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The 3 Most Important Principles of Getting Stronger

I love helping clients get stronger. I especially love working with lifters who are just entering the intermediate phase of their training career.

This is the point where your beginner gains phase – that magical period where everything you do in the gym works and you can set PRs every week – is coming to a close and you need to take a more intelligent approach to training if you want to continue progressing and avoid burnout or injuries. 

Just because you’ve been working out for a while doesn’t mean your workouts are optimally designed. The biggest mistake I see intermediate lifters make is violating one or more of the three most important principles of strength training, which are discussed below. 

1. Specificity 

Specificity is the most important principle governing all physical activity. It essentially means that if you want to get good at a certain activity or if you want to see a specific training response (such as getting stronger), your training needs to be geared as specifically as possible toward that outcome. 

Makes sense, right? You wouldn’t expect to get better at shooting free throws by tossing a football around with your buddies. You wouldn’t expect to become a better swimmer by riding your bike. 

The same idea applies if you want to get stronger. Certain types of training are very specific to building strength, others less so. Some types of training are so nonspecific that they can actually prevent you from getting stronger. 

Things that are highly specific to getting stronger:

  • Lifting weights, especially compound movements that use lots of muscles and joints like squats, deadlifts, lunges, pressing, and rows
  • Training in the 3-8 rep range and trying to lift heavier loads over time
  • Occasionally testing 1, 2, and 3 rep maxes on a few key lifts (I only do this with a select few of my clients since most of them won’t ever need to do true max loads to reach their training goals.)

Things that are less specific to getting stronger, but can still help:

  • Performing isolation or assistance movements, especially to build muscle
  • Training in the 8-15 rep range
  • Moderate amounts of steady state or high intensity cardio to maintain a basic level of cardio fitness
  • Moderate amounts of flexibility training to address specific problem areas

Things that are not specific to getting stronger, and may actually prevent you from getting stronger:

  • Doing hours and hours of endurance training or steady state cardio
  • Doing lots of high intensity group exercise classes that use a ton of training volume and low loads
  • Unstable surface training like using Bosu balls
  • Doing tons of flexibility training, way beyond what you need to simply perform basic lifts with good technique (This includes doing a lot of yoga.)

If strength is your biggest training goal, you should do lots of stuff from the first list, a moderate amount of stuff from the second list, and avoid stuff from the third list as much as possible. If you love doing less specific stuff and don’t want to cut it out, you need to concede that you won’t be able to get as strong as you otherwise could have. 

2. Overload

You must continue to present greater and greater challenges to your body over time if you want to get stronger. Overloading training occurs when you do a little more than you did last time, after which your body repairs itself and adapts so you are better equipped to meet that challenge in the future.

 Put simply, if your training isn’t progressing over time, you’re not going to get stronger (or achieve any other goal other than basic consistency.) Not every session needs to be overloading, but on average you need to be moving in that direction over time.

 Here are a few ways to progress your workouts for strength:

  • Add weight
  • Do more reps at the same weight
  • Do more sets
  • Progress to a more advanced exercise, like moving from goblet squats to barbell front squats
  • Change the tempo, like adding pauses or slowing down the eccentric portion of the lift

If you aren’t lifting more weight gradually over time, you’re probably not getting stronger. And the stronger you get, the harder you will have to work to achieve an overload.

 3. Fatigue management

Training that is hard enough to stimulate strength gains is inherently taxing. Nobody can crush it all the time and see continuous progress without repercussions (like burnout or injury.)

 You need to take steps to manage accumulation of various types of fatigue. On the flip side, if you never need to take a break, you’re definitely not training hard enough to get stronger. 

Here are a few ways to manage fatigue from training: 

  • Rest days. I suggest taking at least 2 rest days per week. Many of my clients take more due to scheduling and external obligations. Don’t make the mistake of filling your rest days with taxing activities like long bike rides or pick up games in the park. 
  • Light sessions.If you train more than 3x per week, some of your training sessions may need to be lighter than others. Try doing your heaviest sessions closer to the start of the week. 
  • Deloads. Every 3-5 weeks, consider taking a lighter week of training known as a deload to help you prepare for another month of training. The most important consideration of a deload is that you should do fewer sets than you did in your normal workouts.  
  • Active rest periods. Extremely consistent trainees who work hard all year long can benefit from 1-3 weeks per year where they intentionally perform exclusively easy workouts and primarily focus on rest and recovery.  
  • Prioritize recovery. If you’re not sleeping much, eating poorly, and are really stressed out, your recovery is going to suffer and your workouts are going to suck. 

To summarize, if you want to get stronger without banging up your body or spinning your wheels:

  • Make sure most of your exercise is geared at least partially toward getting stronger, and isn’t actively getting in the way.
  • Make sure you are challenging yourself intelligently and actually working hard enough to elicit strength gains.
  • Make sure you are managing fatigue on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis.

If you want some help figuring all this out so you can get stronger without all the hassle and headache of writing your own programs, you can apply for my online coaching program here.

