If you want to drop 20 pounds or more this year, keep reading.

Every time I used to try to lose weight, I would just work out more.

When I was chubby and overweight - I worked out more.

I worked out more when I gained 30 lbs and felt uncomfortable in my body.

While working out and lifting weights are important and a big part of the fitness formula, nutrition will be how you stimulate your body to drop fat and pounds.

Then, use lifting weights to retain lean muscle tone.

The formula is simple:

Eat less food than your body needs to maintain itself while lifting heavy weights = the body will drop body fat while retaining lean muscle tone.

That’s the formula.

And that’s why nearly every diet works (in the beginning).

But there’s some nuance to this per individual.

So, let’s cover some ground rules regarding sustainable and permanent weight loss.

#1.) Nutrition is The Fastest Way To Drop Body Fat and Build Muscle

 

Hands down, using nutrition will be the fastest way to change your body composition.

Without discussing strength and cardiovascular training, nutrition ALONE will significantly transform your body’s shape, health, and overall well-being.

It’s a multi-dimensional subject that can take years to master, so let’s start with the main strategies and then dive into the daily tactics.

(while shaving years off your learning curve).

As the adage goes - “Abs are built in the kitchen.”

The 3-tier pyramid of the nutrition hierarchy is:

1. How To Eat
2. What To Eat
3. How Much To Eat

This letter will touch on how much to eat specifically (let me know if you’d like to learn about the others in a future letter).

But more than anything else, I’ll share with you here - consistency is the main focus.

If you aren’t consistently hitting your nutrition targets - you won’t see results, and it will be very difficult to make intelligent decisions when making adjustments.

If you aren’t consistent with eating the right foods in the right amounts, then NO amount of recipes or nutrition plans will help you.

And if you aren’t consistently retraining yourself with HOW to eat, then no amount of coaching will support you.

Consistency is the basis for life-long success in this important chapter.

Consistency > Perfection

Once we establish a base of consistency, the next focus will be to improve ACCURACY.

Accuracy does NOT mean perfection.

It just means getting closer to your nutrition targets, the right meals, and the right way of eating.

Ideally, we’ll aim for 80% accuracy as the BARE minimum.

Initially, you may be accurate as low as 20-30%.

That’s okay.

But 80% will yield phenomenal results over time, and for those who want to see faster results - 90% accuracy will get you there even faster.

The goal is improvement (progress) each day over perfection.

#2.) Law of Thermodynamics

So, why is nutrition so important?

According to the Law of Thermodynamics:

“Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be transferred into a different form.”

Food is a form of energy.

Food is stored potential energy.

Body fat is stored potential energy.

When we eat food, we convert it into a usable form of energy that our body can use to maintain its bodily processes: move, play, think, run, lift, sleep, etc.

Since energy CANNOT be created or destroyed and can only be transferred, we need to change the formula to work in our favor.

In other words - we need to eat less energy (food) than our body needs to tap into body fat storage.

We need to eat more or enough food (energy) to increase strength, muscle mass, and overall sports performance for muscle building or sports performance.

#3.) Law of Energy Balance

So this brings us to the Law of Energy Balance.

Changing your physique and body becomes much simpler once you fully grasp thermodynamics.

Energy balance will help you understand nutrition even more.

Energy balance is when you eat enough food to RETAIN your current bodily functions, weight, and composition.

E.g., If your maintenance calories were 2,500 k/cal per day and you ate 2,500 k/cal per day, then on average, your body weight and composition would stay the same (more or less).

This can be a great place to stay for restabilizing weight, regaining balance (especially if you’ve been undereating for a while or been in a deficit), and sports performance.

Most of us DO NOT eat in energy balance each day.

Hence the obesity crisis, emotional eating epidemic, and nutrition problems we see everywhere.

The goal is learning to LIVE at energy balance after hitting your ideal fitness goal.

This takes time.

So how do people gain weight or, more specifically, fat tissue?

By eating in a positive energy balance (e.g., a caloric surplus).

This is when you eat MORE than your body needs, and you’ll gain weight over time.

Context: You will build muscle and strength if you lift weights and eat more than your body needs. Most people aren’t doing this.

So, for example, if your maintenance calories is 2,500 k/cal and you’re eating 3,000 k/cal per day, on average per week you’re eating an extra 3,500 k/cal per week.

This is a great formula if you’re lifting weights and focusing on building muscle and strength.

But again, most people aren’t.

So that’s why we’re seeing a HUGE uptick in weight gain and obesity.

NOTE: 1 lb of fat tissue has 3,500 k/cal. So, to drop 1 lb of fat tissue per week, you need to average a negative balance of 500 k/cal daily.

Finally, there’s negative energy balance.

A negative energy balance (a caloric deficit) is often misunderstood.

When you eat LESS than your body’s maintenance calories, over time, your body will start to use body fat storage as a form of ENERGY (since fat = stored energy).

For example, if your maintenance calories are 2,500 k/cal and you consistently eat at 2,000 k/cal each day, you’ll create a negative balance of 3,500 k/cal each week (which will give you 1 lb of fat loss per week).

The gold standard for fat loss (weight loss) is 1 lb per week (give or take).

For muscle building or weight gain (beginners), that can be 1-2 lbs per month (of muscle).

Glossary Bank:

Negative Balance (caloric deficit) = eating less food than your body needs

Energy Balance (maintenance) = eating the amount of food your body needs to stay the same

Positive Balance (caloric surplus) = eating more food than your body needs

Fat = pantry full of food (extra energy which we often don’t need)

Muscle = retirement funds, which you’ll need the older you age

#4.) Action Steps

So there’s a lot we covered here.

And learning more isn’t enough.

Implement this consistently and you’ll drop the next 20 pounds or more.

Here’s exactly what to do in order of importance:

1. Calculate your maintenance calories (use Chronometer for this)
2. Reduce your calories by ~500 k/cal daily and track your calories, body weight, body measurements, and photos for 3 weeks
3. After 3 weeks, review the data from your nutrition (ideally 80% accuracy) and your rate of weight loss from the past 3 weeks
   1. Typically the first 2-3 weeks of data from body weight, measurements, and photos is skewed since you’re dropping water weight, gut content, and may even see slight weight gain
4. After 3 or more weeks of data, you should have a good idea of your trends. If things are slow, and if you’ve been consistent with tracking, consider slicing off an additional 250 k/cal per day (since your initial calculations may have been off)
5. Retest 2 weeks later and review your trends for nutrition tracking and biometrics
6. BONUS: Lift weights 3-4x a week, and you’ll ensure you’re dropping body fat while retaining lean muscle during this weight-loss phase

You’ll notice I didn’t mention macros in this letter.

While important (particularly with protein and carbs), hitting your macros has no place if you’re not within your caloric budget.

Master the fundamentals first.

Then, fine-tune the details.

2024 is your year.

- Gabriel

Whenever you're ready, there are two ways I can help you:

#1 ​Join our free high-performance fitness FB group​ to get access to dozens of free live trainings recorded, plus a tight-knit group of leaders who want to become healthy role models.

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