My top 3 advice to stay in a calorie deficit + fat loss hacks
I dropped about 10 kilos when I prepped for NPC Bikini contest in April, let’s not talk about the time it took to drop it because that’s irrelevant. During my prep, I was never really hungry, tired or didn’t have energy even in the last few days.
My #1 advice would be: MEAL PREP!
First of all, meal prepping makes sure you stay on your macros. I usually purchased a package of raw chicken breast then prepared it with rice and some condiments, that gave me 6 portions that I could eat for lunch and dinner, then fill out the day with everything else I needed. There’s a few different ways you can meal prep:
Prep everything for one day the day before
Prep the biggest meals (or everything if you want) for a couple of days up to 7 days ahead
Prep and freeze
Everyone is kind of different so it’s not a one size fit all situation. It needs to work around your hours and most importantly, it needs to fit in your fridge.
#2 Stick to a plan, keep it simple.
Eating a variety of food is fun and all, but imagine how much room it leaves for “I’ll just add a bit of cheese to this meal, that won’t hurt” and “just a cookie never hurt anyone” — you can still eat that cookie, but a better way is to account for it in your calorie plan. Save some calories for Sunday and enjoy the cookie.
About the cheese, if you have a plan that isn’t too boring or restrictive, you’ll gut will thank you for keeping it simple. You know what you’ll eat for the day, no need to think “ooh what should I buy…hmm maybe a block of cheese” only to realise it got a lot of calories and you’ll only be able to eat 20g per day.
Planning your meals goes hand in hand with meal prepping 🤝🏾
Eat the same meals for about at least a week or two, then switch it up to make it less boring because if it’s too boring you’ll just end up quitting anyway. Keep it simple, but still enjoyable.
#3 Incorporate re-feed aka cheat days
I don’t like to call them cheat days because you’re not actually cheating if it’s planned. Planning a re-feed day once per week or once every two week is key to success. You will reach your goal, you’ll still enjoy pleasure food and it boosts your metabolism so that you won’t hit a plateu.
I tell my clients to go for a dinner at a nice restaurant with their partner so it’s not just about the food, you get some quality time as well. Very important for the mental health. Mental health and physical health goes hand in hand too, just like meal prep and meal planning.
Also, if you look at it this way: Your weight loss plan should be at least 12 weeks.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday you stay on plan..Saturday PIZZA! Sunday you stick to plan.
Even if that pizza alone is 2000 calories or something, that’s not going to ruin the progress you’ve already made.
You body doesn’t keep track of what day of the week it is, it only uses the calories you feed it with and if it’s deficient it will use stored away calories — the fat cells. So if you stay in a deficit Monday to Saturday, you’ll just end up using those fat storages. Sunday, there’s the pizza, your body will use some of it as energy, then store away the rest to use for later next week when we’re back in deficit.
Fat loss hacks when weightlifting
Re-feed before a leg day — Your body uses glycogen stores to perform while lifting heavy plates, so if you going to eat a pizza make good use of it and make it go straight to your glutes and leg muscles as they require a lot more energy.
Eat carbs around your workout schedule — You body uses insulin to synthesise glycogen and protein when muscles are being put to work, you’ll need the glycogen to fuel your workout and glycogen + protein to repair muscle after you’ve completely hammered them. Carbs is the easiest way to spike insulin.
Do full body workouts and a lot of compound/base movements — your body uses calories for rebuilding muscle after a workout, if you only use two muscles, you’ll need less than if you use 20. Squats for example, glutes, glute medius, glute minimus, all quad muscles, tibialis muscles, calves, hamstrings, back muscles and more for stabilising so you don’t fall. Compared to when you’re doing a leg press, you’re doing the same movement but quads and glutes will take most the force. Pair squats with pull -ups and you’re whole back will need repration as well.
