Simple nutrition for sustainable fat loss
March’s Theme: Sustainable Fat Loss
Today’s topic: Nutrition for sustainable fat loss
Let’s get into this, because almost everyone has some kind of body composition goal, and coming at it from a sustainable angle so you can both enjoy your life and keep your progress is CRUCIAL.
First, let me be clear that fat loss is different than weight loss.
Weight loss is the number on the scale going down.
Fat loss is the amount of fat mass going down.
Unless you’re an athlete who competes in a weight class, you want fat loss.
Most people focus on making the scale number go down as fast as possible, and by doing so lose muscle mass AND have a much harder time physiologically (cravings, poor performance, hunger) and psychologically (feeling deprived, restricted, sad panda).
Just this week I talked to 2 trainees who said, “Coach, the scale has stayed the same but my clothes are falling off me…am I doing this wrong?” Congratulations! You’re living the dream by building muscle and losing fat!!
If I were to wave my Magic Coach Wand™ and gift you your ideal body, two things would happen:
✨ You wouldn’t care what the number on the scale said because you’d be busy flexing your glistening muscles.
🔁 You would need to learn how to maintain that body…like, forever. Because the habits you currently have will only lead you back to the body you once had.
When people think about losing fat, they think about what they should STOP eating.
Remove this, restrict that, cut out this, etc.
While that’s not technically wrong, it’s not helpful. Because if you take away food from any animal without replacing those lost nutrients and energy, that animal is going to start seeking more food.
Bodies, especially women’s bodies, are sensitive to a reduction in energy and nutrients. It’s a protective mechanism that keeps us safe as a species. And it’s not going to change.
Don’t try to white-knuckle your way through hunger and deprivation, because your body will eventually win every time (good for her!).
The trick to keeping your body feeling happy and safe is to add the nutrients she needs before you even think about reducing calories.
In the Adventure Ready Academy, we do this by focusing on eating ENOUGH:
🥩 Protein (about 0.8-1 gram per pound of ideal bodyweight)
🍏 Plants (fruits and vegetables—about 800 grams per day, which is about 6 cups)
Not a single person entering my program has been eating enough protein for their goals. Protein helps you retain lean mass, gives you steady energy, reduces cravings, keeps you feeling full, and increases metabolic rate.
When I say plants, I truly mean all plants, not a fuckin’ salad (although salads are great too 😅). Plants include potatoes(!), beans/lentils, salsa, all fruit everywhere, root vegetables!
When people start centering their meals around protein and plants—with no restrictions whatsoever on anything else!—amazing things happen:
✨ They don’t have to track everything they eat, so they have more freedom
✨ Their cravings for sugar and junk food plummet
✨ Their energy remains steady throughout the day
✨ They have champion BMs
✨ They sleep better
✨ and finally…they lose fat without trying to lose fat, so it feels sustainable as hell
As an added bonus for people who have a history of disordered eating or a challenging relationship with food and restriction, focusing on eating ENOUGH feels amazing and doesn’t trigger old demons.
Most of my clients achieve excellent results just working on Protein+Plants and choose to stay there.
Some people, after mastering those habits, want to dial in their body composition even further, and that’s when we add in a very reasonable calorie target by tracking full macros for a set period of time (Physique Mode).
The goal of tracking is to teach you what your meals and portion sizes should look like! Tracking for the sake of it without shifting your habits means your results will be temporary AND you’ll probably resent the journey.
👉 Most people jump to counting calories without learning how to eat enough of the right stuff, and it sets them up to fail and then believe that “all diets suck and don’t work,” which doesn’t have to be true at all.
Trust me—I’m a raging hedonist and CANNOT ABIDE anything I love, like food, being taken away from me. And yet, simply by focusing my meals around the right nutrients, I can comfortably walk around at 17-18% body fat (this is not a goal for everyone, it’s just a comfy place for my body).
A note for short kings and queens
For women under 5’4” and men under 5’7”—you gorgeous shorties have a superpower:
It is very easy to add visible muscle to your frame, which means you can build an impressive physique in a shorter (ha) amount of time than people taller than you.
Not because building muscle is easier, it’s hard for everyone, but because a pound of muscle can transform how your body looks because your frame is smaller. Whereas a taller person needs to build 2, 3, 4, 10 pounds of muscle to get the same visual effect.
Next time you’re assaulted by a totally ripped person on Instagram, do me a favor and stalk them to find out how tall they are, because 99% of the time they are itty bitty pocket humans.
Take these examples of popular fitness influencers/trainers:
Senada Greca is 5’3” (here she is with Kim K, infamously itty bitty…beside the booty obvs)
Jeff Nippard is 5’5” (that’s shorter than me by almost 2 inches!)
They are rockin their superpower, which is looking jacked with a smaller amount of muscle than the rest of us. Go them! 🙃🙃🙃
However, every superpower has a dark side, and the dark side of easily building visible muscle is…easily building visible fat.
Small people needs less food, but our obesogenic environment and American portion sizes don’t give flying fuuuuuck.
So what short folks need to understand is yes, your portion sizes are proportionally smaller, so you’ll need to pay more attention to food than a taller person, because a pound of fat shows up sooner on shorties than tallies(??).
👉 This is also a reminder for taller folks to not compare yourself to the physique of someone who can achieve and maintain dramatic results in a much shorter time frame because of simple body structure.
These nutrition guideline sound too simple and easy, don’t they? Just eat more protein and plants? Yeah ok whatever.
Most people don’t need this very common information. It’s nothing new. What most people need help with is implementation over a long period of time, as well as a healthy side of pulling their head out of their ass when they want to chase a shiny object, and some reassurance and flexibility when shit feels hard.
That’s what coaches are for 😬
Next week we’ll talk training during a fat loss phase! Spoiler alert: It doesn’t mean trying to burn off everything you eat.
March Theme Schedule:
Week 1: When to focus on fat loss
Week 2: (You are here 📍) Fat loss nutrition that doesn’t suck
Week 3: How to train during fat loss (it’s not just more cardio)
Week 4: How long to focus on fat loss and how to maintain it
Love & muscles,
Coach Mac
Muscle Sherpa
