Fat Loss Made Simple
In strength training the main aim during cutting (weight loss) is to preserve strength standards.
This means handling nutrition in an intelligent way that enables enough energy to fuel intense workouts and preserve muscle mass on the body. A byproduct of doing this is a visually athletic appearance for both men and women, assuming they have first acquired reasonable strength levels in the major compound lifts.
weight loss and the high-Tech fitness industry
As fitness tech makes advances year on year, the trend and tendency is increasingly to rely upon it.
I kept my strength up and regular sessions in the gym during this latest cut.
In modern gym environments it’s common to link resistance machines to apps on your smart phone, your jogging or cycling progress can be tracked on Strava and apps like MyFitness pal can be used to track calories and and find nutritional targets for eating.
I come from a background in strength training and have transformed my physique using a handful of simple exercises that are so old they are Victorian.
As a Starting Strength coach our “tech” consists of barbells, racks and plates and just five or six exercises that have helped to transform people’s appearance time and time again. The method maybe low tech by today’s standards but it is highly effective.
A few choice exercises are selected for their magnitude of effect and then progressed. It looks simple on paper, but when guided by an experienced coach the effect on the human body is remarkable.
When it came to dieting this year, I decided to pursue a parallel approach in the pursuit of weight loss, specifically fat loss.
I would choose principles that would have high magnitude of effect, but use a low tech approach.
I hold my body fat around my stomach area and it is this region that can become a health concern when it reaches certain proportions around the visceral organs, it was for this reason that I decided to commence my diet (cut) this January.
My experience with fat loss
Simple plate of salad and veggies with a light dressing and around 180g chicken
I hadn’t cut for 2-3 years and the last time I did I ran an approach where I tracked my calories closely after mapping out my food on a spreadsheet and accompanied that with weighing my food as I plated it up.
That last cut was highly successful, I lost a predictable amount of weight per week and maintained my strength during the process.
However since then a couple of years have passed and I’ve coached a fair few people who’ve been on fat loss journeys. I’ve learned things from working with so many different types of people.
One over arching theme I’ve encountered this past couple of years is just how behavioural and habit related food and drink is for most people.
Fat loss can be facilitated with apps, spreadsheets and careful measuring, but that approach, as I found from coaching many people, doesn’t suit everyone. For some people it’s too much of a hassle to perform those tasks, or too daunting to learn and for those who have come into contact with disordered eating behaviours, obsessing over numbers or measurements can be a slippery slope back to problems with eating again.
For these reasons I began searching out another option for weight loss with less measuring and tracking.
I made sure my energy levels were good throughout the day by avoiding to steep a calorie deficit and frequent meals and snacks.
Anyone who has had me coach them, knows I like to lead from the front when it comes to trying things out and proving their effectiveness, with that in mind I found myself in January this year (2022) preparing to step into a calorie deficit only this time I decided that I would run a very different approach to the one I used before.
my new approach to fat loss
Gone would be the spreadsheets, app tracking, checking calorie numbers and macros on the internet, there was to be no scanning of barcodes and hardly any weighing at all.
This time I would simply apply some simple guidelines to my daily eating and drinking. I would modify a few options at my meals and change my choices when it came to snacks.
I would only be tracking a few metrics along the way: I’d check my bodyweight once to twice a week, I would measure my waist just by the navel and I’d keep an eye on my workout performance to ensure my strength remained and didn’t suddenly decline.
The most techiest thing I’ve done this cut is to type up this article on my laptop.
What follows is the nuts and bolts of my fat loss strategy this time round.
Pacing The Cut and My Numbers
As usual in cutting I decided to pace it at around 0.5 to 1 lb weight loss / week.
In total I’ve gone from 206 lbs down to 193 lbs (93.5kg to just over 88kg) January to March 20.
I’ve noticed my clothes fitting differently, my weight training belt is now changed by several notches and my waistline has come down.
Below is my approach to meal times and some useful notes about before and after changes I made to snacking and meals so you can compare the difference.
Breakfast
For simplicity I decided to keep this almost exactly the same as before I started the cut. There would be two types of day.
A day where I would strength train (4 slots per week) or a day where there was no strength training.
Breakfast On a Strength Training Day
1 scoop of protein powder with rice milk (small glass)
During the workout I would consume 1-2 bananas.
