The Five Keys to Effortless Fat Loss

In this post, I’m going to share with you how to achieve a lean and chiseled Summer body, well, effortlessly.

Now, not effortless in the literal sense of the word. Because, after all, commitment and diligence is involved in achieving an amazing body.

But rather, effortless in the sense that you will feel completely, and absolutely liberated.

Everyday, you will feel incredibly full and satisfied off foods you love. And you will walk through life, knowing, that nothing can stop you from getting to your goal.

Dinner dates, social outings, weekend drinks, and sheer laziness, none of this has to put your fat loss goals on halt – if you start implementing the five keys to effortless weight (fat) loss…

The Goal of Effortless Fat Loss

The goal of effortless fat loss is simply to make eating at a calorie deficit, simple, easy and enjoyable.

That is all!

Being in a calorie deficit is what creates fat loss.

Contrarily, eating at a calorie surplus, is what causes us to gain weight. Funny enough, no one argues that eating too much causes us to gain weight. Yet, some “diet gurus” will try to mislead you into believing that calories don’t matter.

That’s like saying energy doesn’t matter. It’s a completely absurd statement. When you’re eating at a calorie deficit, the body needs to meet it’s energy requirements one way or another.

So it is forced to tap into stored body fat for fuel.

The question then becomes, how do I make eating at a calorie deficit as simple, easy and enjoyable as possible? That my friend, is where the five keys come in!

Key #1 – Learn to Eat Just Two Meals Per Day

(Meal from KinoChef)

This is the holy grail of effortless fat loss. In fact, it’s why I’ve been able to lean down on every vacation I’ve ever gone on, while eating triumphant meals and drinking liberally.

The modern day push towards propagating a higher meal frequency is not only confounded on zero research, it also is what is making fat loss so damn hard!

When we feel like we need to eat 4-6 meals per day, we have no wiggle room, no freedom, no chance to be human.

When you learn to eat just two meals per day, you can enjoy life to the utmost.

You can eat big and bad ass meals and feel like a true warrior. You can enjoy all kinds of epic meals on a weekly basis, while dropping body fat, it’s kinda nuts actually.

When you can enjoy food completely and hold a low body fat, life gets kinda awesome.

How to Make Eating Two Meals Per Day Effortless

This is something I go into much greater detail in my Aggressive Fat Loss Program, which is, easily, bar none, the most effective course on getting super lean and enjoying life.

But the concept is to eat only a lunch and dinner! I recommend saying good bye to a morning breakfast for life.

It’s one of the best things you can ever do. This is something I discuss in the Kinobody Fasting Handbook. 

Intermittent fasting increases fat mobilization, spares muscle protein, boosts mental alertness and even has life extension properties and numerous beneficial health effects. As well, from my experience, intermittent fasting allows you to retain more muscle on a cut.

Black Gold

Fasting until lunch is actually not that hard once you adapt to it. The key is to drink a few cups of black coffee during the fasting portion of the day. Black coffee will blunt appetite, improve mental clarity, elevate mood and increase energy levels. My favorite coffee is Fasting Fuel.

If you’re worried about drinking coffee, don’t fear, coffee is a health packed elixir and it may even save your life. If you hate coffee, you can make ice coffee and chug it down.

Now the key is to only drink coffee during the fasting portion of the day and at no other time.

We’re using coffee (Fasting Fuel) strategically to make intermittent fasting effortless.

Another cool trick is to hold off on drinking coffee for the first 1-2 hours of your day. This will help you push your first meal later into the day.

Pushing your first meal later into the day will allow you to eat like a king and lean down (since you’ll have so many calories to eat in just 2 meals, yippie).

An Apple a Day (or two) 

If you get hungry before your lunch and dinner, I recommend the apple trick. This is where you simply eat an apple as a snack. A typical apple has only 80 calories, yet it does a pretty great job at staving off hunger.

In fact, my friend and fitness expert, first got me onto eating 1-2 apples per day from this post. 

So your day might look like this:

  • wake up – 7am
  • coffee – 9am (enjoy 2-3 cups of coffee over a couple hours)
  • snack (1 apple) – 12pm
  • Big lunch – 1 or 2pm
  • Snack (1 apple) – 6pm
  • Big Dinner – 8pm

Pretty much anyone can adapt to the above strategy. You can adjust it depending on your typical wake up time. The earlier you wake up, the earlier your big meals should be.

Let’s Put this Into Perspective 

With this approach, you can eat big, incredible meals. It doesn’t matter how much fat or carbs you take in, it doesn’t matter if you eat sugar or ice cream, if you’re in a calorie deficit, you will lean down.

As long as you take in sufficient protein and strength train 2-3x per week, you will maintain muscle while dropping fat. So on this protocol, you could eat chipotle for lunch (double steak, tons of cheese) and a big ass steak with french fries for dinner.

