In this 10‑minute solo presentation, personal trainer Eric Roberts shares the practical “cheat codes” he wishes he’d known in his twenties. Drawing on a decade of experience and over 25,000 coached clients, he argues that optimal health and rapid body‑composition change require both cardio and weight training. He outlines a concrete weekly split (lower‑body + incline walk, upper‑body, zone‑2 cardio, another lower‑body, circuit cardio, upper‑body, rest) and stresses that even heavy‑weight loss seekers must lift to preserve muscle and bone density and avoid a “skinny‑fat” look. Roberts explains realistic timelines (8‑12 weeks to see change) and a sensible progress metric (0.5‑1 % of total body weight loss per week). He critiques high‑volume leg days, recommending 4‑6 focused exercises performed near failure in the 5‑12 rep range, and uses a construction‑crew analogy to illustrate “junk volume.” He promotes zone‑2 cardio (incline treadmill walking or weighted‑vest walking) as a low‑stress, fat‑burning method that curbs carb cravings. Nutrition advice includes the “300‑calorie rule” (allow 300 kcal of any favorite foods daily to prevent cravings), the primacy of a calorie deficit (any food works if you’re below maintenance), and a free personalized calorie calculator. He warns against all‑or‑nothing mindsets, introducing a “24‑hour rule” to get back on track quickly after lapses. Fiber‑rich low‑calorie foods like raspberries/blackberries, low‑calorie high‑volume foods, and flexible meal timing are highlighted, with a recommendation to keep morning carbs low and prioritize protein, fat, fiber, and water. Training intensity should be 5‑12 reps with the last reps challenging to ensure muscle definition. Throughout, Roberts mixes instructional detail with motivational persuasion, concluding with a call to join his 8‑week fat‑loss coaching program and a teaser for a follow‑up video on “7 strange signs you’re about to lose belly fat.”
Chapters
Fitness cheat codes I know at 30 that I wish I knew at 20. And by the way, these aren't just theory. These are backed by 10 years of being a personal trainer and coaching over 25,000 clients. Cardio is for heart health. Lifting weights is for strength, muscle, and bone density. You need both to live the healthiest, longest life possible. Don't make the mistake of picking just one. And how would this look in a week's worth of workouts? Monday would be lower body plus a 20-minute incline treadmill walk after. Tuesday, upper body. Wednesday, a zone 2 run or bike ride. Thursday, lower body. Friday, some sort of circuit cardio workout. Saturday, upper body. And then Sunday, total rest day. And yes, even if you have 50 to 100 pounds of weight that you want to lose, you should still be lifting weights because building muscle will help speed up your fat loss. It will also protect your bone density, and it will prevent you from ending up as that skinny fat. It takes 8 to 12 weeks of consistent dieting exercising to actually see a change in your body. Do not quit before then. And I know on social media you see people losing 20 pounds in a month, and when you don't, you think you're doing something wrong and not making good enough progress. But remember, these people can straight up lie to you and you wouldn't know, and they can easily edit their pictures and and videos. So don't compare yourself to what you see online. If you are losing 0.5 to 1% of your total body weight per week, that would be incredible fat loss progress. So if you're 200 pounds, 0.5% of your total body weight would be a pound per week. 1% of your total body weight would be 2 pounds per week. That would be incredible. And this also scales for wherever your weight is at. So if you weigh 180 pounds, you might technically lose less weight per week, but you would still be in the 0.5 to 1% of your total body weight. You only need 4 to 6 exercises on a leg day to lose fat and build muscle. Anything more than that is overkill and will probably get you worse results. Doing a lot of exercises on leg day usually leads to worse results for 2 reasons. Number one, during the workout you get so tired that you end up doing something called junk volume. Think of this like if a construction crew was building a house and they were working for 48 hours straight with no sleep, no food, no water. By the time the 48 hours came around, they might still be working, but they might be putting the bricks in the wrong places. They might be building the bedroom where the living room is supposed to be. They're not going to be doing quality work, which means eventually they'll have to tear it down and redo it again. And number 2, you create so much fatigue from such high-volume workouts that it's going to negatively impact their workouts the rest of the week, and your body can't recover from it. And if your body can't recover, you're not going to build muscle because you only build muscle by recovering from your workouts. In the actual workout, you just tear your muscles down. If you don't recover, they don't build stronger. So what would an example leg day look like? Exercise number 1, you might do a hack squat. Exercise number 2, you You might do a barbell Romanian deadlift. Exercise 3, a hip thrust. And then exercise 4 and 5, you may do a superset of a leg extension and a leg curl. All of that taken close to failure in the right rep range, which we'll talk about later in the video, will absolutely be enough to help you build muscle and lose fat. Incline treadmill walking or walking with a weighted vest is one of the easiest ways to burn fat. And this isn't because there's something magical about it. It's because both of these will elevate your heart rate into something called zone 2. And zone 2 heart rate and cardio is where you can maintain a conversation and still breathe through your nose. This kind of cardio burns extra calories Which will help you be in a calorie deficit without increasing your stress, cortisol, or appetite. Plus, you also burn fat for energy during that specific workout, and you don't burn carbs. When your heart rate gets higher, you burn carbs for energy. This will help you with your fat loss because if you're burning fat and not carbs, your body will not crave carbs as much because you're not using all of them in your workout. And you don't need much. 15 to 30 minutes after you lift weights or on a rest day is more than enough for you to see results. Eat 300 calories per day of your favorite foods. And yes, this includes junk food, ice cream, chips, cookies, pizza. And why would you do this? It's something I call the 300-calorie rule. When you have 300 calories per day of your favorite food, you never over-restrict yourself from them enough to even crave them. And most people fall off their diet because they're craving these foods so bad. They get to the weekend and they overeat on them. But if you just eat 300 calories per day of whatever food you want, you never let your cravings