9 Years Of Honest Fat Loss Advice in 30 Min

I've coached over 20,000 people with their fat loss over the last 9 years, and if I had to give you my most brutally honest advice to help you lose fat faster, here's exactly what I'd tell you. Lesson number 1: the scale is going to spike up or stall out even when you're perfect. If you feel like you're doing everything right by eating healthier, getting your walks in, doing workouts, But the scale just doesn't seem to move. This is a normal part of you losing fat. And actually, let me show you a visual to represent this. I'm going to use this bowl of Rice Krispies to change the way you think about fat loss. This bowl of Rice Krispies represents your body fat. And right now you might be overflowing in the body fat. Now, each individual Rice Krispie that I remove represents one successful day in a calorie deficit. And sticking to your diet. If I remove one Rice Krispie, does the bowl look any different? What if I remove seven Rice Krispies? Does the bowl look any different? It isn't until you stack up multiple days, weeks, and months of successfully sticking to your calorie deficit plan that you even start to notice a difference in how the bowl looks. But just because you don't notice a difference right away doesn't mean that progress. Isn't happening. You just need to stick with it long enough to actually see the progress that you want to see. I hope this visual helped, and now I have to figure out what I'm gonna do with these Rice Krispies. I'm probably gonna eat them. Let's get back to the video though. So keep trusting the process, don't quit, and in fact, lesson number 2 is gonna help you with this as well. Lesson number 2: your clothes might fit better even if the scale doesn't move. Again, I know you watching this, you probably live or die by the scale. But what usually happens first, before you notice a big drop on the scale, your clothes will start to fit differently. Your pants might be a bit looser. You'll notice you can put your jacket or your coats on a bit easier. And the reason that this happens is because you are losing fat and building muscle at the same time. This is one of our clients, Sarah. Guess how much weight she lost in between these two pictures? I'll give you a second. The answer is none. She lost no weight in between these two pictures, but as you can see, her stomach looks different, her legs look more defined, and her clothes were fitting differently even though the scale wasn't going down. So if this is happening to you, please don't get discouraged and don't think that progress isn't happening. There are many other forms of progress that you should be looking at other than just the scale. And we'll talk about that later in the video as well. Lesson number 3, too much cardio backfires. You've probably been told to see the scale go down and lose weight, you should be doing cardio. And while yes, cardio can help you burn more calories and create a calorie deficit, just like anything, too much can have negative side effects. And those negative side effects are going to be number 1, you have a big increase in your cravings, hunger, and appetite. This is going to make it exponentially harder for you to stick to your diet, which is the primary way you lose fat. And number 2, doing too much cardio can also lead to muscle loss. This would mean a decrease in your metabolism, and you wouldn't look the way you want to look. You'd end up as that skinny fat. And number 3, One that people don't talk about often. If you're doing so much cardio, consciously or subconsciously, you probably think you don't have to be as on point with your diet, and it's not a big deal if you go off track on the weekends or if you eat some extra calories you don't account for because you're doing all this cardio to burn it off anyway. Remember, you're never going to be able to out-cardio a bad diet. So for fat loss, put the majority of your focus on Your nutrition, your strength training, and use cardio as a tool to help you lose fat, not the main tool. This will look like hitting 5,000 to 10,000 steps per day and maybe doing 1 to 3 days a week of low-intensity cardio where you don't get your heart rate very high for about 15 to 30 minutes at a time. Lesson number 4, calories aren't all that matters for fat loss. Now you might be thinking, Eric, wait a minute, I thought eating a calorie deficit was the only way to lose fat, and that is correct, yes. But the food quality within those calories does matter too, and here's why. Number one, for example, most people don't know when you eat whole foods, your body has to burn more calories to break down those foods versus if you ate processed foods Since the foods are already processed, your body doesn't have to burn as many calories breaking those down. So if somebody's eating 1,500 calories of eggs and potatoes and oatmeal and fruit and veggies versus 1,500 calories of Oreos and Rice Krispies— not to say those are bad, but this person's actually going to burn more calories eating this sort of diet, which again can help you be in a calorie deficit better. Also, foods like protein, fiber, fruits, veggies. These foods will help keep you more full and satisfied, and they are harder to overeat on versus foods like ice cream, chips, cookies, Oreos. They usually don't keep you very full, which means you're going to eat more calories throughout the day, and they're very easy to overeat on because they taste so damn good. So again, eating foods like this over here will help you