With so many approaches out there, this subject is heavily debated and as soon as one friend tells you the best way, someone will contradict their opinion.

This pretty much leaves you feeling confused and of course, when you do not have clarity and certainty you do not take action.

There is so much that we can agree and disagree on because of studies, health claims and peoples opinions.

For example, is fruit good for you when you want to lose weight?

Blueberries have high levels of anti-oxidants which can combat cancer but at the same time fructose (sugars found in fruit) is natures candy.

So the answer?

Depends on many factors which you may not even be aware of yet, soon you’ll see why simply counting calories and exercising alone is not the answer to long term weight loss.

Everyone knows that in order to lose weight, you must follow this equation.

[ENERGY IN] – [ENERGY OUT] = Change In Body Composition

In other words, when you consume than you burn you gain weight.

When you consume less than you burn, you lose weight.

When consumption and expenditure are matched, you stay the same.

Pretty simple right? Not quite.

Although this statement is true and agreed on by educated health and fitness professionals, there are many factors that influence your energy in vs energy out balance since your brain alone can increase and decrease your metabolism which has a massive impact on your results.

This is the reason why exercising and counting calories fails for many people and you’ll soon discover why.

As you can see, there are a lot of factors involved in ensuring you truly achieve a deficit but for today we are going to focus 4 main areas. Let’s start of with protein!

THE POWER OF PROTEIN

Diets suck, especially when you are hungry all of the time which is why this first one makes all the difference to your life.

There are 2 main reasons why protein is so important when it comes to losing weight, firstly research shows that protein helps you feel fuller for longer and as a result, weight loss can be more easily achieved.

Protein takes longer to break down in the stomach compared to carbs or fat whilst stimulating the bodies satiation hormones in the gut so you naturally eat less but also feel more satisfied.

The other reason is that without protein, our bodies do not function well and we need protein to ensure that the weight loss isn’t lean muscle tissue. When protein levels are low, the body will extract it from elsewhere, usually muscle mass which is detrimental to your metabolism.

For every pound of muscle you lose, you burn 50 calories a day less so 7 pounds of lost muscle means 2,100 calories a week lost in metabolic activity.

DIET QUALITY & NUTRITION

Simply counting calories without looking at your fundamental nutrition is a big mistake, in fact many of our clients do not count calories because real, whole foods naturally put you in a deficit and nourish you more.

Foods that are less processed contain all the goodness that you need to thrive as a human being including vitamins, minerals and nutrients.

Research shows us that we are healthier when we consumer whole foods over refined, processed foods.

The more processed the food, the higher the additives, preservatives, sugar, salt, trans-fats and refined starch it will contain plus the lower the nutrition due to reduced fiber, essential fats, vitamins and minerals.

For example below shows you a fast food burger with fries (918 cals) vs a steak with broccoli and medium potato (562 calories).

A diet in less processed foods can help to lower heart disease, cancer, diabetes and excess weight whilst helping you to feel energetic, healthy and full.

When your diet is full of processed food, you are likely to eat more due to a lack of nutrition and satisfaction.

What makes a food processed? Cereals instead of brown rice, apple muffins instead of apples, orange juice instead of an orange, fresh nuts instead of nut bars.

CYCLING OF ENERGY INTAKE

The biggest issue that most people experience is some kind of a dietary plateau, what will take you to your first 5KG of weight loss won’t necessarily help you with your second 5KG or weight loss and so on.

Cycling of energy balance is key to ensure you are in the best place metabolically, hormonally and with overall health plus it ensures you actually stick to the plan.

This is why low carb diets generally fail due to the metabolism adapting to the new energy intake and also a lack of sustainability plus down regulation of your fat burning hormonal activity such as T3 thyroid and hunger boosting hormones such as ghrelin.

Our system shows you exactly how to stop metabolic down regulation and hormonal regulation to ensure you see consistent weight loss weekly.

Your initial deficit works great simply by eating less, but then your body adapts whilst increasing hunger signals to help you survive it’s ‘starvation’ triggers to keep you alive and defend your setpoint weight (your internal normal thermostat on bodyfat levels).

When you eat less, leptin decreases which tells your brain and body to decrease energy output to compensate so we use this mechanism to our advantage.

The more you eat particularly in certain foods, the more energy you burn so temporary boosts in food intake help to overcome progress halting stalls.

SLEEP & STRESS FACTORS

Many Dads who work long hours and have a family suffer with their sleep and this can often get in the way of achieving their goals.

I have seen multiple clients simply get more sleep and their weight loss sparks up again, it’s hard to accept something so simple works but there is a good scientific reason.

When you are in a sleep deprived state you impair your bodies fat burning ability through key hormones.

Ghrelin levels rise, triggering hunger.

Leptin falls, taking longer to feel full.

Food seems more pleasurable so you eat more to ‘pick up energy’

This makes it harder and harder to resist all of the fattening foods that you enjoy such as cookies, muffins and take aways.

Sleeping less makes you crave more poor quality food and you also tend to move less which is a bad combination.

Studies show how sleep deprived people tend to eat 300 calories a day more than people who get enough sleep.

So is it really all about the calories?

As you can see while many people follow strict diets to reach their goals, it rarely works out because if it was that simple, everyone would be in great shape.

A combination of diet quality, set point weight management, plateau busting strategy, stress, hormonal triggers, fullness, eating enough and following the right training plan are the secret to it all and it’s why we’ve successful helped over 450 Dads with the Ultimate Dad Blueprint which gives you everything you need to know to start seeing long term results.

If you are ready to finally lose weight long term, PRESS HERE to apply for our next 12 week transformation.

Here are just some of our client results