5 Habits RUINING Your Fat Loss (Don't Ignore)

What if I told you that losing body fat wasn't just about willpower and discipline, but instead it was about your daily habits that determined if you lost fat and kept it off for good? Let's face it, it's the bad habits that got you 20, 30, 40, 50+ pounds overweight to begin with, so it only makes sense that good habits are what will get you to lose the weight. If you can quit these 5 bad habits I'm gonna share with you in this video, I promise you, you will be on your way to fitting better in your clothes, not hiding from taking pictures, having more energy, and regaining your self-confidence. Because these are the exact things I've seen working with tens of thousands of clients that hold them back from making progress. And I can also promise you, if you don't stop doing all 5 of these habits You will stay stuck forever. So make sure you fully understand each one and exactly what you need to do to change it. The first habit that you need to quit is something I call the silent saboteur. You're sitting back watching Netflix, or maybe you're scrolling social media on your phone in between work meetings, not even thinking about food or snacks until you find yourself 2 or 3 handfuls deep of chips or pretzels, or 1 or 2 cookies that are gone, and you realize you just mindlessly ate food when you weren't even really hungry. It's not planned, it's usually not tracked, and that's exactly why it's dangerous. You're probably eating clean meals, tracking your calories, maybe even meal prepping, but every time you grab a little something here and take a few handfuls of something there, it's silently stacking up to 200, 300, 400, 500 calories per day of mindless snacking that is slowly ruining your progress. And it's not like you're binging on the weekends or eating a ton of junk food, but your fat loss is stalled because of it. And this isn't about willpower or discipline. The reason this habit is so common and so overlooked is because it doesn't feel like you're eating bad or eating a lot. You're not hungry, you're not making a meal, you're just reacting to boredom, to stress. Maybe it's just your routine to have some snacks while you're watching Netflix. It's often triggered by low-level emotions or environmental cues like sitting at your desk, relaxing on the couch, talking on the phone. Your brain loves these little dopamine feel-good hits, and that's exactly what you get when you get a little bit of sweets here or a little bit of salty there. Over time, this just becomes habit and automatic. You stop noticing it, but it doesn't mean those calories don't count. But the good news is, once you understand what's happening, you can break the loop without having to rely on more willpower. And here's a practical way you can go about fixing this. Try not to fight the urge in the moment. Try to remove the trigger before it starts. For example, you might make a rule that you are not allowed to eat anything unless you put it on a plate, you sit down at the table, and you track it before you eat it. If that's a rule, you're not going to mindlessly snack. Or something that's worked very well with a lot of our coaching clients is setting specific times of the day that you eat. Because if it's 2 PM and your next meal or snack time isn't until 4 PM, then you're not allowed to eat when it's 2:18 PM and you're just looking for something to take away your boredom. You have to wait until 4 PM. Now, you can have it at 4 PM if you would like, but this forces you to be more mindful and it breaks this bad habit. One of our clients, Carol, was able to drop her body fat, especially in her belly area, from breaking this one bad habit. Now, here's the thing— mindless snacking can chip away at your progress for sure, but the next habit, it wrecks your progress because it's not just a handful of Calories here and there. It's an entire day, or a weekend, or weeks and months thrown out of the window. If you've ever said something like, "Well, I'm already off track," or "I already messed up my diet," I might as well just say fuck it and keep going. Then that's what we're tackling next. Habit number two is something I call the snowball spiral. Let's say you slip up at lunch on Wednesday. Maybe it's fast food, or it's birthday cake in the office, or some treats or cookies. And instead of moving on. And just making the best of it and getting back on track, your brain goes, well, the day's ruined, I already fucked up all of my progress. And the next thing you know, you've ordered a pizza for dinner, you've decided you're not going to get back on track until Monday, and one meal turns into 5 days. The reason I call it the snowball spiral is because one little slip-up turns into a full-on avalanche, and it's one of the biggest reasons people stay stuck. One high-calorie meal is not a big deal, but 3,000 calories extra over the course of a weekend—that's enough to cancel out your entire clean week of eating. And the habit doesn't just affect your body; it affects your mindset. Every time you throw in the towel and say, "Fuck it, I quit, I'd rather be fat," you reinforce this idea of the perfectionist mindset, and that's the fastest way to lose motivation altogether. This spiral happens usually because of the all-or-nothing mentality. We believe if we're not doing everything perfect, then it's already ruined, so we might as well just keep going and not try at all. But perfection isn't the goal. Fat loss comes down to consistently sticking with something, and if you're quitting every time you're not perfect, then how can you ever be consistent? So here's how to break the spiral. Pre-decide your bounce-back rule. For example, after a bad meal, you might drink a glass of water, and that's your signal you're back on track. Or after a missed workout, you immediately plan your next workout in your calendar for that week, so that way there's no guilt, no shame, and you're right back on track. Everything