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An Alternative to the “Big 3 Lifts”: Create Your Own

I fell in love with lifting weights partially through sport of powerlifting.

Powerlifting is a competition to see which lifter is the strongest in the barbell back squat, barbell bench press, and barbell deadlift. Powerlifting training is dedicated to improving performance in these movements, which are colloquially known as “The Big Three”. 

I trained as a powerlifter for several years and even competed in a meet back in April 2014. I loved powerlifting; it was incredibly empowering and tons of fun to move heavy loads all the time.

Me during my powerlifting days.

When I first started working with clients, I expected that all of them would eventually perform (and also love) the big three. Lacking the perspective and experience I now have 7+ years into my career, I’m embarrassed to say that I tried to force all my clients into the same mold. 

It took me a while to realize that many people are simply not cut out to perform the big three lifts:

  • If you have lower back troubles or poor shoulder mobility, back squatting can be a painful experience.
  • Traditional barbell bench pressing isn’t a good choice if you have jacked up shoulders or elbows.
  • Deadlifting from the floor with good form requires a strong core, mobile hips, and the ideal ratio of arm to torso length. 

Needless to say, it’s the rare lifter who is built to perform all of these lifts well. And I eventually realized that programming the traditional big three for all my clients was actually holding many of them back.

Powerlifting has had such a big impact on the world of training that many people view the big three as the gold standard of strength. Show up to any gym that has barbells and racks, and you’ll see people working on these lifts. 

Many newbie lifters jump right to the big three because that’s what they think they’re “supposed” to do, even if they struggling mightily with form or always feel banged up after training. 

In my experience, most people would be better off picking alternative variations of squatting, pressing, and hinging.

 The big three are so technically complex and physically demanding that their potential reward is often not worth the risk of pain or injuries while training. 

This is not to say you can’t improve your mobility or your technique, but at a certain point you may be butting your head up against things that you can’t change.

 If you love the sport of powerlifting, by all means continue to work on the traditional big three.

If, however, you just want to get stronger and feel good, and don’t care about competing in a meet, I strongly suggest experimenting to find the variations that work best with your body type. 

Here are a few ideas to get you started: 

Back squat alternatives

  • Barbell front squat
  • Barbell zercher squat
  • Safety bar squat
  • Double kettlebell squat
  • Goblet squats
  • Heavy single leg work, especially rear foot elevated split squats

Bench press alternatives

  • Board press
  • Barbell floor press
  • Dumbbell press variations
  • Landmine pressing
  • Heavy pulling movements, like chin ups/pullups or rows

Deadlift alternatives

  • Trap bar deadlift
  • Elevated deadlift (block pulls)
  • Rack pulls
  • Barbell RDL
  • Kettlebell deadlift
  • Heavy single leg deadlifts and RDLs

Ideally, one or two of these alternative movements will allow you to train with intensity and move heavy weights without hurting your joints. 

You can build impressive strength by training these movements in the 3-8 rep range. Try to improve your performance and add weight over time.

Always look for ways to improve your form or focus more during your sessions. 

Set long term goals for these movements and periodically test yourself to see how you’re doing.

Remember, unless you’re competing in a powerlifting meet you don’t have to back squat, bench, or pull from the floor. You can get crazy strong using a wide variety of exercises without compromising your joint health.

If you’re really serious about getting strong, I suggest purchasing a strength-focused program or hiring a coach to ensure you’re following sound training principles. This is precisely the kind of work I do with my 1:1 training clients. You can apply for the program here.

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ED-ventures in Low-Fat Eating

Note from Caroline: This guest post comes courtesy of my good friend Rachel. Recently, Rachel’s partner received a medical diagnosis that required her to switch to a low-fat eating plan. This was a tricky situation to navigate, since she is recovered from an eating disorder and wanted to avoid triggering situations. Keep reading to learn how Rachel and her partner worked through these changes, and to see the delicious low-fat menu they were able to create.

The upper abdominal pain was on and off, seemingly random, hitting my partner in waves of discomfort that would keep her up at night. After several weeks, we deduced that gallstones were the likely culprit (and a few trips to the doctor confirmed it).

We were happy to have a diagnosis but also struggling — how can someone in recovery from an eating disorder (ED) safely go on the low-fat diet necessary to reduce gallbladder pain? 

My partner tried to do research for new recipes, but googling “low fat foods” led to endless websites with triggering language and flavorless, uninspired, meal ideas. 

I love food too much to allow it to become a source of despair. It has to taste good! I was confident that I could find good recipes that would satisfy our taste buds and needs. 

I’m no dietician, but I hope that anyone looking to lower the fat content in their food, or just looking for some variation in their quarantine cooking, will find some of our successes equally delicious.

Mushrooms

This portabella mushroom marinade is awesome – even if you all you can find are grocery store mushrooms (we are lucky enough to have access to high quality mushrooms through our farm share.)

We modify the recipe slightly by decreasing the wine and increasing the soy sauce, and we typically cook it by sautéing on the stovetop rather than baking.

