic math because basic math is easy.

If you weigh 125 pounds, you’d eat a maximum of 125g of protein per day. Easy.
If you weigh 150 pounds, you’d eat a maximum of 150g of protein per day. Simple, right?
If you weigh 175 pounds, you’d eat a maximum of 175g of protein per day.

You get the point.

So, although I do think it’s slightly better to calculate your daily protein intake using your lean body mass, I think it’s also fine to use your total bodyweight in most (but not all) cases.

For a deeper dive on this, I’d encourage you to reference this article I wrote on a very other ways to calculate your protein needs.

Does everybody need to be eating that much protein?

Of course not. I want to be clear that these recommendations aren’t for everyday Joe’s and Jane’s – they’re for people who really want to start taking their body recomposition effort seriously.

In other words, I’m not suggesting your sweet Grandma Margaret should be shotgunning 60g of whey protein after her mid-morning gardening session to support optimal hamstring and glute development.

That would be, well, quite unnecessary (and also hilarious) since Grandma probably isn’t trying to look jacked and lean at the pool by mid-June.

Protein recommendations for people less interested in getting jacked and lean are, of course, much lower because they aren’t loading up their bodies with heavy loads with the focused intent of developing the size and density of their muscles.

Since proteins are widely considered the buildings blocks of muscle repair and growth, it makes sense to be eating more protein if you want to be more muscular.

Simply put, if you want to get jacked and lean, you need more protein relative to the person that doesn’t.

So, let’s just make sure we’re clear about that. If you’ve decided you want to be more jacked and lean, you’re in a different category of recommended protein intake now.

But, what does it mean to be “taking your body recomposition effort seriously?”

I’ve come up with the following checklist to help you make sense of that question for yourself.

You’re probably taking your body recomposition effort “seriously enough” if you are:

1. Training intelligently with resistance for hypertrophy or something like CrossFit 3-6 (or even more) times per week.

2. Eating purposefully in a caloric deficit, a caloric surplus, or at maintenance based on the specific goal at hand.

3. Prioritizing your protein intake across a minimum of 3 meals per day in most cases.

4. Trying to get the majority of your calories and protein from nutrient-dense foods while saving “junk foods” for treats and special occasions.

5. Optimizing your rest and recovery as much as possible.

6. Minimizing or eliminating alcohol consumption.

But back to protein and how much you should be consuming per day.

As wonderfully as the “1g per Pound Rule” works in most cases, there is one semi-exception worth mentioning.

An Exception for Very Overweight or Obese Folks

As we just discussed, that “1g per Round Rule” is based on your lean body mass (LBM), which isn’t the same as your total body mass (bodyweight).

So the implied exception is this:

The more overweight you are, the more important it is to calculate your daily protein intake based off of your lean body mass rather than your total bodyweight.

For example, if you’re a 180-pound female but you’d probably be a lean, healthy version of yourself at 130 pounds, I would argue that eating 180g of protein a day just isn’t necessary unless you really love eating protein.

But even then I would make the argument that those calories would be better spent on nutrient-dense carbohydrates or fats to aid in both day-to-day energy availability for quality training and optimized recovery.

And just to be clear, in this example, the 130 pounds represent a number that would be a much closer estimation to your lean body mass based on the Goal Weight Method, and thus a better figure to be using in your calculation.

The bottom line is this:

You don’t get bonus gains for eating more protein once you’ve met the evidence-based requirement, so make sure you aren’t consuming unnecessary amounts of protein as person who might be considered overweight or obese.

In fact, it can even be a detriment to your overall dietary pattern if your protein consumption starts to crowd out other important foods that provide macronutrient and micronutrient diversity.

So, what’s the takeaway here?

1. I think it makes the most sense to keep your protein intake as simple as eating between 0.7-1.0g of protein per pound of lean body mass (LBM) per day if you’re hoping to optimize your body recomposition effort. I like this approach because it accounts for people of varied amounts of body fat due to the use of the lean mass figure. I regularly consume toward the 0.7 multiplier of LBM and continue to see great progression in strength, performance, and muscle mass.

2. Remember that there is no magical amount of protein you should be consuming, but there are evidence-based ranges that are likely to optimize your progress toward your physique goal.

---

Thanks for reading, everyone! I sincerely hope you enjoyed the content and learned something.

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member!

And, if you're interested in working with me one-on-one, visit The Vegan Gym and apply for coaching. I’ve had nothing but success in guiding people toward their fat loss goals.

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew

Revealing My Exact Numbers for Summer Shredding 2020

I’m putting this blog out for one main reason.

