How To Lose Fat While Enjoying Pizza, Beer, and Croissant Cookies
You ever wonder how some people can eat whatevertheheck they want and stay lean? Me too.
It’s not fair, and they, their parents, and their parents’ parents are real jerks for being blessed with God-like genetics.
You can’t change your genetics. And - however much you may want to - you can’t slap your shredded friend in the face with their fourth slice of pizza.
You know what you can do? Use the strategies I’m going to share with you today to lose fat while eating your favorite foods.
No, you can't eat everything you want and maintain a six pack, like your jerkface friend (are they really reaching for a fifth slice right now?!). But you can enjoy delicious food and even alcohol while making consistent fat loss progress.
You can trust me. I’ve helped hundreds of people get in great shape, and I practice what I preach.
Last week I lost 2 pounds and had:
A croissant/cookie hybrid (as good as it sounds)
A few slices of pizza
3 drinks (a beer, margarita and beet-based mixed drink aptly named “Beets Me”)
Tacos, chips, and salsa
Freeze dried ice cream (what else are you going to do when visiting the NASA Space Center?)
My fat loss progress over the past few weeks. Slow and steady!
What’s more, I was able to stay on track while having a blast at a Noah Kahan concert and showing my sister my favorite food spots in Houston - without stressing over every calorie.
Here are 4 strategies you can use to lose fat while enjoying life.
1. Say No To Cheat Meals
You might be thinking, “Wtf are you talking about, John? You literally just listed 5 cheat foods you ate last week.”
Right on.
But here’s the key distinction - I don’t think of eating these foods as cheating.
If you spend all week waiting for a “cheat day”, you’re much more likely to have a 5,000 calorie binge-fest. Then, you can bid farewell to your 6 days of progress.
Reframing how you feel about eating “unhealthy” food is a game changer. It’s not cheating, it’s experiencing. You’re not off track - you’re enjoying good food with good company.
No guilt, no incessant need to stuff your face before 6 more days of restriction before your next cheat meal.
But to enjoy your favorite foods and still make fat loss progress, you need to choose your spot wisely.
2. Let The Good Times Roll - But Choose Them Mindfully
A rule I live by that you may not agree with - I never eat the office donuts. (“Donuts” can apply to cookies, cakes, or whatever other treat is always in your break room).
Smashing a 500 calorie Crumbl cookie in between seeing patients on a Wednesday in February just because it’s a coworker’s birthday does not fit into my lifestyle.
If I’m going to eat decadent food, it’s going to be in the company of friends or family, on vacation, or another special occasion.
This past week a patient brought in Nothing Bundt Cakes into the office. I had brought 60 calorie cookies and cream Chobani Greek yogurt as my lunch dessert. The comparison was like David vs. Goliath, but my choice was easy because it had already been made. It’s a rule I don’t break.
Identify a few guiding principles that align with your values, and then stick to them. Even when you have bundt cakes staring you in the face.
This way, you give yourself the wiggle room to enjoy the food in moments that matter.
3. Make Protein And Fiber Your Two Best Friends
Protein and fiber are hunger’s kryptonite. The more protein and fiber you eat, the more satisfied you’ll be while eating fewer calories.
To lose fat, you’ll need to eat fewer calories than you burn on a daily and weekly basis. And if you’re planning on eating and drinking 1,200 calories on a Mexican dinner date night, you’ve got to slash your calories in overall meals to account for it.
Here are pictures of my food log from Saturday. It includes my other 3 meals and leaves room for our Mexican dinner.
Going into dinner I had already ate a ton of protein and fiber, so I didn’t feel especially hungry throughout the day. If (and when) and I had 1,000 calories at dinner, I’d still be on track for the day.
And if I wanted to go crazy and eat 1,500 or 2,000 calories at dinner (which can happen fast when the margs are flowing), it’d be fine because:
In the context of your weekly intake, a 500-1,000 calorie surplus on one day will not slow down your fat loss much
It’s important to take some days “off” from dieting, when the time is right
4. Don’t Be Afraid To Take A Few Days Off
You may be shocked to hear me - a fitness professional and admitted protein pancake lover - say this, but it’s true. There are times in life when your calorie/protein/fiber intake should not come first.
You only get so many holidays, birthdays, weddings, and vacations in this life. It would be a shame if you let calorie restriction dampen these special occasions.