We’ve used these marinated mushrooms as the starting point for three dishes: 

  1. Bowls – We typically pair mushrooms with quinoa, roasted veggies, and the spiced chickpeas mentioned below. You can also throw tofu in the pan after the mushrooms are almost done, and cook them together in this sauce to go with quinoa or rice.
  1. Salad –  The marinade doubles as a salad dressing. We sautéed portobellos and paired it with fresh spinach and strawberries.
  1. Pasta – For a special Valentines day meal, I sautéed a mix of local mushrooms and used them with their sauce on fresh pasta. (I didn’t have wine, so I used almost all soy sauce. Combined with the thickness of the pasta, this made it feel like an Italian-Asian fusion in the vein of pad see ew. If you kept the wine amount from the original recipe it would probably have more of an Italian flavor). 
Bowl with spiced chickpeas, marinated mushrooms, roasted broccoli, and quinoa

Tofu

Some folks are intimidated by tofu or think it’s flavorless, but both of these notions can be thrown away once you try preparing it at home. Tofu is cheaper, requires less cleanup, and is faster to cook than meat.

We like to get extra firm tofu, drain the liquid from the package, wrap the tofu in a clean dishcloth or paper towel and press it between two plates with a weight on top (like an olive oil container) while we prep other ingredients. Getting rid of the extra moisture helps it absorb the flavors of your sauce and crisp up. 

Here are some ways we like to use tofu:

  1. Stir-Fry – This is an awesome technique for cooking with little oil and maximum flavor. My go to combo is ginger, garlic, broccoli, carrots, and tofu. You can mix your own sauce or use pre-made (I like Soy Vey’s Teriyaki marinade).
  2. Experiment with texture – Tearing the tofu in craggy pieces can help it crisp up more, if you cook it separately. We also tried grating the tofu on a box grater (inspired by this recipe.) While the grating wasn’t that effective (I would rather smash it into small pieces with my fingers), it did create a cool texture that carried the sauce well for an udon noodle dish.
  3. This vegetarian banh mi recipe is fantastic, and you can use the extra pickled vegetables in salads or bowls.
Tofu banh mi

Beans 

During the early part of quarantine, when we were trying to figure out how to only grocery shop every two weeks, we quickly started experimenting with more shelf-stable recipes. Beans were already somewhat of a staple in our cooking, but these dishes really cemented their place:

  1. Spiced chickpeas – For the easiest and most flexible addition to bowls and salads, drain a can or two of chickpeas, put them in a non-stick pan, and season to your liking while they heat up and crisp slightly. Our favorite flavor combination includes dashes of mushroom powder (Trader Joe’s has a great blend), cayenne pepper, curry powder, and garlic powder. 
  2. Chili – Another super fast and easy weeknight meal. Here is one of our favorite chili recipes.
  3. Chickpea soup – We made this soup for the first time two weeks ago, and I just soaked more chickpeas to make it again tonight. I think it will still taste good if you drop the amount of olive oil in the soup, but the parmesan topping (mixed with lemon zest and black pepper) is worth budgeting for!
Chickpea soup with fresh bread rolls and parmesan lemon sprinkle

Think global for both home cooking and take-out

I tend to be skeptical of food that’s been altered to imitate something else (for example, I love vegetarian food, but I never crave a veggie burger). Taking the same approach to low-fat, we tried to avoid recipes where the “real thing” was missing.

Looking to food from around the globe has been super helpful, because many cultures do not center dairy and meat the way America does. Reading cookbooks from different cuisines is a great way to find delicious recipes without triggering diet-culture language.

Supporting local immigrant businesses for take-out has also been our favorite way to enjoy dinner on evenings we’re too tired to cook. We’ve had great success with:

  1. Ethiopian food – Most Ethiopian restaurants offer vegetarian platters, which are a great way to try a variety of different lentil and vegetable preparations.
    • Early in quarantine we were missing our favorite Ethiopian restaurant in another city, so we tried recreating some dishes from home. My attempt at turning frozen spinach into anything resembling collard greens was a total fail, but these lentils were excellent. Note that 2 cups of dried lentils makes a huge amount, so if you’re cooking for 1-2 people, you may want to cut the recipe in half. I didn’t have access to injera at the time, so we ate it with rice.
  2. Indian food – Although many traditional Indian sauces are quite rich, there are still some good options such as tandoori chicken and dosa.
    • For Indian food at home, Priya Krishna’s book Indian-ish is a great guide. We like her Aloo Gobi recipe (we just cut back the oil for roasting to the minimum it took to coat the veggies.)
  3. Arab food – Although olive oil features heavily in a lot of Arab cuisine, most Arab restaurants will also have chicken on kebabs or in platters that should be pretty low-fat safe (as well as juicy and delicious!)
    • Hummus is also easy to make at home, and you can adjust the levels of oil and tahini to your needs and taste. I haven’t used this precise recipe before (and I definitely have never bothered to cook my own chickpeas or peel them), but the order of ingredients is correct. Watching the tahini turn from brown to white with the lemon juice is magical.
  4. Chipotle – Chipotle is neither local nor really Mexican, but the fact that this is a chain means it’s easy to get the precise nutritional facts for their dishes. My partner’s favorite is a bowl, with steak, white rice, pinto beans, extra tomato and corn salsa and lettuce. (Yes – surprisingly, the steak at Chipotle has 1 fewer gram of fat than the chicken, and the white rice has 2g less than the brown.)
Aloo Gobi and Dal

I hope that some of our hard-won knowledge can help you to create your own delicious low-fat eating plan without all the struggle.

