Cracking the Code on Continuous Fat Loss: Easy Strategies to Keep Progressing

If you have felt stuck in your fat loss journey, you would understand how disheartening it can be, thinking all your hard work is not working…

Here is an article that breaks down why progress stalls and offers simple tips to keep shedding those unwanted kilograms stress-free.

Here’s a fact too may or may not know! your body really does not want you to lose weight! 

This is known as adaptive thermogenesis where your body is preventing too many calories from being burned in the face of potential starvation.

And this means, to KEEP losing weight, introducing new strategies regularly to prevent your metabolism from slowing down is needed.

When we diet, our body goes into survival mode by slowing down our metabolism. And one of the ways this happens is via the slowing down of your  Thermic Effect of Food (TEF). (Which means, the calories burnt by your body to digest the food you eat)

Then there’s your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) that also decreases when you lose fat. A male trying to lose fat who is under 15% body fat will experience a 15% drop in BMR, whilst a woman under 25% body fat will experience a 15-20% reduction.

One of the reasons you experience a  reduction in your burnt calories is due to a drop in Leptin, and which is a protein that also acts as an appetite-controlling hormone. 

So, increase leptin when you’re dieting and you will be helping your fat loss efforts!

What people tend to get wrong once they’ve lost body fat, is their Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) remains the same. But what happens, the body adapts after periods in a calorie deficit. 

Let’s go through an example…

You reduce calories by 10% when weight loss halts.

So, eating slightly less calories is one of the first steps to ensuring you keep losing body fat.

Where so many people go wrong is starting their diets by going all out to see try and see a result overnight: hours of cardio, 5-7 weight sessions, and a huge calorie deficit to drop weight quickly

Does it work?… weight can drop quickly (for a little while) until your body quickly realises and adapts in the ways we’ve outlined above.

And just like that, you may wonder why you cannot lose any more weight!

And so, here’s the “secret” — we must keep introducing new strategies to keep our bodies losing weight, and more so, prevent fat loss from stalling (notice I say ‘fat loss’ and not ‘weight loss’

We’re talking about: 

Reducing calories  by 10% when weight loss halts
Eating less food
Doing more exercise
Eating more food at certain stages (more on this in a moment!).
Understanding the process of steps 1-4.

Let’s plan for long-term fat loss

It’s all about knowing the stages when to change up your plan to drop the fat; it’s a good idea to keep cardio in your back pocket for the first month at least so you have something to shock your body with.

Once a month has passed, adopting some whether you choose low intensity cardio or high intensity work depends on your preference as they both can work to your advantage but you need to know when works better for each method of cardio activity.

Here’s what we’re talking about specifically:

Low intensity cardio will be better to perform in a fasted state as your fat burning efforts are increased during activity whilst keeping your body in your fat burning zone.

High intensity work or HIIT requires fuel and will have a higher caloric expenditure during the activity whilst training in your higher heart rate zones increasing more lactic acid which requires you to burn more glucose as opposed to body fat… BUT, you calorie burning for the next 10 hours will be amplified 3-4 fold over steady state cardio work.

Eating more to lose weight. The secret to Leptin and eating more carbohydrates.

As counterproductive as it sounds, eating more carbohydrates at certain strategic stages can help amplify fat loss. We spoke about the hormone leptin and how it drops during periods of dieting which  ultimately means we burn fewer calories. 

Well, the way we increase leptin again is by eating carbohydrates!

And we do this as part of a “refuelling day”, the process of introducing more carbohydrates to release leptin. By introducing a planned refuel day, your body can release leptin and give you

Some additional benefits:

A rest mentally from our diets (which can help prevent moving off track)
A day to look forward to ensuring you stay on track with your plan.
Induce satiety beyond what we’re used to during dieting
Refuel our muscles with carbohydrates to ensure optimal output for future workouts

So when should we have a refuel day?

– a good rule of thumb is to introduce a refuel day once every two weeks.

if you happen to be under 12% body fat (regardless of gender) then one refeed day per week has been shown to work well.

Keep in mind that these guidelines and you will need to see what works best for you:

Tips to remember:

Carbohydrates double on your refuel day. This may be slightly less or more depending on what stage of your weight loss journey you are at.

(Note: fructose is not essential as this will affect releasing leptin)

Dietary fat will also need to be dropped to under 30gm on refuel days because fat does not increase leptin levels.

Protein to drop approx 30gm net for the day:

You will need carbohydrate sources low in fat, such as:

– Rice
– Potatoes
– Low-fat pasta
– Maple syrup/Honey
– Bread

So with the refuel day planned, we now have a solid strategy to overcome those fat loss plateaus!

Fat loss plateaus are a normal part of the journey, but armed with these strategies, you can overcome them and achieve your weight loss goals faster. By understanding your body’s responses and implementing these easy tips, you’ll keep progressing toward a healthier and happier you.