If you tell me you haven’t left something until the last minute, I’m calling you a liar.

- Studying for an exam

- Leaving the house to meet someone in town.

- Getting out of bed in the morning before school/work.

We all do it and especially with dieting.

“Diet starts next week”.

“I’m going to start next Monday because it’s a new week.”

Let’s say you have an event this summer, a wedding, a hen/stag party abroad, a summer holiday anything. I know for a fact every single person would love to enjoy every second of the process..

But instead, people dread the thought of going shopping for clothes, bikinis, Swimsuits because they hate the way they look in them. They dread getting their photo taken as well because they are not going to be happy with how they look.

All of this fear and anxiety of what’s about to come drives people to make the craziest decision ever. We start throwing money away at miracle fat loss pills, juices, teas, shakes, waist trainers, etc.. Anything that might give us the slightest chance of improving our appearance in the minimum time possible.

The sad fact is, these miracle fat loss companies are set up to target you when you are in this state.

Fig 1 shows the only way we can actually lose body fat

Fig 1. 

The most important part of fat loss is being able to adhere to your calorie target long enough to see results. I’ve seen so many people kill themselves dieting from Mon – Fri barely eating a thing:

What’s for breakfast? Celery. What’s for lunch? Ryvita. What’s for dinner? Celery.

Then when Saturday & Sunday hit they you try your hardest but after a stressful week of work / school and the depression of not eating one single thing you enjoyed all week you end up binging like your life depended on it. Then all you can remember is the struggle of Mon – Fri eating nothing and can’t understand why you’re not losing weight even though you have just smashed 12,000 calories over the weekend.

The second most important thing for fat loss is a calorie deficit. This means burning more calories than you consume in a day. This is the one basic rule of fat loss that applies to every diet in the world;

Keto Diet = Calorie Deficit

Paleo Diet = Calorie Deficit

Slimming World = Calorie Deficit

Low carb Diet = Calorie Deficit.

If you lose fat you are in a calorie deficit & all of the above diets work off that principle but just have a different way of dressing it up. There is no way around this, no tea, no juice, no detox is going to make you lose fat. Managing your calorie intake vs your calorie expenditure is what will make you lose fat.

There you have it, the two most important aspects of fat loss are adherence & a calorie deficit. But people generally don’t like to hear this as they want to see results overnight. Fig 2 illustrates this

Fig 2. 

This is the most common issue I see in the fat loss world.

People want results instantly and won’t do it the right way. They will crash diet and maybe see results after 2 weeks but in another 2 weeks they will be back to where they started after falling off their diet!

They will go onto to complete this diet circle of crash diet, binge, crash diet, binge…. Never be happy with how they look, always dread the thought of a photo, look at other people and wonder how they are in such good shape etc…

Even writing that depresses me! Why not this year do it the right way…..Be the patient dieter.

Give yourself enough of time to get ready for your event.

I have told you now the 2 most important principles for fat loss are

1. Adherence
2. Calorie Deficit

If you start dieting now for something that is maybe 3 months away that means you can keep your calories very high, which means you can keep eating some of your favourite calorie dense foods such as chips, sweets, chocolate, (a glass of wine in the evening).

Then guess what because you can keep eating & drinking these things, it makes adhering to your calories 100 times easier!

Now, for the first time ever you are actually putting yourself in the position to lose body fat and keep it off forever! You might actually enjoy going shopping for new clothes and like the way you look in a bikini/swimsuit! You might look forward to having your picture taken as you think you look good!

The time to start is now, so stop lying in bed waiting for that last second to get up before work! Get up now and give yourself time, the same rule applies to fat loss….