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What to do if you don’t like working out right away

I’m a huge fan of craft coffee and beer.

I start every day with a few cups of hot black coffee from a local roaster. On the weekends, I sometimes I enjoy a beer or two. My favorite styles are quite heavy: IPAs, double IPAs, stouts, and Belgians.

My boyfriend loves fancy gins and bourbons, which he usually drinks straight with just a twist of citrus.

Coffee, beer, and liquor are all acquired tastes. Children don’t like these things, and most adults don’t even like them on the first try.

It takes repeated exposure and experimentation to discover what we like and develop a palate that can appreciate complex flavors.

I didn’t start drinking coffee or beer until I was in college (sorry mom.) Even then, it took some time for me to transition from sugary coffee drinks or the cheap beer of college house parties to the craft coffees and beers I like now.

My boyfriend had a similar experience with gin and bourbon. Over many years, he has experimented with different types and learned more about what he likes and doesn’t like. Now that he can identify subtle differences that would have once escaped him, his experience is a lot richer and more fulfilling.

Fitness can also be an acquired taste.

It’s true that some people have always been athletic or loved to work out. For the rest of us, however, our first experiences with exercise were not so enjoyable:

  • You may have always been clumsy or unathletic (this was me as a kid.)
  • Perhaps you never felt like you belonged on a sports team or with the fit people at the gym (also me.)
  • Maybe all of your past attempts to get in shape ended badly, thus reinforcing the story that working out just isn’t for you.

My message for you today is that, if you’re willing to try again and be open minded, you can almost certainly find some form of exercise that works for you.

A few examples from my own journey:

  • I hated playing team sports. I had a lot more fun and made faster progress when I started competing against myself in the weight room.
  • I hated running and therefore wrote off all cardio. Years later, I realized I really love riding my bike and that I actually enjoy doing a lot of cardio.
  • Recently, I’ve started rock climbing on a regular basis. I really sucked at first and could have easily given up. Instead, I kept showing up and my enjoyment has increased along with my skills.

Much like you won’t like every food or beverage item that’s an acquired taste (I’m not going to be drinking my boyfriend’s fancy gins anytime soon), you won’t necessarily love every style of exercise.

I also would not expect anything to feel like love at first sight. You need to give an activity enough tries to get out of the awkward initial stages to see if it’s truly a good fit for you.

Think back to your other acquired tastes: it’s unlikely that you were sold on the first try. Instead, you probably enjoyed yourself in an unexpected way that piqued your curiosity. You can follow those same signs when you’re trying out different styles of exercise.

Very few people like bourbon the first time they try it. Working out may be similar. You have to try it a few times to figure out what you like.

To summarize:

  • Even if you haven’t been successful in the past, there are absolutely styles of exercise that will be a good fit for you. There are simply too many ways to move your body for this not to be the case.
  • You may need to try lots of different stuff to see what sticks.
  • It’s likely that whatever you do decide to stick with will still be an acquired taste to some extend. Keep showing up, look for ways to get a little better all the time, and don’t forget to make it fun.

Struggling to adopt a consistent exercise routine despite repeated attempts and good intentions? This is one of the biggest struggles I hear from new clients.

That’s why I created my 4C System to help you become a more consistent exerciser. I teach this simple, practical system in a free five-day email course. You can sign up to get the course using the box below.

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How to know you’re making progress

Getting in shape – whether that means crushing it at the gym, losing weight, or just feeling healthier in general – is a long game.

No matter what goals you’re chasing, you can bet you will need to work at them for months and years.

It makes me sad to see how many people give up on themselves before they’ve been at it long enough to see the true results of their efforts.

Some people try to do way too much and once and end up flaming out.

Other people focus exclusively on the most obvious measures of progress and ignore all the other signs that they’re moving in the right direction.

Both of these approaches set you up to fail. We have to be patient and keep showing up for ourselves if we truly want to transform the way we look, feel, and perform. This is why it’s so important to take a sustainable approach to training and eating.

We also need to adjust some of our expectations (for example, in regards to how much weight you’ll add to the bar each week or how fast the scale will drop) and expand our definition of what it means to progress in the first place.

Here are a bunch of things you can look for to tell you that you’re moving in the right direction.

