So you’ve been listening to Kayli and I about how to lose body fat and you’ve adjusted your diet and you’ve started resistance training.  That’s fantastic news.  Wait . . . you say the scale is up this morning.  Oh man that must have been scary huh? Well guess what!  I have more good news for you, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing and it’s totally normal.  

Fat loss and weight loss are not linear. It is very common and incredibly normal to see the scale go up and down from day to day.  This is why I suggest that you weigh daily.  Now, if you struggle with body dysmorphic disorder or the scale causes you severe emotional distress, that suggestion changes.  When you weigh daily and record that weight somewhere, you can plot the weight on a chart and you will see the overall trend going down.  We don’t care about what is happening in the micro perspective here, it’s the macro that matters.  

When you are in a fat loss phase, you should be watching several different metrics.  I suggest keeping track of your body measurements, biofeedback, how your clothes fit, and the scale.  Oftentimes the scale won’t move but you notice your clothes are looser and your measurements are dropping.  This is usually a good indicator that you are gaining muscle mass and losing body fat.  None of these metrics by themselves are good indicators of your progress.  You must look at all of them together.  As a matter of fact, the very definition of a plateau in fat loss requires a consecutive 4 week of no scale movements and no measurement movements.  Unless both are stalled for 4 consecutive weeks, you are still making progress.

There are several things that can cause the scale to fluctuate.  Your body weight can fluctuate up to 4% from day to day depending on the situation and your body.  Water can often be a driver of scale weight.  You could have been dehydrated one day which made your body hold on to more water, this can make the scale go up.  Your body could be inflamed from a hard workout, this can make the scale go up.  You could have undigested food left in the gut which would make the scale go up.  You could be full of poop.  I don’t mean that facetiously.  If you’re struggling with constipation or you didn’t get enough fiber to help you clear out your bowels, the scale will go up.  Stress, lack of sleep, eating later at night, eating fried or sugary foods can all make the scale go up.  It is important to be aware that in order to gain 1 pound of body fat in a day, you had to eat 3500 calories OVER your maintenance calories.  So if you eat 2000 calories per day just to stay at the same weight, you would need to eat 5500 calories that day for the increase in the scale to be due to body fat.  So the next time the scale is up 2 pounds from the day before.  Ask yourself, “did I really eat 7000 EXTRA calories yesterday?”  I would almost guarantee the answer is no.  

Since I mentioned measurements, I feel like I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a swing in the other direction.  I mentioned all the different types of metrics that you should watch for a reason.  We don’t just watch these to test the validity of the scale.  They are important in their own right.  For example, say the scale is going down and you’re super stoked about that but the measurements are not dropping.  That’s discouraging isn’t it?  If you are a person with quite a bit of extra weight to lose and the scale starts dropping but the measurements are not budging and you aren’t noticing a difference in your progress pics, there’s a good chance you are losing fat, but it isn’t going to be the superficial body fat that gives your body shape.  You are most likely losing the visceral fat first.  This is the fat that surrounds your organs.  This is a good thing.  Do not let this discourage you.  This is why the first 10 pounds lost causes the most impact on your health markers on lab work with your doctor.  When you drop the visceral fat, your body can work more efficiently.  

I would strongly suggest watching several different measurements of progress.  Scale, measurements and photos are all great ways to judge your progress.  I would argue that even if those things aren’t moving or changing, but you feel better, you are winning.  Oftentimes if you chase health and wellness, the body you want will come later and then you can really enjoy your newer body and actually feel better in it. 



If you would like more 1 on 1 help reaching your fat loss goals fill out our coaching application to hop on a free coaching call so we can discuss your goals and see if you would make a great fit for the Phoenix Rising Program. 
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Again - the stuff on the bottom of the pyramid is the most important stuff. As you make your way up the pyramid, you get less and less meaningful impact per time invested.

 1. Sustainability And Adherence
The most important thing about your diet? It has to be something you can stick to.

Even with fast weight loss, you'll still be dieting for quite some time. If your diet isn't something you can stick to for at least a few months, you won't be able to get results.

