7 Practical Fat Loss Tips – That You Can Do Today

The problem with most fat loss tips, is they are completely impractical when working in with other goals. If you are still trying to train heavy, work your day job and have a life, introducing 4 hours of new routine a day is just ridiculous, and compliance is probably zero.

As a person who has recently gone through an aggressive ‘cut’ it realistically deprecates your life in every way. You are more tired at work, you are more listless in social circumstances and you just feel weak a lot.

Here are 7 things I actually do, that helped a lot prior to my ‘cut’. It wasn’t anything crazy, but I was losing around a kg a month. Better than nothing, and definitely better than gaining fat.

1. First Thing when you get to the gym – 10 minutes on the treadmill

Just get in the habit, its 10 minutes, it's not going to hurt your workout, it's only going to help. Go as slow or as fast as you want. It still adds up to 40-50 minutes. A week. I just put it on 4.5kms and add a few degrees of incline over the 10 minutes. It also gives you a second to figure out what you are training that day, what your goals are, all that good stuff.

2. Sometime after your morning shower, before work – 10 minutes foam roller

I know, you will have to wake up 10 minutes earlier. I always make sure I throw the roller on the floor before I go to bed, and when I dry off after the shower, I put a podcast on with a 10 minute timer and try to roll out. I doubt it burns many calories, but it does make you feel better, and probably make your day, and training later in the day better. So much of lagging at the gym, or poor eating, is just because you feel crap. Try to avoid that if you can. I try to focus on outer lats, quads, groin, and pecs. Just don’t roll up and down on your back because it’s easy

3. If you train at night – move your last meal to prior your session, and don’t eat after

No, you aren’t going to die. The whole anabolic window thing is overblown. You are digesting that evening meal for hours, so chill out. If you really are worried, have a whey shake after. Going to bed without your digestive system churning and without a bunch of carbs you don’t need is going to help. I’ve had on/off troubles with sleep for years, its crazy how much not eating a few hours before bed has helped my sleep.

4. Download the Tabata app – suck it up once a session

This will probably make a big difference, the Tabata protocol is 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off. Its super annoying. If you have the app on your phone, on sessions where you have the energy, get one Tabata done. 4 minutes. If I’m tired, I just grab a bar and do curls for the four minutes. Less tired, I’ll do bodyweight squats, if I have the energy, I’ll throw a plate either side of a bar and do deadlifts.

5. Go for a stroll – 10 minutes after each meal – or whenever really

The ole stroll. It helps cortisol management, it helps digestion, it feels good to be outside. Try to get a little walk in at lunchtime, especially if you are a desk jockey like most of us. Lunchtime, you will get that vitamin D you need, maybe some pretty guy/girl will smile at you, that would be pretty good.

6. Repeat the Serenity Prayer, just like AA

My old boss would email me this daily, as, ah – I tend to get angry about things that may not be able to be changed

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference.

If you beat yourself up about whatever crap you ate yesterday, the only effect is a bad mindset. You can’t change the past, you can change your current mindset. This is something I’ve personally had to work really hard on. If I fall off diet, I got ‘screw it’, and eat bad until I fall down. That clearly is not a good idea. Do what you can now, forget about yesterday. The longer you try to eat clean, the easier it is.

7. Don’t pretend you can out-train a bad diet

You can’t. I double dog dare you to put in a workout that burns 2000 calories (and then recover from it). Eating 2000 calories in a meal is easy. The whole ‘I eat burger and donuts’ then post to insta thing is bunk for most folk. You don’t have to eat perfect, but if you eat a burger, fries, a shake than a donut, you just ruined your whole week of effort. That’s 3000 calories, and a week of doing well you just lost. Just don’t eat the fries or the shake, have two burgers instead of a donut. Nobody is asking you to be an angel – just don’t pretend you need those calories. Ditching my once a month ‘blow out’ really helped. It only made me feel sick anyway.

So that’s it. 7 tips you can do today. I think it's realistic these will change your body composition long term and not affect your strength gains. Let us know what you easiest tip is in the comments.