Transcription
So in this video, I'm going to take you through a journey of what I would do if I was starting again at 30% body fat and how would I get myself to that fit, lean physique at 12 to 15% body fat. And whether you're someone who is literally just starting out, or you've lost a little bit of body fat already, but things have slowed down, or you got stuck, these five steps I'm gonna share will get you the physique that you want.
Now, diving into it, the first step that I would take is something I call the consistency audit. What this means is that before I jump into any big changes to my diet or my training, or jump into some random program, I'm going to take a step back and look at where do I normally mess up? What gets in the way of consistency? And a consistency audit includes honest questions such as these: How did I end up at 30% body fat to begin with? Why did every other diet that I've tried in the past fail, and how is this going to be any different? What external obstacles am I going to be dealing with in the coming months as I want to make these changes, and how am I going to handle those? And then most importantly, internally, how do I get in my own way? What excuses and rationalizations do I make that end up holding me back? Without knowing the answers to these questions, I'm going to end up spinning my wheels, making the same mistakes, and being one of the 95% of other dieters who fail at this. May lose 5-10 pounds, then regain all that back and even more.
Doing a consistency audit will help me mentally prepare for the journey. And if you want to do this right, don't just make it an emotional decision where you're jumping into any random program because you feel like you got to do something, you saw a comment on social media, you want to prove people wrong, or you see yourself in the mirror and not happy how that looks and you want to make a change. Those can be great moments of motivation, but motivation is not going to get you all the way to your goal. You need to be smart about it. Look at where you screwed up in the past, how you need to evolve as a person to make these habit changes, also what sacrifices need to be made to get this done. And then you can get yourself in a place where you can properly commit to a long-term change.
Now, the second step that I would take is fixing my diet. And I would start by cleaning up my food choices and adjusting my eating habits. And there are three main adjustments that I would start off with. The first one being to stop snacking on random foods between the meals. So the rule and the goal is to only eat when I'm truly hungry. That's it. So no more eating when I don't really need to. And this will automatically eliminate a lot of the stress eating, emotional eating, boredom eating, or eating simply because the food is there. And for a lot of people, just this one small adjustment is enough to generate a calorie deficit and have them lose body fat. And by the way, next time you're bored, instead of eating, just open up one of my videos and hit the like button. That will naturally solve the problem.
Now, the next adjustment that I would make is to start doing groceries and getting high-quality ingredients into their house so I can start making simple, healthy meals instead of relying on takeout and restaurants. By doing that, I'm gaining control of what I'm putting into my body. It's very easy to fall into a habit where 50% or more of your food intake comes from eating out. And the reality is, we don't know how that food is prepared. It could have a lot of added oils, processed sugars, double the calories, and we don't even know the quality of the ingredients. So one of the easiest things you can do to fix your diet right now is to start preparing your own food.
And then the third adjustment that I would make is to remove any liquid calories, including sodas, juices, and then minimize alcohol intake. Do no more than two drinks per week, or cut it down entirely if moderation is not possible. And this alcohol portion is really important because alcohol is not just calories, but it's also stimulating appetite. And for a lot of people, they find that once they have a couple of drinks, it leads to a lot of bad eating decisions.
Now, with these three changes, I have a really solid foundation in place and would very likely enter a calorie deficit and start losing body fat even without tracking calories. And that would be the next adjustment. I could get into my fitness. I'd start paying closer attention to my calorie intake, to my macronutrients, especially the protein intake, and that would further accelerate my progress and get me better results.
Now, the third step that I would take is to start increasing my activity. And I would start by adding one daily walk. That walk would be an extra 5,000 steps per day. That's roughly about 45 to 15 minutes of walking. I could do that in the morning, and in case the mornings got really busy, I could also split it between the morning and the evening. I could do this easily while listening to a podcast, or I could also invite a friend, a family member, or a loved one to join me. It's an excellent, relaxing activity, very engaging for socializing purposes, or just doing it gently for active recovery, for overall health, for digestion, and for burning some extra calories. And I'm not looking to do anything too radical here. I'm not trying to get in 30,000 steps per day from day one. I want to build up my baseline and eventually get it to an average of between 8 to 12,000 steps per day. And I could do more some weekends, maybe doing a hike or something like that, but I want to find my sweet spot that's going to be sustainable long term.
Now, the fourth step I would take as a beginner at 30% body fat is to start weight training as soon as possible because I know that I'll be able to lose fat and build muscle at the same time. And to do that, I don't even need to do some kind of hardcore, balls to the wall, six days per week workout routine. I can get that done by training three days per week, full body, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, one hour per session, five, six different exercises with plenty of rest between the sets. All I need to do is making sure I'm doing movements with good form, pushing myself, and getting stronger in that 6 to 12 rep range, and the results will come. And the beauty of this setup is that you can move things around in case your schedule gets busy. Can't get it done on Friday, move the workout to Saturday. Works perfectly fine.
And unfortunately, I see too many people starting at a very high body fat percentage completely ignore weight training. They're caught up in this trap with the scale going down really quickly, and that will happen if you're losing both fat and muscle. But muscle is not the type of weight you want to lose. You're slowing down your metabolism. Best case scenario, you're gonna end up skinny fat, and then your results overall are a lot less sustainable. So what I recommend is making sure you build muscle from day one. That is one of the few ways that we can actually boost our metabolisms. And then the other benefit is that once you hit that 12 or 15% body fat, you will actually have a physique to show.
Now, the fifth step that I would take as a beginner is to make sure that I get accountability, whether that's to a friend, a group, or a coach. That there's someone there who's expecting that I get this done, someone to point out my mistakes, to give me objective feedback, to monitor my progress, so I know that I can't hide anymore, I can't avoid this. And by adding accountability, you have skin in the game. This is very opposite compared to what most guys do. Most guys don't even do the stuff they know they should be doing because they're not held accountable. They're wishy-washy, they're just dabbling around, do some random stuff in the gym, half-ass their diets, and barely see any results, and they just drop off. That's not how you change your lifestyle and get to a higher level.
Support and accountability can help you push through and get consistent when you don't feel like it, which is important in the beginning. Long term, you don't really need this. You're going to make this a lifestyle, you're going to be a part of who you are, you're going to want to do it anyway. But in the beginning, it can make a difference between success and failure. And look, at the end of the day, you don't have to be perfect to get great results. You just have to be consistent and make sure you're improving over time. It's going to help you with that is making sure you hit that subscribe button below, the notifications by hitting the bell icon. If there's a coaching you want to work with me on your fitness journey, on description below, leaving another helpful video here for you at the end. So check out that video and I'm gonna see you right there.