How To Drop Fat While Eating Out And Traveling
In the morning, if I’m feeling a little reflective, I’ll hike up to the top of Runyon Canyon and enjoy the vantage point.
I’ve been in Los Angeles for the last two weeks…. My Road to Ripped cohost, Christopher Walker, and I, decided to rent a place in Los Angeles for a month to work on projects and of course, finally meet in person. So far the trip has been an absolute blast. We’ve recorded tons of RTR episodes, hit muscle ups at the beach, drank plenty of two buck chuck (Trader Joe’s infamous two dollar wine) and discussed our goals and aspirations.
We’ve also been fortunate enough to meet with some very influential people here! Not to mention, we’ve had a few celebrity run ins, including Zooey Deschanel, Mark Wahlberg and a very strange Andy Dick. But if you listen to the podcast, you already know that!
Oh and the best part is, we still have two weeks left! For these next two weeks I’m planning on getting a more complete taste of the LA nightlife, but that’s neither her nor there….. What I really want to share with you today is how I’ve been eating out nearly every meal while getting sharper and more chiseled. I really want you to nail this strategy down, that way there are no excuses between you and your dream physique and staying lean year round will be effortless.
Below is a pic of me I snapped the other day, demonstrating a slight decrease in body fat. Pecs are square, arm veins are prominent, abs chiseled and the v cut is showing nicely. A perfect level of leanness to maintain year round!
What you must understand is that there will never be perfect circumstances
Sure, when you’re living at home and you have the luxury to cook all of your meals, getting lean can be quite simple. You can very accurately track your calorie and macronutrient intake. Additionally, you have access to the gym whenever you want…. However, sometimes life can get super busy… There are going to be times when you won’t be able to track your nutritional intake to the tee…. When you will be dining out, ordering in, grabbing fast food or eating home cooked meals with the company of friends.
The fact of the matter is that you don’t need to be able to perfectly track your calorie and macronutrient intake to drop fat and get lean. Sure, it helps, especially when starting out. But the end goal should be to lessen your reliance on such things and to learn to eat in accordance with your energy demands.. This way, maintaining a low body fat is second nature… And thus your body fat goals don’t have to be compromised when travelling, eating out and enjoying your life. Now in this article I will be sharing simple strategies to abide by so that you can stay within the ballpark of your daily calorie and macronutrient goals.
This Is The Kinobody Guide To Getting Lean While Eating Out
In my kinobody warrior shredding course, I lay out a brutally effective nutrition plan to lean down to a low body fat while building strength and muscle density. This nutrition plan works extraordinarily well even if you’re going to be eating out and/or traveling while cutting. The basis of the plan is that you will be skipping breakfast each morning and drinking water and black coffee only. By fasting in the morning, you ramp up your fat burning machinery and improve insulin sensitivity in the muscles, allowing you to better direct nutrients into your muscle stores when you do feast.
You should then be eating two big meals per day – a big lunch and a big dinner. These two meals should be high in protein and moderate in fats and carbs. As well, I recommend a small late night meal before bed consisting of low fat cottage cheese or scrambled eggs/whites.
Why Is This Program So Effective?
a) It is super filling! When you skip breakfast you give yourself more room to eat later in the day. Most of us deeply want to be able to eat lots of food at night. It’s our primitive urge. Once you adapt to fasting, you feel incredible and focused during the fast and you are able to revel in amazing meals each and every day. This is while being in a calorie deficit and burning fat and gaining strength from training.
b) It’s extremely simple! I work with and coach some of the busiest people – doctors, military personnel, investment bankers, business owners, actors, models….. There is no way that they would be able to eat 5-6 perfectly balanced meals each day. It just wouldn’t happen. Eating two big meals per day fits perfectly with their lifestyle and allows them more flexibility if they have to eat out.
c) It allows for enjoyment! This eating structure is designed to make it super simple to support your calorie and macronutrient needs. This means that by following this eating plan it will be extremely hard to overshoot over your calorie intake. As well, the meal plan is designed to ensure ample amounts of protein to support satiety and muscle retention. Because of this, dropping fat while maintaining muscle will be effortless. Furthermore, many of my clients fit in ice-cream and alcohol a couple times per week while leaning down to signal digit body fat.