get so high that they eventually take over and you overeat. Not to mention, if you restrict yourself from these foods, not only will you crave them more, but you'll also know when you have them, because eventually you will, you're going to go back to not being allowed to have them. So you might as well eat all of it while you have it before you have to go back to restricting yourself from it. And there are no foods that will make you store fat. As long as you're in a calorie deficit, you are going to lose fat no matter what you eat. And if you need to know exactly how many calories you should be eating for your calorie deficit, I have a free personalized calorie calculator. You can click the link in the description of the video below. It is the same one I use with our online coaching clients who pay us money. Your all or nothing mindset is ruining your progress. If something isn't perfect, you quit. If you're busy, you fall off track. If you go off track with your diet one meal, you end up restarting on Monday. How do you ever expect to stay consistent when if things aren't perfect, which we both know they will never be, you always end up stopping? Something is Always better than nothing. And I encourage you to use the 24-hour rule. When you go off track or life gets busy, not if, get back on track within 24 hours. Never go longer than 24 hours of being off track. And if you do this, there's no way you won't stay consistent. Raspberries and blackberries are the most underrated fruit for fat loss. Why? Because they are high in fiber, and fiber is the most filling nutrient. It actually goes into your stomach and expands to fill your stomach up and keep you more full. And there's something called a low-calorie, high-volume food. They are low in calories, and you can eat a ton of them to fill your stomach up even more for less calories. You can eat 2 meals a day, or you can eat 20 meals a day, and as long as you hit your daily calorie goal, you'll lose fat no matter what. And there's always people in the comment section who will sacrificially give up their private parts to defend why intermittent fasting is so great. Listen, if you like fasting and it works for you, that's awesome, but it's not some magical thing all of us have to do. Because if your daily calories are the same, you will lose the same amount of body fat. And yes, there is research to prove this that I will put in the description below. So if you're somebody who you don't like eating breakfast and you'd rather eat the majority of your food in the middle of the day, perfect, do it. If you're somebody who loves breakfast and you love dinner and you love eating more frequently throughout the day and that helps you stay on track more, awesome, do that too. It doesn't matter. Just hit your daily calorie goal and do what works best No one ever regretted completing their workout, even if it was shitty. So the next time you're not motivated, you're tired, you're thinking about skipping your workout, don't think about how you feel in the moment right now. Think about how you will feel when your workout is supposed to end, when you're going to sleep that night. So if you were supposed to work out at 5 PM, And it's 2 p.m., and you're like, "I don't feel like doing this. I'm tired. I'm busy." Don't think about 2 p.m. You think about 6 p.m. You when you would be done your workout. How will you feel if you skip? How will you feel if you get it done? And I can almost guarantee you, no matter how the workout goes, you could do it tired. You might not lift as heavy. You'll still be more proud of yourself if you got that workout done at 6 p.m. You need to eat like a dog. To lose fat. The same meals at the same times every single day. And some people will complain about this. My response to you is, number one, would you rather be fat? Number two, if you have the time, 2 to 3 hours a day to cook, prepare, clean, all of that, awesome, you do it. That's what works for you. But most of the clients that we coach in my online coaching program are busy professionals who don't have hours per day to cook. And so eating these boring meals actually makes it easier to stay on track. Not to mention, it's less they have to think about if they know exactly what they're eating when they're eating it. Not only is that less decisions that they have to make, but they also know that's going to get them to their calorie goal. It makes counting calories a heck of a lot easier if you're eating more or less of the same foods. Every single day. Keep your carbs low in the morning, and you should be eating protein, fat, fiber, and water. These are the nutrients that will keep you the most full throughout the rest of the day, which means you'll eat less calories the rest of the day and stay within your calorie deficit. Not to mention, this will also stabilize your blood sugar, which prevents nighttime cravings, that 2 PM crash, and it helps keep you more focused on tasks that you have to do earlier in the day. So if you're somebody who does computer work, you will be more focused. The caveat here is if you work out early in the morning, you can and probably should have a bit more carbs because your body will use those carbs for energy and recovery from the workout. But if you just have a ton of carbs in the morning and you don't go do something active, you're Your body typically won't use them as efficiently. Your blood sugar spikes and then it drops, and that's when you have the cravings, the crashes, and the hunger. Do most of your exercise in the 5 to 12 rep range and make sure the last few reps of your set is challenging. Most people work out, but they don't actually look like they work out. And this is the reason why. You're not lifting heavy enough. And you're not pushing yourself close enough failure to actually build the muscle definition that you want. This is one of the number one things that we change with our online coaching clients who come to us, and they immediately start seeing more muscle definition. Not just fat loss, that's one thing, but I think you want to look a certain way. You don't just want to lose weight on the scale. This is how you do that. And if you want a personalized workout and nutrition plan to take out all of the guesswork lose fat and build muscle, and you want a dedicated one-on-one coach who is checking in with you all week, hold you accountable to actually doing these things that you know you should be doing, click the link below to learn more about my 8-week fat loss challenge. It's an 8-week program that we run that is meant to help you kickstart your journey, lose 10 to 20 pounds in the next 8 weeks, and finally keep you consistent. And if you're now thinking, okay, Eric, all of this sounds awesome, but what are some signs that it's actually working? Well, I did a video on 7 strange signs that you're about to lose your belly fat and change your body. You can click here to watch that video coming up next.
