Is Fat Loss Easy?

To be perfectly honest, no it’s not.

Fat loss is simple – move a little more, eat a little less – but it’s certainly not easy, and that’s because in a lot of cases, peoples’ underlying values don’t match up with the goal(s) they say they want to achieve.

For example, for the past year and a half, I’ve been saying “I want to lose body fat.”

More specifically, I’ve been saying “I want to drop from 195lbs to 175lbs (maybe a little more, maybe a little less), and reach – and maintain – a body fat level of around 8%.”

In the past year and a half, I’ve MAYBE lost 10lbs, and although I’m all for “little steps in the right direction,” that freakin sucks.

Not because I didn’t make some progress (I did lose 10 lbs after all), but because a goal that should have taken me 6 months to achieve – at the MAX – has taken me over 18 months to achieve…and I still haven’t accomplished it yet.

I spent a lot of time analyzing what my problem was (well, IS) – the “why” behind my ferocious snacking, insatiable dessert cravings, and inability to hit my target macros on a daily to weekly basis – and I’ve come to the conclusion that although I know how to lose body fat (I’m a strength and nutrition coach after all), I don’t really WANT to lose body fat.

I may say that’s what I want, but on a deep level, I really just want to get bigger and stronger.

And that right there – that conflict in value between what I say I want, and what I actually want deep down in my subconscious mind – is the reason my fat loss goals have been nearly unobtainable.

 

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

In my opinion, it’s not laziness, ignorance, or poor genetics that account for most people’s fat loss troubles.

^^Those things play a role, but not as much as most people think.

It’s the fact that what a lot of people want consciously doesn’t match up with what they want subconsciously, and because your subconscious mind governs your habits, and your habits determine how successful you’re going to be at achieving a specific goal, a lot of people (myself included) set themselves up for failure right from the get go.

Now, is this preventable?

Is it something you can overcome while paving your way in to fat loss glory?

Yes it is.

But, it requires an extreme amount of self-awareness.

And, to an extent, it requires flexibility.

Instead of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole – or trying to lose body fat when you aren’t really ready/willing to lose body fat – it may be better to adjust your goals, and consequently your training and nutrition programs, to match your current values.

I say “current” because values change, and just because you don’t value fat loss right now – or it’s not your TOP PRIORITY – doesn’t mean you wont value fat loss moving forward.

Until losing body fat is your top priority, focus on something else.

Maybe you want to get stronger.

Maybe you want to get bigger.

Maybe you want to get faster, more athletic, or dominate in a particular sport or physical activity.

All of those things are fantastic goals and objectives.

And all of them set the stage for more productive fat loss in the future (more muscle + a higher activity level = a body fat furnace).

At the end of the day, we all have the potential to lose body fat.

And, at some point in time, we’ll all have the fire lit under our asses to make it happen.

But, until that fire’s burning, it’d probably be best to push your fat loss goals to the wayside.

If you don’t, you may spend the next 18 months spinning your wheels like I did.