Losing body fat is one of the most common fitness goals that clients have when they join any gym. At The Smart Fit Method, we try to keep the conversation focused on the variables that impact longevity: skeletal muscle, VO2 Max, and cardio endurance. The weight loss conversation is not something we avoid, but generally, it's less important than you might think, especially when considering the other health improvements exercise and nutritional counseling can facilitate.
Of course, lowering body fat percentage can have a number of important health benefits, and most trainees will self-report needing to "lose a few pounds", so it’s worth discussing the protocols you can implement to cut body fat.
What changes can you make in your lifestyle and nutrition to decrease your body fat percentage? Let's dive into this question by discussing some preliminary steps you should take before pursuing a weight loss goal.
Importance of regular body scans
Before we can discuss the benefits and techniques we use to decrease body fat, it’s important to discuss how to measure progress during a weight loss goal.
During a weight loss phase, perform regular progress checks using a 3D body composition scanner. Unlike a traditional weight scale, a body scanner will determine the type of mass being lost - muscle or fat - allowing you to adjust your protocols accordingly. Losing muscle is detrimental to health.
Body weight scales will only show you overall weight but not make a distinction between fat and muscle, making them unhelpful for determining true progress. This is one of the classic pitfalls so many trainees fall into, and it can have a disastrous impact on their health, muscle mass, and metabolism.
Body scanner vs. weight scale
How you measure progress is almost as important as the method you employ to affect that progress. Here's why.
When a trainee goes on a caloric restriction diet, often they will lose muscle mass along with body fat. A weight scale will only show a number decrease, while a body scanner will show the nuance of fat vs. muscle tissue. The less muscle you have, the harder it will be to lose weight again in the future since muscle is the fat-burning engine.
Trainees measuring with a scale might be happy to see any decrease as progress, but what they don’t know is that they are almost guaranteed to regain that weight purely as body fat if they've been accidentally cutting into their muscle reserves.
Avoid losing muscle by keeping your daily protein intake high, performing weight training exercises, and checking progress regularly with a body scanner like our Styku, which measures multiple longevity metrics.
Diagnosing a lack of progress
Losing muscle will impede your weight loss goal, and it’s one of the primary reasons trainees fail to see progress. That said, it isn’t the only way. To find out why you aren’t making progress, it’s important to consult a personal trainer or a nutritionist to come up with some likely reasons why. Check out this Megan Lyons article to read some more possible roadblocks preventing your weight loss progress.
At The Smart Fit Method, we diagnose lack of progress and execute solutions to get our clients moving towards their goals. A simple start is to implement a strength training program, increase protein consumption, and increase calories. For many, gaining weight is the first step towards losing weight.
This may seem counterintuitive to many trainees, but it’s the truth. Having a good base layer of muscle on your body is critical to pursuing fat loss goals. “Muscle burns,” as we like to say! But what does that mean?
How muscle burns fat
Your muscle is the engine that burns body fat. The more muscle you have, the easier it is to lose body fat. This is why it often seems easier for men to lose body fat than women. Simply put, they have more muscle thanks to greater levels of testosterone.
For many trainees, they've been told a different weight-loss story: low-protein diets and lots of cardio. The truth is, trainees who want to lose weight can benefit from high-protein diets and resistance training. If you want to read more, check out this article by Smart Fit Nutritionist Megan Lyons.
Now, finally, let’s take a closer look at the basic changes you can make to decrease your body fat.
8 Changes to make to decrease body fat percentage
We are going to discuss the eight changes you can make to lose body fat while preserving your muscle mass. Please note that although everybody is unique, these guidelines apply to everyone.
Increase protein
Increasing protein is the number one thing you can do to decrease your body fat. There are a few reasons for this.
The first reason is that the body does not store protein in fat cells for later use. This is why people on carnivore and Paleo diets seem to get "shredded" quickly. Protein consumption supports muscle growth. The more muscle you have, the easier it will be to shed body fat.