I would then have a post workout meal of 1.5 scoops protein powder with water and 1 piece of toast with butter and peanut butter (lightly spread)
Breakfast on a non Strength Training day
1 scoop of protein powder with water and two pieces of toast, one with jam and one with peanut butter.
Changes from before Cutting
The only changes here were in the post workout drink, where I would have added a large glass of rice milk and had a larger spread of peanut butter on the toast or on non training days where I would have allowed myself croissants as a treat.
Lunch
At the start of the week I tend to cook up a batch of chicken breasts or something similar that I will then store for lunchtimes.
Thai red curry, made in the slow cooker
At lunch I would cover the plate with a bed of salad, typically rocket, spinach leaves or something similar, adding tomatoes, beetroot, occasionally some avocado.
I would then add around 180-200g cooked chicken on top and add a light dressing and some seasonings.
On the side I would take 1-2 carrots and dip them in some houmous if I wanted an additional snack.
As I am mostly a savoury person more than sweet I would also take an Oxo cube (green) and mix that with water and have it as a hot drink. Doing so prolonged the sensation of a savoury taste in my mouth and helped me to create a feeling that I’d had enough of savoury foods at lunch.
Changes from before Cutting
Normally at lunch I would have added a carb, such as rice or a baked potato.
Alternatively I would have had a sandwich with the bread as a carb. During a phase of calorie surplus I would also have added a tall glass of milk.
Afternoon Snack
A palm full of mixed nuts and dried fruit. I’d also add 1-2 tangerines as well.
Changes from before Cutting
I would have had the same as above, or a piece of any baking, such as shortbread, cookies or cake.
Dinner
I kept my approach to dinner exactly the same as lunch. I would change the protein I put on the plate for some variety and the veggies or salad combo too.
a light brush of olive oil, extra seasoning and grilled in the George Foreman
I kept it to just a single plate for my main meal, again using the carrots/cucumber and houmous as a kind of starter to dinner if needed.
I wouldn’t have a dessert, but if I fancied something sweet then my go to was low sugar diabetic sweeties that take a long time to dissolve in the mouth.
Changes from before Cutting
I would frequently accompany dinner with an alcoholic drink or glass of milk. I would also allow my post dinner snacks of Haribo or crisps, they are my weakness…
Pre-Bed Snack
Where needed I would occasionally have some high protein yoghurt, around 4 tablespoonfuls in serving size, and I used Skyr yoghurt for this. This was not nightly, but perhaps 2-3 times / week.
in review
This approach worked for me as I only had to make a few simple rules to stick to and knew that the cutting length of time would be kept to 3 months. I knew my daily protein target, that in a cut I wanted to make sure I would hit, after that it became about making guidelines to keep me on track.
Knowing these changes weren’t permanent helped, and I was able to use this approach when dining out.
Some of my guidelines:
Snacking: I didn’t stop snacking, I just changed my choices from high calorie low nutrient dense foods over to low calorie high nutrient dense ones. When it came to something sweet the sugar free sweets are perfect as they last a long time in your mouth. Mostly I am a savoury person who has a soft spot for crisps, this is where I switched to chopped veggies and low fat houmous as a dip.
Alcohol: I do like to drink, but alcohol is fairly high in calories so I decided to more or less cut this out for the diet. Full disclosure I did have the occasional drink during my cut but mostly I stopped.
Coffee Shops: I switched from latte and cappuccino over to black coffee with a little milk and a sweetener.
Frequent Eating: You’ll notice I ate more than 3 times/day. This meant I never allowed myself to get ravenously hungry, which could have challenged my compliance with the foods had that happened.
Mainly I pulled back on some carbs, fats and sugars in my snacks and at meal times, but I still had a generous portion of food by targeting nutrient dense foods over calorie dense ones. Nutrient dense foods and high protein mean that you can consume a decent quantity of food which occupies room in your stomach and provides a feeling of fullness.
By way of comparison, foods that you might consider to be junk foods like pizza slices, donuts, biscuits etc tend to be very high in calories but not large in their size. You can consume large amounts of calories but still be open to eating more as they are just not occupying that much room in your stomach.
A Little Hunger: Lastly, in the first week I adjusted to being just a little bit hungry. The initial reaction is to eat! So I had to override this, make sure I was hydrated enough (which sometimes masquerades as hunger) and then be patient for meal / snack time.
After around 7-10 days the hunger stabilised, weight started coming off and I adjusted into the pace of the cut.
From there on I didn’t really feel hungry, I would just describe my mood more as really looking forward to dinner time!