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Carbs or fats? Which one is ideal for fat loss

Raise your hand if you’ve heard at least once that you should eat fewer carbs to lose weight?

Now raise your hand if you’ve heard it for fats?

Ok, interesting.

Well, I got some bad news to share.

Whether you’ve tried to cut carbs or fasts out of your diet, it doesn’t really matter.

Why?

Because research has shown that when protein and calories are equated, fats and carbs come more to a matter of personal preference.

So answering which one is better (or worse) for fat loss doesn’t make sense, as there’s no macronutrient in general that’s responsible for it.

Just pick more of what you want to eat and can follow through.

Can’t get over some pizza, ice cream, or donuts?… Then keep a high-carb diet.

Do you love to eat eggs, avocado, and bacon every day?… Then fats will be the main macronutrient compared to carbs.

The point is…

You don’t need to think there’s a specific ratio that will magically help you.

In fact, these studies show you that what really matters is the calories you’re in (and whether you’re in a real deficit or not) and the amount of protein you consume.

But let’s get practical.

Let’s say you’re a man who’s weighing 200 lbs and wants to get down to 160 lbs.

After you calculated your TDEE and know how many calories you need to eat per day, you find out that you have to eat (theoretically, at least) 1,700kcal… out of which 165g will be of protein.

Since every gram of protein has 4kcal, we’d multiply it by the total amount of protein to know the calories that will come from protein.

So 165 x 4 = 660kcal from protein.

If we subtract that from the 1,700kcal, we get 1,040kcal left… which we need to now distribute between fats and carbs.

Since it doesn’t really seem to make any difference when losing fat, you can go with ranges that work best for you.

You can use a 40/60 fat:carb ratio… or maybe a 70/30 carb:fat ratio.

The goal is that you should have enough of both fats and carbs to make sure you don’t get hungry throughout the day or starve yourself with cravings.

One thing to consider…

Whenever you’re going to set the ratio between fats and carbs, don’t forget that you’re not looking to choose the lowest range… you’re looking to set a manageable range that allows you to not feel like you’re starving yourself, but more importantly…..

that’s something you enjoy and can stick to it.

If you cannot stick to the range you choose, then you’re only going to end up not making any progress and wondering where is the mistake.

Never go below the 80/20 ratio on either of the macros, and you should never try to pick the 80/20 on either side.

But I get it, sometimes this can get a little bit tricky and we can even overthink this.

So if you’re somewhat confused about how this works and how to calculate how much you should be eating, then you’re gonna want to get the Cheatsheet I give as a Bonus when people sign up to the link below:

www.fitnessthetic.com

You’ll find everything I covered in here in a 2-page Cheatsheet you can use to know in detail how much you should be eating to start your fat loss phase.

Ivan @ Fitnessthetic

Why eating clean is the worst advice when losing weight

If you’ve been trying to lose weight for any amount of time, you’ve heard that a common “advice” is eating clean.

The basics are simple.

Eliminate all the processed food and just eat vegetables and some lean meat, but…

here’s why eating clean is the worst advice to lose weight.

Let’s say you manage to lose about 5 pounds of fat when you make this change (don’t focus on the number, it’s just an example), but then you start plateauing and not seeing any progress.

What are you going to do then?

Eat… clean(er)?

Don’t think that will work.

And look, I made this mistake when I started out.

I went on from what I now calculate were 2,200kcal to less than 1,300kcal… all because I stopped eating bread, rice, sugar… and went my days just be eating salads with chicken.

This resulted in one of the worst mistakes I’ve made.

Especially when I was starting, I know I could have built more muscle from the beginning while getting leaner at the same time, yet…

this type of advice actually made me gain more weight in the long-term.

But, what’s the alternative?

Simple.

Go and find a diet that’s going to work for you (both short-term to give you the results, and long-term to get you to keep those results).

There are no good or bad diets out there (science has been pretty clear about that in the last 20 years), but the diet you choose can be the right one or the wrong one for you.