Signs of progress toward your strength training goals:

  • Lifting more weight
  • Doing more total volume (sets and reps)
  • More density (doing more volume in the same amount of time)
  • Using better form
  • Things just feel easier
  • You’re able to train without pain
  • Progressing to a more advanced variation of an exercise (eg. moving from kettlebell deadlifts to trap bar deadlifts)
  • Changing the lifting tempo (slowing down, adding pauses, speeding up)
  • Increasing your workout frequency (how often you train)
  • Increasing your workout consistency

Read more: How to bust through training plateaus

 Signs of progress toward your weight loss goals:

  • Scale weight goes down
  • Measurements (like waist, chest, hips, arms, etc.) go down
  • Body fat % goes down
  • Clothes fit better, or you go down a size
  • You notice changes in the mirror or in progress photos
  • Other people notice changes (even if you can’t see them)
  • You feel lighter and more energized
  • You can consistently stick with your diet
  • Reduced instances of binge eating or completely falling off the wagon
  • Less stress and anxiety around food

Read more: To Weigh or Not to Weigh? The Many Ways to Measure Fat Loss Progress.

 Signs of progress toward building a healthy lifestyle: 

  • Sleeping 7-9 hours each night
  • Regularly including things that help you recover from training (eg. massage, low intensity movement, foam rolling and mobility work)
  • You can consistently stick with your diet (can be a generally healthy diet, does not need to be geared toward fat loss)
  • Less stress and anxiety around food
  • You can delay gratification in the short term so you will feel better in the long term
  • You feel lighter and more energized
  • Increasing your workout consistency
  • Increasing your activity outside the gym
  • Increasing your daily step count
  • Able to complete physical tasks that used to be out of reach
  • Reduced aches and pains
  • You feel less stressed out
  • Health metrics and/or bloodwork improves

I’m willing to bet that no matter how hard you are on yourself, you can find a few things in each category that already apply to you.

Keep going, keep an open mind, and reach out for help if you’re not sure what needs to change.

Are you feeling frustrated with your progress toward your goals? Sometimes we all need some help and guidance to make sure we’re moving in the right direction. You can apply for my 1:1 coaching program here.

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The 3 most overrated markers of a good workout

Everyone wants to know that they’re getting the most out of their precious gym time. And yet, many people are looking in all the wrong places to judge the success of their workouts.

Thanks to the popularity of intense training a la Crossfit or Orange Theory, the average gym goer has learned to associate good training with feeling sweaty, tired, and sore.

It’s fine to chase these things for their own sake if that’s fun for you. However, you will start to run into trouble if you seek out these tings because you think they will make you leaner or stronger. 

Let’s take a look at what these markers really mean.

How sweaty you get.

Sweating is your body’s way of regulating its internal temperature. It has nothing to do with burning body fat or increasing your performance.

Getting sweaty just means you got hot. It doesn’t mean you made progress toward your goals.

How tired you felt after the workout.

Many of us equate feeling tired with being productive. In reality, being tired literally just means you’re tired!

You could wear yourself out and feel completely exhausted doing things that that don’t move you any closer to your goals (in fact, I see this all the time at the gym.

How sore you get in the following days.

It’s normal to feel some soreness in the days following a hard training session, especially if you’re new to the gym or reintroducing movements you haven’t done in a while.

However, you should actually expect soreness to decrease the longer you spend on a training phase.

Chasing soreness for its own sake is a great way to waste time at the gym by always bouncing around to new stuff and never taking the time to dig in and see how far you can progress with one set of workouts.

Unless your goal with working out is to feel tired and sore all the time, you need to look elsewhere to know whether or not your workout was productive.

These markers are infinitely more important and valuable than sweat, fatigue, and soreness:

  • Lifting more weight
  • Doing more volume (sets and reps)
  • Improving your technique
  • Improving your workout consistency
  • Doing your entire workout and not skipping the things that aren’t as fun (like core training, conditioning, and mobility drills or foam foam rolling)

 When in doubt, ask yourself if you are able to make some incremental progress after most of your workouts.

If the answer is yes, you’re moving in the right direction (even if you never feel exhausted or sore and barely sweat.)

If the answer is no – or if you recognize that you’ve been chasing fast-paced, sweaty, grueling workouts for their own sake – you have some work to do.

Not sure if what you’re doing at the gym is actually bringing you closer to your goals? I can help with that so you can stop spinning your wheels. Apply for my 1:1 coaching program here.

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I’m Working Out, But Not Losing Weight. Why?

When most people begin their fat loss journey, the first thing they do is hit the gym or the pavement.

This is a good thing; regular exercise has countless benefits for your physical and mental health, and it can act as a keystone habit that creates a cascade of positive change in your life.

And yet, you can work out all the time and still not lose a single pound. Many people get stuck here, understandably frustrated because they feel like they’re working really hard with little to show for it. 

Why does this happen?

The most important consideration for fat loss is to sustain a caloric deficit (consuming less energy than your body uses) for a prolonged period of time. This is part of the laws of thermodynamics which govern how energy is stored, transferred, and converted throughout the entire physical world.

There are many internal and external factors that affect both the amount of food you eat and amount of energy you use, but ultimately if you don’t obey this law you won’t be successful.

