If you want to slash body fat while preserving lean muscle mass. Sculpting a beach body you’ll feel proud of. You’ve come to the right place: The Best Fat Loss Diet For You.
Below you’ll discover:
- The mistake most dieters make and how to avoid it.
- What makes a diet work.
- How to stick with your diet.
- How to craft your best diet.
- How to know when you should make a change.
The diet industry is plagued by conflicting advice. In some cases, two diet approaches will completely contradict each other.
This has caused a great deal of overwhelm and confusion for those who are desperate to lose weight. Contributing to an endless trap of diet hopping. All in hopes that the next one will finally be the diet that works.
Unfortunately I ventured into this bottomless rabbit hole when I struggled to lose the excess 50 pounds of fat that I had gained in my mid twenties when life ‘got in the way’ of my physique goals.
Don’t make the same mistakes I did. You can save years of setbacks and frustration.
I’ll never forget the day when I caught a glimpse of my side profile in the mirror while forcefully attempting to squeeze into my jeans. The image is still vividly engrained in my mind.
It was as if a stranger was staring back at me. For the first time, it truly sunk in what I had done to my body. In that moment I decided enough was enough.
And so the quest to reclaim my lean and vibrant physique began… along with a plethora of mistakes.
I experimented with nearly every diet under the sun. Carb cycling, various forms of intermittent fasting, supplement based shake diets, and yes… I even fell victim to detoxes.
Each time I tried a new diet I became exposed to a new subculture.
It was fascinating to see just how wrapped up some people can get in their diet. In extreme cases they attached their identity to the diet. “I’m vegan”. “I’m paleo”. “I’m keto”.
Don’t be that person. You are not your diet.
The interesting thing is that each diet worked for some people. Which was both exciting and frustrating. A rollercoaster of hope and disappointment.
I definitely noticed that some diet approaches worked better for me than others. But I struggled with consistency and yo-yo’d up and down.
Chances are, you can relate to much of what I’ve gone through. You may even be smack dab in the middle of it and feeling stuck at this very moment.
The mistake I made was…
Trying to force my lifestyle to fit a diet plan, rather than fit a diet plan to my lifestyle.
Don’t fall for another diet fad or gimmick. It’ll just keep you stuck on the hamster wheel to nowhere.
Before you begin this next fat loss journey it’s important to spend a little time in reflection, do a lifestyle audit, and determine your best course of action to ensure your success.
A good way to get started is to scoop up your FREE Fat Loss Mastery Crash Course. Click here to get it now.
The Makings Of Your Best Diet
It’s easy to view your previous diet attempts as failures. But they were far from it.
Instead, think of them as practice. All leading you up to this point when you’re finally ready to see your goal through to the end.
As you reflect on your past practice, think about components of each diet that seemed to suit you well.
Because your best diet is going to become a combination of the things you like from each of these diets, in addition to some things you’ll discover in this article.
Your best diet isn’t something you’ll find on the book shelves. It’s something that you’ll create yourself. You’ll become empowered from the creative experience.
This Is The Most Important Component Of Every Successful Diet
The foundation of every diet is creating a caloric deficit. The only way you will achieve your fat loss goal is by consuming less fuel than what your body burns each day.
So your first step is setting a starting point that suits you. Here’s a couple options:
1) Take what you are currently eating and reduce the portion sizes. This approach offers the least resistance to your lifestyle. It’s a nice simple starting point for those who prefer to ease into this process.
2) Set a caloric target to aim for each day. Women multiply your body weight by 10 and men multiply your body weight by 12.
Setting your starting food intake is the easy part. Sticking with it is where it gets tough.
That’s why the best diet for you is the one you can execute consistently.
This Is What Will Help You Stick With Your Diet
Your lifestyle audit will come in handy here.
Take a moment to answer the following questions based on your past diet experiences, your personal preferences, and your current lifestyle. Remember, this is about what suits YOU best. Not about what others think is best.
How many meals per day best suit you?
What’s the best timing of each meal based on your schedule and when you feel you need energy the most?
Do you find it easier to eat some of the same meals every day or do you prefer variety?
Do you have a preference toward carbs, protein, or fats? How does each of those macronutrients make you feel?
Are you better off having a small treat every day or do you prefer to have a cheat meal once or twice per week?
Are you motivated by an immediate and substantial drop on the scale? Or are you content with a very slow and steady approach?
Your responses to these questions are priceless. And hopefully they spark even deeper questions that you can ask yourself.
Awareness is your greatest asset throughout the physique transformation process. The more you know about yourself, the more prepared you can be and the less likely you are to repeat the same mistakes.
Crafting Your Best Diet
Now that you know roughly how much food you should be consuming, how many meals you’ll consume, when you’ll eat those meals, and how often you prefer ‘treating yourself’, it’s time to create a structured meal plan for yourself.
Having structure is habit forming and reduces stress, because you don’t have to think about what you are going to eat each day.
Everything you need to know about structuring your best diet is in the answers above. You could hire me as your physique coach to go through the answers with you and help you structure your diet. But, it’s very liberating to go through this process on your own. It’s a practice that will set you up for long term success.
Two suggestions I’ll make are to a) base your plan largely around whole foods and b) make sure that you are consuming sufficient protein (a rough rule is approximately 1 gram of protein per pound body weight).
