"Eat less, Move more"

If I had to guess, you've probably been following this advice most of your life or know someone who has... and it hasn't worked. Your trainer, your doctor, your best friend, when talking about losing weight kindly suggest this advice as if it's the easiest thing in the world. "All you have to do is eat less and move more." If that popular advice worked, it would have worked by now. And if you are like me, you now want to punch people in the face who offer this impossible task.

Here's the thing, sure "eat less, move more" should work, right? Eat less calories, burn more through exercise, and BAM, fat loss. If only it were that easy. Here's the missing piece.. no one ever tells you HOW. How do you consume less and move more, without being miserable and hungry?

If you stress your metabolism out too much, for too long, it will only push back harder, and that's the cycle these "eat less, move more" folks find themselves in. Not eating enough, day in and day out, and chronically exercising are sure fire ways to tip the stress barometer. A stressed body doesn't give a damn about your body goals, its main task is to keep you alive.

What does the person do that hears this advice? They start eating less and less, cutting calories more and more. Only to feel hungrier and more miserable and let me tell you.... hunger will always win. You cannot out willpower it for long. And move more you say? Ok, I'll work out harder, longer, and more often. That should do the trick!

Now we have a recipe for disaster, and a recipe for anything but fat loss and overall health. You have a burnt-out, hungry, low energy, miserable person wondering why they can't stick to a diet.

"95% of people who lose weight on eat less, move more way of dieting end up regaining it all back within a year"

"66% of those folks end up heavier"

"Within 3 years, most of those people have regained it all plus some."

So where do you go from here? I'll give you my best tips to actually eat less and move more, in a way that makes sense and doesn't send your body into a tailspin of stress.

1. Prioritize protein at EVERY SINGLE MEAL. Protein will keep you fuller, longer, than anything else you eat. You will naturally eat less because you simply won't be hungry.

2. Make your first meal of the day your biggest meal, and mostly protein. Your first meal of the day is pretty important, it sets the tone for the rest of the day. We know from data if you buckle down to a substantial first meal of the day, with lots of protein you'll have better energy, less cravings, and more calm hunger the rest of the day.

3. Move more through out the day. I am not talking about structured exercise. Walking the dog, cleaning, meandering, dancing, folding laundry, just move more. If you have a desk job, figure out ways just to add a little more movement in. Take the stairs, walk for 10 minutes on your lunch break, take a stretch break every hour or so.. just move that bod and avoid being stuck in one position for too long. This kind of movement is what burns a majority of your calories each day ( not exercise).

4. Stop relying on exercise to "burn calories." You don't nearly burn as many as you think anyways. Especially if you are someone who works out often, you gradually burn less and less over time because your body adapts. There is nothing wrong with this, but in terms of burning calories, these calories are negligible when looking at the big picture. As mentioned above, that is the movement you will reap the most benefit from. Have you ever done a super hard workout only to be ravenous afterwards? Chronic exercise, especially chronic cardio often leaves us hungrier, which is counterproductive to eating less.

5. Stop grazing. Jump off the meal-snack-meal-snack-meal-snack paradigm. When you get hungry, sit your butt down and eat a protein-forward meal, and then wait until you are hungry, and do that again. Now you don't need filler snacks anymore and you will likely eat less overall (if you are applying the above principles, too), without even thinking about it because you will be so satisfied from your meals.

The trick here is to manage hunger, if you are hungry all day, every day. Guess what? You will faill, not because you suck, or because there is something wrong with you. It's because hunger is a biological process that you cannot white knuckle, at least not for long.

The solution is solving for hunger, if you aren't having unmanageable hunger or cravings, eating in a deficit because a heck of a lot easier, while adding in just more non-exercise movement through out the day. You've got your recipe for success.

If you want to take this to the next level, enroll in my self-guided Metabolic Freedom course. Using basic human fundamentals of diet, movement, sleep and light, we'll fire up that sluggish metabolism in just a few short weeks. Reap the benefits of fat loss, endless energy, diminished cravings and manageable hunger through and through.