When I was first getting interested in how to train and eat toward a physique goal, all I wanted was to know the exact calorie and macronutrient numbers of people who had walked the walked before.

But everyone I followed would say the same thing. “My numbers shouldn’t matter for you,” and - to be fair - that’s absolutely true. But, that wasn’t the point. I was curious, and I had all these questions running through my mind that only the granular details could truly satisfy.

So here we go. I’m taking you behind the curtain and giving you the exact numbers that I’ve used up until this point in my attempt to get relatively peeled by late summer 2020.

Where I Started

I’m a big fan of weekly averages, so my highest weekly average in February was 198.3 pounds. So we'll say I was 198.3 pounds on February 24, 2020 after working my calories up to about 3,450 per day over the course of months of steady yet intentional gaining for optimized muscle growth. If you want details on that, hit me up in the comments, but my guess is most of us are more interested in the fat loss portion. No one really needs any help gaining weight, do they?

Part I: My Primer Phase Before the “Diet Before the Diet”

My first move after that was to deload for one week and then move into a three-week primer phase (or maintenance phase) to lower training volumes in preparation for higher training volumes that would come once the cut had really begun. I dropped calories from 3,450 to roughly 2,900 in an attempt to identify my new maintenance calorie intake. As it turns out, I was essentially spot-on, and my weight stabilized around 196.5 during those three weeks while averaging 2,900 calories a day.

And that was that.

This happened from March 2-22 - just a quick (but helpful) three-week period to set myself up for better success in the next phase of the diet. As you’ll read in the following paragraphs, it worked like a charm.

Part II: My “Diet Before the Diet”

Now, if you’re wondering what in the world a “diet before the diet” is, it’s a term I’ve stolen from Steve Hall and the Revive Stronger brand, which is a major source of influence for me in terms of how I think about structuring my training and diet.

The “diet before the diet” is essentially that very first phase of your longer fat loss diet when - let’s just call it what it is - things don’t really “suck that much” yet. In other words, the fat comes off well because you’re coming off a high amount of calories. This is the honeymoon phase of the day.

The “diet before the diet” also allows you to approach a lower body fat percentage before really pressing into the more difficult aspects of the fat loss process.

For this phase, I dropped myself to 2,750 as an initial caloric target, and it actually worked better than I ever could have imagined.

On week two I adjusted slightly down to 2,700.

On week three I adjusted slightly down again to what I wrote in my spreadsheet as “sub 2,700.” But, I don’t think there was any magic in any of these adjustments. Truthfully, I was just experimenting with smaller reductions in calories on a week-to-week basis. In hindsight, I probably should have just kept them static around 2,700.

Basically, in five weeks eating between 2,650 and 2,750 calories per day, I went from 196.4 pounds down to 189.4 - a seven pound drop in five weeks, which put me at an average rate of loss of about 1.4 pounds per week. I can make another post about this later, but losing between 1-2 pounds per week at this stage of the diet is very much what I would consider the sweet spot for me personally. And this time period occurred between March 23 and April 26, 2020.

For the week of April 27, I deloaded and bumped calories slightly up to my new perceived maintenance of 2,800 to prepare for the actual diet, which officially started on May 4.

“But, What about your macros?”

If you’re curious about my macronutrient distribution, I generally only hold myself to eating between 180-200g of protein a day while staying within my overall caloric target. I personally bias more of my calories toward carbs due to preference, but I encourage everyone to do their own research and find what works best for their lifestyle and their own convictions about eating habits.

I don’t follow any labeled diet, but I do try to consume the majority of my calories from whole food sources while saving processed items for small treats and special occasions.

In other words, I’m not “paleo” or “vegan” or “keto” or doing Weight Watchers. I just eat within two very simple dietary parameters: calories and protein intake (assuming a minimal amount of healthy fats for hormonal health).

A very normal day of eating during this phase would be 190g of protein, 60-70g of fat, and around 300-350g of carbohydrates.

For an easier-to-read version of everything I’ve said up until this point, check out this screenshot from my nutrition log.

Part III: My “Actual Diet”

This is the phase of diet when the majority of the fat loss will occur.

Even though I’m still technically losing on 2,650 calories per day, 5 lifts per week, an average of 12,000 steps per day, and no formal cardio, I’m no longer losing quite as quickly as I would like. Because of that, I’m going to drop calories to 2,450, increase steps slightly, and ride that wave as far as it takes me.

Once my bodyweight plateaus for one to two weeks, I’ll adjust, but I’ll post about those specific changes when the time comes.

