Struggling to Get Lean? These 4 Tactics Will Change Everything.

All right, if you've been trying to get lean but aren't seeing results, this is the video for you. And a little bit of a quick disclaimer up front: I am not going to bore you with the usual fat loss advice— things like be in a calorie deficit, track your calories, or lose weight at a sustainable pace. That stuff is everywhere. You can find it in books, YouTube videos, and podcasts. And actually, in fact, I've already covered the basics in a video called How to Achieve a Healthy Body Weight, which I will link to in the show notes. If you're unsure about how fat loss works, go and watch that first. From this point on, I'm going to actually assume you have a fairly solid plan. Because look, here's the truth. Most people don't struggle because their plan is wrong. They actually struggle because they can't stick to the plan for long enough. And look, I get it. Losing fat and getting lean is actually really hard. You have to stay active. You have to eat less. And you have to say no to temptations, not just for a few days or weeks, but for months. And that is super tough. And trust me, I have failed more times than I would like to count. I would fall off track after a few weeks over and over again. But as you've probably seen from the thumbnail, I finally figured it out. Look, I'm not shredded, but I'm fairly lean. I've got visible abs and I'm in the best shape of my life. And more importantly, I finally learned how to stay consistent for months at a time. So today I'm not going to share basic fat loss tips. What I'm going to do is I'm going to share 4 powerful tactics that actually help you stick to the plan. Because actually, I think that's where most people get stuck. And even applying just one of these will make fat loss feel way more manageable. And if you can apply all 4, they might just be the difference between success and failure. And these are the exact tactics I've used over the last couple of months to reach and sustain this level of leanness. So let's get into it. The first of the 4 tactics is don't go too extreme on calories or activity. And look, there's no getting around it. To lose weight and to get lean, you have to be in a calorie deficit. Meaning you need to burn more calories than you consume. And the mistake I see a lot of people making is they go too extreme on one side of that equation. Now, some people try to out-train a bad diet. They're in the gym every day, smashing long sessions, hammering cardio, just trying to burn their way to getting lean. But you can't out-train a crappy diet. Even if you do manage to create a deficit through sheer effort, it's not going to last. You'll either get burnt out, injured, or you're just going to give up. Then you've got the opposite group, and these are people that like to go all in on food restriction. They barely move and they try to eat as little as possible. And sure, that might create a calorie deficit on paper, but it's completely unsustainable. You're going to feel like crap, your energy will tank, and your immune system will take a hit. And eventually, you'll just crack. And I've been there and I've done that. So the lesson is don't go too extreme on either side. Instead, you want to aim for a balanced approach. You want to push your activity and your calories hard enough to make progress, but not so hard that you will break. And I'll give you a little bit of an example from my own plan so you can kind of see how it works in kind of actuality. So I train 5 to 6 times per week, and that's a mixture of weights, circuits, and some zone 2 cardio. And I'm also averaging 8 to 10K steps per day. But even with all of that, I still take 1 to 2 rest days per week, and there's at least a few of my sessions each week that are under an hour. So whilst I'm active, I'm not going too crazy. And then on the food side, I'm usually eating somewhere between 1,800 and 2,000 calories a day, and that puts me in a pretty solid deficit based on my activity level. It is a little restrictive, sure, and I do feel hungry most days, but it's not miserable. And with smart food choices, I can actually have a good lunch, a snack, and a pretty solid evening meal. So as you can see, I am active and I'm eating in a deficit, but I'm not going to extremes on either. And that's why it works, because it's sustainable, not for days or weeks, but for months if I need to. So don't fall into the trap of going all in on one side of the equation. You have to balance both activities— sorry, activity and calories. And I promise if you do this, the results will take care of themselves. Tactic number 2, and this one is really powerful. You have to base your eating around predominantly whole foods. Now, you've probably heard people say fat loss is actually pretty simple. It's just calories in versus calories out. And yes, at the heart of any good fat loss plan, you do need to create a, a calorie deficit. You can't get away with that fact. But here's the thing, it is more nuanced than that. And the nuance will absolutely trip you up, especially in 2 key ways. So the first way that it trips you up is appetite control. So let's say you've set up your plan perfectly and you're hitting the right calorie target for fat loss. Now, if you're filling those calories with mostly processed foods, you are going to struggle big time. And why is that? Well, it's because processed foods only want to make you eat more processed foods. And you already know this is true. When you eat one slice of pizza, you want two more. When you eat a couple of cookies, suddenly the whole pack is gone. And it's almost impossible to stay under your calorie target when your appetite's running wild like that. But when you eat mostly whole foods, it's a totally different experience. Whole foods leave you full and they leave you satisfied, often for hours at a time. And you know this is true too. Have 4 poached eggs and you're not craving another 4. If you eat a big salad, you don't need a second one. You're good. And that's the power of whole foods. They help— they kind of help you actually stay in control. And the second thing to whole foods is that your body just runs better on real food. Now, I've seen people eat in a calorie deficit while still eating quite a lot of junk food. And the honest answer is they just don't look great. They hit plateaus. They look tired, flat, and run down. And it's like putting sugar in a gas tank and expecting the engine to run properly. It won't and it can't. Your body is a complex machine. And if you want it to perform well, especially during fat loss, it needs the right fuel. And that means eating at least probably 80% whole foods. So you want to be thinking meat, vegetables, some type of