A set of six-pack abs comes at a cost. That cost is your time, effort, hard work, and discipline.
But the process can be made much simpler.
And simple is always better than complex, especially when you’ve got a lot going on and minimal time to spend thinking about dropping the blubber.
At the end of the diet, fat loss all comes down to diet. If your diet isn’t in order, you won’t ever get the lean, ripped body you want.
To make this incredibly simple, I’ve developed a practical framework for setting up your diet for success.
When followed, this approach will help you shred body fat, make your diet simple and easy to follow, and save yo time from having to figure out what you’re going to eat all the time.
I called it the Boring But Effective Diet (BBED). There are four principles and they are as follows:
- Maintain a caloric deficit on a fixed amount of days per week (4-6)
- Focus on hitting macronutrient goals for protein, fat, and carbohydrates
- Stick to a fixed meal schedule of uniform, predictable meals that work for you (3-4 meals per day is enough for most)
- Focus on nutrient-dense whole foods 85% of the time
Here’s how we break it down:
1. Maintain a caloric deficit.
To blast the fat off your body, you must be aware of how much you’re eating and making sure you’re creating a caloric deficit throughout the week. This means deliberately eating less than you’re burning on a consistent basis.
You can have the most perfect, healthiest diet in the world but if you’re overeating, you’ll never drop the body fat.
For most people, I like to begin with about 12 x body weight in pounds as a starting point. So if you weigh 200 pounds, 200 x 12 = 2,400 calories for a starting point.
2. Focus on macros, not on calories (this is important)
Calories are what determines whether or not you lose weight. If you eat less than you burn, you will lose weight. But you want to lose fat, not muscle, right?
So instead of focusing on calories, we’ll pay attention to total macros.
Macronutrients are protein, carbohydrates, and fat. If you need a primer, on macros, you can read this.
For fat loss, we want about 1 gram per pound of body weight. At 200 pounds, that’s 200 grams of protein.
We also want about 30% of your intake coming from fat. This ensures you get enough fat for good health, and it will help keep your hormones production high. 30% of 2400 calories = 720 calories.
Since a gram of fat contains 9 calories, 720 divided by 9 = 80 grams of fat.
Now we have carbohydrates left.
We have 200 grams of protein, which is 800 calories (4 calories per gram).
We have 80 grams of fat, which is 720 calories (4 calories per gram).
Do the math: 800+720 = 1,520 calories.
2,400 = 1,520 = 880 calories, which will all go toward carbohydrates.
880/4 = 220 grams.
So the diet would look like this:
2,400 calories
Protein: 200 grams
Carbohydrates: 220 grams
Fat: 80 grams
Keep in mind this is super simple, but it’s a starting point.
3. A fixed meal schedule of uniform, predictable meals
This is one of the main points. Your diet must be so easy to follow that it requires hardly any mental effort.
This means having planned, predictable meals ready at set times during the day. The template I follow is the following:
Breakfast: protein smoothie with various fresh fruits like apples, kiwis, melons, pears, etc.
Lunch: lean meat such as chicken, fish, or beef with potatoes, or rice and leftover cooked greens from the night before.
Dinner: repeat of lunch, usually prepared fresh. I’ll also make enough for lunch the following day.
4. Focus on nutrient-dense whole foods 85% of the time
This should go without saying, but your diet should emphasize whole foods a majority of the time. Junk food is fine once in a while – maybe once per week but it shouldn’t make up the majority of your eating.
Focus on the following and you’ll be on your way:
- Lean cuts of meat (beef, chicken, pork), fish and eggs
- Root vegetables: potatoes, squashes, onions, yuca, carrots, radishes, etc. (just google root vegetables for more ideas)
- Fat from animals and some plants (coconut, olive oil, various nuts)
- Green veggies, cooked well for digestibility. Spinach is my favorite.
- Lean dairy (if you can tolerate dairy well)
I would generally stay away from the following:
- Meats that aren’t grass-fed, or are fed grains
- Most grains, in general (white rice is probably fine)
- All seed oils and any highly processed oils (vegetable oils are terrible for you)
- Fast food
- Junk food, in general
If your 3-4 meals per day are full of whole foods, you’ll be getting enough vitamins and minerals to keep your body healthy and functioning while dropping body fat.
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