6 Strategies To Get Lean While You Enjoy Eating Out
Strategy #1 – You Should Know Your Calculated Nutrition Plan
First, it’s important that have tracked your nutrition intake while at home and that you know how many calories you should be taking in each day and the size and composition of those meals. This is what I call your calculated nutrition plan. For example, you might be consuming 1800 calories with three meals. A lunch and dinner consisting of 700-750 calories and a smaller meal with 300-400 calories. You should get a feel for the size of these meals and the amount of meat, fats and starches in each meal. You should also have an idea of how much protein you are taking in with each meal. For example, you might be getting 70g of protein with lunch and dinner and 40g in the smaller meal.
Strategy #2 – Stick To The Same Foods You Have Been Eating
When you have established your calculated nutrition plan, it’s really just a matter of trying to ball park it as close as possible when dining out. Ideally you should stick to similar foods that you have been accustomed to eating. This usually entails lunch and dinners consisting of meats, veggies and potatoes or rice.
Strategy #3 – Don’t Be Afraid To Double Up On The Protein
If you typically have a large serving of protein with lunch and dinner then you may have to double up on the protein when eating out. Many restaurants charge a trivial two dollars to double up on the protein. When it comes to hitting your fitness and physique goals, the extra couple bucks is definitely worth it. If you’re at a restaurant and you want a little extra meat with your entree, don’t be afraid to ask, usually they are more than accommodating.
Strategy #4 – Make Sure You Pick Your Protein Wisely
As a general rule go with leaner meats like chicken breast, fish, rotisserie chicken, steak or lamb. Avoid ribs, chicken wings, burgers and deep fried meats which tend to be exceptionally high in calories and fat.
Strategy #5 – Be Careful With The Portion Of Carbs
Watch the amount of carbs you’re getting with your meals. If you’re getting more carbs than you are used to, either ask for a half portion of carbs or divide the excess carbs off your plate to avoid the temptation of eating them. If you’re eating at a sit down restaurant that delivers bread to the table, ask them to take the bread away. It’s best not to have to deal with the temptation at all, if possible.
Strategy #6 – How To Handle Post Meal Hunger
If you’re tempted with desserts or still have the urge to eat more, even though you know that will likely mean going over your calories, then it’s important to know that the feeling of slight hunger will soon subside. A great trick is to have a cup of tea following a meal, which helps to signal fullness and curb appetite. Alternatively, a 15-20 minute walk after eating also does the trick. I’m not certain why this works, but this has been the case for me and many other people. My hypothesis is that walking after eating transitions your body out of the feasting mode and helps to down regulate your hunger hormones.
Bonus – This Is My Favorite Fast Food Restaurant
Eating chipotle with Road to Ripped cohost Christopher Walker
Chipotle is easily my favorite fast food restaurant! I can get epic, healthy, filling and delicious meals for $10-12. I usually order a buritto bowl with double chicken or steak, white rice, fajita veggies, pinto or black beans, cheese and guacamole. This meal tops out at around 900-1000 calories with a nice amount of proteins, fats and carbs. If you need to keep your calories lower you can ditch the cheese and guacamole and take in only 650-750 cals. Or you can ditch the guacamole and keep the cheese and take in 750-850 calories. There’s definitely a lot of leeway in terms of hitting different calorie levels.
Another decent option is subway. Usually I get the oven roasted chicken salad loaded with veggies, extra servings of chicken, plenty of cheese and guacamole and a low fat dressing. For a side of carbs I’ll grab a bag or two of their baked low fat chips. This usually ends up being around 900 calories with 80-100g of protein, that’s right, I get 3-4 servings of chicken breast.
This Is The Most Enjoyable Way To Get Lean
For my full blown course on getting chiseled and effortlessly staying lean while building an awesome physique, take a look at my new Kinobody Warrior Shredding Course. Interestingly enough, I’ve been getting a lot of incredible feedback on the missing chapter component of the course. This is the section that took me the longest to figure out. Before I was able to come to terms with the right outlook and psychology, I couldn’t help but sabotage my many efforts to getting lean. Now, staying lean has never been easier and more rewarding!
