7 Principles to Avoid the Weight Regain Trap

How to end the cycle of endless dieting

95% of diets fail and it shouldn’t be a surprise. In this article we’ll go over why that happens and ,most importantly, how to avoid regaining the fat you worked so hard to lose.

We’ve just turned the page on a new year not too long ago and most people that embarked on their fitness journey have probably failed. Maybe they tried what they tried before, even though that didn’t work last time (this time it’ll work though, just not the first 5 times).

Everyone wants “the program” or they finally found the hack that’s somehow been hidden to them for years. Without getting too edgy, your problem likely isn’t anything external. It really does start with you and not the endless things we tend to blame for our weight loss :age, lack of motivation, environment, too busy, etc etc etc

“There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists.”

Musashi

Weight loss is easy

Maintaining weight loss tends to be a challenge but the answer is simpler than people make it out to be. They often just don’t ask themselves “compared to what?” The problem is, people compare it to things that don’t take effort (apples to oranges).

Would you bet $10,000 that you could gain 10 lbs of muscle in 4 weeks or would you rather place that bet on losing 10 lbs in 4 weeks? Is losing weight more challenging than engineering a bridge, sending an astronaut to space, performing open heart surgery, making an NFL roster?

In relative terms, it is easy, and you already know more or less what to do, you’re just not doing it.

Compared to almost literally anything else that takes at least some effort, weight loss is pretty easy. I firmly believe you need to adopt a perspective that makes your goal seem attainable. The alternative is believing weight loss is an esoteric and monumental feat only the mentally strong can complete.

“Weight Loss is Easy” - Easily my most villainous quote that upsets the most people, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

Weight Regain is a Problem

Weight regain is a real problem but only because the initial action was likely wrong in the first place. In other words you probably chose an unsustainable diet methodology. “If you can’t do it forever don’t do it for a day” is a good filter to run your diet through. It really needs to be a long term lifestyle change to sustain results. Quick fixes and hacks don’t get good results. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t use quick fixes short term. I’m a big fan of short sprints where training or nutrition is more intense but there needs to be a plan for after the sprint.

The fact that people are regaining weight after dieting is actually causing headlines like the one below. In some respect it is true, let me explain. Low calorie diets that are not accompanied with resistance training and high protein will likely lead to muscle loss. As you lose weight you’ll lose fat and muscle but as you regain the weight back, you just get fatter since you likely stopped training.

The results? You put on more fat, look worse, feel fatigued, and feel unhealthy.

How to Maintain Weight Loss

It starts with your lifestyle. You need a template for your nutrition that’s flexible and fits your life, not the life of a celebrity on instagram. There are also other principles that I recommend following. If you aren’t training already, you damn well should be.

You’ll notice a lot of athletes have no problem eating junk and putting on slabs of fat. You’re not them. Your activity is likely lower and your muscle mass is likely not even close to them in terms of quantity and quality. Stop looking at athletes or celebrities and copycatting their diets, you’re not them!

Muscle is active tissue and raises your metabolic rate. Muscle cotnractions also improve carbphydrate use and insulin sensitivity so you can store less carbs as fat. You don’t have to entirely reverse engineer an athletes lifestyle and physique to keep your weight down but success leaves clues.

7 Principles to Follow

• High Protein

  • 1.5 -2.2 g/kg or 0.8 - 1.0 g/lb of bodyweight minimum. It’s not difficult, it just takes planning.

• High Food Volume

  • Increase your food volume by eating more nutrients dense foods like fruits and vegetables. Vegetables especially provide fiber and bulk, making you feel full, without adding many calories. Diets low in fiber intake can result in more cravings and uncontrollable eating behavior.

• Nutrient Density

  • Eat minimally processed nutrient rich foods. This includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, meat, eggs. If your food label has more than a couple ingredients in it, avoid it. This doesn’t mean you need to eliminate 100% of processed food, but if you want to get the best results for your body composition then minimizing processed food is essential.

• Consistent Meal Frequency

  • Eat at roughly the same times each day. This entrains your circadian rhythm so you can better manage cravings.

• Train Heavy

  • Put the pretty pink dumbbells down and sling some iron. Your hormones will thank you.

• No Zero Days

  • The days where you sit around on the couch and do nothing are done. Aim to get 10,000+ steps daily or do some kind of training every single day. The human body has been active daily since the dawn of man, sedentary behavior is a modern invention.

• Plan

  • Know what you’ll eat, when you’ll eat it, and when it’ll be prepared. Leave nothing to chance.

Lean For Life Playbook

Need more help?

I created a 40-page ebook that outlines the exact templates I recommend clients use for their nutrition. You can find a link to the Lean for Life Playbook below. If you want to get your body fat down and keep it off for good, i’d highly recommend adopting one of the nutrition strategies outlined in the book.

If you’re going to do it, do it right. Stop the cycle of diets for good.