Transcription
If I needed to lose 30 pounds fast and keep it off, I already know what works. I've seen it work for my patients, thousands of them. I've seen it work for hundreds of thousands of people in our challenges. And I'd use the exact process for myself. These seven habits are how I'd get my body back into fat-burning mode starting today. And they're probably not what you've been told to do.
So, let's start with habit one. This one's first because it can literally make or break your fat-burning momentum for the whole day. What you eat in the morning either helps you burn fat all day or triggers cravings, blood sugar crashes, and fat storage. And the difference comes down to one word: protein.
In fact, one study showed that just by increasing protein from 15% to 30% of their diet, people naturally ate 441 fewer calories per day. They lost nearly 11 pounds of body fat in 12 weeks. And they weren't even trying to cut calories; they were just less hungry. Why? Because the way protein works, it keeps blood sugar steady. It lowers your insulin, your fat storage hormone, and it keeps you full, so you're satisfied, and you're not snacking all day long. It also is the key to stopping late-night eating before it even starts. So, it sets your metabolism up to burn fat instead of storing it.
In fact, the studies also show that a protein-rich breakfast can lower your ghrelin, which is your hunger hormone, by up to 25%. Who needs an injection when we've got that? It means fewer cravings, less snacking later in the day. You set yourself up early in the day. You frontload protein, you balance your hormones, and you stay in control. Your body feels fed and nourished, and it stops begging for junk.
So, what's the goal? How much protein should you aim for? Men, 30 to 40ish grams in the morning. Women, 20 to 30 grams. Here's some easy breakfast ideas. And you might not even have to eat to actually get this in, for you intermittent fasting peeps that skip breakfast and maybe just do—I do it quite a bit—some dirty fasting, okay? Not just water in the morning. Having protein coffee where you're adding collagen to coffee. You could throw in a little healthy fat, some butter, and maybe a little coconut oil, and you blend that. It is a delicious latte. I'll put the recipe in the link where you can see exactly how to make this. It's a protein bomb in your coffee. Protein coffee. You can still skip a meal, stay real tight. If you like to fast and not have a meal in the morning and make it quick, this is an easy one to add in.
Now, what I've been doing a little bit more recently is I've just been mixing collagen protein in with cocoa powder and have chocolate milk basically in the morning. I just do it with water; it tastes good enough. You could do it with milk if you wanted to. Another way to easily get some protein in in a liquid form. You could also make a protein shake. As I said before, just mixing chocolate collagen with cacao—lots of extra antioxidants. That's easy in water. You could blend that up. I'll put a link for that video below on the amazing benefits of cacao and why I think you should get it into your diet as a superfood. But you can make a protein shake out of that. Add some nut butter to it. Add some blueberries to it. Add some seeds like chia seeds to help your digestive tract—consuming more fiber. It's going to flush foods through you, but it's going to be nutrient-dense. So, a protein shake might be the way to go.
Now, I also will regularly do eggs. Two to four eggs will do—nice dose of protein, good choline to help support your liver. You could even add a side of avocado for some healthy fats and some extra fat metabolism boosting. You could go with some breakfast meat, some turkey sausage, some bacon, some turkey bacon. You can even add some sauteed greens on the side for some extra fiber. The more fiber you're getting, the more full you're getting, and it's going to move that food through your digestive tract. Just make sure that your first meal includes protein, not just fruit, not just muffins and cereals and toasts and carbohydrates. Protein early means fewer cravings later in the day, more muscle, faster metabolism.
