5 Easy Tips for Fat Loss, According to an Expert

Resolutions have been made, habits are being changed, and people are committed and determined to take care of themselves this year. And yet so many people struggle to achieve their weight loss goals. “We all begin with fiery ambition but tend to fizzle out after a couple months—if not weeks—which usually stems from trying to make too many changes at once,” says Nick Wright, former competitive bodybuilder and powerlifter. “If you injure your knee, does a physical therapist make you do sprints and box jumps on your first day of recovery? Of course not! They would, however, have you start small and gradually work your way back up,” he told me. “This is how you must approach everything you do—especially fat loss!”

Wright is well-versed in nutritional science and biomechanics and has shared his tips on his YouTube channel, which has garnered over 75 million views worldwide. “If you aren’t used to thinking about what you eat all day, you will become mentally exhausted trying to calculate every single calorie in each meal. It will stress you out and become frustrating.” Likewise, he also said that suddenly trying to workout five times per week after never doing it is going to be too much for your body. “If you’ve spent years living with bad eating and exercise habits, it will be extremely difficult to be disciplined and suddenly reverse all those habits—and that’s okay! That discipline can be developed and built over time with consistency and practice!”

He also went on to stress the importance of being honest with yourself and your lifestyle habits. “Our daily lifestyle, eating, and exercise habits have been programmed throughout the years. These habits are not going to be broken right away with perfection—it takes time.”

Below, Nick Wright has broken down his top 5 tips for weight loss in his own words. “These tips are great places to start from regardless of where you are on your health journey, and can be built up over time.” Plus, they won’t turn your lifestyle inside out. Keep scrolling to learn the 5 easy tips for fat loss, according to an

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5 easy tips for fat loss:

1. Eat less.

Eating less is the first move to kick-start your transformation or journey and reach your goals. This can be as simple as making your portions smaller. For example: if you normally have two sandwiches for lunch, cut back and only have one instead. If you have been overeating for years, trying to suddenly switch to an intricate diet and stick to it, overnight, is going to be very hard. You may not even know how. The best way to get started is to simply eat less.

Fat gain and fat loss come down to how many calories you are eating each day! Eat fewer calories, and you will lose fat! Down the line, you can make your diet more detailed and take things up a notch, but if you are brand new and just getting started, or you have so much on your plate that adding in a detailed diet seems impossible, simply start with this easy step: just eat LESS food. Even if you continue eating the same foods (for now), cutting the portion size in half will result in less calories being eaten each day overall.

Another trick I am a fan of is called Intermittent Fasting (IF). This is where you fast for a portion of the day, and then eat all of your meals inside a small window of time. I personally fast from 7:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m., and will then eat my 2-3 large meals between 4:00-9:00 p.m. This may be too extreme for some, so you can start by simply fasting until lunch. A lot of people who intermittent fast claim that they feel sharper mentally doing this. IF creates a smaller window of time for you to eat, which makes it harder to overeat. Because you have less time to eat, it allows you to combine your daily calories into fewer but bigger meals, which is a satisfying feeling when trying to eat less!

2. Eat foods that hold you over longer.

Eating satiating foods is another helpful tip when it comes to losing body fat or reaching your health goals. To feel satiated simply means you feel “full” or “satisfied.” If you still feel hungry after you eat, that meal was not satiating. Different foods actually offer more satiety than others, and satiety is actually measured from food to food! 

Protein is high in satiety. Pick one source of protein to build every meal around. This is a great way to eat less, and better! All sources of meat such as chicken, turkey, duck, beef, steak, and venison are high in protein. All types of fish and eggs are also amazing sources of protein. You can start off small by simply adding turkey slices into a sandwich, or having a protein shake with a given meal and build from there. Boneless, skinless chicken breast is my favorite source!

Healthy fats are also high in satiety. Swapping out a side of potato chips for a handful of almonds will hold you over longer, and will also give you a ton of health benefits. Healthy fats are found in all sorts of nuts, almonds, flax seeds, avocado, peanut butter, almond butter, and olive oil. Try swapping the cookies, crackers, fries ,and chips out for one of these alternatives, and you’ll find you will be less hungry and start to feel better.

Sugary foods are very low in satiety, and will leave you feeling hungry sooner. Compare 300 calories of ice cream to 300 calories of eggs—that’s 4 whole eggs compared to a big “scoop” of ice cream. You can eat that amount of ice cream and easily want more, while 4 whole eggs will actually hold you over surprisingly well! 

3. Swap out the sneaky calories.

We are often unaware of how many extra calories sneak into our lives through condiments and drinks. Soda is a prime example of this, with an average of 150-200 calories in a single 12 oz can. Think about that: a 12 oz can of soda has the same amount of calories as a 4 oz chicken breast, and a can of soda is pure sugar—that adds up fast! The same is true for various condiments. Two tablespoons of BBQ sauce has 50-100 calories of pure sugar, and most BBQ meals end up with more than 2 tablespoons. That’s like having a Snickers bar on top of your food! If you eat that more than once per day, that is adding hundreds of extra calories to your diet. The same goes for ketchup. 

