Eric Roberts argues that chasing a specific goal weight often backfires in the final 10-15 pounds of fat loss. Muscle is denser than fat, so the scale lies. He recommends switching from a calorie deficit to maintenance calories with higher carbs, which fills out muscles and improves strength and energy instead of just grinding toward a number.
The worst part of losing weight is once you get down to those last 10 to 15 pounds that you want to lose to get to your goal body weight. I've coached tens of thousands of clients through this, including myself, and there's a mistake that most people make that stops them from ever reaching this. If you don't know it, you will spend months or years chasing these last 10 to 15 pounds without ever being successful. And the first mistake has nothing to do with eating less calories, doing more cardio, or just being more disciplined. Most people come up with this goal weight from either what they weighed in high school, what you weighed pre-kids, what the BMI scale says, what your doctor said. And there's one common issue with all of those, And that is, it doesn't take into consideration having lean muscle mass. Think of it like building your dream house. Let's say you wanted your dream house to be 3,000 square feet. And then as you were building it, you're like, man, I really want an extra add-on breakfast area sunroom where I can have breakfast in the morning, have my coffee, read a book. And you love this breakfast area, but it adds an extra 300 square feet to your house. Would you say, oh well, I only want my house to be 3,000 square feet, so this extra sunroom that I love, gotta get rid of it? No, you love it. It's just your house is now a little bigger. That's muscle. Your goal weight was set before you ever built it or took it into consideration. So if you've been lifting and you're stuck 10 or 15 pounds over your goal weight, you might not be stuck at all. You might just have the extra sunroom. And here's the craziest part. You might actually look better weighing 10 more pounds. And let me explain why. You may have heard muscle weighs more than fat. And while this concept is correct, That is actually not true, and it's important you understand the difference. Muscle is more dense than fat. That means compared to fat, which is squishy and takes up more room, muscle is harder and it takes up less room on your body. Imagine if you had a bunch of toys in your living room on the ground, and then you cleaned up all of those toys. It almost makes your living room look better because there's not as much extra space being taken up. But 1 pound of muscle weighs the same as 1 pound of fat if you put them on a scale. It's like 1 pound of feathers weighs the same as 1 pound of bricks. The composition is different, but they both weigh a pound. So when you're losing fat and building muscle at the same time, the number on the scale might not go down as much as you think it should, But you would actually look more toned, lean, defined than you would at a lower number on the scale. And on top of that, did you know there's a way you can fill up your muscles to make them pop more, look more defined, and actually make you visually look even better? Well, there is, but this is where you are going to come in. the biggest crossroads in your journey. Most people get so obsessed with their goal weight on the scale, they end up sabotaging their own journey. Once you get down to those last 10 to 15 pounds that you want to lose, you have 2 routes you can go. The first route is probably what you think it is, because to lose fat, you need to create a calorie deficit. But now it's harder to create the calorie deficit because you're getting to this final Stage. It's almost like beating the final boss in a video game. It will take you the longest, it will require the most effort, and this usually means dropping calories even lower, doing more cardio, having to be more restrictive with your diet, which also usually leads to lower energy, decreased strength in your workouts, less libido, more food noise and cravings. And on top of that, like we mentioned, There's not even a guarantee that when you lose those 10 to 15 pounds, you're even gonna like the way you look. And to be clear, I'm not saying this is right or wrong. I'm just telling you what it takes to get there after doing it myself and coaching thousands of clients through it. This is just the reality of it. And if you still decide this is what I want to go for, awesome, go for it. But there's a second— there's a second route you can go, and this one is going to sound crazy, but stick with me. Instead of chasing that lower number on the scale, which we now know is just made up, doesn't really mean anything, and most likely won't even get you to look the way you want to look. You would actually increase your calories, eat more food to your new maintenance calories. This just means how many calories you should be eating to maintain your current body fat and muscle mass. And by doing this, you would also increase your carbohydrate intake. Remember I said earlier there's a way to make your muscles pop more and look more defined? Well, your muscles store carbs inside of them. Think of it like a pillow in a pillowcase. If you just had the pillowcase with no pillow in it, it's just kind of this soft, flabby pillowcase. But when you put the pillow inside, now it looks more full, it looks more defined, and that's what carbs do to your muscles. So when you increase calories and increase your carbs, your muscles look more defined, your body looks more lean even at a higher body weight on the scale. Plus, more calories equals More strength in your workouts, more energy, more libido, less restriction and more flexibility to go out on the weekends, enjoy a meal out here and there, work in your favorite foods into your calories. So while you may not have hit your goal weight, I call this maturing, realizing your goal weight never mattered. Because it's not about starving. Restricting and depriving yourself to hit a certain number on the scale. It's about looking, feeling, and performing your best regardless what the number on the scale says. And I know this can seem scary to eat more food and detach yourself from the number on the scale. So that's why if you want personalized one-on-one guidance from my team to not only help you lose the fat, but once you get to this point of should I give up on my goal weight and increase my calories? That's exactly what we do in my 8-week fat loss challenge. You can click the link in the description of the video below to learn more. And if you're now like, okay, Eric, maybe I don't want to lose those last 10 to 15 pounds, but this idea of increasing my calories is very scary to me. How would I even do that? Well, don't worry, because I made a video on exactly that. If you just click this video here to watch that coming up next.