is okay. And you also change your language. And this sounds like kind of hippie sunshine and rainbows, but stick with me. Instead of saying, I messed up and I ruined all of my progress, you can start saying, okay, That was one meal and one choice. And now I'm choosing to get back on track right away. Because one bad meal doesn't mean that you're a failure or a loser or you don't have discipline or willpower. And if you keep telling yourself that you're those things, how are you ever going to expect to remain consistent? Would you ever expect somebody else to stay consistent if that's all you told them? No. So stop saying it to yourself. One of our clients, Nick, used to blow his progress on the weekends all the time after one bad meal or if he had a bit of alcohol. And ever since he started coaching with us, he's learned how to just get right back on track. And you can clearly see the progress he's made. But here's the catch. Even when you're on track, a sneaky little habit can creep up and wipe out your progress without noticing. And it's not what you eat. It's what you drink, and I actually just talked about it. So let's go into habit number 3, how alcohol might ruin your progress. Habit number 3 to quit is something I call the fat loss hangover. You eat clean all week, you train hard, you track your calories, eat your meal prep, but then the weekend hits and it's just one drink, and then it's another, and now you're having more drinks. You're staying up late, not sleeping, and you're not snacking on celery and carrots when you're usually drinking. You're also having higher calorie foods, and by Monday, all of your progress has vanished like a magic trick, just not a good magic trick. I call this the fat loss hangover because even if you don't physically feel hungover, your metabolism does and your progress does. Alcohol doesn't just add empty calories. And what empty calories means is it doesn't do anything for you, doesn't help your metabolism, doesn't build muscle. It's just there doing nothing in your stomach, which is also why you might be more bloated after you drink. But it also disrupts your sleep, kills your workout for the next day, lowers your inhibition, which is just a fancy term for saying your willpower. Think about it— that's why you're not allowed to drink and drive, because your decision-making and your willpower get lowered. And it sneakily creeps in because it might only be 1 or 2 days out of the week, and you very well might be on point the rest of the time. But these empty calories and the fact that you're eating more calories of higher calorie food, it could wipe out your whole progress. I think a lot of people tend to separate their alcohol from their fitness mindset. It's like a reward or something that you deserve because you were good all week. But I think that's a part of the problem, because when you treat fitness and fun like it's two separate things and they're on opposite teams, you fall into this restrict binge, restrict binge mindset. Not to mention the reward of you staying on track and hitting your calories and eating healthier is you losing the fat that you want to lose. That is your reward. You don't need alcohol as a reward. Now, I'm not saying you have to give up alcohol completely. I do think it might be worth cutting it out for 30 days to see how you feel and the kind of progress that you make. But if you still want to include alcohol into your diet, you can do that and still lose fat. And here's how. Option 1 is to set a drink limit and a food boundary. 1 or 2 drinks max per day, and they have to be tracked and worked into your calories for that day, and no food after you start drinking unless you've already pre-tracked the food for that day. Because this will make sure, number one, you're hitting your calories, and number two, you're not going off and ruining your progress from eating or drinking things that you didn't already allot for. You give yourself a clear boundary to stick to. And then option number 2, you might plan alcohol for days when you know you're not going to be on a strict calorie deficit. Maybe you're in a maintenance calorie day instead. This way you have more flexibility with your alcohol, you have more flexibility with your calories, and you don't have to feel the guilt of going over in your calories because hitting your maintenance calories versus going 2,000 calories above. Those are 2 completely different things. One of our clients, Victoria, she has actually cut out alcohol from her life, and the progress she has made is insane, which is why I encourage you, at the very least, you have to cut back on the alcohol you're drinking. But alcohol isn't the only sneaky trap. There's another one, and it's subtle, but it's deadly, and it might be the one that people struggle with the most. Habit number 4 is I'll wait until I'm less busy. You tell yourself now's not the right time. You've got work, you got stress, you got family stuff, vacations, trips coming up. You want to be fully committed and all in. So you push your fitness goals 2 more weeks, 4 more weeks, 8 more weeks. And the truth is, you've been saying that for months, maybe years. I call this the perfect timing trap because you're waiting for the perfect moment to start being consistent, but it never comes. Life is never going to slow down. And in the meantime of you waiting for the perfect time, that same time you're waiting could have been spent taking action to actually see the progress that you're trying to make. And here's the hidden cost: every time you delay taking action and you wait until things are less busy, you reinforce the belief that fitness is only going to work for you when the conditions are perfect. This belief is what keeps you stuck. This habit is usually driven by a desire for control. You want the conditions to be right so you can give your full effort, avoid failure, and feel like you're doing it properly. But real fat loss happens in the messiness of