What if I'm plant-based or dairy-free? This still works. You still have plenty of options, but you want to be careful of quality. Collagen powder is dairy-free; that's why I like it. Bone broth protein, dairy-free. You could use hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds inside those smoothies to get some extra protein. You could use a clean plant-based protein powder. Just be leery. Make sure there's no extra additive ingredients, especially artificial sweeteners. Nut-based smoothies, adding in extra nuts or cashew butter or almond butter, great way to get good taste in a smoothie with some protein. You can have beans with your eggs. Now, if you're vegan, obviously it's out. If you're vegetarian, and still enjoying eggs, you can add in extra fiber with beans anywhere. Just be careful with plant-based meats. It is extremely hard to get one that does not contain linoleic acid or other artificial ingredients that are toxifying your liver and slowing down weight loss. Again, if you're an intermittent faster, focused more on a liquid with protein in it. You won't be spiking your insulin levels. You can add a little fat with that. As I said, that recipe is below. And when you do stop fasting, make sure your first meal is loaded with hearty protein, quality protein, not like a carb-heavy snack or a fruit juice that would be high in fructose.
Okay, for the next habit, let me say something up front: Carbs are not the enemy, but eating them the wrong way at the wrong time or in the wrong form, that's a fast track to cravings, fat storage, and hormone imbalances, especially if you're over the age of 40. That's why we don't just cut carbs, we cycle them. Here's how it works. Some days go for lower carb to reset your hormones to burn some fat, or go a week or two doing that. But then on other days, bring in clean carbohydrates to fuel your movement, your recovery. But never eat carbs just out of habit. Use them with intention and don't completely deprive yourself. So on lower activity days or on reset or rest days, go low-carb. But on a workout or heavy activity day, you can add in some fiber-rich, slow-digesting carbs.
Now the best ones to get more of on these days: lentils, beans—love them, full of so many nutrients. You could even add a little quinoa in or some wild rice. Could venture all the way to a sweet potato if you wanted to. And then lots of veggies at any time. Those are complex carbs, each of them with lots of fiber that allow your body to take in carbohydrates, satisfy some of those cravings for carbs, and allow your body enough time to process it and move through the system without spiking fat storage mode. Avoiding bread, pasta, cereal, crackers, anything that's processed or sugar-loaded. If it doesn't come with fiber, then don't eat it. We want high amounts of fiber if we're going to have higher amounts of carbohydrates. That's the key. And why this works is because it lowers your insulin levels. The fiber counteracts the spike in the sugar. If you're only eating the sugar, you're asking to be put into a weight loss plateau. So, this type of carbohydrate prevents that weight loss plateau because your body isn't stuck in one routine. It protects your hormone levels like leptin and your thyroid, which drop when you're on really low-carbohydrate diets for a really long time, like keto. It also trains your metabolism to switch between carbs and fat efficiently. So you can burn these fuels up even if you ingest them. This is how athletes fuel their performance without burning out. And it's how you fuel fat loss without resorting to an extreme diet.
Now I want to be very clear: This only works when you focus on quality carbs. On the higher activity days, you're choosing higher carbohydrates. Choose fiber-rich, unprocessed carbs. They should digest slowly and keep blood sugars stable. So, carb day isn't a license for lots of pizza and cookies. Remember, we're losing 30 lbs quickly. Think beans, think lentils, think roasted rooted vegetables, think sprouted grains. In other words, think fiber, not flour. I'll talk more about fiber in just a moment.
Habit three: Move more, burn more. Now that you got your meals working for you, let's talk about your movement. If your meals are on track, but you're still sitting most of the day—sitting is the new smoking—your body is working against you. It's so important to make a point to move your body every single day. Every time you do, it lowers insulin, the hormone that stores fat. It clears toxins through sweat, breathing, your lymphatic system. It improves circulation. It reduces your stress hormones like cortisol, which actually stores fat. And one of the best types of movements you can add: walking, especially after meals. If you have a big dinner at night, move. Studies show that just a 10- to 15-minute walk after a meal can lower your blood sugar by 22 to 23%. Lower insulin by 25% compared to sitting on the couch. That means less fat stored and more fat burned. And it's not just about walking. You can burn fat just by moving throughout the day. How neat. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis. That's the calories you burn from daily motion, not workouts. Things like cleaning, pacing, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, stretching, even fidgeting, the old leg shake like Dr. Living Good. One study showed that fidgeting alone increased energy uses by 20 to 40% above resting levels. That's real fat burning without much additional effort.