Find something you can stick to it and you won’t even feel like dieting at all.

If you don’t want to give up your favorite food (like pizza, donuts, cookies… anything), then you don’t have to do it to lose those pounds.

Just know how much you should be eating right now and create a caloric deficit.

That’s the only way to lose weight… regardless of the diet you follow.

And if you want to know what approach you should take to lose weight and keep it off, then you’re gonna want to sign up below to find out how:

www.fitnessthetic.com

You’ll get a Cheatsheet (delivered as a Bonus) that helps you know how much you should be eating to lose fat and what to do when you plateau.

Even if you don’t subscribe (that’s fine), just know that following the “I will eat clean to lose weight” advice isn’t a really helpful way to keep the weight off.

Ivan @ Fitnessthetic

How to spot fad diets before doing them

Intermittent fasting (IF), Paleo, Keto… (or any other popular diet)

as much as you may like the idea behind them, there’s a problem.

They are fad diets… regardless of how “scientific”, “breakthrough” and “magical” they may look like.

Here’s something to look at.

The idea behind fad diets is that they start raising due to popularity of some sort, yet…

they usually 1) lack evidence to support their claims, and 2) you’re not going to be doing any better with or without them.

I’ve said it a couple of hundred times already.

There’s only one way to lose weight.

It doesn’t matter what “approach” you take, as long as you’re paying attention to what matters.

Want to use a Keto diet?… Great, go for it.

Feel like IF is for you?… Perfect. 

The thing is…

Fad diets like to dress up like the real answer to why you’re not losing weight (or why you’re gaining it back once you lost it), when in reality science has already shown us the reason why these happen.

But, how do you spot fad diets?

Simple.

If you feel like they are somehow pushing you to a particular way of eating as “the solution” to the weight loss problem, chances are it’s a fad diet.

Now, you may have tried some fad diet before and think it isn’t that bad.

I get it.

The issue is not a matter of whether they can work or not… the issue is that if you try them and you don’t lose weight AND keep it off, then you’re destined to keep playing the yo-yo diet game.

That’s why if you don’t focus on following a diet (any diet) that’s sustainable to you…

you’ll gain your weight back (while adding some more pounds).

Science has shown this over and over again.

All you have to do is follow something you can stick to it and it will be 10x superior to any “fad diet” you’ll ever encounter.

That’s the #1 requisite you need to pay attention to before even dieting.

If you’re not clear on how to do this (because it’s simple – to the point I condensed everything you need to know in a 2-page Cheatsheet) while using 3 quick “tweaks” in your diet that ‘force’ your body to lose more fat… then make sure you sign up below to get both of these for Free.

www.fitnessthetic.com

And before I leave…

I can’t stand for how fad diets are dressed up as the answer, because they made me waste a lot of years to finally lose my belly fat. If anything, they only made me gain more weight due to the rebound effect they have.

So this short post should help you avoid making the same mistakes I’ve made, as I’ve seen most people fall into fad diets.

What matters is knowing how to get out of them.

And the first step is by knowing what science tells you… regardless of the approach you take.

Ivan @ Fitnessthetic

In a big caloric deficit and not losing any weight? Do this

How many times have you been on a deficit to lose weight?

I bet in some cases you’ve simply created a big deficit by eating way less than before.

But here are the bad news…

If you’re in a deficit and you’re not losing any weight, then it means you’re not on a real deficit.

Let me explain.

Maybe you’re in what you have calculated to be a deficit for you at that point, yet…

If you’re not losing weight, that’s because your predicted and actual calories are different.

This doesn’t mean you have to create even a more aggressive deficit.

You might not even need to create a deficit at all.

It all depends on your situation, but…

you could be gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time.

Is that your case? 

I don’t know.

But that’s why we don’t solely rely on the scale as that just tells you part of the whole picture… you could be weighting 170 lbs and have added 3-4 lbs of muscle while losing some fat.

The scale might not move, but you’re doing body recomposition.