Read more: The Only 3 Things You Need to Lose Fat

It’s true that you burn calories during exercise. Sadly, it’s extremely easy to eat those calories back in a fraction of the time you spent working out.

[Side note – It’s also notoriously difficult to accurately measure how many calories you burn while working out. This is why, if a client is counting calories, I don’t want them to add back calories their FitBit, Apple Watch, treadmill, etc. told them they burned exercising. You should only consider your activity levels when calculating or adjusting calorie goals.]

For example, you can burn ~200-500 calories running for 30 minutes.

Any regular size candy bar from the corner store is around 200-250 calories. A single cookie from your favorite coffee shop can be upwards of 400+ calories. A single beer is 125-400 calories; ditto for different sized glasses of wine.

If you have a hard workout and enjoy a treat later because “you earned it”, you can potentially wipe out all those calories burned (and then some) in a few short minutes!

[Another side note – This is one reason why it’s so important to try to eat whole foods as you diet. A 400 calorie salad is going to fill you up and give you a lot more sustained energy than a 400 calorie cookie.]

There are other problems with trying to exercise your way into weight loss. Too much of the wrong kind of exercise makes it much harder to stick with your nutrition plan.

Doing hours and hours of steady state cardio every day can dramatically drive up your appetite. When you constantly feel ravenous, it’s difficult to eat in a deficit.

Too much high intensity training can also be problematic. There is a lot of evidence that suggests an appropriate amount of this stuff helps you lose fat. Unfortunately, many in the fitness industry took this a little too far and made high intensity training the sole focus of their workouts (I’m looking at you, Orange Theory).

It’s counterproductive to always train this way because it drives you to exhaustion, which can effect sleep, stress, and fuel powerful cravings for junk food. As you can imagine, this doesn’t make it easier to make good food choices or stick with your diet.

So, what should you be doing for exercise if you want to be successful with your weight loss goals? Here are my suggestions:

  • Strength training 2-4 times per week. This helps you hold onto (or even build) muscle as you diet. Muscle keeps your metabolism revving, which means you can eat more food and still lose weight.
  • Daily walking and low intensity movement. Being more active in your daily life is one of the most powerful things you can do to achieve your fat loss goals. Sit less, move more, take up a physical hobby, and mind your daily step count. You will burn a lot more calories without the negative effects on your appetite.
  • High intensity interval training or other intense conditioning 1-3 times per week. Keep it under 15 minutes and make sure you’re really pushing yourself during that time. Resist the urge to do more than this!

Start here and make a big effort to work on your eating. If after a while your progress starts to stall, then you can think about adding extra cardio sessions or HIIT.

Over the last 7+ years working with clients, I’ve seen countless people get stuck in the “I’m exercising a lot and not losing weight” trap. I am going to dig into this and four other common hangups in my free “5 Fat Loss Mistakes” webinar, which you can sign up for using the box below.

The webinar will take place next Thursday, February 25 at 6pm CST. If you can’t make it live, you can still watch the replay afterwards. I hope to see you there!

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What Really Matters For Fat Loss?

There is a lot of confusing information out there about what it takes to get lean.

Everyone and their mom is selling some new diet, promising to reveal a secret trick you haven’t tried yet. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking there’s an answer for your struggles out there if only you keep searching and trying all these different diets.

In reality, weight loss success is a lot less sexy than what nutrition gurus want you to believe. Furthermore, most of the things they tell you to do don’t actually matter and won’t help you lose weight.

I love the concept of big rocks vs small rocks when it comes to dieting.

Big rocks are changes that have a huge impact on your results. The 80/20 principle applies here – 20% of actions are responsible for 80% (or more) of your results. Moving the big rocks helps you build the habits and skills that will help you actually lose weight.

Small rocks are a lot less impactful. Some of them can give you an edge, but only after all the big rocks have been moved. Other small rocks have virtually no impact on your results at all and are merely a shiny distraction.

Keep reading to get some clarity about what does and does not matter when you’re dieting.

1. Consistency

Even if you find the mythical “perfect diet”, it won’t do you any good if you’re constantly falling off the wagon and having to start all over again.

There are many factors that can improve consistency, including non-food considerations like managing stress and creating a more diet-friendly environment at home.

For now, just know that if you aren’t following your plan ~90% of the time, you’re probably not going to be successful. Make changes or find an approach that’s a better fit for you.

2. Energy balance

Our bodies follow the same laws of thermodynamics as the rest of our physical world. We all use a certain amount of energy (measured by calories) to power our daily activity, digest the food we eat, and maintain basic functions.

Weight loss requires you to eat fewer calories than your body uses for a prolonged period if time. If you’re not losing weight, you’re eating too many calories.

It’s important to note that eating for health and eating for weight loss are not exactly the same. You can eat a very healthy diet and still not lose a single pound if your caloric intake is too high.

3. Macros

Macronutrients are categories that sort the foods we eat based on their molecular structure and how they’re processed by our bodies. There are technically four macronutrients – protein, carbohydrates, fats, and alcohols – but most of the time we just focus on the first three.