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[…] How to Drop Fat While Eating Out […]
“This usually ends up being around 900 calories with 800-100g of protein, that’s right, I get 3-4 servings of chicken breast.” I think you mistyped 80 as 800.
Great catch. Just fixed it, thanks :)
[…] Read this article: How to Drop Fat while Eating Out | Kinobody Fitness Systems […]
Hey Greg!
If we’re on vacation (lasting anywhere from 1 week to 3 weeks) and have no access to gym equipment other than a pullup bar, what do you recommend us to do? Should we use the vacations as a “deload” period (no strenght training) or should we at least do some bodyweight training (and if so, what bodyweight training protocol do you suggest?)?
Thanks!
I don’t believe in deloads. I would suggest doing some pull ups, hand stand push ups, pistol squats and one arm push ups every 3 days or so.
Hey Greg,
Came to this post because I remember you mentioning chipotle a while back as a good place to go even when trying to slim down (love that place).
Had a quick question, are you just eyeballing your body to guess body fat percentage or are you using a certain calculator? How are you getting your estimates?
– Jason
Well i’ve gotten my body fat measured professionally before. So now I can just eye ball it.
Hey Greg I’m about 14 percent body fat, I’m trying to get to 8 percent body fat, can I do that in about 4-6 weeks? Thanks.
No, give yourself 12 weeks!
Hey man, during christmas im going to be back home for the holidays. Il be there for around a month and I have all the equipment I need apart from a pull up bar to do my weighted chins which iv built up 35kg for 5 reps at 165lbs. What would you recommend I do for that month and can I still make progress? I have access to a lat pull down and I have a barbell with at least 160kg worth in weights so could do heavy barbell rows.
You can do heavy barbell rows. It’s okay to take a month off heavy chins. You’ll be fine.
Dude, how can you recommend Subway, that’s crap food. Fake veggies, GMOs, additives, micro wave bread ? hell no ! People do some research and stay away from subway, it’s a disaster for your health.
First of all, I recommended the salad… What are you even talking about fake veggies… If you’re looking for a fast food resteraunt chain, it’s much better than most of the other options. And guess what, if you hit your calories and macros, your physique will improve big time. Sure it’s not going to be as healthy as eating organic, grass fed, free range food all the time. But that’s simply not feasible all the time.
Hey Greg,
I have been alternating between workout A and B for about three months now. Making steady gains in strength and muscle. A is Incline Barbell, Standing Press, laterals, and seated overhead tricep extensions. B is weighted chins, bent over laterals, barbell curls, and an leg exercise usually bodyweight only. My continued goal is increase strength and muscle steadily with very slow loss in remaining fat. I am 38 years old, in no rush, but wanting to know if it would be better to do 2 worksets of each exercise or 3? I am 5’8″ and weight about 160 with waist of 32. Goal is waist 30-31. How much should I weigh around to have the Greek God look? this is what I am after.
Thanks!
Ed
Greek God look would probably be 165 lbs with a 31″ waist. So you’ll probably need to drop down to 155 with a 31″ waist then gradually build up to 165 lbs.
Two sets can work quite well while cutting, I’d say go for it. When you switch to higher calories then bump it to 3 sets.
How many calories per pound of weight to cut? Should I go for calories based on 155 or 160? Going to do two meals per day.
Ed
I like to use 12 calls per pound. Either or, won’t change things much.
Hi Greg,
I was wondering what are your measurements on the second picture in this article, so that I know how hard should I work out to get there (and how much more left :) ). And by the way – how do you measure your biceps? Flexed, relaxed, before or after workout?
Best regards,
Mateusz
Not too sure because I didn’t have a scale… But I’d guess about 186 lbs with 32.5″ waist at 5’10. Measure biceps before a workout and flexed.
hi Gregory, bro. first of all is a pleasure meeting you, thanks for all ur advises, u r amazing bro, see u soon. oh, I love chipotle 2 bro that’s why I work there lol
Hey Greg,
How do you go about cold approaching women in bars and clubs? Any examples?
Thank you!