Plus, gaining muscle and losing fat is possible under 3 specific situations (which I talked about in another post).

The point is..

Don’t rely on the scale to determine what to do, as it tells you half the truth… and if you know you’re not really losing any weight, then it’s because you’re not on a deficit.

And if you want to know for good what you need to do to start losing weight, you’re gonna want to get my Free Cheatsheet you get as a Bonus when you sign up:

www.fitnessthetic.com

In that way, you know how to consistently and reliably lose weight (pretty much on command).

Ivan @ Fitnessthetic

Are you making these 3 mistakes when trying to lose weight?

Losing weight is simple.

You just need to eat less than you’re eating to create a caloric deficit, right?

Yes and no.

I agree you need to create a caloric deficit to lose weight (that’s literally the only way)… and you can do this either by eating less or exercising more.

The thing is…

as “simple” as this concept is, it doesn’t mean people don’t make mistakes along the way.

Otherwise, everyone who diets would lose all the weight they want and not gain it back.

The most common mistake I see is that we tend to underestimate how much we eat.

Plus, we tend to overestimate how much we exercise.

Sounds like a good combination to not make any progress…

Studies have shown that people can underreport their food intake by 50 to 70%.

That can be from 100 kcal to 500 kcal (maybe more)… 

enough to not make any progress.

Because whether you lower your calories or exercise more, if you’re doing this mistake you can falsely believe you’re on a deficit when you’re not.

It’s no wonder why many people can make the assumption “I was on a deficit and didn’t lose weight”.

This leads me to the 2nd mistake most people make…

which is that they have to be aggressive in their fat loss phase.

I mean… “That’s the only way to do it”, right?

Let me share something with you.

Yes, you need to create a considerate deficit at the beginning to get out of your range of maintenance calories (because they are not a set number, but a range), yet…

when you plateau, you don’t need to keep cutting food that aggressively.

Sometimes a 5-10% decrease from your current calories is enough.

So let’s say you went from 2,300kcal down to 1,700kcal as your initial deficit.

After 3-4 weeks, you start to plateau… 

at that moment, you would only need to lower your calories by 5-10% (be more conservative at first… until you get to know your body)…

which would give you a deficit of 85kcal… so now you would have to eat 1615 kcal to keep losing weight.

Plain and “simple”.

Lastly, but definitely not least…

is that most people make the mistake of assuming that following “common sense” advice is not only helpful but necessary.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

I talked about this before, but here you’d be following the myths that people tend to believe like “cut carbs – or fats – out of your diet”… or “eat a lot of vegetables”… or “you need to do tons of cardio. If it’s HIIT, even better”.

I don’t want to talk about those myths right now as I’ve done it before.

The point is…

don’t follow any of that “advice” as you’d only be making it harder on yourself for no real reason.

In fact, if you were to follow these myths you’ll end up making no real progress whatsoever… especially if you don’t want to get rid of your favorite food (like pizza, ice cream, cookies…).

And you don’t have to eliminate the food you love from your diet to lose weight.

If you’d like to know not only how this is possible but how by using what I call the 3-quick “tweaks” in your diet… you’ll see how enjoyable it is to lose those pounds for good.

All you have to do is sign up below:

www.fitnessthetic.com

Ivan @ Fitnessthetic

The #1 sign you’re obsessing too much about calories… and what to do instead

If you think that calories are important to the point you need to track every step you take, here’s something to consider.

Calories are important, not only to understand them but to keep track of them.

The thing is…

Most people get too obsessed with them to the point they pay attention to things that don’t matter as much as they really are.

Let me give you a quick example.

It’s no surprise to see questions around forums (I’m usually around Quora) where every question I get from people is about calories.

  • Are my calories enough for my current physique?
  • Do I need to eat my calories back?
  • What happens if one day I eat half of what I used to eat?
  • How many calories do I burn if I do X exercise?
  • Which exercise burns more calories, A or B?

All of these are valid questions, yet…

I feel they are focusing too much on one side of the equation rather than in the whole picture.