 When I first started coaching, I gave all my clients macros - based on my own success with tracking.
 What happened? Hardly anyone could stick to their diets.

 This is exactly why we spend so much time initially talking about your lifestyle, and what diet structure will work best for you currently. That's how we create a diet easy for you to adhere to.

 Now, our goal is NOT to keep you dieting for the rest of your life - so you don't have to be able to see yourself doing this for years... but it has to be maintainable for the course of the diet (typically 3-6 months).
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 So really, after the diet is over is when sustainability comes into play. The habits you've learned - eat protein at every meal, prepping ahead, focusing on high-volume foods, balancing calorie intake with movement - these are what allow you to sustain your new bangin' body composition once you get there.
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 Basically, you'll never just be able to eat crappy food constantly and be fit. So while you don't have to constantly be dieting - you do need to implement the healthy behaviors you've learned to sustain your results.

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​2. Energy Balance



-When you eat FEWER calories than you burn in a day, you lose weight.
-When you eat More calories than you burn in a day, you gain weight.

 ^This is how ALL diets work. They're simply different ways of getting you to eat less.
 For everything else you could possibly want to know about energy balance, check out last week's email.

 3. Macronutrients
All your foods are made up of some combination (or at least one) of these “macros”.
 
our macro intake can have a pretty big impact on your body composition, but it does NOT overrule energy balance. Calories in - calories out is still the most important factor.
 
The calories per gram varies a bit by macro:
*Protein: 1 gram of protein contains ~4 calories
*Carbohydrates: 1 gram of carbohydrate contains ~4 calories
*Fat: 1 gram of fat contains ~9 calories
*Ethanol (alcohol): 1 gram of pure ethanol contains ~7 calories
 
Protein
Keeping protein high is crucial to building a great body, BECAUSE:

• Adequate protein is a MUST for building muscle. Protein is the building block of your muscle. Through a process called muscle protein synthesis, your body turns the protein you eat into muscle protein (your muscles are essentially composed of protein). When your protein intake is inadequate, you can't fully recover/grow from your training.

• On a similar note to the above bullet, adequate protein is necessary to maintain muscle mass as you diet.

• Protein also has the highest thermic effect (TEF) of all the macros (as we talked about last week). It takes energy to turn the food you consume into energy. You actually burn calories while digesting the food you eat. This is TEF.

1. Protein: 20-30% of calories consumed are burned via TEF

2. Carbs: 5-10% of calories consumed are burned via TEF

3. Fat: 0-3% of calories consumed are burned via TEF

When you eat more protein, you're actually increasing the Calories outside of the energy balance equation, since you're burning more calories via TEF.

• Finally, protein is the most satiating of the macronutrients (it keeps ya full longer). The hardest thing about diets? You’re hungry. More protein helps.

 
Outside of controlling energy balance, increasing protein intake to .8-1 grams/lb of bodyweight daily is likely the most impactful thing you can do to improve body composition. (Although you're good to take protein higher than this, there are no added benefits. So no need to go over the top.)
 
Fat

• As long as intake is adequate, fats and carbs aren't nearly as important to your body composition as protein. Typically, we adjust this to YOUR preference. You might notice you feel better with higher carbs, or higher fats. (Anecdotally, most clients feel best with a balance of the two, or slightly higher carbs.)

• That being said, the lowest you want to take fat intake is 15% of calories. Much lower than this, and you start running the risk of EPA (Omega-3 fats) deficiencies.

 
Carbs

• Whereas protein and fat are "essential" (you'll feel awful/potentially die if you go too long without eating them), carbs are "non-essential". You'll survive just fine without 'em, so there's not a "floor" for how low you can take carbs.

• That being said, you probably love carbs. If your weight loss strategy is simply "eliminate carbs", you might lose weight - but you'll gain it right back as soon as you decide a carb-less life is a sad one.