It depends really…… If there is something situational that I can go off of then usually I’ll do that. For example, I was at this LA hotel bar the other day. There were a few stunners sitting down on these lounge chairs that surrounded this pool. It was hilarious to see at a venue. I walked by them and said, “Hey… Is this the new LA thing to do at clubs?!” They laughed and so I joined in with them and completely took over the conversation. Sometimes there’s nothing situational to go off of, then usually I’ll just walk up and say what feels most natural. For example, “Hey, you are absolutely gorgeous, I just had to say hello. Then I’ll usually comment or say a statement about something I notice from her. Compliments are great, if they’re deliver properly. The key is to say it from a true place and not be trying to get a certain reaction.
Often, I’ll ask questions, but I’ll do so with strong tonality and authority and with a completely neutral voice. Not trying for approval and not breaking for approval. As well, I’ll avoid asking question after question. Based on her response I’ll go off of that. Then if she says something silly or something that can be misinterpreted then I’ll poke fun of her. I’ll usually only do this once or twice. More will backfire.
Finally, I’ll start making moves. Either, bringing her to a different part of the bar, getting closer or/and ramping up the conversation. I get physical pretty quickly. Or I’ll say, “you seem pretty cool, let me get your number and we get drinks or something sometime”
Way to go Greg, showing you can actually have a life that doesn’t revolve solely around diet and training. Intermittent fasting is incredibly effective, the problem that some run into, is that the they find it difficult to eat sufficient calories, or they don’t calculate their intake and thus don’t know how much they’re taking in. At the end of the day you can still get fat on it if you’re constantly overshooting your intake.
I also prefer and recommend lower volume, heavy training for increasing strength. Awesome stuff. Keep it up.
Hello Greg. I’m a skinny guy but I want to add 20 pounds of lean muscle to change that. I am going to buy adjustable dumbbells the powerblocks the 5-90 pound set, and a Olympic barbell with weights and a bench. Is this equipment good enough to build 20 pounds of lean muscle and build a lean ripped physique or do I need to go to a gym like la fitness etc?
I just emailed you!
I like this post because it’s another excuse-buster. May I ask your stats in the above photo?
I think I’m around 185-187 lbs and 9-10% body fat.
Hey Greg,
Interesting article.
I assume this means that you’re not having a post-workout shake? If so, how long do you usually wait after your workout to have your first meal?
Nope, no post workout shakes. I usually eat 1-2 hours after training. Sometimes I’ll go longer though.
Hey Greg,
I have been following you and your advice for a while now, i bought your muscle building course and that with its diet became my bread and butter! My lifts got stronger and my physique had noticeably changed! i have been doing the super hero aspect of your muscle building course for 2 months now and i got bigger but unfortunately got a little sloppy about my diet only because of laziness and increased in body fat percentage by like 2 or 3. Im back on track with my diet and i bought your new shredding program as well to bring that body fat percentage down.
My question is during this cutting time should i stick to the strength training routine in the muscle building program (not the super hero aspect) and drop one set from each of the exercises? or should i just use your shredding programs strength training routine? I ask because i don’t want to lose the strength i gained from alternating between A & B workouts in the week (from the muscle building course). or does it not matter since there is more than one way to skin a cat and i wont lose any strength gains made from the muscle building program? Thanks again man for making getting a good physique and strength so obtainable!
Hey Aman!
You can definitely do the workouts from the warrior shredding course and maintain and potentially even increase your lifts. When you go back to the muscle building course, you may in fact be stronger than before. So yeah, I would do those workouts to mix it up then when you’re ready to focus on building muscle you can go back onto the other workouts from the muscle building course! Keep it up dude and thanks for the support.
I’ve been cutting my calories while traveling but still going to the gym. I’ve noticed that my sex drive is lowered and it is more difficult to cum. Is this normal or should I increase certain calories like protein?
When eating lower calories sex drive can be diminished. You can push through this or increase calories and run a smaller deficit. Also it’s best to do as little wanking as possible so that your sex drive is higher when the moment presents itself.
One of my favourite articles Greg! I’m currently around 14 per cent bf and 184 pounds and started my cut today after a mini bulk. I go on vacation in just over 5 weeks. Do you think it’s realistic to get down to 9-10 per cent by the time I leave? Macros are all in check with two refeed days per week.
Depends on how hard you would want to diet. I’d recommend aiming for dropping about 0.5% of body fat per week for moderate dieting. For faster fat loss you can drop 1% body fat per week, but that requires a very low calorie intake. So you can get to about 10-12% body fat depending on how hard you are going to diet.