Start by switching to diet soda. Many claim that they don’t like the taste of it, but after a couple of weeks, you’ll forget there’s even a difference. It’s a small price to pay for saving you pounds of fat and the risk of diabetes. Powerade Zero and Crystal Light are other great calorie-free options. If you prefer to stay away from artificial sweeteners, brands like Zevia use all natural sweeteners with zero calories. Additionally, most condiments like ketchup have calorie-free options available now which are excellent alternatives. Condiments like mustard and most hot sauces are naturally very low in calories, if not calorie-free completely!

4. Stay active.

Activity of all kinds burns calories! The more you move, the more you burn. Taking a 30 minute walk just 3 times a week is a fantastic way to get started with this. Once you become used to that, you can increase the time to 45 minutes, 4 days a week, and eventually increase it to 5 days. You can also do things such as running, hiking, biking, etc. It doesn’t matter what you do, all that matters is that you start moving and do so consistently! Movement is also the biggest fighter against developing chronic pain.

Do not reward yourself with food after your activity! The goal is to make this activity become another normal part of your daily life—aka a habit—not a massive event that deems a reward. Eating fast food or a giant dessert will undo the entire walk you just had. It is totally okay to eat after your activity, but make it a normal meal that you would have any time of day.

Lastly, weight training is actually incredible for supporting fat loss and healthy activity. Many people just think of cardio when it comes to losing weight. Cardio is great, but weight training, even for women, offers so many benefits from strengthening up your joints and stabilizing muscles to burning up more calories. Muscles need to eat! If you train them, they will help use the calories you are eating! 

5. Set two types of goals.

The number one cause of failure in fitness is not having a goal set. This sounds like a cliche, but it’s the foundation of every single thing we do in life. Everything we do in life is motivated by some underlying force—conscious or subconscious; if that motivation wasn’t there, we’d never get anything done. Even something as mundane as getting up to go to work is motivated by the desire to pay our bills and keep a roof over our heads. With fitness, it is up to you to get creative. You must set 2 types of goals:

#1. A long-term goal.

You need a long-term goal. This is a goal that may be several months or even years away, and could be something along the lines or reaching a specific weight or fitting into a particular bathing suit by next summer. For me, it was always competing in specific bodybuilding shows. Regardless of the goal, it has to be something that forces you out of your comfort zone. If it doesn’t, it will be too easy to back out of once the going gets tough. I knew once I signed up for a bodybuilding show that I had to do it! Money was invested, and there were no refunds. By the end of my deadline I would either embarrass myself, or I would look awesome in front of judges and hundreds of spectators. Remembering this fact kept me going every day, and helped me continue moving forward when I got tired and hungry. At the end of the day, it comes down to having something to focus on.

#2. Short-term goals.

In addition to a long-term goal, you also need short-term goals that are no more than 1-2 weeks away. These goals are the ones that will help you reach your long-term goal, and could be something as simple as aiming for a specific body weight each week.

When I was dieting for a bodybuilding show, there would be days I wanted to quit so badly. Sometimes the going would get so tough, and I would think to myself: “The show is 3 months away. You have time to cheat just this once and still make it up!” To combat this and ignore the devil on my shoulder, I would set weekly weight goals. I would aim to lose a certain amount of weight to achieve a specific body weight by Saturday morning. Additionally, I’d also record and share the weigh-in on social media. Sharing this on social media helped hold me accountable, and inadvertently forced me to stick to my diet; the 3 month excuse no longer worked because I knew every Saturday I was either going to embarrass or be proud of myself in front of every follower on social media. So, when it came down to it, I was sharing not only because it was my job, but also because it helped me reach a short-term goal that helped work towards the bigger picture.

You don’t have to share like I did. You can do something as simple as taking a picture of the scale each Saturday to keep in an album for your eyes only and document your progress. Doing things like this will make you more aware of when you are straying off your diet, knowing you will have to add an update photo at the end of the week.

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Nick Wright is a competitive bodybuilder and powerlifter, and is credited with being one of the pioneers in the YouTube fitness industry. He began competing in bodybuilding shows in 2006 at the age of 14, and began sharing his fitness journey and lifestyle on YouTube and other social media platforms in 2009. He was the first natural teen bodybuilder on the cover of World Physique magazine in 2010, and is also one of the co-authors of the fitness and wellness self-help book Unfit, Unhealthy & Unwell.

Follow Nick Wright:

• YouTube
• Twitter
• Instagram

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DISCLAIMER:

The information in this article is intended for informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for medical or professional advice. Always consult a physician or any other professional health care provider regarding any health or wellness questions you may have, and before beginning or trying a new health, lifestyle, or wellness regimen.

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