starches, nuts, seeds, and fruit. And that 80% mark is my personal baseline. When I'm above it and actually closer to 90%, everything feels smoother. I feel better, my appetite is steady, and fat loss feels automatic. But when I dip below 80% and into the 70s or 60s, things start to fall apart. I get craving, I get cravings, my energy dips, and the wheels start to come off. So here's a takeaway for whole foods. Yes, calories in versus calories out is the foundation, but the type of food you eat changes everything. Whole foods help you control your appetite and they help your body run efficiently. And most importantly, they make your plan sustainable. So shoot for 80 to 90% whole foods. Trust me, your body is going to feel completely different and the results will follow. All right. Tactic number 3, fasting is a superweapon. Now, look, I get it. You've probably been bombarded by every fitness influencer talking about the benefits of fasting. But I am not here to talk about vague health benefits or claim that fasting will magically burn fat faster. For the type of fasting that we're going to be talking about, intermittent fasting and shorter eating windows, The science actually doesn't show huge biological advantages for fat loss. But here's why fasting is a superweapon when it comes to getting lean: it helps you stick to your calorie target. And that's actually one of the hardest parts around losing fat and losing weight, right? We've already talked about the two sides of the fat loss equation: calories in and calories out. And let's be honest, consistently sticking to the calories in side is really tough. You're going to be hungry and you'll be tempted by meals out, breakfast with family, travel snacks, fill in the blank. But fasting gives you a simple, powerful way to deal with that. And it's not about science. It's just about shrinking your eating window so you're less likely to overeat. That's it. That's the magic with fasting. So like I did for the other things, let me show you how I use it. So when I'm cutting and trying to get lean, I fast most mornings. I will have a light lunch probably around 1 or 2 PM, and then a small afternoon snack with a normal dinner. And honestly, that morning fast is everything. If I eat breakfast, it's game over. My appetite kicks in hard, and now I've just got a long window of eating ahead of me, and the odds of staying on target go significantly way down. But if I fast until the afternoon, it's so much easier to stay within my calories, and it's literally the difference between hitting my target or blowing straight through it. Here's another way I use fasting. Say, for example, I am eating dinner out at a restaurant. If I eat like normal during the day and then go out for a meal in the evening, it's easy. I'm easily going to blow past my entire day's calories in that one sitting. So instead, I use one meal a day strategy. On days like today where I've actually got dinner out with friends, I just fast until that meal and then I eat freely, enjoy myself, and still come in around 1,800 calories for the day. Job done. There's no guilt and there's no getting off track. The same type of thing can be applied to travel. So when I'm away and the routine's out the window, I will fast way more aggressively or I'll do the one meal a day strategy for a few days. And it works beautifully. So look, there's no magic and there's no metabolic hacks. Fasting for me is just a powerful tool to help me hit my calories on regular days and to also navigate the tough ones like meals out, social events, or when I'm traveling. Because blowing out on weekends or restaurant meals is one of the fastest ways to destroy your deficit over time, and that's absolutely going to stop you from getting lean. So use fasting not for the hype, but just as a strategy to consistently hit your target window. All right, last tactic. And this final tactic did take me a while to figure out, but it made all of the difference. Only focus on your weekly calories as an average. Now let's say your daily calorie target is 2,000, and you know that that puts you in a nice deficit to lose fat and to get lean. Well, here's where most people go wrong. They think you have to hit exactly 2,000 calories every single day. But the truth is, that's really, really hard to do. Life just doesn't work like that. Every day is different, and some days are easier and some are chaos. And your body is not really looking at your calories per day. It's more responding to your weekly average over time. So once you get that, everything changes. And you can start to zoom out and play a smarter game. You don't have to be perfect every day. You just need to manage the average across the week. And this is especially useful when it comes to weekends, which we all know are harder, and I personally struggle with a huge amount. So look, here's how I use it. My target right now is 2,000 calories per day, and I've kind of got a stretch goal of 1,800. So When it comes to Monday to Thursday, I tend to go a little bit lower, and I will aim for 1,600 to 1,700 calories per day. And I also usually fast dinner to dinner Tuesday through to Wednesday to create even more room. So by the time Thursday night hits, I've already built myself a bit of a cushion. And then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I might hit 2,200, maybe even 2,500, especially if I'm eating out or if I'm socializing. But across the week, sorry, across the week, I average out probably somewhere between 1,800 and 2,000, and it's right where I want to be. And that cushion is everything. It makes the weekends manageable without blowing the whole plan. And I can't stress this enough. Every time I cruise into the weekend at my average or even slightly over it, I blow it. But if I come in with a buffer from earlier in the week, I will almost always stay on track. It's literally night and day. So the bottom line is this: stop obsessing over hitting your calories perfectly every single day. And instead of that, focus on your weekly average. You want to be strategic. Go lower when it's easy and then give yourself some flexibility when it's harder. And if you do that week in, week out, you will get lean. So look, there you go. 4 tactics that actually help you stick to the plan and stay consistent long enough to get lean. And these are the exact tactics that finally helped me stay on track, not for a few days or weeks, but for months. And now I get to head off to Cyprus in a couple of weeks knowing I will feel confident taking my top off at the beach. And that result only happened by doing the right things consistently, something that these 4 tactics have helped me achieve. So I really hope that was helpful, and I will see you in the next episode.