How To Diet To Lose Fat FOR GOOD (4 Phases)

 if you're watching this video then chances are you've attempted to diet of your own in the past and you likely saw some success with it maybe lost a few pounds or maybe lost a ton of weight but eventually you reached a point where you just got stuck despite working out and dieting as hard as ever then you got frustrated and ended up regaining even more weight than you initially lost then you likely attempted to diet again afterwards to get rid of that regained weight but this time even when you put in the same effort you just can't seem to get as lean and everything just seems so much harder i've seen this happen time and time again and i've personally been through this series of yoyo dieting myself as well because the truth is in the short term just about everything works as long as you're in a calorie deficit with your diet the long term however is where most people fail in fact there exists eight to twelve week study showing successful weight loss with pretty much every dieting approach out there but when you look at long-term research only about 10 to 20 of those individuals are able to keep that weight off in the long run which is due to the fact that most people have been taught to use approaches that set themselves up for failure in the long run by negatively affecting their bodies both physiologically and psychologically with diets that leave them in a position where it's now much harder to strip off that excess fat and to help explain the science behind how exactly this happens here is dr eric trexler pro bodybuilder and phd researcher who has done a ton of work within this field so yo-yo dieting is something a lot of people experience you know repeated cycles of dieting and regaining the weight that they lost and one of the reasons it's problematic is because you know with metabolic adaptation we start losing fat our body adapts to that in certain ways none of them are terrible but they're things that we have to plan for you know and so people will lose weight and they'll start running into a little bit of friction they might notice that their energy expenditure is lower than it used to be they're much hungrier than they used to be you know there might be some hormonal changes depending on how much weight they've lost and how lean they've gotten and for a lot of people they run into enough friction that they decide they no longer wish to be dieting you know so they'll lose some fat and say i don't think i really want to continue with the fat loss or they're simply unable to continue because it's become so uh so unpleasant and so you know sometimes people will say this i just can't keep up with this because i don't like how low my calories are i don't like how hungry i am i don't like how lethargic i'm feeling and they might go off the diet start overeating and because they have so much hunger and you know relatively low energy expenditure the weight gain they experience can be fairly rapid and so what's unfortunate about that is we have a lot of hunger toward the end of a diet some of that is a result of just having low chloric intake some of that's related to having less fat storage than we used to but some of it is related to the loss of lean mass which occurs during a diet and what happens is if we regain all of our fat from a diet during this yo-yo dieting process in many cases we regain the fat more quickly than we could possibly regain the lean mass and if we find ourselves in a position where we're back at our normal starting body weight but we have less lean mass than when we started we haven't restored all the lean mass that we lost we'll find that some of that hunger from the diet persists even though we've regained all the weight and so that's where you can start to see not only do people go back to the starting line after a relatively unsuccessful dieting attempt but they can actually shift that starting line back a little bit now as eric alluded to this is exactly how restrictive diets leave you in a worse place every time you attempt to die down and literally just sets you up for failure in the long run by making it harder and harder for you to strip off that fat for good so this sounds like you and you're at a point where you've been chronically undereating doing a ton of cardio binging every now and then and basically just in a cycle of yo-yo dieting then you need to realize that weight loss should not be your priority right now your body isn't ready physiologically nor psychologically remember we're talking about lifetime results here not just some 12-week weight loss program so we need to first get your body recovered back to a point where we're now ready to start cutting calories and stimulating fat loss the right way and to do so we want to first use something called the recovery phase so with this phase we have three major goals one we want to restore the lean muscle mass that you lost as this will not only help slightly boost your metabolic rate but muscle loss also seems to be directly correlated to your hunger levels where the more muscle and overall lean mass you lose the hungrier your body tends to be we don't actually know physiologically why this is but nonetheless it's why we need to prioritize lean mass restoration before beginning the diet again two to restore any hormonal imbalances related to hunger fatigue and just overall feeling like crap as a result of your previous diet and three to just get you in a better mindset with regards to your relationship to food and your weight we need to get you in a state where you're actually excited and truly ready to start a diet again before we do so now to accomplish this all you're going to do is simply bump up your calories to whatever your maintenance calories currently are or even slightly above this while also cutting back on your cardio if you're currently doing quite a bit of it and to get a rough estimate of what maintenance may be for you you can simply multiply your body weight in pounds by 14 to 15. stick to