Fat loss season is upon us, bros. Whether you’re aware of it or not, the shredding is about to begin all across this great country of ours. Bro’s all around are about to start getting ready for spring break and summer by working off their dad bods and trying to find that elusive six-pack.
I personally love this time of year. We’re about to start making it out of the dog days of winter, spring is just around the corner, and with spring comes fewer clothes. That means ladies are walking around all scantily clad, and us bros get a chance to show how few fucks we give about leg day, because we’ve got abs.
I want to help you bros out this spring, which is why I want to tell you exactly how you need to set up the perfect fat loss diet.
You see, fat loss, unlike bulking, isn’t all that complicated for the most part. Dropping fat is a function of eating fewer calories than you burn, and that’s about it. Bulking properly requires dark magic and maybe even a few living sacrifices.
Just because dropping fat is simpler than bulking doesn’t make it easy. We all know this, otherwise each summer every dude out there with his shirt off would be shredded. And well know that isn’t the case.
I’ve got some keys for you to set up the perfect fat loss diet. Put these in practice, stick with them consistently, and you can pretty much guarantee you’ll look awesome this summer.
Setting up calories:
I’ve talked before about how I prefer setting up calories and how I prefer to do so based on lean body mass. To save you the time though, just know that basing your calories on lead body mass is the best strategy because we’re worried about keeping lean body mass, and dropping fat mass.
By basing calories on LBM, you put yourself in a position to save that LBM and drop as much body fat as possible.
When it comes to fat loss, I like to set people up to eat about 14 calories per pound of lean body mass.
For example, a 200lb bro at 10% body fat (we’re keeping math simple here), would have 180lbs of lean body mass, and he would be eating 2,520 calories per day in this given fat loss diet.
Protein: 1.2g per lb of lean body mass
When talking about bulking I almost always set up carbs first, and then protein. When it comes to fat loss, I like to flip that. Protein is your best friend in a fat loss diet because it’s going to help keep you full, and it’s also going to help preserve muscle mass.
When you drop fat, it’s natural to drop a bit of muscle. The goal is to keep that to a minimum. By eating plenty of protein and training like a fucking animal you can make sure you keep as much muscle mass as possible, so by the end of your cut you actually look bigger than when you started.
Carbs: 1.5g per lb of lean body mass
When it comes to fat loss I’m not a fan of dropping carbs extremely low for most people, unless they have an inordinate amount of fat to lose and could benefit by increasing their insulin sensitivity.
For most of you bros, that’s not the case. You need fuel to train hard, recover, and kill it the next day. That’s why I like to set carbs at 1.5g per pound of LBM.
This number gives you plenty of carbs to fuel your training without completely overdoing it. You should still get great pumps, and you should still have enough carbs to enjoy some foods that you love, even though you’re on a cut.
Fat: The rest of your calories
Fats are simple. Just fill in the rest of your calories. For our 200lb bro who eats 2,520 calories his breakdown would look like this.
- Protein: 216g (864 calories)
- Carbs: 270g (1,080 calories)
- Fat: 64g (576 calories)
In this scenario 64g of fat is plenty. Our bro should find that he isn’t feeling too terribly deprived, his macros are pretty well balanced, and that he’s getting in enough food to support his training.
The big caveat to all of this:
If you go through this scenario for 3 weeks or so and you’re hitting your macros day in and day out, and still not losing weight, then you need to cut calories. I would drop calories from 14 per lb of LBM to 12. But before you go that route, you need to really figure out if you’re truly hitting your macros.
Going out and drinking like a fish every weekend and getting the drunchies isn’t conducive to a fat loss diet. If you can’t go without that for a short period of time, then getting abs may not be for you.
Happy shredding season, bros.