stick to your calorie deficit better, leading to more fat loss. So yes, calories determine your fat loss, but not all calories are created equal. Now, this doesn't mean you can't have some processed junk food sometimes, because that is going to be lesson number 5. Lesson 5: Follow the 80/20 rule. Most people, when they go on a diet to lose weight, they try to only eat clean and healthy foods, and they think foods like we just talked about— cake, chips, Oreos are bad and they can never have them. But what ends up happening? You're gonna feel over-restricted, deprived, and you're just gonna end up binging on all of these foods later. This is what leads to most people yo-yo dieting, where they're good Monday through Thursday but go off track Friday through Sunday. So instead, use something that we use with our clients all the time, which is the 80/20 rule. This means 80% of your nutrition should be coming from nutrient-dense whole foods. These are your typical clean and healthy foods, and then 20% can come from foods that you enjoy or treat foods. So if let's say your calorie deficit number is 1,800 per day, 1,450 calories should come from healthy clean foods, and then 350 can come from ice cream, chips, cookies, or treats that you enjoy. This way, the majority of your diet is still clean and healthy, but you're working in these foods so you don't hate your diet as much. You're able to stick with it and be consistent longer and make a sustainable lifestyle change. And by the way, if you need to know what your calorie deficit goals should be, there'll be a link in the description of this video below. Lesson number 6, you are going to have To get selfish. You watching this, you probably put everybody else's wants and needs above your own. And whether you're just a very nice person, or maybe you're a parent with young kids, you might have to take care of other people. But if you don't get selfish, and if you don't take care of yourself, nobody else is going to do it for you. And if you don't get selfish and make yourself a priority, you won't take the actions that are necessary to see the progress that you want to see, because you're not going to track your calories, you're not going to make time for meal prep or workouts, you're not going to go to sleep on time so you can wake up on time and get your workout. I know it can be hard, but you need to make your goals a priority. And remember, it's actually not being selfish, because if you put yourself first, you are going to show up as a better person for everybody else in your life. You'll have more energy. You'll be less cranky, less angry, less emotional. And what do they say on the airplanes anyway? Put your mask on before helping others. Please start getting more selfish. Lesson number seven: Fat loss is going to take longer than you want. Across all the internet and social media, you probably see these people losing twenty pounds in a month, ten pounds in two weeks. And when you only lose a pound or two, you think you're doing something wrong or it should be going. Faster. I want to remind you of 2 things. Number one, you've probably tried the quick fix before and you've tried rushing it before, but where did that get you? Losing weight in a very rapid way is not going to be the sustainable way. And why would you want to lose the weight just to gain it all back? That's exhausting. So losing weight the slow way is actually the fast way because you're going to lose it and keep it off forever. And number 2, remember, slow progress is better than no progress. But what is realistic, healthy progress? That is going to be lesson number 8. A realistic rate of fat loss is 0.5 to 2 pounds per week. I know that you expect to lose weight every single day, and when you don't, you get upset. But what most people don't understand is this: Once you start losing more than 2, maybe 3 pounds per week, you are going to start using muscle for energy, which means you're going to lose muscle, which means you're going to do what we talked about earlier, which is decrease your metabolism and end up skinny fat. And that is not what you want. And number 2, remember, if you lose it quicker, you are going to gain it back quicker. So if you're falling within the 0.5 to 2 pound per week range, you are making great progress. And keep in mind, this is on average. So if one week you lose 0 pounds, but the next week you lose 2 pounds, over 2 weeks you lost 2 pounds, which is 1 pound per week on average. So don't just look at one week, look at multiple weeks. If you're not tracking, you're probably overeating. When most people are trying to lose weight, they either just think, oh, I'm eating clean, I'm eating healthy, and that should be enough to lose weight. No, that is not enough for you to lose weight because you need to be eating in a calorie deficit. It does not matter how clean or unclean you are eating, or how healthy or unhealthy Your calories are what matters. And number two, if you're not tracking, you don't know how many calories you're eating. But also, most people are terrible, myself included, at guesstimating portion sizes and guesstimating calories. Trust me on this. If you have not yet done this, get a food scale and track your calories every day for seven days. You will be shocked. At how many calories you are actually consuming. You can use a calorie counting app. Like, I have actually built my own calorie counting app where you can scan barcodes and easily track your calories. There's going to be a link in the description of