You don’t have to become a strict meat eater to increase your protein. You can follow a balanced diet and focus on the guideline of eating your goal weight in grams of protein every single day.
Increase hydration
Increasing hydration is another great way to lose excess body fat. Many people overlook this step, but it’s an important one. The body needs to be hydrated to perform optimally. Trainees at The Smart Fit Method lose up to 44% more body fat when hydrating with one of our electrolyte retail products.
Improve sleep
Getting a good night’s sleep has a dramatic impact on your ability to lose weight. Sleep is when the body repairs itself, and the body needs to recover from exercise stimulus to produce adaptations like muscle growth and fat loss.
Check out the sleep optimization toolkit from Dr. Andrew Huberman's Lab and consider investing in one of the many products to aid sleep like blue light blockers.
Recalibrate calories
If you are having trouble losing body fat, it might be time for a calorie adjustment. You may even need to temporarily eat more calories. The question of diet and nutrition is somewhat nuanced, so it’s important to work with a professional.
The Smart Fit Method employs an in-house nutritionist to help answer trainees questions. You can watch some of her nutrition videos on our YouTube channel.
Reduce or eliminate alcohol
This is a tough one, but reducing or eliminating alcohol consumption can be a massive tool in your arsenal for losing body fat. You waste a lot of nutritional potential by “spending” daily calories on alcohol. Two glasses of wine every night is the equivalent of an entire extra meal in your day - made entirely of sugar, no less.
Outside of dietary reasons, alcohol consumption also produces poor sleep and higher stress levels. Reducing alcohol intake will ensure better sleep quality and a lower base stress level, which will translate into not only fat loss but also better moods!
We highly recommend the eye-opening episode of the Huberman Lab podcast for an unbiased take on the true effects of alcohol on human health.
Reduce stress
Reducing stress may not be entirely within your control if you have a demanding job, children to manage, or any other number of life’s little curveballs, but reducing stress has a dramatic impact on your body’s ability to shed unwanted fat. This is because (among other reasons described in Healthline here) the hormone cortisol, sometimes called the stress hormone, can cause your body to retain excess body fat.
Skip the fast
Intermittent fasting is an incredibly popular strategy in the world of nutrition. Fasting works for many people. They believe it gives them more energy, and they like how they feel during a fast.
Of course, fasting can have some unintended pitfalls, according to sources like this one from Johns Hopkins, which is why we discourage trainees from fasting. Often the feeling of hunger will make you feel like you are making progress, but when hunger is left unchecked, it leads to binges. Fasting has also been shown to slow metabolism and encourage the body to hold onto resources in body fat stores, known as being in "survival mode".
A disciplined trainee may be able to pull off a more generous eating window, but we strongly advise against narrow eating windows. If you must fast, make sure you have thoroughly considered the research. There are some demonstrated benefits, but there are also studies that have disproven the benefits of fasting.
The consensus on fasting is this: it's just another way to reduce daily caloric intake.
Exercise consistently
Consistent exercise is important to any weight management plan.
This phenomenon can be best observed through the case studies done on medical intervention for weight loss. You may even know someone personally who is either on a prescription to curb appetite (semaglutides like Ozempic) or had gastric bypass surgery. While medical intervention is an incredibly powerful tool, without lifestyle changes like consistent exercise and healthy eating habits, the rate of weight regain is discouraging - 75% of gastric bypass patients regain a significant portion of weight lost after surgery according to NIH data.
8 Changes to make to decrease body fat percentage - final thoughts
So, what are the takeaways? How can we meaningfully and permanently decrease our body fat percentage?
Consistency is key. Committing to a nutrition program you can stick to long-term and engaging in regular exercise remains the only tried-and-true solution for trainees wishing to decrease body fat.
Are you ready to commit to a long-term change? Do you want to lose body fat healthfully, consciously, and permanently? Book your free consultation today to see how The Smart Fit Method can give you all the tools and resources you need to implement these changes successfully.