Once you’re consistently eating in a calorie deficit, you can potentially improve your results by tweaking the amount of each macro that you consume.

I suggest focusing on protein first, because it will help you feel more full and enables faster recovery from your workouts. Aim for .7-1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight every day.

More advanced trainees can also play around with carbs and fats. Generally speaking, most people feel better eating either higher carb, lower fat or lower carb, higher fat.

One is not necessarily better than the other for fat loss – remember, calories are king. However, finding the right balance of carbs and fats can go a long way in helping you feel satisfied and energized as you diet.

Read more: Calories and macros

4. Food quality

Technically, you can eat a 100% junk food diet and lose weight so long as calories are in check. However, this would be a lot less satisfying and would most likely make you feel pretty shitty. For this reason, I do think it’s important to focus on food quality when we diet.

Try to eat more whole and minimally processed foods like lean proteins and fresh fruits and veggies. These foods will give you a more steady stream of energy throughout the day, which makes it easier to stick with your diet. As an added bonus, they tend to be higher in water and fiber, making them more filling with fewer calories. 

I would focus on moving these big rocks in the order listed. Consistency is most important, closely followed by calories. You can get great results focusing only on those two things.

If you’re ready to take your dieting to the next level or you want to troubleshoot issues with energy, hunger, cravings, or performance, then you can focus more on macro ratios and food quality.

The image above gives some examples of small rocks that don’t really matter for weight loss, at least not without moving the big rocks first. 

  • It doesn’t matter if you’re fasting or eating 6 small meals a day. You can’t trick your metabolism and you won’t lose weight if your calories are too high. 
  • Supplements may help with some health issues and improve your workout performance, but they don’t circumvent the laws of energy balance.
  • Drinking enough water can help you feel energized and temporarily quell hunger, but it won’t lead to weight loss if you’re still eating too much.

You get the idea.

I hope this concept gives you some clarity about what you should focus on if you want to lose weight. It can also serve as a filter for future questions.

When you come across a new dieting trick, ask yourself if it fits into one of the four big rocks above. If it doesn’t, it’s probably only a small rock.

Are you struggling to lose weight and keep it off despite your best efforts? Join me in a free webinar to learn how to avoid the common dieting mistakes that are standing in your way.

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My Fat Loss Coaching Framework

There are a lot of diets and fat loss coaches out there. Nearly all of them have good intentions and really want to help you be successful (although there are a few charlatans just out to make a quick buck.)

However, good intentions don’t always lead to good results. If your diet fails to follow scientific principles or if it’s too restrictive, you’ll struggle to lose weight.

Furthermore, if the diet doesn’t help you make lasting changes to your lifestyle and environment, you’ll have a hard time keeping off any weight you do lose.

Any successful diet will focus on energy balance (establishing a caloric deficit) and work with your psychology (preferences, routines, beliefs) to help you make long-term, sustainable changes. Leaving out any of these pieces will make it nearly impossible to get and stay lean. 

Keep reading to learn the exact process I use with fat loss coaching clients to help them achieve their goals without falling prey to common dieting mistakes.

(If you want to apply for my fat loss coaching program, you can do so here.)

1. Gain awareness of current eating habits.

If you don’t understand what you’re doing now, it’s impossible to make well-informed decisions about how to move forward.

Oftentimes, people are already doing many things well. Yet their first instinct is to totally overhaul their nutrition and dive into a restrictive fad diet.

Identifying your baseline habits and routines can save you a lot of unnecessary headaches down the road.

Read more: All About Food Logging: Why and How

2. Fix your leaks.

Sometimes, one or two bad habits are behind the majority of extra calories in your diet. If possible, I try to help people reduce or eliminate these things first. This is a great way to get some fast wins at the start of your journey.

If you want to learn more about this concept and start identifying some of your leaks, check out this article I wrote on the subject.

3. Reduce calories in a sustainable way.

This where the bulk of the work occurs when dieting

Some of my clients track calories or macros, others monitor their portions using other methods.

During this step, I work with clients to iron out all the details of their individual diets. This usually involves some experimentation to figure out what does and doesn’t work.

Key questions we address in this stage:

  • How can I eat in the most satisfying way possible while still staying in a caloric deficit?
  • How can I manage hunger and cravings?
  • What foods help me feel my best?
  • How can I make good food choices in challenging situations?

4. Change your environment.

This is the most underrated and under appreciated step in the entire process.

Most of us gain weight because we live in an environment that makes it insanely easy to overeat and difficult to make healthy choices. Your will power can only take you so far if everything (and everyone) around you is pushing you to fall back on your old habits.

To lose weight and keep it off, you need to reengineer your environment to support your new healthy lifestyle. This might mean making changes at home, at work, and even in your relationships.

5. Build related healthy habits.

The only thing you need to do to lose weight is sustain a caloric deficit, and the best way to do that is through dieting. However, this is much easier if you stay active, get enough sleep, and manage stress.

A few ways I can help you achieve your fat loss goals:

I coach my 1:1 clients through every step in this process. If you want custom help right now, you can apply for the program here and I’ll follow up.

