The three pyramids of fat loss

My passion is helping clients lose body fat in the most efficient, stress free and sustainable way I can. I have spent the entirety of my career looking for the answer to the following question:

What is the best way to lose fat?

So far, I’ve taken thousands of measurements from clients and coached over 10,000 individual sessions. I’ve always asked the same question, what can we (the client and I) do to make the results better?

I’ve studied nutrition, movement, strength training, exercise physiology, exercise biochemistry, behavioural psychology, personal coaching, supplementation and countless other subjects surrounding fat loss and how best to encourage it; and what I present here is the abridged but most current version of my theory of optimal fat loss.

I define optimal fat loss as a plan which;

• -          Doesn’t require an acute life overhaul
• -          Makes the subject feel better immediately
• -          Maintains or even increases the speed of fat loss over time
• -          Educates the subject on how to maintain their new body themselves

To be clear I don’t describe an optimal fat loss plan as;

• -          Something where you can switch off the mind and follow
• -          A plan which makes the subject feel worse
• -          Anything which leaves the person reliant upon a system (which often costs money)
• -          The absolute fastest way to shift fat off the body

If you are looking for something different then I suggest you stop now, as you’ll only be frustrated.

The three pyramids:

There are three pyramids, which represent the three main areas that can influence your ability to lose fat successfully. Later on I will explore the three pyramids and present them in a way that gives you an overview on how to achieve optimal fat loss.

It must be stressed that there is and never will be a one size fits all plan for losing fat, and I don’t intend on finding one. What I do intend on finding is a method that can help anyone who is sincerely interested understand the fundamental truths of fat loss and then use in their own journey however they see fit.

There are three main areas in all of our lives which influence our ability to lose fat.

•       Nutrition
•       Activity
•       Lifestyle

When it comes to prioritising:

Nutrition > Activity > Lifestyle.

Nutrition

If I don’t feed you, you will lose weight. Even if you sit totally still and are totally Zen, if you don’t eat you will shift fat. It’s not optimal, but it would work.

You can control the food going in your mouth 100% (despite what people might say) but you can only influence your activity and energy burning. You cannot control it. For this reason, activity is second on the list.

Activity

It really helps a lot to do lots of intelligent exercise if you want to lose weight, but it’s not the only way you burn fat. You can burn fat when you digest food, when you fiddle with something and when you sleep too!

I regularly witness people doing tonnes of exercise and not losing any fat. How can this happen? Because they’re not eating in a way which supports their sweaty efforts. Activity is critical, it’s important and you will not be successful without it. However, it is lower down the pecking order and it’s essential that we all remember that.

Lifestyle

The final part of the picture is lifestyle. There are certain things that you can do to enhance or inhibit fat loss that have nothing to do with activity and food. Sleeping well helps a great deal, as does meditating and living a calm easy life.

However, as is demonstrated by a very content fat man. The Chinese depiction of the Buddha shows how this zen like happiness can pale into insignificance if you don’t address the most important things first.

Lifestyle matters, but despite what magazines might have you believe you cannot destress your way to a smaller dress size!