Enter - Diet breaks.
Diet breaks are pre planned days/weeks that you don’t follow your diet guidelines. You bring up your daily calories by 500-1,000 and enjoy the extra food!
The key to using diet breaks effectively comes down to frequency and intention.
Frequency - You can’t take a diet break every Thursday-Sunday and expect to make progress. You can’t eat whatevertheheck you want on ten two-week vacations every year and still make progress
Intention - This is the same concept as my office donut rule - You can enjoy whatever delicious foods you’d like and still lose fat, just not all the delicious foods. It’s up to you to decide what fits within the context of your lifestyle and goals.
I’ll use myself as an example again. I’ve been in a fat loss phase for the past 6-7 weeks. In that time, I’ve brought my calories up by 800-1,000 on:
Three Saturday date nights
A stretch of 3 days visiting family and doing wedding tastings over MDW
A stretch of 3 days with my sister visiting town
Then, in a few more weeks, I’ll take 2 weeks off for family vacations.
I’ve enjoyed a lot of great food and family time, and I’m down about 9 pounds so far. With some planning and diligent consistency on your “on” days, you can enjoy the good times to the fullest and still make progress.
The Right Amount of Delayed Gratification
I was listening to a Chris Williamson podcast while walking our friends’ dog, Lou, on Saturday. He brought up a point about delayed gratification that really resonated with me:
And I think that the idea that one day life's duties will be out of the way and that you can finally start doing the thing you want and living your life fully is a myth. I think it's a lie. And Marie Louise von Franz talks about the provisional life. He says there is a strange feeling that one is not yet in real life for the time being one is doing this or that, but there is always the fantasy that sometime in future the real thing will come about.
The common feeling that your life has not begun. That your present reality is a mere prelude to some idyllic future. This idyl is a mirage that'll fade as you approach revealing that the prelude you rushed through was in fact the one to your death.
I think that it's quite likely when you look back that these times right now will be the ones that you cherish. So you should approach them with joy and care and presence, the requisite joy and care and presence. And I think most importantly, ignoring the cynics and the buzzkills is this idea from Packy McCormick. And he says the greatest trick the devil ever played was making you believe that the pessimists are the good guys. Basically just don't, like, don't wait, like life is happening right now. It is there for you to enjoy.
It is there for you to take delayed gratification in the extreme just results in no gratification. The sacrifice, reward dynamic that you are used to is great in the micro and awful in the macro. It's not about waiting for personal growth to be over. It's not about waiting for something. Life is not happening in future. It is happening right now. And this is something that I need to permanently remind myself of on a minute by minute basis.
(Transcribed from this awesome tool called Podscribe. I edited the excerpt for length.)
If you’re like me, you work hard in your professional life and go to great lengths to maintain your fitness.
In contrast to how most people live, you sacrifice shallow, short term pleasures to pursue long term goals. You don’t eat a gallon of ice cream every night because you care about your health. You don’t drink a bottle of wine with dinner because you care about succeeding in your work.
In the micro (i.e. on a usual, daily basis), delaying gratification is the best way to get ahead in life. To have professional success and to stay in killer shape.
But it’s a slippery slope. You can easily fall into the trap of living this way 24/7, 365. Always doing what you “should” to increase the odds of future success, however you define it. This often comes at the cost of fun, relaxation, and precious time with your loved ones.
This applies directly to fat loss. Sustainable fat loss comes down to the right amount of delayed gratification. When you strike the balance between tolerable calorie restriction and intentional “life” breaks, you get the best of both worlds: fat loss and life satisfaction.
Threading the needle between discipline/consistency and pleasure is not easy, but it’s how you enjoy life to the fullest while making progress toward your health and physique goals.
This is a skill that my online fat loss clients and I work on all the time. If you need a hand figuring out how to make progress without sacrificing good food and great times with your loved ones, you can apply for 1 on 1 coaching below:
VIP Fitness Coaching Application
Best,
John
P.S. We’ve had quite the week dog-sitting Lou! He hates getting caught in the rain but enjoys cozy blankets and sleeping in strange positions.
3 Steps You Can Take
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Keep learning - You can check out my other articles here. Nobody asked me to, but I’ve spent a ton of time researching everything from artificial sweeteners to saturated fat to testosterone and more, so you don’t have to.