So, here's how to start including more motion into your day. You got a phone call? Go for a walk. Go for a pace. Move. When you're on that phone, anytime you're on it, you're moving. Pace the hallway. Do a lap around the house every hour. Set a timer. Got to move. Got to go walk downstairs around the house. Take a walk with a loved one or a friend each day. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Stretch during TV commercials or ads. Go for a walk while you're on a work meeting. Get a walking treadmill to do while you're on a work meeting. Do body-weight squats while waiting for a meal to cook. Hit some squats in the kitchen. Do some calf raises while you're brushing your teeth. Get creative. Once movement becomes part of your rhythm, fat loss becomes a byproduct rather than a battle. This doesn't have to be hard.
Now, number four. If you've been eating better and walking and moving more, but the fat still won't come off, this is your next move because at some point your body needs more than just movement. It needs a stronger signal to build muscle and burn fat. And the best way to do this is by combining strength training with short bursts of intensity. Now, this is not an hour-long workout. This is not cardio machines or counting reps. Just smart, efficient movement that gets results.
Now, here's how I recommend doing it. Pick three body-movement exercises: squats, lunges, push-ups, planks. Do them in a circuit with minimal rests. Now, two ways to do this: One, you could do 50 seconds on, take a 10-second break, go to the next exercise. 50 seconds on, 10-second break, go to the next exercise. 50 on, take a 30-second break, and then repeat that for two more rounds, and you've got a 9-minute and 50-second workout. Or another way to do it would be to pick three exercises and then just go 50 seconds on, 10-second break, 50 seconds on, 10-second break, 50-second on, 10-second break, and keep going as many reps as you can do in 8 to 10 minutes. You're done with the whole workout. You could do it right in your living room. You don't need any equipment. Although, you can easily add some dumbbells for the squats or for some curls or for some presses to build and strengthen and add a little bit more muscle.
It works because it sends two strong signals: Build muscle, burn fat. That's what the body's hearing. You've got to challenge those muscles. Build muscle, burn fat. That's what I'm being asked to do. Strength training builds lean muscle. It raises the metabolism. And the intensity that that circuit's going to bring spikes growth hormone, which pulls fat from storage to build. In fact, one study found that that high intensity increases growth hormone by over 150%. And this kind of training also creates an afterburn effect, which means when you get done, you might feel a little nauseous. You might feel out of breath. You got to breathe hard to burn fat. Your body is going to keep burning fat for up to 24 hours after you stop high-intensity exercise.
Short on time? Can't get to the gym? Don't got any equipment? No problem. One study found that people doing this for 78 minutes a week got the same fat loss and blood sugar results as those doing 210 minutes of medium-intensity traditional cardio exercise. Same benefits a third of the time. And the belly fat results in a six-month trial: This training, this type of high-intensity exercise reduced abdominal fat 10 to 15%. That's real visible change faster and safer than most programs.
Now, who's it for? Not just for fit people. If you're over the age of 50, just getting started, or your joints need support, this still works in our workouts. I'll leave an example below. We have a level one, a level two, and a level three. You can start slowly at a level one, and we've got variations for you. Even if you need to hold on to a chair or hold on to the wall, you can be doing this multiple days a week and start building up from there. Because once you start combining strength with intensity, you're not just exercising, you're changing how your body functions; you're turning it into a fat-burning machine. You're protecting your muscle. You're setting up your metabolism to respond better to everything else that you do, especially burning up the meals that you eat. If you are over the age of 50, I also will put a link below to the top exercises to never do to make sure you don't compromise your progress by getting injured. Be sure to watch that one.
Habit five. By now you learn how to start your day right, how to move more, how to control carbs, how to wake up your metabolism. Now it's time to lock in your progress with how you build your meals. Because when your meals are built the right way, they stop working against you and they start working for you.
