Transcription
If you want to lose as much fat as possible in four weeks, what should you do? How will your nutrition look, and how many workouts per week do you need?
I will show you the exact strategy you need to maximize fat loss in just four weeks. This is the same approach I use to go from a measured 16% to 12.7% body fat in four weeks. The approach is not super easy; it does require discipline. But the good news is that it is relatively simple. You do not need fancy supplements or advanced equipment; you just need to be willing to put in the work.
Pay close attention to each step I discuss in today's video all the way to the end so you can get the full benefits.
First, how much fat can you expect to lose in the four-week mini cut period? If we look into the scientific research on competitive bodybuilders, typically these individuals lose between 0.5% to 1% of their body weight per week. Now, I know you are not looking to get on a bodybuilding stage, but if you are looking to maximize your progress in just four weeks, we do need the mindset of an athlete.
So, I like to set the goal of losing 1% to 1.2% of your body weight per week in a mini cut. This means that in four weeks, you can expect to lose between 4% to 5% of your body weight. If you are 180 lbs, you will basically be able to lose 7 to 9 lbs in four weeks, like I have done previously in my own four-week mini cut process.
We know from other research that when you lose weight in a calorie deficit, around 75% of the weight you lose is body fat. The remaining 25% is a combination of water and glycogen. So, not all the weight you lose is body fat, but still, if you run the math, it is possible to lose a good 3% to 4% of your body fat in this four-week mini cut process. We just need to make sure that we prevent muscle loss while on this aggressive four-week phase. Later in this video, I will show you how to ensure muscle maintenance through proper resistance training.
Whenever fat loss is the goal, we need to start with nutrition, specifically your daily calorie intake. Because we have only four weeks, I want to be as accurate as possible in ensuring that you are in a calorie deficit, so a form of calorie tracking is recommended. Most people that are active in the gym maintain their body weight when they consume between 14 to 15 calories per pound of their goal body weight.
This means that if your goal weight is 180 lbs, you will maintain weight between 2,500 to 2,700 calories per day. If you want to lose weight, eating between 11 to 12 calories per pound of your goal weight is a good target. So, in the 180 lbs example, that would mean eating 2,000 to 2,200 calories per day for a moderate calorie deficit.
I've shown you this calorie calculation many times before and the amazing results my clients have achieved with this. However, because we only have four weeks in this mini cut process and we want to maximize the progression, I recommend a more aggressive calorie deficit. To be specific, eat 10 calories per pound of your goal body weight. So, at the 180 lbs goal weight example, during this aggressive mini cut, we have to eat only 1,800 calories per day to lose fat at the desired faster rate.
Of course, the calorie calculations I'm showing you now are general guidelines. Everyone's calorie requirements will be a bit different, but for the majority of people, if they eat 10 calories per pound of their goal body weight, they can expect to lose roughly 1% of their body weight per week.
Be sure to track your progress while eating in this calorie deficit. Weigh yourself daily in the morning and see how your body weight is developing week by week. On average, are you losing around 1% of your body weight per week? Awesome, keep it going! Are you losing more or less weight? You can adjust your calories accordingly.
Now that your calories are in place, we also need to make sure that you have a healthy macronutrient composition, especially when you are in an aggressive calorie deficit. The configuration of your protein, fats, and carbs becomes important. I will keep it simple for you.
In terms of protein, you need at least 0.7 g per pound of your body weight. This is roughly 1.6 g per kilogram. With dietary fats, 25% of your calorie intake needs to come from fat, and the remainder of your calories can be filled up with carbohydrates. Essentially, you need to start with making sure you get enough proteins and fats because protein will keep you more satiated throughout the day and it helps you maintain muscle as you lose body fat.
Eating enough fat is important for your hormonal health as you get leaner. We know from research that restricting dietary fats can result in lower testosterone levels. The absorption of fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K are also negatively influenced by a low-fat intake. So, make sure your protein and fats are covered first. The calories you then have left, you can spend on carbohydrates.
I will give you a clear example of what this can look like. If my goal weight is 180 lbs, I will need to eat 1,800 calories, and my protein intake should be 180 * 0.7, which is at least 126 g of protein. The recommended dietary fat intake is 25% of my total calories, so I need 450 calories coming purely from fats.