Look, all you need to do is create a caloric deficit if you want to lose weight or a caloric surplus if you want to gain weight.

It doesn’t get more complicated than that.

Sure, the way you do this is by changing either the calories in or the calories out (CICO) of your total daily energy expenditure, as will be the net balance that will determine whether you gain or lose weight.

When you pay attention to things like which exercise burns more calories, you’re focusing on something unnecessary.

That’s the #1 sign you’re paying too much attention to your calories.

What matters is that you follow something that helps you get closer to your goals, and create that net positive or negative balance in calories to move towards your goals.

So don’t get me wrong.

Energy balance is what will ultimately determine whether you lose fat (or gain muscle), but there’s far more important things to worry about once you know your daily caloric intake… like the macronutrients you’re eating to hit that calories target.

Now, if you’d like some daily tips like this that give you the straight answer delivered to your inbox, then you’re gonna want to subscribe below:

www.fitnessthetic.com

Plus, I give away “The Fat Loss Multiplier” guide I sell for $21.99 on retail when you sign up in the link above. This guide gives you the 3-quick “tweaks” in your diet that basically forces your body to lose more weight.

Sure, these aren’t magic and they are the least important factor compared to your calories, but…

they will give you a small edge once you have the basics covered.

(I give you a Cheat sheet to know how many calories you should eat as well once you subscribe as well).

Whatever the case…

keep working hard and you’ll get there,

Ivan @ Fitnessthetic

The #1 issue with protein powder and fat loss

If you feel like there’s some protein powder specific for fat loss, here’s something to think about.

This common idea of having ‘tools’ targeted to our goal is great, yet…

It doesn’t mean it’s right.

Let me show you why.

Protein is protein, no matter what goal you’re going after.

Whether you want to build muscle or lose weight, there’s no difference in the protein sources you need to take to get the results you want.

This macronutrient is important, but one thing will determine whether you lose fat, keep your weight or add a few pounds of muscle… and protein powder (or any protein, for that matter) won’t be that determining factor.

As long as you’re eating fewer calories than what you’re burning (aka caloric deficit), you’ll be losing weight.

That’s the determining factor.

From there, it’s a matter of picking high quality protein sources to help you preserve as much muscle and lean tissue as possible.

It’s because of misconceptions like this caused by the industry and influencers who claim this (who ironically, are sponsored by a brand that sells protein powder) make weight loss hard.

But it doesn’t have to be.

In fact, when you get the “Ultimate Diet Planner” Cheatsheet I give as a Bonus when you sign up, you realize how simple losing weight actually is (not easy, simple).

All you have to do is click here to get yours and start on the right path to lose weight.

www.fitnessthetic.com

Remember, there’s no such a thing as protein powder (or protein, for that matter) for fat loss… you’ll be the one that determines that goal with what I just said above.

Now go ahead and don’t overthink about it too much (easier said than done, I know)… just take the first step and see it for yourself.

Ivan Iniguez

Is a salad better than a cookie for fat loss?

How many times have you heard the “avoid processed foods because they make you fat” narrative?

This is only half true.

Yes, you should try to pick more Whole Foods instead of processed foods, yet not for the reason you’re thinking.

This is what many coaches and “experts” think it’s true, and I really don’t know why.

I call this the cookie or salad dilemma.

Here’s what it means.

Let’s say you’re eating about 2400kcal per day to create a deficit and lose weight.

One day, you had about 100kcal left and decided to go out and see what to eat to get those calories.

But you then go to a food court and see 2 different restaurants that got your attention. 

One is a restaurant that mainly offers salads, and the other one offers you all type of desserts like cookies, cakes or ice creams.

Now here’s where the dilemma comes in.

Which one do you choose? A cookie or a salad…?

You start thinking this beyond imagination… you can either go with the salad and feel more satiated (and maybe without guilt) than going with the cookie.

The issue is that you’re really craving that cookie as you haven’t eaten one for months and wanted to have one today.

So let me ask you again… which one do you choose?