this video if you'd like to check that out. But this way, you'll actually know the calories you're consuming, and you'll know if you're in the calorie deficit or not. And a last side note, it makes you aware of what you're eating. So even those little bites and snacks throughout the day that you don't think are a big deal— 50 calories here, 70 calories there, 80 calories here— it all adds up. And it's usually the reason why people aren't losing weight. Lesson number 10: you are going to be a little bit hungry in a calorie deficit. I know it sucks being a little bit hungry. But let me explain something to you. When you're eating in a calorie deficit, you are eating less calories than what your body needs to maintain its weight. Your body has something called homeostasis, which just means it wants to stay the exact same. It doesn't want to lose weight and it doesn't want to gain weight, by the way. The easiest thing to do is maintain. So when you're eating less calories than what is needed to maintain, your body is much smarter than you. I'm not insulting you, it's just the truth. So it's going to say, hey, we're not eating enough, eat a little bit more so we can maintain homeostasis, aka you get hungry. So just know, if you are a little bit hungry while trying to lose fat, this is a sign that you're in a calorie deficit. Now, I don't mean you need to be starving, and you should not be starving because that probably means you're eating too little, you're going to lose muscle, and it's not going to be sustainable. So on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being you are completely stuffed and 10 being you could eat small children next to you, you're probably going to be around a 6 to an 8 on the hunger scale. So you'll be a little bit hungry but not starving, especially before you go to bed. You very well might be a little bit hungry before going to bed, but just remember, that's a sign that you're in a calorie deficit. Lesson number 11: you're going to have days where you go way over your calories. And I know when people have this happen, You think you fucked everything up. You think that you're a failure and you think you ruined all of your progress. Let me reframe it to you like this. When you eat super clean, super healthy, and super perfect for one day, do you make all of your progress in that one day? No. You wish you did. Maybe in your dreams you did. But that's not how this works. It's the same thing when you go over your calories one day. It's impossible to ruin all of your progress in one day. What does ruin your progress, though, is thinking you fucked up and using that as an excuse to keep fucking things up and stay off track for the next 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 days. After you have a day where you overeat or don't track or eat more than you should have, just get back on track the next day. This is one of our clients, Alan. He was able to lose over 15 pounds in 8 weeks, and he wasn't 100% perfect with his diet. He had days where he went over his calories, but he just got back on track and he still made great progress. I promise you can do the same. All right, lesson number 12: GLP-1s won't fix your habits. And let me preface this: if you don't know what GLP-1s are, they are those weight loss shots like Ozempic Wegovy, and I don't care if you take those shots or not. We work with clients who do take it, and we work with clients who don't take it. It doesn't matter to me. But what I have seen, clients have come to us after using these shots, either during they are using it or after they've used it, and they've said to us, Eric, even though I use this medication, I didn't change my habits. I wasn't eating high protein. I wasn't lifting weights. I wasn't getting steps. And they either lost the weight and gained it all back, or if they did lose the weight, they lost a lot of muscle along the way and they felt very frail and weak. And so I'm not saying these shots are good or bad or indifferent. It doesn't matter to me at all. I just need you to understand you're still going to have to build healthy habits, get high protein, lift weights, get your daily walks, get good sleep. Eat fruits and veggies. It's your decision if you want to take these drugs or not, but focus on building healthy habits regardless, because if not, you're gonna have to at some point down the road anyway. So you might as well start now. Lesson 13: Reaching your goal weight won't make you happy. And by the way, I had to move my setup because the sun was right in my eyes. But most people, when you start out on a weight loss journey, You think if I just hit 150 pounds on the scale, my life will be great, everything will be solved, I'll be happy, and you have no worries ever again. And after coaching tens of thousands of clients by now, even when you hit that goal weight, number one, you're still gonna be dissatisfied because there's always something you're gonna want to improve, and we are our own biggest critics. And number two, This goal weight is just some arbitrary number that doesn't even mean anything. So yes, you can have weight loss goals you want to shoot for, but along with those weight loss goals, ask yourself, how do you feel? What does your energy look like? What does your blood markers look like? How are your workouts? What is your life like? Because if you have to over-restrict your food to get to 150 pounds, but you can maintain 160 much easier and live a great life, I think 160 would still be fine. Not to mention, the