Allow me to give you an example by sharing my current fat loss diet approach.
6:00am – 2 cups of coffee with a small amount of unsweetened vanilla almond milk.
10:00am – pre-workout shake consisting of 1 cup kefir, 1 scoop whey protein, loads of spinach, and a banana.
1:30pm – (post-workout) 260g plain Greek yogurt, 140g frozen berries, 1 scoop whey protein.
5:30pm – dinner is where I get my variety. It’s almost always a lean protein with loads of veggies and a bit of starchy carbs.
That’s it during the early stages of my fat loss phase.
Note: I’m typically in bed between 8:30 and 9:00pm. Quality and quantity of sleep is very important to me.
As you can see, structurally my diet plan is pretty mindless. I only have to think of what I’m going to eat for dinner each day. I’m basically in robot mode until 5:30pm.
This doesn’t mean that I don’t slip up. For example, last night I had a bowl of chips at 8pm.
I don’t beat myself up over it. I simply acknowledge it, try to become aware of the trigger (my wife was having a bowl of chips, which sparked my desire for them even though I wasn’t hungry), and think of how I can improve the next time I feel compelled to go off plan.
It’s all about progress, not perfection.
I prefer going to bed feeling just a little bit of hunger. It’s a sign that I did well throughout the day. I also LOVE waking up feeling light. It motivates me to put in another good day of eating.
Upon waking I pour myself a cup of coffee and immediately get to work. I find that my most productive time is between 6:00 and 10:00am. The coffee curbs my appetite and I’m so immersed in my work that I don’t think about eating.
So not eating until 10am and not eating after dinner isn’t because I’m an Intermittent Faster. It’s because it suits my lifestyle.
I also prefer to be more aggressive with my diet when I start off, because a) I’m motivated by the immediate results and b) I’m less likely to lose muscle mass from an aggressive diet when I’m carrying a bit more body fat.
As I progress through the fat loss phase I will add in a snack or another small meal. I do this to help preserve muscle mass, because the leaner you are, the more likely you’ll lose muscle mass if you are too aggressive with your diet. I also find that slowly bumping up the calories helps keep my mental focus and energy up as I get deeper into the diet phase.
I typically go out with the boys on Friday night and use that as my scheduled cheat meal. Sometimes I go a bit over board, but for the most part I try to keep things in control and not eat in excess.
Once again, I’m fitting my diet to my lifestyle. I could try to be perfect when out with the boys, but it would stress me out. So, instead I embrace the opportunity to enjoy treats with my bro’s.
Ideally, your diet will evolve over time as you learn through experience. It will also change slightly when you shift into maintenance mode or begin to focus on building muscle.
For example, when I’m focused on maintaining or building my physique I add in another meal and a snack. My last meal ends up being around 7pm. I’m not ‘married’ to a specific time ‘window’ for eating. I eat for my lifestyle and preferences.
And that’s really the take home message from this article.
Maybe how I eat is somewhat inline with an intermittent fasting approach, but it’s an approach that’s designed specifically for me.
Knowing When To Make A Change
Following the advice above is simply your starting point. From here on out you’ll be making changes based on the feedback you are getting from how your body is changing and performing.
A common factor in diet success is tracking your food intake. This allows you to reflect on what you’ve consumed and where you can make improvements when you aren’t seeing the progress you were hoping for.
Without some form of tracking, you’ll be stuck with guessing what changes you should make. And that’s risky business.
Tracking can take many forms, such as;
1) Recording your food intake in a journal. This gives you a decent idea of the portion sizes you are consuming.
2) Taking pics of the food and drinks you consume. This gives you a visual of the portion sizes you are consuming.
3) Tracking your calories in an app. This becomes a little more detailed and can be an eye opening experience in to how much you are consuming on a daily basis.
4) Tracking your macros in an app. This provides you with insight into your natural tendencies toward certain macronutrients.
For some, tracking can seem tedious. While others are absolutely in their glory when crunching numbers.
So now for the important question… where do you fall in this spectrum?
What method are you most likely to stick with… at least in the short term as you get the ball rolling?
At the end of the week, if the scale number didn’t budge, you can either;
1) Reduce your portion sizes while making note of those new portion sizes in your journal.
2) Visually see the reduction in portion sizes with the pics you take of each meal.
3) Reduce your caloric target in the app.
4) Reduce the macro totals in your app.
Throughout the week you’ll pay attention to how you’re feeling and performing with this reduced intake. At the end of the week you’ll make note of any change on the scale, to your visual appearance, or to how your cloths are fitting.
Wrapping It All Up
Now, this may have been the least sexy diet article you’ve ever read. You didn’t find any absolutes. There was no dogma. And it wasn’t polarizing.
But the value you’ll gain from crafting your own personal best diet is priceless.
As I mentioned, it’s a liberating process. You’re going to feel a sense of pride when you see your finished work.
I encourage you to share that moment of pride in the Physique Mastery Mecca Facebook group where you’ll find a bunch of like-minded people eager to celebrate your successes together.
And once you have this key component of your fat loss journey in place, you can begin to explore the best training, cardio, and lifestyle practices that will take your physique transformation to the next level.
A good way to get started is to scoop up your FREE Fat Loss Mastery Crash Course. Click here to get it now.
I look forward to sharing this journey with you.
Sculpt a Masterpiece,
Coach Scott Tousignant