Now, here's the rule: Every meal should include protein, healthy fat, and fiber. Protein, fat, and fiber instead of the old model of protein, fat, and carbs. That combo keeps blood sugar steady, controls hunger, and keeps your body in fat-burning mode. So, let's break it down. Protein keeps you full, slows digestion, stabilizes blood sugar, protects the building of that new muscular body that you are working on, fuels your metabolism. Without enough protein, your body burns muscle instead of fat and your metabolism stalls. So, we want to have enough of that fuel in a clean form. Here's another study insight for you: People who drank a high-protein shake at some point in their day ate significantly less later on in the day without being told to. Protein tells your brain, "We're good. We've got what we need."
Now, here's my favorite protein sources: Eggs, especially pasture-raised. We want quality protein. This is the key. Not just any source of protein. There's so many gurus out there just adding a bunch of junk protein to their body. We want clean, real sources. Wild-caught fish, grass-fed beef, pasture-raised poultry, bone broth, collagen powders—not with any sort of artificial additive, sucralose, ACE K, any kind of those. We want clean grass-fed collagen. Hemp seeds, chia seeds, nuts, and beans. These are the sources of good, clean protein.
Next, healthy fats. These help to regulate your hormones. They keep you full longer, and they reduce inflammation. Now, unlike carbs, fats don't spike insulin, so they support fat burning. Now, some study insight on this is adding a half an avocado to lunch increased satiety—satisfaction—by 23% for up to five hours. That's fewer cravings, more fat burning in between meals.
Now, my favorite sources of healthy fats: avocados, drizzling some olive oil on a salad or a dish. You'd be surprised at what you can put that on. Coconut oil can be added to your coffee or to your smoothie. Ghee or butter can be cooked with or added to your coffee or your smoothie. Raw nuts, raw seeds, and fatty fishes.
And our third food group: fiber. Not just carbs, fiber. Fiber slows digestion. It keeps blood sugar flat. It lowers insulin. It feeds good gut bacteria and supports good gut health, and it keeps detox pathways open. Study insight on this is high-fiber eaters had better blood sugar control and a 15% lower risk of early death. This isn't just for digestion and fat loss; it literally extends your life. But somehow we've gotten so focused on carbs, we need to focus on fiber. Here's my favorite fiber sources: Leafy green vegetables, sauteed, baked, raw. Add a handful into a smoothie; you don't even know it. Had them as a side. Picked those at the restaurant. There's plenty to enjoy. Cruciferous vegetables are the same: Brussels sprouts and broccoli. So many nutrients involved with those. Berries, especially raspberries and blueberries, very liver-friendly, very sugar-friendly. Beans, lentils, full of magnesium and other nutrients that your body craves. Chia seeds, flax seeds, easily can be added into salads or into smoothies or made into delicious desserts. Quinoa, wild rice. If you can tolerate these, these are great carb-friendly fillers that can really suffice those cravings.
Now, why all three together? Because they work as a team. You need all three for maximum fat burning. If you eat protein and you eat fibers, but you skip the fat, your blood sugar can still spike. If you eat fat without the fiber or the protein, you might feel full, but your body won't burn fat efficiently. Eat fiber without the protein and you're not feeding your muscles, which is your metabolism. So, try to include all three in each meal.
Now, here's something a lot of people miss: The order you eat the food matters, too. One study showed that eating the protein first actually helped to lower blood sugar by up to 45% and insulin up to 50%. That simple switch helps your body use food for energy and not store it as fat. So, make sure and focus on clean, quality protein, fats, and fibers. Include them in as many meals as you can and be mindful about the order that you eat them.
