What’s up, guys?
Sean Nalewanyj here at www.SeanNal.com-www.BodyTransformationTruth.com.
And in today’s video I’m going to be outlining twenty different mistakes that you might potentially
be making with your fat loss diet that are either slowing down your results or that are
preventing you from getting any real results at all.
Now, I usually like to be really thorough when I explain things, as a lot of you guys
know, but this video is going to be a bit different.
There are twenty different points here, so I’m just going to go through each one really
quickly and just give a generalize overview of each one and I’ll try my best to keep
it concise.
So, here we go: Twenty cutting diet mistakes to avoid.
So mistake number one: Your daily calorie intake is set too high.
This is the most basic, most foundational fat loss mistakes you can make.
If you want to lose fat consistently then you need to maintain a calorie deficit overtime
by burning more calories than you consume.
And if your calorie is set too high then nothing else in your program is really going to make
any difference.
A good guideline for most people is to start out by eating five hundred calories below
their maintenance level.
And that’s going to create the calorie deficit you need to stimulate fat loss.
Calorie is absolutely do matter and your total net energy balance in the big picture is by
far the most important fat loss principal there is.
Mistake number two: You’re over-eating without realizing it.
So maybe your daily calorie target is set at the proper level but you’re actually
going over it without intending to.
Now this can happen for a lot of reasons: Maybe you’re making errors with your food
measurements, maybe you’re going overboard on cheat meals in cheat days.
It could be little snacks and other hidden items that are sneaking in into your diet
and aren’t being accounted for.
Or it could just be that you’re not really tracking your diet accurately in the first
place and you’re just trying to eyeball things but you’re not doing it properly.
Cutting diet mistake number three: Your calorie intake is set too low.
So this is the opposite of the first two mistakes and it happens when people try to rush the
fat burning process, and they crashed diet because they’re trying to drop the fat as
quickly as possible.
Aggressive calorie deficits can work for some people in the short term if it’s done correctly
but for the average person going too low is rarely a good idea because your appetite will
go through the roof.
You won’t feel good physically and mentally.
You’re training performance will suffer.
And you’ll probably eventually quit and then rebound in the other direction.
Again, the five hundred calories below maintenance is what I would suggest in most cases.
Mistake number four: You aren’t eating enough protein.
Not only is protein critical for maintaining lean mass during a cut or possibly even building
lean mass under the right circumstances, but it’s also the most filling of the three
major macro nutrients.
So it’s really important that you’re enough protein each day in order to keep your appetite
under control.
And my general recommendation for most people is to go with anywhere between 0.8 to one
gram of protein per pound of body weight daily.
Mistake number five: You aren’t eating enough fat.
So a lot people will make the mistake of thinking that eating fat makes you fat.
And so they’ll drop their fat intake really low, thinking that that’s helping them get
leaner.
When really, all it’s going to do is crush your testosterone levels, negatively affect
brain function, decrease your mood, and it can also lead to increases in depression and
anxiety levels in some people as well.
So my suggestion is to get around twenty-five percent of your total daily calories from
fat and I wouldn’t recommend going below twenty percent as a minimum.
Dietary fat does not make you fat.
Excessive total calorie is what makes you fat.
Mistake number six: The other possibility, you aren’t eating enough carbs.
So maybe you are getting enough protein and you are getting enough fat, but you’ve gone
ahead and cut your carbohydrate intake way down instead.
Now, low carb diets can work for certain people depending on their body type and depending
on the situation, but unless you have specific reasons for doing it I wouldn’t recommend
just aimlessly cutting up carbs.
Because all that’s usually going to do is cause your appetite to go up.
It’s going to decrease your training performance, and just like with low-fat diet, it’s also
going to impair your mood and mental functioning.
So at least there’s a starting point for your cutting diet, just go with 0.8 to one
gram of protein per pound of body weight per day, get twenty-five percent of your total
calories from fat and then fill in all of the remaining calories with carbohydrates.
Cutting diet mistake number seven: Your daily meal frequency is not suited to your appetite.
So everyone’s going to be a bit different when it comes to meal frequency and everyone
will feel physically better and be more likely to stick to their diet based on different
patterns of eating.
So given the fact that meal frequency itself isn’t going to impact your actual bottom
line fat burning fat burning results as long as the total calories for the day remain the
same, rather than just blindly following some set-in-stone diet plan you’ll be best off
to take the time and experiment a bit and then lay out your fat loss diet in whatever
way feels best for you, in terms of meal size and meal spacing.
So maybe that means six small meals a day, maybe it means two big meals, maybe it means
four medium size meals somewhere in the middle.
