How to exercise while focusing on fat loss

Mar 19

March’s Theme: Sustainable Fat Loss

Today’s topic: Training while in a fat loss phase

The are 2 big mistakes I see with trainees trying to lose fat.

They just try to eat less food, without addressing their food quality
They try to burn off everything they eat with more exercise (usually cardio)

I understand where they’re coming from, but those two methods make life very difficult and sad, not to mention very sub-par, temporary results.

Most people don’t just have a weight goal, they want to look a certain way—usually, more muscle tone and less jigglyness.

What you see in the mirror is your body composition. Your ratio of lean mass to fat mass.

What you see on the scale is your weight. The combination of your lean mass and fat mass.

We like lean mass. It’s everything that keeps you healthy and powerful and looking like sex on a stick.

👉 So the sidecar goal of ANY fat loss phase is to preserve as much lean mass as possible.

If you just eat less food WITHOUT eating enough protein or strength training, your body will throw out the baby (muscle mass) with the bath water (fat mass).

Which means that scale number goes down fast, but you don’t look, perform, or feel the way you want. (Like have you seen the people on Ozempic? It just shuts down their appetite and they waste away into a skinny-fat version of themselves)

Last week we discussed the nutrition needed for fat loss, and should be where you focus your efforts.

Here’s where you’re gonna hate me or love me: Your training doesn’t change.

Why? Because you should already be doing the following things (and if you’re not, this is what you can aim for!)—

👣 Maintain daily non-exercise movement of 7-10k steps (3-4 miles). Go for walks! Park farther away. Take the stairs. Get a standing/walking desk. Movement keeps you less stressed, less inflamed, happier, and recovering like a champ.

🏋️‍♂️ Strength train 3 times per week. This preserves that gorgeous lean mass. You won’t be your strongest in a fat loss phase, but do your best to maintain your lifts and fight to get stronger.

🏊‍♀️ Sprinkle in 2-3 days of low-intensity cardio where you can. This is not to “burn more calories,” this is to improve stamina, recovery, and reduce inflammation. This is also excellent for burning the dangerous visceral fat nestled under our abdominal muscles.

If you find yourself saying, “But more exercise is surely better when it comes to fat loss!” that’s because you’re probably thinking of exercise as a way to burn off what you eat, instead of fixing your nutrition and using your workouts to become stronger, fitter, and more powerful.

Don’t get me wrong, movement is definitely helpful for fat loss, but the human body is spectacularly protective of burning too much energy too fast. As you become more fit, you become more efficient with energy, meaning you burn less cals for the same effort. AND as you lose mass, your metabolism down-regulates to use less energy for a smaller body.

👉 You can only exercise so much in a day. Increasing movement has a cap and is simply not a sustainable way to keep the body you want.

Not to mention, the more you exercise, the hungrier you get, making it difficult to keep your nutrition in line. If you want to geek out on the protective nature of our metabolism, I recommend the book Burn by Herman Pontzer.

But allow me to summarize in one trite phrase: You can’t out-train a poor diet.

Focus on nutrition for fat loss. Support it with training that keeps you fit and strong.

I just realized—do I still need to shout from the rooftops that you can’t spot-burn fat? You can’t reveal abs by doing crunches. Or get rid of “bat wings” by doing tricep exercises. (I hate that I have to say this).

Fat loss is like drinking water with a straw: It doesn’t create an empty space in the glass where the straw is pulling from, it just lowers the overall level of water in the glass.

If you want to reveal the muscles in a certain area, you need to lose enough overall fat until you reveal what you want to reveal. This takes time, especially for belly fat. It’s not more stubborn, it’s just the first to come and the last to leave, and is often a protective response to systemic inflammation around your organs (which is addressed with stress management, healthy diet, and exercise).

Note: Understand that the body fat percentage you need to reveal your abs might be a very uncomfortable, and therefore unsustainable, place to be. Take me for example: I comfortably exist at 17-18% body fat, which does NOT give me chiseled abs! I have the La Croix of abs—like a gentle whisper of what could be. To have ABS abs, I need to be sub-16% body fat, and that requires a lifestyle I’m not willing to maintain (because ice cream) and don’t feel powerful at because I look kind of stringy.

This is all to say that you need to pay attention to what your body needs and how you want to live day to day.

If you’re the person that’s like “Pshhh this is basic and I already do much more than that” I really really encourage you to consider the fact that you’re throwing a ton of energy into the things that don’t actually move the needle toward your goals.

This was once me—a ton of junk volume and scattered efforts but not too much to show for it.

Once I simplified my approach and channeled my energy into the stuff that actually works, life got easier AND I saw great results. Doing less (but better!) was very difficult at first and I’m so glad I had the structure and authority of a coach to keep me from falling into old patterns.

When you’re ready for that one holistic solution that’s hands-on and personalized to your life, I got you. Until then, I’ll see you next email!

Next week we’ll talk about how long to focus on fat loss (it needs to be short n sweet!), and how to ease into maintenance so you keep your results.