• Plus, your body’s preferred energy source is glucose. Glucose comes primarily from carbohydrates. When you stop eating carbs, your body depletes its glycogen (the stored form of glucose) stores fairly quickly. When we don’t have enough carbs coming in to fuel our body with glucose, the body eventually starts breaking down fats for energy instead. These fatty acids are converted to ketones by the liver. Ketones replace glucose as the body and brain’s primary fuel source. (You're now "keto".) With ketones as the primary fuel source, some things change. A big one - your ability to exercise intensely decreases. This makes muscle building much harder.

• Eating carbs also prompts insulin release. Insulin (unfairly demonized) is a key hormone to muscle growth.

• Increased insulin release plus the ability to exercise more intensely means it makes more sense for those with goals of building muscle to eat higher carb (generally).

 
Ethanol/Alcohol

• Although alcohol does contain calories, they're void of any nutrients. Your body can't use ethanol to build muscle. However, excess calories from alcohol can be stored as fat.

 
This begs the question: Does drinking kill fat loss?
 
Well - no. You can absolutely drink and still hit your fat loss goals. Seriously, don't feel like you need to give up your social life entirely to get in great shape.
 
Now, your body views alcohol as a toxin. So priority one for your body after drinking is getting the alcohol out of your system A.S.A.P. To be more efficient at this, the body shuts down other processes to clear the system faster. Processes like: Oxidation of fat, hormone production, muscle tissue repair, etc.
 
Basically, when you drink, your results (losing body fat, building muscle) stop until your body clears the alcohol.
 
All that being said, fat loss still comes down to creating a calorie deficit. So no need to be afraid of alcohol.

To work alcohol into your daily intake:
*If you're tracking: swap preferably fat, and then carb calories for macros.
-For fat: divide the total calories in your drink by 9. The resulting number is the grams of fat to subtract from your daily intake.
-For carbs: divide the total calories in your drink by 4. The resulting number is the grams of carbs to subtract from your daily intake.

Basically, always keep your protein higher. Carbs and fats are going to have to take a hit. Try to keep carbs as high as possible, as long as possible. Don't let fat drop below 15% of your total calorie intake.
 
4. Micronutrients
Ok - so this could get really boring. I'm not going to hit you with an exhaustive list of vitamins and minerals. We'll just cover the essentials quickly.
 
You've probably heard the term nutrient-dense foods. Nutrient-dense foods are simply foods that are packed with vitamins and minerals. These nutrients are key to overall health, gym performance, and even your mental state.
 
Typically whole or minimally processed foods are nutrient-dense foods. Think - anything that comes from the earth OR lives on the earth. Meats, veggies, fruit, etc.
 
On the other hand, highly processed foods typically contain very few nutrients. Think - Food that's produced in a factory. Typically a very long ingredient list.
 
Now, the five most common micronutrient deficiencies are:

• Vitamin D

• Calcium

• Zinc

• Magnesium

• Iron

 
^A diet with a good variety of whole foods should cover all your bases here. Consuming dairy, red meat, and getting regular sun exposure will keep you on point.
As far as fruits and veggies - a good rule of thumbs is to eat one serving of fruits and veggies for every 500 calories you consume.
 
 
So how important is food quality?
Here's the thing - you could eat only Twinkies and lose weight, as long as you maintained a calorie deficit.
 
For real. The professor in THIS STUDY ate strictly Twinkies and the like for 10 weeks.
 
Dude lost 27 LBs, while eating strictly highly-processed, sugar-laden foods. All he did was maintain a calorie deficit.
 
Now, do I recommend this approach? Absolutely not.
 
Your health will be awful. You need adequate intake of the nutrients whole foods provide to feel good, perform in the gym, and function properly.
 
Plus, while dieting, you have to deal with being hungry often. Highly-processed foods are literally engineered to make you want to eat more. They're "hyper-palatable". Not ideal when the goal is to eat less.
 
Eating mostly unprocessed, whole foods will keep you full longer. Whole foods typically have more volume per calorie (you get more "bang for your buck" as far as satiety per calorie goes). They also generally contain more fiber, which also increases satiety.
 
So does your diet have to be strictly chicken breasts and tilapia? No way.
 
But - making 80-90%of your diet whole foods will make the process much easier, and you'll feel better throughout.
 
