It’s not enough to lean down to a chiseled state, we also must maintain it! After all, what’s the sense in looking good for a few days, only to drift back to average shape, shortly thereafter. This is what bodybuilders and competition fitness models do. They train and diet their asses off to look good for a few days.
This has little to no appeal to me. I only want to get as lean as I can, comfortably and enjoyably maintain. For me, I have found that I can effortlessly stay at an extremely low body fat. To be honest, in the past, I never believed this was in the cards for me.
You see, in the past, I made countless mistakes that made it next to impossible to maintain even 10% body fat, let alone 7%. In this post, I will be fleshing out exactly how I am now able to maintain 6-8% body fat while being able to be quite relaxed.
Rule #1 – You Need To Take Your Time to Get Lean
I can get a pretty good idea if someone is going to get and stay lean just by talking with them. If I get the impression that they’re in a rush to get lean, automatically their chances of getting lean drop in half. And the likelihood that they stay lean (assuming they get there), is reduced dramatically.
The key to getting and staying lean is finding the most enjoyable way to eat to promote fat loss. If you’re obsessed with dropping fat fast, there’s no way in hell it’s going to be enjoyable. That’s the bottom line.
If you’re not enjoying your nutrition plan, well then it’s taking more from you than it’s giving you. It’s just a means to an end. This makes dieting extremely stressful. Stress is created through wanting to be somewhere other than where you are now.
If you’re so obsessively focused on getting lean, as to achieve an enhanced self image through it, you will be burdened with stress that will make dieting unbearable. You will be counting down the days like an inmate waiting to get released from prison.
But even if you manage to stick it out and endure the psychological damage and the hunger, you won’t have the skill set nor mindset to maintain it.
You see, harsh diets don’t teach you how to eat in a balanced way. You only learn how to endure hunger and eat very little, but you don’t develop the skill set to eat ‘enough food’ without overeating.
This makes a transition into maintenance quite difficult. You have to constantly battle the desire to avoid turning maintenance into binge eating.
This is pronounced with low carb dieters. They may cut out carbs to get lean, but when they try to reintroduce carbs they can’t control themselves and keep eating. What’s worse, from extreme low carb dieting their leptin levels are diminished. This results in a heightened appetite and reduced metabolism.
My Aggressive Fat Loss course offers the most enjoyable way to eat to promote fat loss. It makes eating in a deficit more enjoyable and sustainable. One of the ways it accomplishes this, is by following an intermittent fasting strategy, which leads me to my next rule….
Rule #2 – You Need To Keep Intermittent Fasting
If you’re fasting, it’s not that hard to maintain a low body fat. You only have to eat a couple meals per day and you can eat big, delicious and satisfying meals. By not having to prepare, cook and clean several meals per day – staying lean no longer feels like hard work.
You can wake up, have some coffee and get started on your day. As well, on a maintenance plan, you will have so many calories to work with for each of your meals. This will make going out for food a non issue. In fact, these days, as I maintain 7% body fat, I frequently go out to restaurants for amazing meals.
In fact, in Toronto, I am known to hit up WVRST for pork sausages and a mountain of duck fat fries, Playa Cabana for incredibly tasty chips, guacamole and fish tacos and burger priest for two double patty burgers that are delivered from heaven.
This would never work in a million years if I was consuming 4-5 balanced meals per day. But because I eat two massive meals per day and a couple pieces of fruit, I can have my cake and eat it too.
Be sure to check out my full intermittent fasting guide.
Rule #3 – You Need To Maintain Structure And Discipline
One of the issues that I see is that people get to a point they’re satisfied with and they get way too relaxed. All of the sudden they stop tracking what they’re eating, they eat sporadically throughout the day, they stop emphasizing filling and satisfying foods and before they know it, they’ve gained 8-10 pounds and they’re freaking the F out.
What makes you think that you can completely soften up and eat as you please and stay lean? That’s utter nonsense. I recommend sticking to a similar script. If you were eating two or three meals per day, well keep doing that.
If your diet was predominately lean meats, fruits, veggies and potatoes.. Well keep emphasizing these foods. The only difference when switching to maintenance is that you have more room to work with. So you can eat bigger portions of carbs and you have a little more freedom to eat out.
That said, 400-500 extra calories per day can accumulate within the blink of an eye. So if you don’t maintain some structure and discipline you’ll go above your calorie numbers and gain weight faster than a retired NFL player.
Bonus Tip – You Need To Create A Morning Ritual
How you start the beginning of your day, shapes your entire entire day. How you go about your entire day, shapes your life and determines your personal growth and success. Such is the power of the morning ritual routine.
By shifting your body into a heightened state of consciousness, by aligning yourself with the person you want to be and are now becoming – you will move through life attracting exactly what you want with new found energy and discipline.
The morning ritual routine is something I get all my personal coaching clients to do to maximize their success through improving motivation, self belief and adherence to stick to the plan to the utmost of their abilities.
I recommend starting your day by listening to 20 minutes of Eckhart Tolle (practicing the power of now audiobook), getting control over your mind and achieving a deep state of presence. Alternatively, you can do a self hypnosis routine to achieve incredible relaxation and feed positive suggestions into your subconscious mind.
Next, I would review goals, affirmations and your to do list for the day. And finally, I would prepare a delicious cup of Fasting Fuel, my favorite coffee.
I can not overstate the power of this morning ritual, it is so incredibly powerful. I have only scratched the surface. I will be doing an in-depth post on the morning ritual routine in the very soon future.
Are you ready to follow a proven plan that teaches you how to drop fat fast and maintain your new physique? Check out my Aggressive Fat Loss course here.