number you have in your head probably doesn't take into consideration building lean muscle mass. So your 150 might actually be 160. But if you're just never going to be happy until you hit 150, it's not a great way to go about your journey. So shift your mindset from having this goal weight or die To just embracing progress along the way and let it be flexible. Lesson 14, the only way you fail is if you quit. And I know we talked about this one earlier, but so many people struggle with this. You can't fail unless you quit altogether, because you're gonna have days where you miss workouts, you're gonna have days where you go over your calories, you're gonna have days when your scale doesn't go down like you want it But that is all a normal part of losing body fat. There is nothing wrong with you, and you're not doing anything wrong. The only way you fail is if you quit. So as long as you do not quit, promise you, you will keep making progress. Lesson 15: Comparing your progress to others ruins everything. And I know you scroll on social media every single night, and you hear and see all these people making insane fat loss progress results. And you're sitting here wondering, what am I doing wrong and what is wrong with me? But as somebody who's helped thousands of people lose fat, let me tell you. Number one, you don't know what those people are doing. They could be having severe eating disorder issues. They could be over-restricting their foods, doing hours and hours of cardio, or they just might live a very different life than you do. Maybe they're a fitness influencer and that's their only job is to be in shape, whereas you have a job, Have kids, have a social life. So you can't compare your progress to anybody else's. And not to mention, it doesn't matter what they're doing. Just like it doesn't matter what is in somebody else's bank account compared to yours. It matters what you are doing. And if you are getting better than what you were yesterday, a week ago, a month ago, that is all that matters. And that is all you should be focusing on. Because if you do that long enough, Over a period of time, you're gonna look up and say, wow, I lost 20 pounds. I fit in my clothes. I feel way better. My health is better. But just focus on your own journey. Stop comparing yourself to other people. Lesson 16: Take progress pictures and measurements. Do not just go by your scale weight. If you only use the scale, you are setting yourself up for failure because the scale is the most fickle way to track progress for many reasons. Number one, it doesn't take into consideration the amount of lean muscle mass you have. Number 2, it's going to fluctuate for various different reasons. Maybe you ate out the night before and you had more carbs and sodium, which would lead your weight to spike up the next day due to water weight. Or maybe you had a really hard workout and you have inflammation in your muscles, which leads to short-term water weight. Most people don't know that. Or maybe you're a woman who's on her period and you're storing some extra water weight and you're bloated. That's going to lead the scale to read differently. Or maybe you just got to take a big poop. But all of these reasons will lead the scale to be fickle. So if you only go by that, you're not going to be successful. So what we do with our clients is, yes, we do take our body weight every single day. And this is just to get the data over the course of the month. We don't care what you weigh on Tuesday to Friday. We care, okay, what did you weigh on March 21st to April 21st, April 21st to May 21st? And we get all the data to look at. And beyond that, we take our measurements every 2 weeks, primarily waist measurement. We take progress pictures every 4 weeks, and we track our workouts and our strength progress. So how much weight are you lifting? How many reps did you do? Because All 4 of these things will lead you to see the progress that you are making. And when you see progress, nothing is more motivating than seeing progress. But if you don't track it, you can't see it. So don't just go by the scale. Lesson 17: Other people will notice your progress before you do. I said it earlier, but we are our own biggest critic. Even if you are making progress, you're probably not going to give yourself credit for it. And to be fair, if you see yourself every single day in the mirror, sometimes it's hard to notice these little changes that are adding up over time. So this is why other people might tell you, whoa, wow, you look way different. I can tell you've lost weight. I can tell your arms are more defined. And you might be like, what are they talking about? I don't notice anything. But if they haven't seen you in 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 5 weeks, They are going to notice those changes before you notice those changes. So when people tell you that, that's a sign that you're going in the right direction, even if you don't notice it yourself yet. You will, but you just got to stick with it and give it time. Lesson 18: Stop quitting when it gets difficult. And this is a little bit of tough love to you, but if every time you get faced with a challenge or things get uncomfortable, Or you're not able to be in your perfect routine. If you quit every time that happens, you will not make the progress that you want to see. Because as you and I both know, the majority of the time things are not going to be perfect. Your life is crazy busy. There's always something that is going to come up. So