From there, you're free to enjoy the other 10-20% of your calorie intake from whatever your heart desires (as long as you work it into your food intake goals) without any negative effects on your results OR your health.
 
5. Meal/Nutrient Timing
How many times have you heard: "You HAVE TO eat six meals a day to lose weight."
 
^This is super not true.
 
The thinking behind this myth was - due to TEF, you burn more calories (via digestion) when you're eating. So eating more often means you're burning more calories.
 
Thing is - on average, TEF is about 10% of the calories you intake. 10% of a larger meal, or a smaller meal. Whether you eat 2,000 calories in 4 different 500 calorie meals, or in 2 different 1,000 calories makes no difference. TEF at the end of the day will still be 10% of 2,000 calories.
 
So does meal timing/number of meals matter at all?
Well, yes. It CAN make a difference. Just be sure to prioritize. All the stuff we've talked about previous to this makes MUCH more difference for your body composition. Treat it as such.
 
A few things to consider:

• Eating around your workout. Again, the most important thing here is doing what makes YOU feel best. As long as you're hitting the bottom 3 levels of the pyramid daily, you'll get great results. That being said - most perform better in the gym when eating a meal composed of most carbs and fat (~25-50g of each) 1-2 hours before hitting the gym. Repeating this process within 1-2 hours after the gym will slightly optimize your recovery. But again, this is far from "the most important thing".

• Habit formation. When you eat at the same times every day, you train your body to release hunger signals at those specific times daily, and NOT the rest of the day. Basically, by eating at consistent times, you're reducing your urges to snack.

• Muscle protein synthesis (MPS). We already talked about MPS earlier (the process of turning dietary proteins into muscle proteins). Now, it has been shown that eating protein more frequently is more optimal for muscle growth. Ideally 3-5 meals, 3-5 hours apart, consuming ~30g protein at each.

^Now, this is getting to the point of splitting hairs a bit. Getting the appropriate calorie, macro, and micronutrient intake will give you 95%+ of the results. But - if you really want to optimize everything, more frequent protein feedings are ideal.
 
The most important thing - finding the meal frequency that is easiest for you to adhere to. (Anecdotally, clients usually do best with 3-4 per day.)
 
6. Supplements
“Get ripped in two weeks with the SuperShred-69 fat burner!... And don’t forget to use my promo code.”
-J. Swollzz, Instagram Fitness Model
 
Most everyone has tried some type of fat burner, detox, etc. expecting dramatic results...and…..nothing.
 
The problem is, the supplement industry is crazy good at selling on the idea that “the thing” is out there somewhere.
 
You know, "the thing" that’s finally gonna get you the body you want, without having to put in years of hard work and consistency.
 
"The thing" doesn't exist.
 
Truth is, most legal supplements do little to nothing. That's why they're way up here, at the top of the pyramid.
 
Are any supplements worth the money?
*A Note On Proprietary Blends:
Supplement labels often include “proprietary blends”. This allows for the total amount of ingredients in the blend to be listed, while leaving the exact amount of each individual ingredient unspecified.
 
Taking supplements containing proprietary blends is much more likely to be a health hazard.
 
Finally, do your own research. The following is purely informative, not a recommendation. It’s up to you to determine if a supplement is safe to take.
 
That being said, a few supplements do have merit.
 
Creatine Monohydrate
Creatine is an extremely well researched supplement, with the most effective form being creatine monohydrate.
 
Our bodies use creatine phosphate as a fuel source for the first few seconds of intense or explosive movement/exercise. Think of supplementing with creatine as “topping off the tank”. It allows you to maintain high-intensity exercise for slightly longer.
 
This means an increase in strength, and overall workload you’re able to handle in the gym, equating to building more muscle.
 
That being said, the effects of creatine are far from “steroid-like”, but it is a proven supplement to aid building muscle and strength.
 
3-5 grams/day will do the trick.
 
Caffeine
We’re all well-versed in/potentially addicted to this one.
 
Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant. Although considered a psychoactive drug, its use is extremely common and mostly unregulated.
 
