Fat Loss: Lifestyle
Welcome to part 3 of my fat loss series.
Today we focus on the lifestyle questions you need to ask and the possible amendments you may need to make if you are serious about your fat loss goal.
Q1. Are you getting enough sleep?
Sleep is the master regulator! It affects your metabolism (thyroid output), your hormones, your blood sugar control (carbohydrate regulation and insulin sensitivity), your appetite and helps to regulate your mood and energy levels. It also heavily contributes to the level of inflammation you have in the body and any one time
You need all these functions working optimally if fat loss is your goal.
8 hours is the golden ticket, so getting to bed with time to fall asleep and get 8 hours is the key. Set yourself a bedtime of 8 ½ hours before you have to get up. Ideally, this will be the same time every night.
“I wish i had got less sleep last night” is a phrase is no one ever said!
Q2. Are you recovering from your training?
Training hard and remaining in an energy deficit is the crux of fat loss. Regular training (primarily weights) is vital for maintaining a high Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) whilst also burning kcals.
However, this stress will take its toll on the body.
The classic sign that you are not recovering is when you become what is know as “tired & wired”. This is where you feel physically and mentally drained, can’t sleep and are becoming more and more grumpy. This happens when the body spends too much time in the “fight or flight” response. A classic sign of this is when your libido diminishes. No morning boners (if you are a guy) is a physical sign of this.
If this is starts to happen then make sure you are ticking all the foundational boxes: nutrition, good sleep, social interaction, doing fun things and you are being active enough with lots of natural daylight exposure.
If all these boxes are being ticked and especially if you have been in an energy deficit for a couple of months it might be time to take a diet break. Up your kcals by 200-300 kcals for a 3-4 days and you should see your sleep patterns normalise and your libido return.
Q3. Are you living in “fight or flight”?
Living in a state of constant fight or flight (sympathetic nervous state) is something that is all too common, but by no means normal for a large segment of the population.
Stressors are part of life, but chronic stress and the subsequent rise in stress hormones and inflammatory chemicals (cytokines) that circulate in response are can be disruptive to fat loss.
Chronically elevated stress hormones can weaken the immune system making us susceptible to injury or illness (hampering training and activity) and they also can negatively affect our muscle mass and contribute to a reduction in our metabolic rate (muscle wastage and down-regulating thyroid hormone/our metabolism).
Ideally, we will live in a predominant state of "rest and digest” and only dip into “fight or flight” when appropriate -training/short periods of danger.
Living a life in accordance to what matters to you (your values) is a good way of mitigating a lot stress. All too often we live by other peoples or societies values (social idealisms) which creates an environment for stress to grow.
Identifying our main stressors (not always easy) and ways to deal with them before they wreak havoc is another solid strategy. I find regular exercise is best for me.
Q4. Do you have a support network?
Social contact and feeling part of something/a community is a basic human need.
We are social animals and all need a tribe to belong to. It helps us thrive in life and the same is true with fat loss.
Losing fat is a simple process but it is far from easy. Having a group who share your struggles and that are there to support you through the challenging times is such an advantage.
My advice is to not go it alone. Surround yourself with supportive people who feel your pain and have your back. Join a gym, hire a coach (PT/Nutritional Practitioner), find a group to train with or a mixture of all of these. It will almost certainly help you will get better results
Tell the 5 people you hang around you want to lose fat and you need there help. If they are good people they will only be too happy to support you in this. Better still make the 5 people you hang out with people who already do the things you need to do to lose the fat. You will get pulled along by their influence mark my words.
Q5. Do you have the right habits for success?
Whether you like it or not we are creatures of habit. We eat same the food, go to same places and interact with the same people day in day out. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I myself am certainly a man who enjoys the safety of routine.
The habits and rituals we form determine how we look and feel. If you eat processed food regularly and don’t exercise then there is a good chance you will become overweight and almost certainly become victim to ill health.
The key habits to look at re-engineering for fat loss likely most centre around nutrition (quality and quantity), your sleep, your exercise/activity and your working day.
Re-engineering an “unhealthy’ habits to “healthy ones” can be a complex business and this goes far beyond the scope of this blog post. However. it is possible. I have gone through this process myself (with the help of a coach) and helped multiple clients through this same process with a high degree of success.