life. If your routine only works when life is easy and perfect, it's not sustainable anyway. And don't you want to do something to make this real lifestyle change you can stick with forever and not just some diet quick fix. And not to mention, your brain will always find a reason to delay if that is the standard that you've set. So here's how you can break this trap. Switch from this all-in mode where you wait until things are perfect to a minimum effective Dose. Ask yourself, what is the smallest action that you can commit to even on your busiest days? Maybe it's a 10-minute walk. Maybe it's drinking a protein shake with breakfast. Maybe it's doing a 20-minute workout instead of a 60-minute workout. You're not aiming for the perfect plan to get you results as quickly as possible. You're aiming for a resilient routine, something you can stick with even when life throws the curveballs at you. That is how long-term fat loss is built. One of our clients, Lindsay, travels about 50% of the year for work, and yet she still sees incredible progress because she has found ways to get hotel workouts in or just hit her steps for that day, or figuring out how to order food when she's eating out at business dinners. And it's allowed her to stay consistent. Not perfect, but she has stayed on track and made incredible progress, and it's important that you do the same. But even when you do show up consistently and not wait for the perfect time, there's another hidden mindset that sneaks in, and it's this idea of if your progress isn't looking like what you see on social media, then it must not be working. Or you must be doing something wrong. And that thinking—that's the root of self-sabotage. So let's talk about unrealistic expectations next and how it kills your results. Habit number five is something I call the progress trap. You've been consistent for two weeks. You've cleaned up your diet. You're meal prepping, hitting your workouts, taking your walks, and then you step on the scale and it's barely moved. And suddenly you're asking yourself, what is the point? Why am I working so hard if it's not going fast? As fast as I want to. This one is called the progress trap because it's when you expect big results from small timelines. It didn't take you 2 weeks to get to the body that you're in right now. Why would you get out of the body you're in right now in 2 weeks? And I'll be empathetic, some of this might not be your fault, especially with social media these days. It's trained us that fat loss should be quick, easy, dramatic. You should be dropping 10 pounds in a week. But real long-lasting results, they're much slower, much less sexier, and much less glamorous. And by the way, it's not easy for me to tell you this because of course I'd want to tell you it's fast and it's easy and you don't have to work hard. Like, I don't want to be telling you this. This is just the truth. And this trap kills your motivation, not because you're doing the wrong things. You're probably doing the right things. You just expected too much too soon, and so you quit even though you were actually on track doing the right things. As humans, our brains are wired for immediate feedback and instant gratification. You train hard and eat clean, and you expect to see something the next day. When the reward doesn't come fast enough, your your brain assumes it's not working. That's a survival mechanism, to be honest. And if you add to the before and after culture of social media where people are showing you, I went from this to this in 2 weeks, I built my glutes from this to this in a month, you're now measuring your progress and your journey with something that is unrealistic and not even true to begin with. So here's the fix. Instead of solely focusing on your outcome-based goals, or what the number on the scale says, switch to action-based goals or habit-based goals. Instead of saying, I want to lose 5 pounds this month, say, I want to hit my calorie goal at least 6 out of 7 days this week, or I want to get all 3 of my workouts every week for the next 30 days. Why? Because these actions and these habits are in your control. What the number on the scale says isn't always in your direct control. The scale is going to go up, it's going to go down, it's going to stall out, you're going to hold on to water weight, there's going to be some sodium, you ate more carbs— like, it's not in your control, but your actions and habits are. And when you stack these habits of doing the right things, getting your workouts, getting your steps in, hitting your calories, what do you think has to happen for you to lose weight? You have to do all of those things anyway, so why not focus on these things and let the outcomes come whenever they do? They're not going to come as fast as you want. I'll just tell you right now, but they will come if you do the right things. And a great example of this is one of our coaching clients, Chelsea. She struggled before with starting and stopping and quitting when progress wasn't happening fast enough, but eventually we worked with her on. Focusing on workouts, focusing on getting her steps, focusing on doing her daily habits. And as you can see, she's made incredible progress. So now you know the 5 habits that are trying to sabotage your fat loss, and more importantly, why they keep showing up and what you can do to fix them and quit them as soon as possible. Quitting the bad habits is only half the battle because now you have to work on replacing them with good habits that will get you closer to your results. And if you're serious about wanting to stop bad habits, start new ones, and finally seeing everlasting change, then click the link in the description of this video to become one of our clients where we can build a plan specifically for you and help coach you through your journey one-on-one. And on top of that, watch this video here to have me break down all of the good habits you should start doing to lose fat faster.