In this solo coaching video, Eric Roberts addresses the common frustration of short‑term weight‑loss attempts and presents four science‑backed, sustainable strategies for losing fat and keeping it off through 2026. He begins with the 80/20 flexible calorie‑deficit rule, illustrated by client Holly’s success losing 100 lb while eating a daily bag of chips, emphasizing that staying within daily calorie targets while allowing favorite foods prevents binge cycles. Next, he explains that only about 5 % of daily calories are burned through formal exercise, urging viewers to boost the remaining 95 % by increasing the thermic effect of food (eat more protein), enhancing non‑exercise activity thermogenesis (stand more, walk 6–10 k steps daily), and raising basal metabolic rate (build muscle and get sufficient sleep). He then stresses the importance of tracking multiple progress metrics—body weight, waist measurements every two weeks, and progress photos every four weeks—to avoid misleading scale readings, using client Brian’s experience as an example. Finally, he discusses metabolic adaptation, clarifying that a slower metabolism is a normal response to weight loss and does not necessitate stopping a calorie deficit; instead, occasional “diet breaks” are acceptable, and maintaining 80–90 % consistency (≈25–28 days per month) is sufficient for sustainable results. Throughout, he offers a free calorie calculator link and promotes his online coaching program.
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Do you want to be in the best shape of your life in 2026? But everything you try only works short term and you can never stay consistent with it. I've coached over 25,000 people with their fat loss journeys, and in this video, I'm going to show you 4 science-backed ways to lose weight and keep it off forever without restrictive diets or suffering through hours of cardio in 2026. And the first way is what over 90% of people get wrong with their diet. One of our clients, Holly, struggled with this before signing up with us. Before losing 100 pounds, Holly would lose some weight and then gain it back. It was this vicious, never-ending cycle. She tried all the diets, Weight Watchers being the main one. When she would count her points, she would lose weight, but she would be pissed off she couldn't work in her favorite foods She actually enjoyed eating. She just wanted some chips, but since they were too high in points and were considered bad, she didn't allow herself to have them while she was on the diet. So yeah, she would lose weight, but it would lead her to eventually say, "Fuck this! I'd rather be fat. I just want to eat some foods that I enjoy," and then she would binge on those foods when she wasn't on the diet. It wasn't until Holly joined our online coaching program and learned the 80/20 rule, which is this: In a calorie diet. Deficit, as long as you hit your calories, you're going to lose weight. So Holly made 80% of her calories come from healthy, nutrient-dense foods, and then the other 20% came from whatever the hell she wanted. In fact, she ate one bag of chips every single day while losing 100 pounds. Yes, you heard that right— every day. This allowed Holly to not be so over-restricted and in turn much more consistent with her diet, leading to not just lose the weight but now keep it off forever. So follow the 80/20 rule and include your favorite foods in your calorie deficit. And if you need to know how many calories you should be eating per day, click the link in the description of this video below to use my free calorie calculator. But here's the thing, even if you get this part right with your diet, if you don't get the exercise part right, you won't make When most people think about exercise for weight loss, they think high-intensity cardio, sweating, burning calories. But I want to teach you something. These bowls represent how many calories your body burns in a day. 5% comes from your daily exercise. And don't mind me spilling my Rice Krispies everywhere. Yes, only 5% comes from the workout you do today. 10% comes from your TEF, Your thermic effect of food. This is how many calories your body burns digesting the food you eat. 15% comes from your NEAT, your non-exercise activity thermogenesis. This is just how many calories your body burns through all the movement you do during the day that's not a dedicated workout. And then 70% comes from your BMR. This is how many calories your body burns in a day just to keep you alive. So instead of just focusing on the 5%, let's focus on the other 95% so you can increase your calorie burn to help you lose more fat. To increase your TEF, how many calories your body burns digesting food, eat more protein. Protein has the highest thermic effect of food. For every 100 calories of protein you eat, your body can burn up to 30 calories. of those calories. For your NEAT, there are 2 things you can do to increase this. Number 1, stand more throughout the day. A lot of us sit at a desk, so if you get a standing desk, you'll burn more calories, even if it's just 1 to 2 hours a day. And number 2, walk more and increase your daily steps. We like to coach our clients on getting at least 6,000 steps per day, As close to 10,000 as you can. And then to increase your BMR, number 1, build more muscle because muscle requires more calories burned to maintain it. And number 2, get more sleep because more sleep improves literally every other calorie burn function in your body. And doing this will allow you to maximize your calorie burn. And then when you pair that with point number 1, you'll maximize your