that then monitor your calorie intake and body weight over the next few weeks and adjust accordingly to the point where you're now maintaining your current weight with a certain calorie intake but do be comfortable with your body weight slowly creeping up just a little bit throughout the process although this may sound counterintuitive what a lot of you may notice by doing this is that these extra calories are just what your body needed and you're now so much more energized you're moving more you're performing better in the gym you're regaining your loss muscle and strength you're not completely wrecked after your workouts you're sleeping better and you just feel better throughout the day now as for how long you should stay in this recovery for here's what eric recommends once we do get into the recovery phase how long typically would it take someone to at least physiologically recover back to a point where they're now ready to go back on the diet it's a good question now assuming that you're no longer in a caloric deficit assuming that you're at a reasonably comfortable body fat level that is sustainable um you know we're usually looking at it at least uh a month or two usually more in the two to four month range to reach full recovery so take your time with this phase guys and think about the long term i really just can't stress this enough when you're ready though phase two is where we can give dieting another shot but this time we need to do it right which means that we need to set up our fat loss phase in a way that minimizes muscle loss and minimizes the metabolic adaptation that we typically experience throughout our diet and as outlined in eric's research papers there are a few ways that we can do this first you need to avoid using a very aggressive calorie deficit as research has shown that just a moderate deficit that enables you to lose weight at a rate of about 0.7 percent of your body weight per week is ideal to maximize fat loss while minimizing metabolic adaptations and muscle loss for most people this equates to roughly only a 15 to 25 calorie deficit but just keep an eye on how your body weight progresses throughout the weeks and adjust accordingly next we want to use an approach that's called intermittent dieting i have covered this in a past video but essentially after every six to eight weeks or so of dieting you want to break this up with what's called a diet break where you eat at maintenance calories for about a week or two now although research regarding this is still very preliminary it does suggest that diet breaks may help reverse some of the metabolic adaptations you experience from release of dieting potentially minimize the metabolic adaptations going forward and it just prepares you for your next phase of dieting not to mention that it can also help with better adherence over the course of your diet in fact i would even recommend that after you lose a considerable amount of weight take a break from dieting altogether for a little while and just focus on maintaining that current weight remember it's about lifelong results here so don't be afraid to take it slow and lastly you need to ensure that you're eating a high protein diet along with high volume low calorie filling foods the sufficient protein will not only help you burn more calories by just metabolizing it but will also help keep you full and maintain or even build muscle mass as you die down an opting for satiating foods that provide the most bang for your buck in terms of calories will just again help you stay full and satisfied even when your calories do drop quite low in your diet which in turn will minimize the risk of you overeating and binging when things do get tough and i do have a past video on what foods i'd recommend for this reason and i'll link that in the description box down below so basically you apply these three steps until you successfully lean down to the level body fat that you're satisfied with then once you do so it's time to transition to phase three now this phase is where most people screw everything up because just like as i explained earlier as you die down your body adapts and gradually slows down its metabolism to try to fight back we've minimized this in our dieting plan but nonetheless there will still be some metabolic adaptation present which just means that now your maintenance calories will be lower than they were in the beginning not to mention that by the end of your diet you're also usually in a state where you're hungry and fatigued so after phase two if you simply go back to what you're eating at in the beginning of your diet while also cutting down your activity and maybe even having a cheat day or two to celebrate the end of your diet you're going to be overeating considerably and can gain a ton of weight in a short amount of time especially since your body at this point is primed to favor fat gain which can then lead us to the same problem that we're at in the very beginning of all this so instead what we want to do here is simply find a way that you can maintain your weight loss in a sustainable way without feeling like you're starving yourself or doing an excessive amount of cardio and one option to do so is with something called a reverse diet where immediately after your diet you bump up your calories back up to your new lower maintenance levels to just get out of the diet and phase then from here you basically experiment with very slowly adding calories back into your diet while keeping a close eye on your weight although the effect this has does seem to vary individually oftentimes what happens is even though you're adding more and more calories back into your diet your body count interacts this by essentially getting out of that dieting mindset and tends to start burning more calories through subconscious increases in daily activity or need to slowly bump up your metabolism so by the end of this process you'll still have successfully kept off most or all of the fat that you lost you'll feel more energized and