Really, really, ridiculously fast fat loss.

Recently I received an email from someone asking a question.
A question I thought might be helpful to share here.

So, uhm, here’s me sharing it.

Question:

“I want to lose some fat quickly. How fast can I do it? And how fast is too fast?”

And, uhm, here’s me giving a response.

We’ve all seen the advertisements:

Lose 30 pounds in 30 days.
Shed 5 pounds by this weekend.
Drop 10% bodyfat by the end of the month.

And most of us have all felt the same sentiment following those statements:

“Man, I’d sure like to do that.”

Here is the thing:

Fast fat loss is very real. And (according to most research) quick, early weight loss in a diet typically leads to better results long term.

Pretty great news, right?

But here is another thing:

Fast fat loss is still much slower than most people realize.

Meaning, all those advertisements with huge promises of insane short term fat loss are really just that — advertisements Or, in simpler terms: Not typically accurate.

#BOCTAE¹

The old school golden rule for slow and steady weight loss is typically written up as 0.8-1.5 pounds of fat per week. You can sometimes attain a higher rate of loss. But, even then, much of that loss may not be “true” fat loss — but instead due to a loss of water, glycogen, muscle, etc. — but that’s another conversation for another day.

At the end of the month, this puts us at a whopping 4-6 pounds lost over the course of an entire month.

Still a bit off from that “30 pounds in 30 days” promise.

I’ve got good news though.

For most people getting back into fitness, we can typically crank that up to the tune of 2.5-5 pounds per week (at least in the short term) AND still do so within completely healthy parameters.

That range is typically dependent on a few things:

Age
Gender
Lifestyle and stress
How much you have to lose.
Whether or not you actually fucking diet.

So, even if you’re a mid-twenties morbidly obese man with a care-free lifestyle — you’re still only cranking out about ~20 pounds of lost weight per month at max.

And if you’re a middle-aged woman with a hectic lifestyle and not a ton of weight to lose?

Well, you’re looking at about 8-10 pounds a month. And that is tops — even with the perfect plan run with 100% compliance.

Sorry, ladies.

Reframing the Fat Loss Mindset:

While the things you’ve read above might be depressing to hear — that is only because of the break in logic you’ve been led to believe.

(Blame the crap marketers of the world)

While 30 pounds in 30 days sounds amazing, have you ever thought about how realistic that is?

That same pace would put you at a yearly loss of 365 pounds.

Do you have 350 pounds to lose?
No, I didn’t think so.

Here is what to do instead:

Rather than hoping to shed all your body fat within a month or two, take a long term approach and focus on nailing your diet day in and day out (mostly).

Because while 2 pounds a week may not seem like a lot…
it equates to 52 pounds in 6 months.

104 pounds in a single year.

Which, in my opinion, sounds like a sweet deal.

Your dream body isn’t a day away.
But – I can promise that it’s coming sooner than you realize.

——

Happy losing,

— Nick.

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