And that’s the plan for now: 2,450 calories as a per-day weekly average, 12,500 steps as a per-day weekly average, 4-5 hypertrophy-based workouts per week, and no formal cardio.

SUMMARY

As one last parting note, remember that blindly replicating these numbers for yourself will not work. This plan has been designed uniquely for me and no one else.

Everyone has a different goal, a different set of genetics, a different metabolism, and a different lifestyle, which means that no two plans should ever be the same.

The point of this blog is simply to reveal all of the non-sexy details to the approach that I am personally using - to expose the driving principles behind those details - and to remind (and encourage) our readers that fat loss can be systematic and intelligent.

If you have any question, don’t be bashful! Hit me up in the comments or send me a message on Instagram. I absolutely love talking shop and would love to hear from you.

---

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to someone you think might benefit from it as well! And, of course, we encourage you to take the time to flip through some of our other recent posts for additional content.

Finally, if this is your first time interacting with evidence-based fat loss and you’re thinking, “Wow, I didn’t know fat loss could be that simple”, we do have coaching slots open for the summer months and it’s not too late to apply. Josh and I really can guide you into a non-fad diet journey toward a leaner, more muscular version of yourself. You just have to be brave enough to send the first email.

Seriously, you’ll thank yourself later. Just do it.

Happy summer shredding, everyone!

-Andrew

How I Plan For Pizza While Cutting

What You Should Know First

When I am cutting, I keep to one simple, basic rule: be in a caloric deficit, or, burn more calories than I consume. I guess there would be tiers of rules that follow that basic one, but that will have to be for a different post. In the next tier, my personal goal is to eat enough protein, which is about 200* grams in my case. There are a few other goals or landmarks that I try to follow while cutting, but those are the two big ones.

So the question is: If I am someone who is trying to lose weight thoughtfully, how can pizza be a part of my diet to accomplish that goal? It truly all goes back to the idea of being in a caloric deficit. Technically speaking you could probably eat pizza every day and still lose weight (though I don’t think you’d feel too hot). The best way to eat the foods you enjoy that may not be the most “healthy” or macro-friendly is to plan ahead for those foods. I will gladly take the extra few minutes in my day to plan a few meals out just so I can fit something like pizza into my diet from time to time.

How I Manipulated My Diet

Regular day of cutting (in quarantine): I try to get about 10,000 steps in on a hike in the morning, then fast until about noon or so. I will then eat a meal with 50g of protein, and get my workout in shortly after. I will then eat another “meal” (snack really) that has another 50g of protein and get some work done.. or watch a movie. I will then go for another short walk before dinner and then have another 50g of protein with dinner. I usually relax in the evenings, may go for another walk, but get in another meal an hour or so before bed with another 50g of protein.

I wanted to set up a normal day just to refer back to, but also to be open about when and what I’m eating. Going into yesterday I knew I was going to have pizza, so I planned out what I wanted to eat earlier in the day to be able to fit pizza happily into my diet for the day. It really is easy to do if you’re willing to put in a few minutes of effort to plan! I essentially just fasted a few hours longer (thank you, coffee), ate smaller, high-protein meals in the afternoon, and then had that one big meal with my pizza in the evening.

Some people think of this planning as being boring, and people accuse me of not enjoying myself or “living life,” but I care enough about trying to reach my goals, and if I can still do that while eating the foods I love, the quick planning is a no-brainer to get there. 

One thing you may have to accept when trying to squeeze other foods into your diet is the fact that your macronutrient distribution at the end of the day may not be as perfect as your aiming for, but as long as you are still eating at a caloric deficit, the makeup of the calories doesn’t matter AS much. This isn’t to be confused with the IIFYM movement (eating anything if it fits your macros); planning a healthy diet and occasionally fitting in some “treats” is a very rational and successful way of dieting.

Macro Breakdown for Regular and Pizza Days

Normal Day of Cutting:

Protein: 210 grams*

Carbs: 280 grams

Fats: 70 grams

Total Calories: 2,600**

On pizza day, this was my breakdown:

Protein: 205 grams*

Carbs: 209 grams

Fats: 119 grams

Calories: 2,681**

My calorie goal is currently a max of 2,700 calories, but I aim for about 2,600** for my day. Clearly there are some big differences there, but overall, my caloric goal was met, and I met my protein numbers. Having this flexibility in a diet is awesome; there is something powerful about knowing that you are in control of your diet and that you can still lose weight while eating pizza occasionally. What a world!