Would would you say the difference is between your Warrior Shredding Program and Phase III of visual Impact muscle building?? I have already bought VISUAL IMPACT. Not asking about literal differences just want to know as far as
1.time span (is yours for a more long term goal and his more short term approach? etc)
2 the DESIRED goal or end result of each program (like difference between however you define your “warrior physique” to a finished “phase III physique”
3. and what audience is a better target for each (warrior is for people that dont have all the muscle? phase III is for people that already have muscle trying to get definition?” i dont know just clarifying what I am asking)
thank you greg!
1. My warrior course takes it slower. So it’s designed to help you build strength and gain muscle as you slowly lean down to your goal body fat percentage. Workout volume is lower overall, which tends to work better with strength gain and while dieting.
2. Pretty similar end goal physique
3. Similar target
I’d say the main difference is really the nutrition approach. Visual impact doesn’t really talk much about nutrition. He mentions a very strict shake salad diet if you want to crash diet to a low body fat. My plan makes getting absolutely chiseled an enjoyable lifestyle approach. I want you to lean down and enjoy it!
Hi Sal,
I wanted to comment on this because I have both VI and Greg’s Shredding Program.
When Greg says he wants you to “lean down and enjoy it”, he’s not kidding lol. I’ve tried Rusty’s diet approach (2 protein shakes for breakfast/lunch and a salad with chicken for dinner) and it wasn’t sustainable.
It probably works for some people, but 3 days in I was so hungry I couldn’t stick to his plan.
And that’s probably the best thing about Greg’s Shredding Program – you eat so much food, but it actually makes sense. The frequency works perfectly for my situation, too.
So it just depends. If you NEED to drop body fat quick, then you could try Rusty’s approach. But I don’t think you’ll be able to sustain it for too long. Much rather do Greg’s.. Look at his clients, too. They’re frickin ripped and they follow his protocol as well.
-Tom
Hey Greg,
Sorry for such a long comment it was supposed to be just a quick question about fasting but it turned into an essay lol.
Getting great results from intermittent fasting thanks to you. I was eating 6 small tasteless meals per day before that always hungry and unsatisfied with little or no results until I came across your site. It was hard to make myself quit that habit and change to fasting because I thought if it doesn’t work it will be hard to get 6 meals per day habit back which I had worked very hard to develop since I have such a huge appetite there was actually a point in my life a few years ago when I probably eat 5000 – 10000 calories per day of pure junk food. That seemed to be my natural set point and every other eating plan over the years i just had to struggle to not binge on junkfood until i read your blog. I have lost about 15 pound of fat and 3 inches from my waist in 6-8 weeks with most of my lifts going up regularly and eating lots of big satisfying meals 5 days per week so it was enjoyable and sustainable and except one or two days eating lower calories it was easy.
The last time my waist was the size it is now i was around 15 pounds lighter after obviously burning off most of my muscle from crash dieting and I looked like a skeleton.I have often lost weight before but due to not enjoying the food and suffering from hunger I always put it back on because it was not sustainable. Also I used to live for cheat days to get me through it. But they would become my downfall as they would turn into cheat weeks/months/years lol. Now its easy and I don’t really care about cheat days because since I started taking your advice I learned to cook healthy but delicious huge meals so nearly every day is like a cheat day unless I do a low calorie 24 hour fast day. Now my cooking is nicer than eating out or take away food so no cravings as I learned to copy lots of junk food meals using healthy ingredients and following your macros it’s so easy to cook amazing tasting health food.
With 6 meals per day there was no point to learn to cook as meals would be 300 or 400 calories and not much good you can cook with that. I used to fantasise non stop about cheat days now I just have a cheat meal here or there which usually means having some chocolate or icecream for desert or some popcorn watching a movie as I don’t need more than that because my cooking tastes better than junk food now and that’s coming from a guy that could barely cook toast until a few months ago when I started this.
