The most rapid fat loss diet plan is the one that’s effective, sustainable and keeps fat off your body PERMANENTLY.
The relatively slow route of losing no more than 1-1½ lbs of fat per week is the fastest way to get and maintain a lean body.
Those that try to lose fat any faster will lose more lean muscle than fat, encourage binge eating and suffer from a lowered metabolism.
So, what are the keys to losing fat when it comes to nutrition?
1. Get Your Body Fat Percentage
Don’t just randomly start a nutrition plan without knowing first hand how much fat you’ve got to lose in the first place.
To get your body fat percentage, grab some body fat calliper’s off amazon. By taking a single pinch of the waist, you can quickly and accurately measure your body fat percentage.
The reason why you can’t rely on scale weight alone when losing fat is because losing “weight” could mean losing muscle, losing fat, water or a combination of all three. As you lose weight, keeping tabs on body fat is essential, you need to make sure you’re primarily losing fat.
2. How Lean is Lean Enough?
How much fat you need to lose depends on your goal body fat percentage. I recommend a goal body fat of 9% this is lean enough to see your abs without killing your testosterone levels in the process. Basically, you’ll look awesome without resorting to unsustainable eating plans.
I recommend a goal body fat percentage of 9-12%, this is lean enough to see your abs but not super ripped, it’s a good goal to aim for so let’s use 9% body fat as your goal for this demonstration.
To work out how much fat you need to lose, use this simple formula:
Desired body weight = lean body weight / desired lean mass percentage in decimal form.
Let’s say you’re a male that weighs 200lb with a body fat percentage of 20%, first we would calculate how much fat you have at 20% body fat:
200 x 0.2 = 40 lbs
Next, we need to calculate your fat free mass, this is your body weight with zero fat. Note, you must have some body fat to be healthy.
200 – 40 = 160 lbs (fat free mass)
Next, you would divide your fat free body weight by your goal body fat percentage. In this example, I’m using a goal body fat of 9%.
160 / 0.9 = 178 lbs
Lastly you would subtract your goal body weight from your current bodyweight.
200 – 178 = 22 lbs
So, in this example you’d need to lose 22 pounds of fat to achieve your goal body fat percentage of 9%.
If you’re losing 1-1½lbs per week it should only take between 15-22 weeks to achieve this goal.
3. Know your BMR calories
Your BMR is your Basal Metabolic Rate and how many calories you need each day to sustain your current weight.
There are a lot of complicated formulas out there to calculate this, however I recommend simply multiplying your body weight in pounds x 15 which will give you a rough estimate of your daily BMR calories.
From here you should be eating at 20% deficit that will translate to a fat loss of 1-1½ lbs per week. Another way of calculating your target calories is to simply multiply your body weight in lbs x 12 that will equal your goal fat loss calories each day.
Example 200 male:
200 x 12 = 2400 calories per day
This acts as a starting point and might need to be adjusted depending on how your body reacts.
4. Use the Warrior Diet Principles to Fat Loss
The Warrior Diet principles are exactly what Ori Hofmekler talks about and forms the foundation of my new course, Ripped Abs Over 40.
By undereating in the morning and overeating at lunch and dinner we can effectively create a huge buffer of calories to be eaten later in the day. Furthermore, the health benefits and sustainability of this plan are huge.
Not only is sticking to this plan a breeze, but when you haven’t eaten for a period and then introduce bigger amounts of calories into your system, testosterone production has been shown to increase by as much as 400%.
Studies have also proved that eating as we’re intended improves mood, concentration and energy production.
It’s my personal favourite approach to staying lean year-round without using any supplements whatsoever.
5. Focus on fat loss and testosterone boosting foods
While overall calories are the most important aspect of losing body fat, how you break up those calories into your daily macros will have a dramatic effect on your body composition.
Your goal is to build & maintain lean muscle without eating excessive amounts of protein. The problem with eating too much protein for fat loss, is carbohydrates and fat will need to be reduced which will kill testosterone levels.
You really don’t need any more than 0.8 grams of protein per pound of lean muscle per day to maintain muscle.
By eating 40% of your overall calories from carbohydrates and 30% of the remaining calories from fat you’ll keep testosterone at peak levels whilst dropping fat.
Choose foods that have the most health benefits, have fewer ingredients and are known for their testosterone boosting benefits.
Foods such as eggs, salmon, avocados, cabbage, nuts and extra virgin olive oil are perfect for this, they have both testosterone boosting and estrogenic lowering properties.
Here’s to your success!