3 Simple Steps To Lose Fat For Beginners

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Why You’re Not Losing Fat As A Beginner

On today’s episode of Live Lean TV, I’m sharing 3 simple steps to lose fat for beginners.

Let’s be real.

There is no shortage of information on the internet, including our Live Lean TV YouTube channel or website, on how to lose fat.

In fact, over the past 6 years, we’ve posted hundreds of videos sharing numerous fat loss tips.

So the question is, with all this fat loss information available to you, why are you still not able to lose fat?

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Well, based on the thousands of fat loss questions that we’ve received over the years, I would say this:

You’re majoring in the minors.

Here’s what I mean by this.

Example Of “Majoring In The Minors”

Meet Joe.

Joe is 5’11 and currently 250 pounds.

Joe gets a body fat % test at his local gym and it’s calculated that he has 30% body fat.

So Joe goes home and searches on YouTube, “best tips to lose body fat“.

Now depending on which video Joe clicks on, he could receive numerous different tips on how to lose body fat.

For example, he could get a tip that he should:

• Focus on doing your cardio fasted in morning
• Follow intermittent fasting
• Follow a diet comprised of paleo approved foods and cut out all refined carbohydrates, cold turkey
• Add 4 minute tabata finishers after your weight training workouts

Now don’t get me wrong.

All these tips could be very effective for fat loss, but how effective they are depends on where you currently are in the fat loss continuum.

If Joe was 15% body fat, like his buddy Michael, who is following a workout program to get down to 8% body fat, then yes, these fat loss tips could be very helpful.

However once again, Joe is 30% body fat.

He hasn’t walked more than 1/2 a mile since 1993 and his only sources of vegetables are french fries and the tomato sauce on the top of a pizza.

Do you really think Joe should be spending his time on figuring out if fasted cardio in the morning is better than fueled cardio for fat loss?

Or do you think he should be debating if sweet potatoes are a better carbohydrate source than brown rice?

No.

Joe is not at the same place in his Live Lean Journey as his buddy Michael.

Joe doesn’t have any momentum at this time, so he needs to take his Live Lean journey one step at a time.

Progress Over Perfection

Living Lean is not about being perfect in the beginning.

Living Lean is about taking consistent daily progress.

That daily progress for Joe, could simply mean only eating pizza 4 times a week, if he’s currently eating it 5 times a week.

That is one less pizza per week, which is progress for Joe that is sustainable.

If we told Joe, starting tomorrow, you could never eat pizza again, do you think he could sustain that at his current level?

Definitely not.

When you’re Living Lean, you’ve made the mindset switch to successfully turn your diet and workouts into a lifestyle.

We’re not about short-term fad diets.

It’s a lifestyle.

3 Beginner Fat Loss Tips To Start Creating Momentum

With that said, here are 3 beginner fat loss tips that you can begin to slowly incorporate into your lifestyle to create momentum as a beginner.

By incorporating these steps into your daily routine, you are setting your body up to burn fat rather than store it.

Beginner Fat Loss Tip #1: Choose Healthy Sources Of Carbohydrates

Over time, continue to replace refined and processed carbohydrates with higher quality sources of carbohydrates.

This step is key and probably the main culprit in most people’s diets.

Refined carbohydrates are defined as foods that have been processed to take away the nutrients such as B vitamins, fiber, and the iron from the whole grain.

You’re probably wondering, why would food companies do this?

The reason is simple.

By removing these nutrients, the food’s shelf life is increased, thus it can be sold over a longer period of time in the store.

That’s a win for the bottom line of the food manufacturers, but it’s a loss for you and your health and waist line.

Examples of these refined carbohydrates include basically anything made with white flour, such as:

• white rice
• white pasta
• white bread
• crackers

Since there is little to no fiber in these carbohydrates, they are quickly converted into sugar, and then enter the blood stream at very high rates.

At this point, due to your lack of activity, your storage capacity for sugar in the muscle and liver cells is probably full, thus the insulin hormone has no where else to transport the sugar other than into the fat cells.

Here’s how can you apply this tip to improve your current lifestyle.

Actionable Tip: Start A Food Journal Tomorrow

At this point, you don’t have to calculate your calories and macros.

All I want you to do is simply record what foods you’re eating and the amounts on a typical day.

Also, I want you to eat like you would normally eat.

This will act as your baseline.

Next, take a look at your day’s worth of eating and count how many refined carbohydrates you ate.