I also run a 6 week group course – Sane and Simple Fat Loss – to help clients lose weight without losing their minds. In the course, I teach a six pillar system to help you navigate steps 1-4 above (we don’t really cover exercise). Topics include increasing awareness, managing portions, and which foods to eat and which to avoid.

Sane and Simple Fat Loss is coming back on Monday March 8! If you think you may be interested, you can join the waitlist to receive early, discounted access on February 26.

If you’re struggling to lose weight and keep it off despite your best efforts, join me in a free webinar to learn how to avoid the common dieting mistakes that are standing in your way.

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Who should count calories – and who shouldn’t?

My fitness journey began ten years ago when, during a routine check up, my doctor informed me that I was prediabtic. I was scared and knew I needed to make big changes to avoid a lifetime of illness.

However, this was not the first time I tried to lose weight. I knew for years that I wanted to change, but I didn’t know how. Without a concrete plan, I struggled to find my way.

Around the same time as my fateful appointment, I happened to discover a food blogger who had successfully lost a lot of weight. She laid out the steps she took to achieve her goals and many of them involved counting calories.

Losing weight always seemed like a mystical process beyond my grasp. Now, for the first time, I saw a clear path from where I was to where I wanted to go.

All I had to do was do a few calculations, start logging my food, and patiently trust the process.

I bought a food scale, learned to cook, and dutifully logged my calories every day. Right away I saw that I was eating WAY more calories than I realized. No wonder I was having so much trouble losing weight!

I used this data to experiment with different changes to my diet. For the first time, I saw real progress toward my goals and felt like I actually had the power to make this daunting change.

Calorie counting helped me with all of this:

  • It helped me detach from my extreme emotions about food and get objective.
  • It improved my relationship with hunger and cravings.
  • It showed me a clear connection between the foods I ate and the way I looked and felt.
  • It gave me the power to make changes based on actual data, not just how I was feeling. Instead of getting frustrated when my efforts didn’t match my results, I now clearly saw where I could make changes.
  • It eliminated my fear of “junk” foods, because I saw that I could enjoy them in reasonable amounts and still lose weight.
  • Most importantly, I actually saw real weight loss success.
On the left: just before I began my fat loss journey back in 2011. On the right: me in 2020.

Counting calories gets a bad rap in the fitness world.

Gurus love to tell you that counting is obsessive and that it destroys your relationship with food. I disagree with this appraisal because myself and countless clients have had the opposite experience.

Too many people give up on their weight loss goals because they feel like they’re working really hard with little to show for it. This is where having actual data can be so powerful: you clearly see what’s going on which gives you the opportunity to make more impactful changes.

If you wanted to improve your financial health, you’d start to track numbers and data. You’d create a budget, monitor spending, create a debt pay-off strategy, and make smart investments.

No financial advisor would tell you to just listen to how you feel and trust that you’ll instinctively know what to do. And no one would be able to help you if you had absolutely no idea where your money was going.

Some people may take tracking a little too far and waste half their work day watching market fluctuations. Most people, however, would simply view this data as an objective measure of their success or failure.

They’d know they’re doing the right stuff when they see more and more money in the bank. If the numbers go in the wrong direction, they can look at their spending and budgeting to see what may be causing the problem.

Calorie counting works in the same way. You have a “budget” of calories that you need to stay underneath to lose weight.

Once you understand how your favorite foods fit into your daily budget, you can choose to eat the ones that are the most filling, satisfying, and energizing without going over your number.

You don’t need to count calories forever. I don’t do it all year long, and I don’t force my clients to do it if it’s not a good fit.  But, if you’ve been struggling to lose weight for a long time, counting calories for a while can be a helpful and illuminating experience.

You may benefit from counting calories if:

  • You’ve been following popular diets (Keto, Weight Watchers, Paleo, Whole30, Atkins, etc.) but haven’t been able to lose weight.
  • You’re tried of feeling like you’re working really hard to lose weight but not seeing the results you expected.
  • You’ve never tried to lose weight before and you don’t know the calorie content of common foods.
  • You are a person who likes to make decisions based on numbers and data.
  • You want to be able to enjoy some of your favorite treat foods while you diet.
  • You are a pragmatic person who prefers systems and science vs relying on intuition and feelings.

If you want to learn more about setting calories for your goals, check out this blog post.

You may want to skip counting calories if:

  • You’re incredibly busy and the thought of adding even one more task to your day stresses you out.
  • You’ve tried to count calories in the past and you know for a fact that it creates unnecessary stress, anxiety, or food obsession.
  • You don’t care about losing weight and would rather work on eating in a mindful, moderate way.
  • You have a history of disordered eating and have been instructed not to count, weigh, or measure food (please note this isn’t true across the board, some people – myself included – use calorie counting or food logging to help them recover from disordered eating).

If you want to learn more about how to lose weight without counting calories, check out this blog post.

And if you want some help with your personal fat loss goals, you can apply for my 1:1 coaching program here.