Of all the supplements on this list, caffeine has by far the most noticeable effects. Not only does caffeine boost mood, alertness and mental clarity, it also has some real benefits to your workouts.
 
Research shows that caffeine decreases perceived effort, increases power output, and improves endurance.
 
Not that you needed an excuse for more caffeine, but it’s a real performance booster. Just keep your intake reasonable. Ideally less than 400mg per day.
 
Protein Powders
If you’re able to hit your daily protein requirements entirely from whole foods, there’s no need to use a protein powder. Protein powders are lacking many of the micronutrients that quality, whole food protein sources will have.
 
But, if you’re struggling to meet your daily protein requirements, supplementing with a protein powder can be helpful.
 
Whey protein and casein proteins have the best amino acid profiles of available protein powders. They're the easiest for your body to absorb and use. It’s debatable which is superior. The body digests whey protein quicker than casein protein.
 
Whey and casein protein are derivatives of milk. So if animal products are a no-go for you: pea or rice proteins have the best amino acid profiles.
 
Multi-Vitamin
Getting all of your micronutrients from whole foods is ideal.
 
Ideal, but not always realistic. Taking a multivitamin is a good way to ensure your daily micronutrient needs are met.
 
Vitamin D
We obtain vitamin D naturally through food and sunlight.
 
The issue? Most of us don’t get enough time in the sun, and the amount of vitamin D is negligible in most foods outside of fatty fish. As a result, vitamin D deficiency is extremely common
 
Taking a vitamin D or Cod liver oil supplement can be extremely helpful in preventing this deficiency.
 
The typical recommended dose is 1,000-2,000 IU per day
 
EPA And DHA (Fish Oil)
EPA and DHA are essential fatty acids. Now, if you eat fatty fish 2+ times per week, you're good on these. If not, a fish oil supplement can help.
 
Typically, 1-2g EPA + DHA per day is advised.
 
Again, supplements are the LEAST important factor. You'll rarely see any noticeable difference from taking a supplement. So don’t get caught up in the minutiae of things like supplements, and forget to focus on the things that really make a difference when it comes to changing your body.
 
Ok, got all that?
 
A quick summary:
 
Week Three: The Nutrition Hierarchy
1. Finding a diet you can adhere to and learn sustainable behaviors from is by far the most important factor.
2. You must have a negative energy balance for weight loss. You need a positive energy balance for weight gain.
3. Adequate protein is super important. Carbs and fat intake can be geared towards what is easiest for you to adhere to.
4. 80-90% of your food intake should come from whole foods.
5. Meal timing doesn't matter all that much if you don't have 1-4 dialed in. Eating 3-5 meals per day is slightly more ideal. The most important factor is finding a meal frequency that fits your lifestyle.
6. Supplements typically make little to no difference. A few will help you hit your nutrient needs, and/or slightly improve gym performance.

Any questions??

Feel free to shoot me comment below or send me an email @ kaylimontoyafitness@gmail.com.

​- Coach Kayli

. . . Motivation Is NOT one of them. I know that may come as a huge shock to you. Motivation ebbs and flows and relying on it will lead to failure.

Now, let’s get right to the top qualities:

1. Open Mindset – Having an open mindset and the will to learn and try new things is a must. If you keep repeating that same ol' diet and training routine, yet never see lasting results, why do you keep going back to it??

2. Consistency – Consistency trumps perfection any day of the week! I can’t preach this enough to my clients. Strive to build great habits and make small changes you can stick with. Don’t try to eat perfect, I promise you,  no one can keep that up. This used to be me. I wanted every little thing to be absolutely perfect and some days were, but when one thing went wrong my whole plan would come crumbling down around me.

3. Pain – Now, let me explain. Everyone who reaches out to me for help is dealing with some form of pain. Some physically but others are struggling with pain, both mentally & emotionally as well, from all the years of trying to change their bodies and failing.

When they come to me they have finally realized the pain of staying the same is worse than the pain of change.

Is your pain great enough to make some sacrifices?

Are you ready to change? 

If so, apply for a free, no pressure coaching call and we can evaluate your goals and see if my methods are a fit for you.

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