If you ate 4 pieces of white bread yesterday, your goal for the next week is to eat 3 pieces of white bread and replace that one piece of bread with a piece of fruit or vegetable.

This is an example of sustainable progress.

You’re slowly cutting back, while adding in other healthy forms of carbohydrates such as fruit and vegetables.

You could also replace another piece of bread with a whole grain or gluten free bread.

Although in most cases, it’s not perfect, whole grains have not been refined as much, so they do retain a little bit more of their natural nutrients and fiber.

As time goes on, and you begin building momentum with your Live Lean journey, you can then focus on replacing all white flour products with higher quality carbohydrate sources like oats, quinoa, and sweet potatoes, and then eventually more vegetables and fruit.

Then after that, you can begin focusing on “the minors” of carbohydrate timing and when are the optimal times to consume them.

At this point it’s about progress not perfection.

The reason for this is simple.

When you get so tied up in these minors, most people will throw their hands up in the air and give up on doing the majors.

As a beginner, we need you focusing on the majors.

Beginner Fat Loss Tip #2: Eat More Protein

Over time, add in some type of protein to your meals and snacks

Sure in a perfect world, you’d be eating excellent sources of protein such as:

• Grass fed beef
• Organic chicken breast
• Wild fish
• Organic whole eggs

However, at this point, if all you can afford is conventional ground beef, chicken, canned tuna, and some protein powder, it sure beats fried chicken and fast food burgers and fries.

Here’s how can you apply this tip to improve your current lifestyle.

Actionable Tip: One Protein Source With Every Meal And Snack

The ultimate goal is to incorporate one source of high quality protein with every meal and snack.

However in the beginning, focus on just adding one protein source with every meal.

Here’s an example.

If you love pasta, rather than cutting it out of your diet on day 1, simply reduce the portion of the pasta by 1/3 and replace it by adding in some meatballs or canned chicken, or even a protein shake.

If you’re going to eat a lot of carbs, it’s important to have a protein source with it as protein stimulates the production of a hormone called glucagon.

Without getting into too many details, glucagon has the opposite effect of insulin.

Insulin sets the stage for fat storage and glucagon sets the stage for fat loss as glucagon stimulates the hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) enzyme, which encourages fat burning.

Protein also helps build muscle mass, which can help lead to a higher metabolic rate, meaning your body burns more calories throughout the day, even at rest.

Here’s another side tip: In addition to protein, over time also try adding in essential fats such as omega-3’s, in supplement form or focus on more cold water fish like salmon.

As hard as it is to believe, omega-3 fatty acids can actually help you fight fat.

Eventually as your begin to progress with your Live Lean journey, your plate should be filled with a:

• Healthy protein source
• Healthy fats
• Fibrous vegetables

This is what I call PFF:

• Protein
• Fiber
• Fats

Until then, in the beginning, some steps are still progress.

Beginner Fat Loss Tip #3: Incorporate More Resistance Training Vs. Traditional Cardio Training

Most people think in order to lose fat they need to hit the cardio machines for multiple hours a day.

Sure, cardio machines will help burn calories, thus helping you burn body fat.

However, excessive cardio can also burn into the necessary muscle it takes to raise your metabolic rate, thus lowering how many calories and how much fat you can constantly burn throughout the day.

To put it simply: more lean muscle equals more fat burn

That’s right.

The more lean muscle mass you have, the more body fat your body will burn throughout the day.

This is because, once again, lean muscle mass increases your body’s resting metabolic rate, a.k.a. the amount of energy your body uses at rest.

Here’s how can you apply this tip to improve your current lifestyle.

Actionable Tip: Complete 2-3 Full Body Resistance Training Workouts Per Week

As a beginner, try incorporating 2-3 full body resistance training sessions with weights per week.

I’m not telling you to stop doing cardio, as it can really help an obese people get more active and burn more calories, but I do encourage you to focus more of your workout time with weights.

So there you have it Live Lean Nation.

Living Lean is about consistent progress, not perfection.

If you’re still a beginner, stop focusing on the minors at this stage and start focusing on these 3 major beginner fat loss tips and you’ll surely be on your way to a new, healthier and leaner self, for life.

Do You Need A Beginner Workout Program?

If you need a beginner workout program, we put together a Live Lean Beginner bundle called Live Lean Newbie.

This contains a workout program for gym newbies that is designed to help beginners burn body fat, build lean muscle, and feel better than ever.

Every exercise in this program has video demonstrations showing you exactly what to do.

Hopefully you will check it out here.

Keep Living Lean.