fat loss. But if you aren't tracking your fat loss accurately, you might think you're not making progress, which would then lead you to end up quitting. And there's nothing worse than that. This used to happen to our client Brian before he signed up for coaching with us. He would be following his plan but not seeing results. And when I say seeing results, I mean losing weight fast enough on the scale. This would discourage him because he felt like he wasn't making progress, so he would quit. That's why when joined coaching, we started tracking multiple forms of fat loss progress, not just weight loss progress. Because remember, if you're losing fat and building muscle at the same time, you can do that and not have the scale change that much because 1 pound of fat weighs the same as 1 pound of muscle. You might've heard muscle weighs the same as fat or muscle is heavier than fat. No, it isn't. They both weigh a pound. The difference is the composition. You can see here, fat is more squishy and it's bigger than muscle, whereas muscle is more dense and it's more hard. So this means if you lose 1 pound of fat and gain 1 pound of muscle, the scale wouldn't change, but your body would look different. Your clothes will fit different. Your muscles look more toned. Your waist measurement will go down or your belt size will change. But if you're only going by weight loss progress on the scale, you may think you're not seeing progress when you are. So this is why we have all of our clients track their body weight, yes, but also track your body measurements, specifically your waist measurement, every 2 weeks, and then take progress pictures every 4 weeks. Because now this allows you more data and progress to track to see if you're going the right direction. And oftentimes, especially early on, you'll find the scale won't drop that much, but your measurements will change, your progress pictures will change, your clothes will fit different. And now you can actually see that to know you're making progress, to keep going and stay consistent. And speaking of timelines, the next point we'll talk about is exactly how long you should stay in a calorie deficit or stay on your diet so you don't negatively impact your metabolism and fat loss results. There's something called metabolic adaptation, and this is just a fancy phrase for saying your metabolism slows down when you're on a calorie deficit. And this is why some people will say you should only be in a calorie deficit for 8 weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks to avoid slowing down your metabolism. There are many things wrong with this. Let me explain a few. First, yes, your metabolism is going to slow down, but that's a normal part of losing weight. And let me explain why. Imagine if you were to wear a 20-pound weighted backpack or weighted vest around all day for everything you did. This would probably make your daily task harder, correct? This means your body would have to work more Thus burning more calories. But when you come home and you take off that weighted vest or backpack, things are easier to do. This means your body won't have to work as hard and doesn't have to burn as many calories. Weight loss works the same way. As you lose weight, your body doesn't have to work as hard, so it won't need to burn As many calories. And second, because this is normal, this doesn't mean you should stop. In fact, it means you should keep going because you're doing everything right and making progress. The only time you need to stop a calorie deficit is if you need a mental break. We call these diet breaks. But if you do what we talked about in the previous points by incorporating your favorite foods and increasing your calorie burn through the ways that we mentioned, you won't feel so restricted and burnt out from dieting, so you won't really need to take a break. Plus, let's just be honest here, if you're a normal person, you'll probably have breaks on your diet sprinkled in throughout. For example, you might go out to eat with your friends on the weekend, and maybe you go over your calories a bit. That doesn't mean you ruined all your progress, but that does mean you had a break from your diet, or maybe you have an anniversary dinner, or maybe you have a vacation. So you aim to be 80 to 90% consistent with your calories and your diet. So that means out of 31 days in a month, 25 to 28 days you should be hitting your calories. The other days you might go off track a bit, you might not track calories that day, but guess what? That's okay because it means you're being consistent with your calories and your diet, and that is what you need to lose weight. You do not need perfection because perfection means you do something for a short period of time and then you fall off. That's why most people lose weight, gain it back, lose weight, gain it back. But the people who are consistent, this allows you to lose weight in a sustainable way. and keep it off forever in 2026. And truthfully, this is what we have found to be most successful with all of our successful online coaching clients— to make that great progress but make it in a sustainable way, which I know if you're still watching this, I know that's what you want. And by the way, if you're interested in learning more about our online coaching program, you can click the link in the description below of this video. But with all this being said, there is a scenario where a calorie deficit stops working and your fat loss will stop working. And you can watch this video here to find out when that is, along with 9 years of honest fat loss advice.