And guess what, you’d probably drop fat. To make this protocol more ‘aggressive’, I would substitute one of the meals for a lower calorie meal (400-600 calories). This will put you in a bigger deficit and allow you to eat until a state of bliss for your other meal.

This is precisely the approach that I describe in my Aggressive Fat Loss Program and the feedback and results been nothing short of astonishing.

Here’s the latest one from Cody B. after only 30 days

“What’s up Greg?

Thanks for the check-in email. So far, lots of progress has been made. I started the program at 184 pounds and weighed in today actually at 171 pounds.

I’ve been tracking roughly my lean body mass compared to my fat mass with calipers each week, and I haven’t lost a pound of muscle. So thus far 13 pounds of pure fat loss! Not bad at all.

With a lean body mass around 148ish, I’m planning to continue on the program a little while longer until I’m at a reasonable spot.

I’ll send pictures soon!

-Cody B.”

And another one from Marc Hurtubise, after 12 weeks 

 Screen Shot 2015-04-14 at 2.36.35 PM

Key #2 – Stop Obsessing About Protein Intake & Macro Numbers

To make fat loss effortless, we need to let go of the head games. Tracking macronutrients is not as necessary as many people make it out to be. The ‘If It Fits Your Macros’ approach has gotten a little out of hand.

The idea is to make eating at a calorie deficit as enjoyable as possible (while getting adequate protein). Now sure, certain macro ratio’s and intakes can be more enjoyable.

The main idea is to avoid doing anything stupid. And by stupid, I mean going really low in fat or carbs.

The Problem with Going Low in Fats & Carbs 

You see, when you go really low in fat (under 20% of total calories per day), you impair hormonal functioning, you make food taste bland and it’s really hard to stay full (since adequate fat helps promote fullness).

When you go really low in carbs (under 20-30% of total calories per day), bad things happen. Carbs help support training, testosterone, reduce stress and improve mood through release of neurotransmitters like serotonin and tryptophan that help keep you relaxed, happy and help with sleep.

So the whole concept is to consume adequate protein and enjoy a balanced intake of fats and carbs.

That can be accomplished with a range of macro intakes. So this gives you more flexibility to enjoy food without trying to fit everything into some macro number.

The Problem with Eating Tons of Protein

As for protein, I’ve been enjoying going lower in protein. About 0.7-0.8g per pound of bodyweight. This approach works really well if you are only eating two meals per day.

This is because you’ll be able to eat big servings of filling protein, while also having tons of room for delicious and satisfying fasts and carbs. As well, when you don’t have to worry about hitting a crazy amount of protein each day, your life becomes easier.

You don’t have to do as much cooking, it’s easier to eat out and you can enjoy really tasty food. If you were to eat a ton of protein, you’d have to drop your carbs and fats down a lot.

A lower protein and higher carb diet (with fat being equal), actually promotes a higher level of testosterone in men. I’ve actually noticed that I no longer have any sex drive issues when dieting to extreme levels of leanness since dropping my protein and upping my fats and carbs.

In the aforementioned study, a lower carb higher protein diet, decreased testosterone by a stiff 30%. Yikes, on a calorie deficit, testosterone will already be taking a hit.

Don’t make matters worse by eating tons of protein at the expense of your fats and carbs.

Don’t force yourself to eat more protein or macros if you’re not hungry 

One question I get all the time is this – “Greg I’m already full but I still have some macros left, do I have to eat them”. My answer is no. The whole point of the nutrition strategy is to make fat loss a breeze.

If you’re already full, then stop eating. That just means you’ll be losing fat at a faster pace. Even if you haven’t finished your protein numbers for the day, that’s fine.

It’s okay to go lower in protein on some days. And if you’re getting around 0.7-0.82g per pound of bodyweight in protein, then you pretty much have got everything you could possibly need.

It’s a disservice to force yourself to eat on a cut, if you’re not hungry. Learn to listen to your body and tune into it, for effortless fat loss.

Key #3 – Consume Foods That Keep You Full & Satisfied

Crispy Baked Potato Wedge

This brings me to the next point. The key to effortless fat loss is to really focus on eating foods that keep you full and satisfied!

While avoiding foods you seem to have no control over or leave you in a state of wanting more.

Lean meats, potatoes, veggies, beans, low fat cheese, corn tortillas, PopChips, whole eggs mixed with egg whites – are all very satiating.

I recommend basing your fat shredding diet off these foods. I also recommend using a little fat from butter and coconut oil for cooking to make food crispy and delicious.

I encourage people to avoid eating pasta, rice and cereals and foods that don’t do much to satisfy you. I also find chocolate in moderation, to do a really good job at satisfying a sweet tooth and promoting fullness.

