If you’ve followed me on social media for a while, you know I come from a place of sustainability and using realistic approaches when it comes to your health and fitness journey.
If you’re looking for a nutrition and exercise program that will make you starve yourself, give up your favorite foods, have you do butt-loads of cardio for the sake of making you lose weight as fast as possible, this is NOT it and I am not your girl!
That said, achieving your short and long term weight loss and fitness goals can be overwhelming to say the very least. With SO much contradicting information on the internet, unqualified coaches and trainers pushing their own hidden agendas to make a quick buck and new fad diets coming out left and right, it’s no wonder why the majority of people give up before they even start. In today’s article, I’m hoping to help reduce the overwhelm and provide you with real, concrete “do’s” and “don’ts” so you can learn how to have the most successful diet yet and best of all, maintain your results for the long haul!
5 Things You DON’T Need to Have a Successful Fat Loss Phase:
You dont have to starve yourself. I may sound like I’m on repeat with this message – but fat loss is achieved through being in a calorie deficit, meaning you need to be consuming less calories than you burn. But that doesn’t mean you should crash diet and start on a 1,200 calorie intake. You can start your fat loss phase on much higher calories while ensuring you’re still in a calorie deficit (if you need guidance on how to calculate this, check out my personalized macro calculation right here!)
You dont need to take fat-burning supplements or detoxes to speed up the process. Supplements are not necessary; some supplements can be supplemental to a well-rounded, balanced diet & exercise program. They are not however, some magical unicorn that will speed up your fat loss. If it was that easy and it worked, everyone would be doing it and I’d be out of a job
You dont have to be a slave to cardio. Yes you burn calories through cardio and yes cardio is super important for cardiovascular health. But odds are, you don’t need to be doing as much as you may think when it comes to losing weight. Your calorie deficit will be best achieved through your dietary intake, not through burning calories via cardio; we actually burn far less calories through cardio than we think so achieving this deficit through cardio alone would require a LOT of activity.
You dont have to cut out carbs. Keto programs are still all the craze right now because they WORK. But they work by keeping you in a calorie deficit through the elimination of carbohydrates; so weight loss is achieved by – yep – you guessed it – a calorie deficit, NOT because the carbohydrates are causing you to gain or lose weight. Eliminating any macronutrient from your diet will produce fat loss. Carbs are not the enemy here. You can and should be incorporating healthy carbs into your diet at all times, unless you have a medical reason not to.
You dont have to be in a rush. Long term, sustainable weight loss is best achieved through a moderate calorie deficit, a well-rounded exercise program and having lots of patience and grace with yourself to get there. If you’re going into your fitness and weight loss journey in a rush to lose weight as fast as possible, you will likely feel defeated very quickly and want to give up at the first obstacle. This is not a fast or easy process (when done in a healthful way) so BE PATIENT.
5 Things You DO Need to Have a Successful Fat Loss Phase:
You have to be in a calorie deficit.As mentioned before, there is no way around this if your goal is fat loss
Also as previously mentioned, you have to have patience. In my years of coaching women, this is by far the #1 obstacle most women struggle with. Keep in mind those quick fixes you’ve likely tried before that produced rapid weight loss…probably found it’s way back relatively quickly after you stopped that particular diet. What we focus on in the Forever Fit Formula is developing healthy habits, focus on realistic goal setting, behavior change and problem solving centered around flexible dieting so that you can actually learn how to eat real food, without it working against you and your goals. Because if you stop your restrictive diet and have no idea how to maintain your weight afterwards…what’s the point!?
Find an accountability partner or support group. You can join our private, women’s only fitness community right here; we share daily challenges, healthy, macro-friendly recipes, workouts, motivation & all the support you need!
Stay consistent – this is one of the many reasons why finding a nutrition and fitness approach that is equally enjoyable and sustainable for you is so crucial. If you’re constantly feeling like you have to start over, or “get back on track” after the weekend, it’s likely not the best approach for you.
5. Have a plan in place AFTER your diet aka the diet after the diet aka a reverse diet, which you can learn more about right here. Reverse dieting is crucial to repairing your metabolism and reversing
your calorie intake slowly over time to work you back up to eating at your new maintenance calories; you don’t want to be stuck eating at your dieting calories forever!