Also I never enjoyed training it was a necessary evil at best but since following your guidelines focusing on a smaller amount of key lifts with continuous small improvements I now love doing my workouts and look forward to them every morning. I have been training and dieting on and off for years with close to zero muscle results and plenty of weight loss that I then put back on constantly yo yo-ing weight, I had a hatred for the gym and healthy eating and now I love the gym and eating healthy and staying slim is easy. I thought because of my large appetite and desire for tasty food that I would always struggle to keep weight off as it felt like I had an eating disorder and that the only way to stay slim was to be hungry, unsatisfied and unhappy. But now I feel a lot happier and in control that I have found an easy enjoyable and sustainable method that has helped me conquer one of my biggest issues in life.
I’m 6 foot tall and now my waist at belly button is just under 34 inches so I probably have another two inches or so to lose, definitly finding it a bit harder to lose those final two inches but you have said it slows down a bit towards the end. I have probably added a small amount of muscle while dieting as most of my lifts have increased a decent amount but I’m looking forward to getting the rest of the fat off so I can for first time in my life actually focus on building proper muscle.
Anyway sorry again for such a long post the initial question I wanted to ask was simple one. I have been thinking of starting to take a table spoon or two apple cider vinegar in water a few times per day, maybe sometimes lemon in water. This is supposed to be very good for you and I was wondering is it okay to take it during fasting times. I know it’s supposed to be no calories in apple cider vinegar so I think it should be okay but just wanted to double check with you be ft ore I start as I can’t find anything online about whether this breaks your fast or whether it’s on to do.
Ps – I have learned everything from you for free from reading your site and watching your YouTube videos and also from reading your products that my friend had purchased and am very greatful to you that you provide so much value for free so if you would like use my above post as a testimonial on your site or sales pages etc please feel free to do so.
Pps – This just occurred to me while writing this and you may or may not be interested. I am currently working as an actor (struggling actor lol). I got my first leading role in a feature film this year which is almost finished shooting. It is a low budget independent film that will be released at cannes film festival next summer. I am playing another leading role in a low budget feature film next year that requires me to get in phenominal shape which is how I found your site in first place.
I don’t have money to pay for private coaching but if you would like to take me on anyway then if either of those films become successful or if I get where I want with acting you would get a lot of free advertising and could open plenty of doors to you for becoming a coach of famous actors etc it could be a small gamble that pays off or not who knows. Anyway I’m sure you don’t even need that but I thought I’d put it on there anyway and thanks again for all the great advice and inspiration
Thanks for all the kind words man and it’s great to hear you’ve been having such great success with my system. Yep that’s fine you can take apple cider vinegar during the fast.
Congrats on landing the feature films and following your passion! Unfortunately I don’t have the capability at the moment to take on many more clients and I don’t want to start the precedent of training clients for free on the possibility that it could pay off. I’m sure you will get awesome results continuing what you have been doing.
Thanks a lot man totally understand everything is working really well so I think your right and keep up the good work
Hey Greg,
I love the idea of eating this way because having more calories later in the day would be awesome as it’s always the time i’m hungriest. I have 2 questions though.
1. I usually workout at lunch. Doing IF means working out on a really empty stomach. Do you think this will impact my lifts?
2. I’ve heard fitness “guru’s” say that eating 2 big meals is bad because when you go hungry for long periods of time your body goes into starvation mode and stores calories as fat even if you’re below maintenance. What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks!
Matt
1. Nope. Have a cup of coffee before or a little caffeine and you’ll be strong as ever.
2. This is a complete myth. All of the research shows this is mythical. Please don’t listen to anyone who spits out such drivel.
Hey Dude,
I love doing IF in the am and then eating larger meals later in the day. I’ve found it’s great not only for managing calorie intake but also being productive during the day.
I love Chipotle as well. I like the burrito bowl with fajita veggies, no beans, but double barbacoa, white rice and guac.
Glad you’re enjoying your time in LA!
Alykhan
Hey Greg.
Chipotle and Subway are definitely my go-to options when I’m on the road as well. My question is, do you trust the online nutrition calculators for their food options? I never know how accurate those things are for commercial restaurants.
Thanks.
I use it as a ball park…
A lot of times they’ll serve you bigger portions than what the nutrition data is based off of. So if the calculator says 800 it might be 10-20% higher. This isn’t always the case but I know that when I go to chipotle, sometimes the servings are bigger or smaller. If I don’t get as much as I usually get then often times I’ll tell them, “a little more please :)”