Have a few hundred calories of chocolate and you’ll probably be satisfied. Have a cookie or two, and you’re going to want to eat the entire bag. At-least that’s my experience haha!

Low fat frozen yogurt with chocolate chips is an amazing dessert that’s satisfying and low in calories. Catching my point here?

Eat foods that you enjoy and help make eating at a calorie deficit easy.

Or, at-least focus on this 80-90% of the time.

This is partially a learning process. But once you find meals and desserts that you truly enjoy and make dieting easy, well stick to them. There’s no need for a ton of variety. Simplicity is best!

Key #4 – Be a Minimalist in the Gym 

 

The fourth key to achieving effortless fat loss is to learn to become a minimalist in the gym.

What most people don’t understand is that a high level of exercise can drive up appetite.

This can make dieting a miserable experience. My suggestion is to limit your training down to three intense 45 minute strength training sessions per week. And to go for a 40-60 minute walk on your non lifting days.

This is the optimal amount. Adding intervals, crossfit, p90x, circuits, high volume strength training sessions, 4-6 lifts per week. All that training just makes dieting harder as it ramps up appetite, depletes will power reserves and destroys confidence when you can’t sustain it.

And for what purpose? Building a great physique is tied to hitting a calorie deficit (through proper to nutrition) to reach a low body fat, and progressing on key lifts.

Once you’re lifting intensely three days per week, eating properly and getting in some low intensity walking, you already are doing everything you could possible need to promote a lean and chiseled physique.

Why make building a great physique and achieving a low body fat harder than it needs to be?

When you hone your training down, you’ll experience accelerated results because recovery will be on your side and you’ll finally be able to pour yourself into the workout sessions.

Key #5 – Stop Giving a Fuck

the-less-you-give-a-fuck

One reason why I’ve had such amazing success dropping body fat on vacations, trips and travel experiences is because, well, uh, I stopped giving a fuck.

My mind wasn’t even thinking about fat loss. I was just enjoying myself and doing the best I could.

When you’re constantly thinking about fat loss and dieting, you’re essentially putting a weight on your shoulders, mental baggage if you will. This makes fat loss, 10x harder than it needs to be.

Do your best to follow your workout program and nutrition plan, then forget about it altogether and live your life. This usually, involves, accepting yourself.

Be okay with where you are right now in this moment

If you don’t accept yourself, if you don’t accept this moment and where you’re starting from at this point in time, then you will unconsciously cling onto exactly where you are right now.

You’ll never completely achieve your goals because your ego won’t allow you to. This is because your identity is now based around not being happy with how you look and your ego will do whatever it can to preserve that very identity.

So if you truly want to be happy with how you look, if you truly want to achieve your goals. You must live as if you are where you want to be right now. You must feel happy and complete with yourself now.

Accepting yourself and having gratitude does not mean that you will stop working towards your goals

On the contrary, when you’re no longer resisting what you don’t want, you will be free to move forward with ease, joy and lightness. This is because you can’t resist something, while at the same time fully apply yourself. “What you fight you strengthen. Whatever you resist, persists” Eckhart Tolle

External reality is a reflection of your internal reality. Once you change your internal reality, everything in your life will transform.

When you learn to have peace and acceptance with yourself, then you can finally enjoy the adventure to your goals without the stress, chronic thinking and mental baggage that was there before.

This is a huge component of my Aggressive Fat Loss Program 2.0. And is partly why it’s so successful!

 YOUR Next Steps

1) Pick up AFL 2.0

This includes the full blown PDF, cheat sheets, recipe guide, workout program, mindset guide and more…

You can purchase it directly here – AFL 2.0

 

2) Take Your Pictures, Weight & Waist measurement

I want you to see concrete proof of how effective this system is. That means taking pictures, recording your weight and measuring your waist around bellybutton level.

Always take your weight and waist measurement first thing in the morning for greatest accuracy. Your waist measurement will fluctuate an inch or more, after drinking water or eating.

By having this data, you will no, objectively how much progress you’re making. Sometimes weight will stall, but your waist may go down. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket (weight or waist measurement). Look at the full picture.

3) Start Implementing the Protocol

Plan your day, know exactly what you’re going to be eating that day. Go grocery shopping if you have to. Get your coffee game on to help with fasting. Pick up some delicious apples, lean meats, coconut oil and potatoes!

There’s no need for a ton of variety. Keep it simple. You’ll be leaning down so nicely, you won’t care if you’re eating the same handful of meals every week. Especially when you’re satisfied as heck!

Cheers, to your lean and chiseled physique!

Learn more about how Aggressive Fat Loss 2.0 can help you reach your fat loss goals here