The worst possible position you can be in when trying to lose body fat and get lean is dieting hard—putting in heaps of effort and sacrifice, hating it, and life just generally sucking as a result—while simultaneously not losing body fat consistently, reliably, or at all, and not being at the body composition that you want. You’re making sacrifices, you feel like trash, and you still have excess fat on you that you just want to be rid of.
This is sadly a reality for way too many people who are trying to improve their body composition, get a bit leaner, gain some definition, and look good.
The good news is that losing body fat does not have to be this way. In fact, this sort of difficult, restrictive approach is never going to work. If this is the experience you’re having, doing more of it is only going to keep you stuck and make you more frustrated.
I know because I’ve been there, and I’ve had plenty of students who’ve experienced the same thing. Forging on with this approach is not a way to get to your goal. You need a different method.
The fortunate thing is that the approach that works—and that I’ve consistently seen deliver incredible results—is one where dieting is easy. It’s such a smooth process physically that you don’t even realize you’re doing it day-to-day or week-to-week. It fits into your routine, it’s simple, and at the same time, you see fat coming off your body literally every week.
You see the scale consistently moving down. You see definition improving every time you look in the mirror. And you only stop because you get too lean, reaching the point where now you look skinny and want to start gaining more muscle to look your best.
So I want to show you now how to put an end to starvation, restriction, and the difficult grind that leaves you stuck with body fat. I want to show you how you can reliably shred body fat, get leaner, and do it in a way that’s easy and avoids any physical resistance so you can actually get to that result as soon as possible.
How to Consistently Lose Body Fat While Eating More
The Foundations for Success
There are a few counterintuitive things when it comes to losing fat and getting lean. The first and most fundamental thing to get right—before you even start to look at calorie intake or weight loss—is ensuring that muscle gain is happening.
If you want to not just lose weight but lose body fat, get lean, and gain definition, you’re going to need muscle mass. This ensures that when you lose fat, you don’t just lose weight and get skinny. That’s the first point.
If you also want to sustain the result when you get there—and avoid rebounding back up with a yo-yo dieting effect—you need muscle mass. It helps you maintain a healthy weight that your body is happy to stay at, even when you’re lean.
So there’s no point in starting with weight-loss unless you’re severely overweight and have a lot of work to do. If you’re somewhere in the 15–25% body fat range and trying to get leaner, the first step is to get a muscle gain process in place. This ensures:
- You achieve a result that looks and feels good when you get there.
- You can stay there happily and not lose the fruits of all your labor.
The way to do this is simple, and these should be the foundations of your fitness and strength routine if you want to look and function well long-term.
Step 1: Strength Training and Protein
Firstly, strength training signals your body to grow, build muscle, and get stronger. Without that, your body has no reason to build strength or muscle. Secondly, hitting a daily protein target provides your body with the building blocks it needs to grow stronger.
If you want to learn more about strength training and protein targets, I’ll link some resources for you to check out.
The benefit of getting these foundations in place is that they massively help with the fat-loss process. If you haven’t already been strength training and hitting a daily protein target, you’ll likely find that simply starting these will cause you to lose fat by default, without even trying to restrict calories.
Step 2: Sustainable Calorie Deficits
Once you’ve nailed strength training and protein, you can start reducing body fat by creating a calorie deficit.
There are two levels to get this right: the micro and macro levels.
Micro Level: Avoid Extreme Deficits
The number one mistake people make when creating a calorie deficit is eating too little. It makes sense that you’d want to maximize the deficit for faster fat loss, right?
In practice, though, going beyond a 20% deficit (roughly 500 calories a day) usually backfires. Here’s why:
- Your hormones start to get out of whack.
- Energy levels drop, and you feel irritable, moody, and fatigued.
- Hunger skyrockets, and you start obsessing over food.
Eventually, you’ll either binge-eat and undo your progress or decide the deficit isn’t worth it. Either way, you’re stuck.
Instead, we want to aim for a deficit that’s sustainable—one that allows you to lose around 0.5 kg (1 pound) of fat per week. This pace is sustainable for most people. If you’re leaner or smaller, progress may be slower; if you have more fat to lose, it can be faster.
Macro Level: Keep Fat Loss Periods Short
Even with the right pace, dieting for extended periods can still lead to fatigue, hormonal changes, and metabolic slowdowns. To avoid this, break your fat loss into 12-week blocks or less.
After 12 weeks, take a 2-week break at maintenance calories. This allows your body to reset, recover, and maintain its new weight before starting another fat-loss phase.
The Path to Long-Term Results
If you follow these principles—strength training, protein intake, sustainable deficits, and structured phases—you can reach your fat-loss goals without burning out.
Once you’ve reached a level of leanness that feels good, the focus shifts to building muscle and strength. Over time, as you gain muscle, your body naturally looks leaner without needing to diet as aggressively.
So, if you want to lose fat while eating more, remember:
- Strength train and hit your protein goals.
- Create a sustainable deficit.
- Keep fat-loss phases under 12 weeks.
Get these things right, and you can get as lean as you want. If you want help with strength and muscle building, check out this article.