stronger in the gym and you'll be eating considerably more calories than you were after you finish your diet which should eventually be similar or close to the maintenance calories that you started out your diet at however keep in mind that again this does vary individually as people respond to increases in calorie intake differently for instance in one over feeding study researchers brought 16 normal weight subjects into a lab for eight weeks and served them in excess of a thousand calories each day based on the math everyone should have gained 16 pounds in eight weeks however in reality the subjects gained anywhere from under a pound to up to about nine pounds and the discrepancy and variation here between subjects was mainly due to a difference in meat meaning that some subjects responded much better to the excess calories by in turn burning more calories subconsciously through fidgeting postural adjustments and other subtle movements throughout the day whereas others just didn't respond as well here's what eric recommends so with regards to the reverse dining phase after a successful dieting phase to let's say somewhere around 10 body fat so not you know physique competitor completely shredded but you know six pack visible overall what do you typically see as the general response to reverse dieting and then also on that now how much do you think that most individuals in this position can increase their calories by while still more or less maintaining their current level of venus good question so typical response is really hard to give a singular kind of description of because what you find in the literature is the magnitude of metabolic adaptation during weight loss is quite variable and the magnitude of responses to over feeding is quite variable so with reverse dieting what we're trying to do is just kind of slowly increase calories to see if we can increase our energy expenditure kind of on a similar timeline so if we're kind of fueling a little bit of recovery and getting our energy expenditure back toward a normal level the idea is to nudge that process along with slow increases in caloric intake so that we're not going to have a huge caloric surplus at any given time that's going to cause any rapid weight gain for most people reverse dieting we might be able to increase caloric intake by 100 calories a couple hundred calories for some people you know higher than a couple hundred maybe a few hundred or so uh you do see these rare instances where people push it really really high but they are pretty infrequent so basically what the reverse diet process does is let's say your old maintenance was here your new maintenance after your diet is here and your dieting calories are here right so immediately after you finish your diet you bump up to your new maintenance which is lower than your old and then with reverse dieting you might be able to increase this just a little bit so you're working with more calories and are able to sustain your current level of leanness in a much more sustainable way correct correct and you might not be able to push it all the way up to where your old maintenance was because you know you still have less body mass than you used to um but you can start reducing that adaptive gap in energy expenditure start nudging that back up toward normal and you can build a little bit of extra space into the diet that makes it a little bit more sustainable in terms of caloric intake simply meaning that the response to this reverse dieting phase will vary for everyone so experiment with it and keep in mind that the main goal is to get you to a point where you feel great your body weight hasn't increased by much or at all and you're maintaining your new physique with a sustainable and satisfying amount of calories as well as a manageable amount of cardio and then from here it really is up to you where you want to go next you could either maintain your new physique with relative ease with your new higher calorie intake or you could simply choose to now focus more so on muscle growth if you're seeking to add some more size to your frame in which case you'd simply start eating at a calorie surplus to slowly gain muscle over time and then transition back to phase two of this plan whenever you're ready to start leaning down some more now although this whole process may seem very complex and you may be feeling as if there's no hope for you just realize that that simply is not true i'm not gonna lie it will take time but by following these four phases remaining patient and combining this with a solid training and nutrition plan then you can and you will be able to strip off that fat for good on that note though guys for those who do need that extra bit of help my step-by-step programs have been designed to guide you through each of these phases in detail it comes fully equipped with the software that enables you to actually know exactly what your metabolism is at and how it's changing week after week as you strip off that and lose weight so you can easily break through any plateau that you encounter along the way and lean down in the most efficient way possible just like several of our built with science members have done with their programs so to get started today just head on over to buildwithscience.com and take the analysis quiz to discover what program will be best for you and the state that your specific body is currently in also a big thank you to eric trexler here for his help with the video you can give him a follow at trexler fitness and also leave some links in the description box as well for you to check out some of his work thank you again eric it was a pleasure having you on here and guys as always don't forget to show your support by giving the video a like leaving a comment down below as to what you'd like to see me cover next subscribe to the channel and turn it on notifications for the channel as well this all really does help me out and i really appreciate it thank you so much everyone i'll see you next time [Music] you