Just figure out where your overall calorie and macronutrient needs are and then distribute
them throughout the day in the ways that you’ll be most likely to stick to over the long term.
Mistake number eight: Your daily food choices aren’t suited to your personal preferences.
So keep in mind that there’s no such thing as any single mandatory ‘fat burning food’
like you might’ve read in some articles online.
So if you’re not crazy about a particular food item, then there’s no need to force
yourself to eat it.
It’s perfectly possible to lose fat and build muscle and enjoying your meal at the
same time, as long as you take the time to lay things out and to prepare.
So just go through the foods in each category.
Protein, carbs, and fats, and then just choose the ones that you like best, whether it’s
chicken versus fish, rice versus potatoes, bananas versus apples, oatmeal versus bread,
et cetera.
As long as the bulk of your diet is based around minimally process whole foods then
it’s mainly just a numbers game from there.
And you can use whichever foods you’d like to hit your daily macronutrient targets.
Mistake number nine: Your calorie to food volume ratio is out of balance.
So the bottom line is that if you’re trying to lose fat then you need to maintain a calorie
deficit, and if you’re in a calorie deficit then you will feel a certain degree of hunger
in different points in the day.
So, one of a key ways to offset that is by consuming foods that are low in calorie content
relative to their volume.
So if you’re loading up on things like dried fruit or peanut butter, health bars, calorie-dense
snack and smoothies and things like that, you’re going to be getting a lot of calories
in exchange for only a small amount of actual food.
Whereas if you based your diet around less calorie-dense foods like fruits, vegetables,
lean proteins, whole grains, et cetera, you’re going to be able to eat a lot more actual
food and fill yourself up while still keeping your calories under control.
Mistake number ten: You’re forcing yourself to ‘eat clean’ 24/7.
So yes, the majority of your cutting diet should be based around nutrient-dense, minimally
process whole foods but that doesn’t mean you have to eat plain chicken breast and rice
and broccoli all day long.
It doesn’t mean that ‘clean foods’ are the only thing you’re allowed to eat.
As long as your fat loss plan is mainly based around what you traditionally refer to as
‘clean foods’ then you can go ahead and fill in about ten to twenty percent of your
overall calories with your favorite treat foods, as long as you tracked them as part
of your overall intake.
Doing this is not going to negatively impact your overall fat burning results but it will
make your diet more enjoyable and it will prevent you from feeling deprived and overly
restricted, which is then going to increase the chances that you’ll actually stick to
your cutting diet over the long term.
Mistake number eleven: You’re going overboard on cheat meals and cheat days.
So this one here would be the opposite of the last mistake where people think that,
you know, they’re eating clean and hit their calories over a certain period, so it’s
now okay to just go all out and eat whatever they want without any worries.
Now this approach can be fine for some people.
If it’s just for a certain meal or if they don’t go too crazy with it, but for those
who take it too far and who are doing it too often this can very easily add up and can
hugely offset the deficit that you created over the previous period.
Remember that fat loss is ultimately a game of your total energy intake versus your total
energy expenditure in the overall picture.
And while cheat meals are totally fine to have, they aren’t, somehow, free calories
and everything that you’re eating accounts toward your total calorie intake for the day
and for the week.
Mistake number twelve: You’re following extreme, overly restrictive dietary rules.
So any fat diet approach that heavily restricts certain macronutrients or eliminates entire
food groups or the overly emphasized smaller details like meal frequency and meal timing,
eating highly specific foods at certain times of day and avoiding other foods at certain
times of day.
These types of diet might work put okay in a short term but they usually won’t be sustainable
over the long term.
Fat loss is ultimately pretty simple and there’s no need to unnecessarily overcomplicate your
eating plan, and doing so is probably just going to increase the chances that you’ll
eventually get burn out and quit.
Mistake number thirteen: You aren’t adjusting your calorie intake as you get leaner.
So the calorie intake that you start your cut out isn’t necessarily going to be the
calorie intake that you end your cut at.
And if you find that your fat loss is plateauing then you may need to adjust your calories
downward in order to continue getting leaner.
So if your results have clearly stalled out for about a one to two week period then you
can either add a bit more cardio to your plan depending on how your program is already structured,
or you can decrease your daily intake by about a hundred to a hundred and fifty calories.
Mistake number fourteen: You aren’t taking any refeed dates.
Refeeds aren’t going to be necessary in the earlier stages of a cutting diet, especially
for those who are more overweight to begin with, but as you get leaner and leaner depending
on how far you’re trying to drop your body fat, a weekly refeed day can be a good tool
to give you a nice physical and mental boost and to take a short break from your diets,
with the main goal being to improve overall long term adherence.