Habit six. So, we focused on what you're eating. Now, it's time to talk about when you eat because if you're eating all day long, your body never gets a real chance to burn up that fuel and burn up fat. Most people eat from waking up to bedtime. There's coffee and there's creams and there's Starbucks runs and donuts in the morning at 6:00 a.m. and God knows what for breakfast and muffins and toast. And then we have a snack at 10 o'clock and then we have lunch at noon. Then we have another snack at 3:00 and an energy drink. And then we have dinner at 6. Then we've got to do a dessert or a late-night snack while we're watching TV at 9:00 or 10:00 at night.
Here's the problem: Every time you eat, you spike insulin. And when insulin is high, fat-burning mode is shut off. So what's the fix? Creating an intentional rhythm to your meals. That means spacing them out, cutting the snacks, and giving your body time to reset, lower the insulin, digest the nutrients, use the nutrients, and burn fat. That's the real reason this works. And the science backs it up. In a 12-week study, people who shortened their eating window to 10 hours a day lost over 7 pounds, dropping nearly 2 inches off their waist, 3% of their total body fat. And they didn't change what they ate, just when they ate. A concept I coined called rotational eating also increases growth hormone by over 1,200%, shows one study. That hormone tells your body to burn fat and protect muscle. You need growth hormone, men and women. It's your body's way of saying no food, no problem; I'll start pulling from fat stores. It also activates your body's internal cleanup crew called autophagy. And this is what cleans up damaged cells, old proteins, and toxins that are oftentimes stored in fat. That's critical when it comes to fat loss because as fat cells shrink, they release toxins and junk into your bloodstream. If your body can't process that junk, your weight comes right back on.
So, also note that it's not just about how long you eat, it's about how late you eat. One study found that eating the same dinner at 10 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. led to higher blood sugar and significantly less burned fat overnight. Same food, different timing. One gets stored, the other gets used.
So, how do you space your meals apart? You don't have to do a fast for 20 hours. There is some benefit for the rotational eating of skipping some meals, but if you want to keep
Well-fed, not starving yourself, you just need to give your body regular breaks. So, here's what I would start with to feel full all the time and properly time this rhythm.
Stop eating two to three hours before bed. This is the number one thing to do. Allow your body enough time to process that last meal of the day.
Eat three balanced meals a day. No snacking in between. Just a breakfast, some protein, maybe a little bit of fat, maybe a little bit of fiber, solid lunch, solid dinner. Stop. And then aim for 12 to 14 hours overnight of no eating. This is rotational eating. This is a little bit of a fast from 6:00 p.m. when you had dinner and you didn't eat the next morning until 7:00. You just got yourself 13 hours of not eating.
If you get a little stuck, cycle in breakfast as a liquid only, just protein coffee or fat only. Just having a little bit of coffee with a little bit of butter and coconut oil with collagen protein powder blended together. That protein coffee kind of replaces the meal and extends your food fasting till lunchtime. That'll help break a plateau.
Ideally, you space your meals 4 to 6 hours apart. You got a breakfast at 8:00 a.m. You got a lunch at 12:00. You don't have dinner till 6:00 p.m. If you're hungry between meals, drink water. Drink lemon water. Have some coffee. Your body's thirsty, not hungry.
So, this is the habit that ties everything else together. Because if your meals are built right, but you're constantly grazing and constantly eating, your insulin stays high. Your fat burning never kicks in and never starts. But when you build in space, your metabolism picks up, your hormones level out, and fat burning becomes something that your body does naturally.
So now you've got the habits, you've got the rhythm. You're no longer guessing what to eat, when to eat, or how to move. Now there's one more piece most people miss, and it's a big one. It's your liver.
If your liver is still under attack, your fat burning will stall no matter what else you're doing right. There are seven common foods most people eat on a regular basis that put pressure on their liver, spike inflammation, and make weight loss way harder than it has to be. And the worst part is some of these are even marketed as healthy.
So, if you want to keep your progress going and avoid sabotaging everything that you just started, then watch this next video. It walks you through the seven foods that ruin your liver and block fat loss and how to avoid them starting today. I'll include that link right here. Click to watch it now, and I'll see you over there.