The Fat Loss Sprint

If you want to get toned, it means you want to lose fat.

Think of your body as layers.

You have bone, then you have muscle, then you have fat over the muscle, then you have skin.

So "toned" means you make the muscle layer a little (or a lot) thicker, lose some of the fat layer, and bam, you look leaner and can more clearly see your hard-earned muscle.

And fat loss comes down to a simple equation:

Calories In vs. Calories Out

What this means is that if you eat more calories than you burn, you'll gain weight.

If you burn more than you eat, you'll lose weight.

As an aside, that's why it's so absolutely critical to strength train when you're in a calorie deficit.

Strength training helps maintain your muscle mass so that more of the weight you lose comes from fat.

Simple enough, right?

Well, here's where things get tricky.

We all know that weekends, eating out, the occasional cocktails, and parties/cookouts/get-togethers are places where we tend to overindulge.

And you might go all week, or maybe even a few weeks, eating in a calorie deficit, training consistently, and starting to see some changes.

Then you end up in Cardiff with the family at Las Olas, eat enough chips and salsa to cover your sodium quota for the next quarter, a grande carne asada burrito, and wash it down with a couple of margaritas.

That one meal can totally backfill multiple days (or even weeks) of a calorie deficit.

And that's what makes fat loss incredibly challenging.

Being strict enough to make enough headway that you see and feel the progress, which keeps your momentum going, while balancing being a real-life human and not some fitness cyborg.

So what's the solution?

It's not about balance.

Not in the traditional sense, at least.

See, the above example is normal life.

You eat healthy, real food 90% of the time, train 3 times per week, and take care of yourself, but have the freedom to go out once every week or two and have dinner and a cocktail, and all is right in the world.

Picture that as one side of the seesaw.

You spend most of your time on that side.

Then there's the other side.

The strict side.

The side we only stay on for 4 weeks a few times per year.

The unsustainable side.

I call it The Fat Loss Sprint.

You do this 2–3 times per year, and it's strategic.

First, find a month when you don't have much on the calendar.

No holidays, events, or travel.

This is usually great for September or October, right after the summer chaos ends and before the holidays, January or February right after them, and/or April or May before summer comes.

During this month, you'll follow 7 rules:

1. Eat real food. Build your meals around meat, vegetables, fruit, rice, and potatoes. Prepare everything yourself (or use a healthy meal delivery service)

2. No sweets.

3. Write down everything you eat for the month.

4. Walk 10,000 steps every single day.

5. Strength train 3x/week.

6. Lie in bed for 7 hours every night (without a phone in your face).

7. Drink half of your body weight in ounces of water every day.

There is no negotiating on any of these things.

You need to be structured, thoughtful, and consistent.

But these 7 rules, will drive a calorie deficit, and deliver some serious progress in a relatively short amount of time.

Now, back to the "balance" for a second.

This isn't balance at all.

It's the other side of the seesaw from your normal, balanced, sustainable life.

But for a significantly shorter amount of time each year.

That's why I don't recommend doing it more than 2–3 times per year, and not for more than a month at a time.

See, most people are always doing something like The Fat Loss Sprint Monday through Thursday.

But when the weekend comes, they completely go off the rails.

That's their balance. It's a roller coaster, but they might maintain their body composition this way.

With The Fat Loss Sprint, you spend enough time in a deficit that you actually lose a substantial amount of bodyfat.

And the reality is, it's easier to maintain a body composition than it is to lose fat in the first place.

And that's the whole point of this approach.

Spend most of your year living a healthy, sustainable lifestyle, and use a few strategically placed 4-week periods to really tighten things up and make progress.

This plan is stringent, challenging, and that's why most people won't do it.

But it's a good way to reset, make real progress, build momentum, and lean into your health, especially after parts of the year when you've naturally tended to overindulge.

You don't have to live like a fitness cyborg year-round.

You just need to know when to tighten things up and when to loosen the reins.

That's The Fat Loss Sprint.