if every time that happens you just quit, how do you expect to make The progress that you want to make. The next time some obstacle comes up for you, I want you to figure out a way to still keep going regardless. Now, this doesn't mean you have to be perfect and keep doing the same thing. For example, maybe you have a schedule change at work, or one of your kids gets sick and you have to go home early and take care of them. Maybe instead of getting a full 60-minute workout, you might only get a 20 or a 30-minute workout. But you still got something done and you were still able to be consistent. Staying consistent during those hard periods of times is what helps prove to yourself that you can stay consistent and keep going. And now, no matter what comes up, you know you'll be able to get through it and you'll stay on track and make the progress you want to make. So use this as your sign the next time something comes up, push through it. Lesson number 20. You won't feel motivated every day. So, if you're somebody who's waiting to get motivation or if you're somebody who doesn't take action when you're not motivated, then you're thinking about it all wrong. Here's how I want you to think about it instead. Most people think, I get motivated, I take action and then I see some results. That's not how this works. Instead, I want you to realize first, you take action, even if it's difficult, even if it's challenging, even if you don't feel like it. Because once you do that, you will see some results. And those results might look like you just feel better, you have more energy, you stay on track, you see some results. And what did we say earlier? The most motivating thing is seeing results. So That will motivate you to keep taking action, to keep seeing the results. And that's how this cycle works. So, stop waiting for motivation. Take imperfect action first. You will see some results and those results will motivate you to keep taking action. Lesson number 21, the weekends can derail your progress. Now, I know I said earlier that a day or 2 off track doesn't ruin your progress. And it doesn't. But if every single weekend you are going off track, now that's not a day or two, that's 8 days out of the month. And so said nicely, you need to get your ish together on the weekends if you want to see progress. Because eating 1,500 calories Monday through Friday, but then eating 3,000 calories Saturday and Sunday would force your weekly calorie average more around 2,000 calories as opposed to 1,500, then you'll work super hard during the week. You won't do it on the weekends, and you're going to get frustrated because you feel like you're working hard and you feel like you're doing everything right. But these 2 days are actually causing you to be in a calorie maintenance as opposed to the calorie deficit that you want to be in. So try to treat the weekends just like a weekday in the sense of You still want to try to plan your meals. You still want to try to get your walks, eating high protein, fruits and veggies. It might look a little bit different, but you can use the same principles and you need to use the same principles if you want to be successful. Lesson 22, eating the same foods makes fat loss easier. And I get a lot of pushback on this, but out of the thousands of clients that we have coached be successful with their fat loss journey, The people who are the most successful, this is a common theme amongst all of them. And I'm not saying you have to hate the foods that you eat. For example, every day I eat Greek yogurt, french fries, sweet potato fries, chicken thighs, ground beef, eggs, salads. I love all of those foods. So for me, I don't mind eating them every single day. And you can also cook them in different ways as well. Maybe you do grilled chicken and then you do air fried chicken and maybe you do it with a sandwich and maybe you do it with rice as a side and maybe you do asparagus one day and then you do broccoli the next day. Get 10 to 20 foods that you're going to eat every single day and just rotate through those. I promise it's not as bad as you think it will be and it's going to make your journey exponentially easier. Lesson 23, it is going to feel insanely hard at first. Remember, anytime you start something new or anytime you're trying to get better at something, it's hard before it gets easy. And for most people, what we have seen coaching thousands of clients, it usually gets easier around the 4 to 6 week mark. So, if you can just not quit, And push yourself through those first 4 to 6 weeks, it will get easier. You won't have to think about it as much. You'll create systems and routines that work for you. It'll feel less of a chore. You won't need as much motivation, and it'll just start to become a habit. But if you don't push through those first 4 to 6 weeks, you'll never get to the point of it being easier. And if you're in week 2 and you quit, when you get back to it, that doesn't mean you're starting from week 2. You're starting from week 0, and you have to get to that 4 to 6 week mark again. So again, the slow way is the fast way, because if you keep starting and stopping and starting and stopping, you're just delaying your progress. Start Tell yourself you're going to push through these first 4 to 6 weeks and it will become easier. And by the way, if you want some other strategies to make your fat loss easier, you can check out some of our online coaching options below or watch this video about a calorie deficit and how to make it easier.