1 g of fat is 9 calories, meaning that I need at least 50 g of fat per day. If we have 126 g of protein and 50 g of fats, this leaves us the space to have about 210 g of carbs to reach 1,800 calories. That is pretty balanced in terms of macronutrients. We cover our protein and fats requirement, and you still have enough space to incorporate carbs for good energy in the gym.
If you prefer eating lower carbs and a bit higher in fats, that is possible as long as you stay in the same calorie range. I would just make sure you get at least 100 g of carbs per day to support your lifting performance.
This brings us to the third step of this mini cut process, and that is making sure your muscles are stimulated. The training that helps you build muscle will help you maintain muscle while in a calorie deficit. For some reason, people start training with lighter weights and higher repetitions when they enter a fat loss phase. This is counterproductive, and you risk losing muscle mass.
A 2022 study investigated the fat loss effects of training with a heavy 5 to 8 or lighter 15 to 18 repetition zone. Both rep ranges resulted in the same fat loss progress, so you don't have to go light in weight and high in repetitions to lose body fat. In fact, your goal should be to maintain the same training intensity you usually have in your workouts.
It's normal if on some training days you maybe have slightly lower energy because you are in the calorie deficit, but still, the goal should be doing the same lifting program and lifting the same weights that helped you build muscle in the first place. If you do not have an effective lifting program, pause the screen right now and take a screenshot. This is a general upper-lower routine you can start with.
I typically do not recommend following a generalized plan because everyone's training needs are different. You get the most benefits from a personalized plan that considers your individual goals, like the workouts I create for my clients. But we all have to start somewhere, and not everyone has a coach, so this is a good beginning point.
Now, an additional fourth underrated step in this mini cut is your walking. In the past, I talked a lot about how I used walking to get to 10% body fat, especially during this recent four-week mini cut. I took my walking to the next level. A daily 30-minute walk is awesome for increasing your calorie burn, but especially if you want to get as lean as possible in just four weeks, I recommend bumping up your walking to even 60 to 90 minutes per day.
To some people, this might sound crazy because who has time for a daily one-hour walk? But there are creative ways you can be active and still get your steps in. For instance, if you have a portable small treadmill at home, you could do some walking while watching a TV show. Or what I have been doing lately is reading scientific papers that I use in my videos while walking on this treadmill.
It's much easier to get to one hour of daily walking if you stack it with another habit. You might need to read some papers for your work or like to watch a TV show daily anyway. It would be awesome if you can combine some of these basic activities with a short walk. Or if you do not have a small treadmill, whenever you have a phone call, do it while walking outside. Those two to three short daily walks will quickly add up to an hour a day.
If you are able to walk for up to an hour per day, you do not need tons of cardio to burn more calories. Your walks will already be responsible for good calorie burn. Cardio can then be done just one to two times per week for the health benefits.
Now, for some healthy perspective, this four-week mini cut process is intense. You need an aggressive calorie deficit, balance your macronutrients, continue lifting weights three to four times per week, and get a daily one-hour walk. But the reason this approach is aggressive is that you only gave me four weeks.
If you are not in a rush, you can set your calories a bit higher, and the 30-minute daily walk works just fine. The progress week by week might be slower, but if you maintain the approach for a longer time, eventually you'll get the same result.
So, if the approach I described in today's video sounds like too much, no worries. You can go for a slow approach that feels more sustainable to you and still get great results. If you are not too sure on how to approach your individual fitness goals, I recommend you apply to my one-on-one online coaching service.
Through my coaching service, I will personally guide you in your fitness journey by designing your training and nutrition approach while holding you accountable throughout the process. I have coached hundreds of people that have achieved amazing results, and I would love for you to be next.
Once you apply to my coaching, I will reach out to you, and we can set up a call to discuss your goals.
And that was all for today's video. I hope you now have a better understanding of how you can maximize your fat loss progress in four weeks. Here above, I have an awesome new video aligned for you, so go ahead and check that out to learn more. I look forward to seeing you in the next one!