Refeeds are pretty simple, just take one day a week where you eat at your calorie maintenance
level and get the majority of the increase form carbohydrates.
Mistake number fifteen: You aren’t drinking enough water.
A smaller point here but staying properly hydrated is going to help to control your
appetite further.
You’ll feel better physically and mentally, and it will improve your training performance
as well.
So I wouldn’t suggest overlooking this.
I don’t have a set guidelines here because it’s varies quite a bit depending on the
person, but a good approach is to just drink enough water so that you are peeing relatively
clearly throughout most of the day.
Cutting diet mistakes number sixteen: You’re putting too much emphasis on supplements.
So keep in mind that any fat burning supplements that you might be using are only going to
have a very minor impact on your results at best, and the overwhelming majority of your
progress is going to be decided by proper training and proper nutrition.
So don’t make a mistake of thinking that supplements can somehow make up for poor eating
habits.
And don’t put too much stock in them because you’re basically looking at a few percent
of extra results over the long term by including supplements in your plan.
Mistake number seventeen: You aren’t getting adequate sleep each night.
Now, this isn’t a direct dietary mistake, but I figured that I’d include it here anyway
because improper sleep definitely can throw your eating plan off track by increasing your
appetite.
And it does that by decreasing your levels of leptin and increasing levels of ghrelin
which are two really important hormones that regulate your hunger levels.
So if you want to maximize the chance that you’ll actually stick to your cutting diet
over the long term then you’ll want to make sure that you’re getting enough quality
sleep each night, so that you’re feeling fully rested in the morning.
Not to mention all the basic health benefits of proper sleep, as well as the effect that
it will have on your training performance and your mental state as well.
Mistake number eighteen: You aren’t being patient enough.
If you really want to get lean and significantly transform your body, then the process takes
time and patience, there’s no way around it.
And one of the best ways to lose motivation to fall off track is by expecting too much
too soon.
A standard rate of fat loss for most people is going to be around one to two pounds per
week, maybe slightly more for those that are significantly overweight, but you’re not
going to happen to find six-pack overnight and you have to be willing to trust the process
and just put in the work week after week after week if you really want to succeed long term.
It’s a game of consistent singles rather than homeruns and maintaining proper patience
is absolutely the key.
Mistake number nineteen: You’re comparing yourself to the wrong people.
Now, this sort of ties in with the last point, but keep in mind that those perfect physique
that you’ve seen in magazines or on social media, those represent the absolute best of
the best in terms of genetics.
And a lot of those people are actually using drugs and aren’t even natural athletes to
begin with.
On top of that, the pictures are usually taken under perfect conditions in terms of lighting
and angles and pumps and oil.
And sometimes they aren’t even truly real to begin with because they’ve been touched
up or even blatantly photoshopped.
So having an ultimate goal in mind for motivational purpose is fine but it can also have the opposite
effect and it can lead to discouragement and throw you off track with your diet if you’re
constantly comparing your physique to something that is very off and pretty much a fantasy.
So if you’re going to compare yourself, and we all do it to a degree, then at least,
be realistic and make sure to do it with the general everyday population as a whole as
well.
Because even just being somewhere around, say twelve percent body fat, give or take,
with some modest muscular development, that already puts you in better shape than the
vast, vast majority of people out there.
And finally, cutting diet mistake number twenty: You’re expecting things to go perfectly.
So regardless of how carefully you’ve planned things out or discipline you might be, you’re
still going to have days when things go off course.
It’s a guarantee.
You’re going to go over on your calorie sometimes, and you’re going to give in to
temptation sometimes, you’re going to feel different highs and lows in your motivation.
That’s all part of the process.
It’s completely normal.
And if you’re expecting things to go perfectly smooth all the way through or you think that
making a mistake here and there means that there’s something with you personally then
when those bumps in the road do show up, and they will, you’re going to be far more likely
to get overly discouraged and have a hard time getting back on track.
Always remember that fat loss is all about what you do in the big picture.
Your progress is not going to be perfectly linear no matter who you are.
You will make mistakes.
And you have to learn to just be able to brushed them off and to continue on with your plan
regardless.
So there you go guys, twenty different cutting diet mistakes.
I hope you found this useful.
If you do want to get a complete step-by-step road map in terms of training, nutrition,
supplements, for losing fats while also showing you how to customize that plan to your exact
needs, then you can check out my complete Body Transformation Blueprints over at www.BodyTransformationTruth.com,
or by clicking here.
The link is also in the description box.
If you found this tips helpful, make sure to share the video, like, comment and subscribe.
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And the official blog is over at www.SeanNal.com.
Thanks for watching, guy.
And I will see you in the next video.