Well, regardless of which one do you choose… here’s the way you should make that decision.

It’s not based on whether you think one is “healthier” than the other or that one is “good” and the other “bad”.

It should be on what you want that moment, what you like, and whether it’s going to help you reach your calories (and macros) goals.

If the cookie has 80kcal, then by all means go after it (again, assuming your macros are also checked). This is way simpler than what most people do it, yet they make it complicated for no reason.

Either way, if you want to know in great detail how this works as well as start reaching your fitness goals without having to crave foods or even feeling like dieting, then sign up below to receive daily email tips about it.

www.fitnessthetic.com

Now go and eat a salad… or a cookie, if you wish.

I’ll probably go eat the second option 😉

Ivan Iniguez

Myth: you need to diet to get a six-pack?

So someone asked me this question the other day on a forum:

“Can I get a six pack without sticking to a certain diet? If so, how?”

The simple answer… not really.

The real and more complex answer… 

It’s hard to say.

It doesn’t matter what diet you follow (whether that’s keto, intermittent fasting, etc),

If you do one thing when trying to lose fat (which is what you need to get a six pack), then it doesn’t matter what diet you follow, if any.

What is that one thing?

I’ll tell you in a second because I first need to tell you this about diets.

When we say dieting, it simply means a particular way of eating on your daily basis….no more, no less.

So no, you don’t *technically* need to stick to a certain diet to get a six pack, but…

you definitely need to be on a caloric deficit to do it.

That’s literally the #1 requirement you need.

You are either on a deficit or not… there’s no other way to go about it (regardless of what you hear all around the internet).

So as long as you’re on a deficit, you could go from different diets and still lose fat to the point where you get a six-pack, yet…

Going all crazy and extremes will definitely show up as a consequence.

If you go on for 3 weeks on a keto diet, then next Monday you do a low fat diet (or other diet), you’re hardly gonna get results.

In fact, in this particular situation you’d end up gaining all your weight back (and then some).

Might tell you about why in the future.

The takeaway message is that diets are a way to set up limits (where they should be easy) to stick to a way of eating… and you’ll get a six-pack only if you’re on a deficit, regardless of the diet.

For now, go enjoy your food and stay assure you can lose fat without feeling guilty afterwards 😉

In fact, I’m going to eat a burger right now (and I’m on a deficit).

So keep working hard, you got this.

Ivan ”The Underground Coach” Iniguez

And if you want to receive daily email tips like this delivered at your inbox + get everything you need to start losing weight as soon as you use it (for Free when you sing up), then sign up below:

www.fitnessthetic.com

With that, I’ll now let you enjoy your food without thinking every single detail too much.

Losing fat vs. Burning fat. Which one should you focus on?

Most people want to burn fat, but very few want to lose fat.

Sounds kinda stupid, I know.

Let me explain.

If you thought that burning and losing fat were the same thing, let me show you that it’s not the case.

One is the process of actually burning fat (I mean…) and the other one refers to the “net” fat oxidation and deposition happening in your body every day.

When you’re “burning” fat, you’re oxidizing it… when you’re “storing” it, you’re depositing it.

With me so far?

So, what you want to actually do and should focus on when attempting to say goodbye to those pounds is fat loss.

Because it doesn’t matter if you’re burning 100-300 kcal per day if at the end of the day you’re having a positive net balance.

This means that doing cardio isn’t the solution… not the way you think about it, at least.

As always, what matters is if you create a caloric deficit to start actually losing weight (and ideally, losing fat).

But if you’ve tried already a caloric deficit and still haven’t lost weight, it’s for a simple reason I covered in another post.

What you should know for now is that in order to make progress and get sustainable results, then all you have to do is right here in what you just read.

Still, if you want more clarifications and want to know in great detail how this is done, then…

Sign up below to my daily tips where by subscribing I give you “The Ultimate Diet” Cheat sheet so you know exactly how much you should be eating to kickstart your fat loss process.

www.fitnessthetic.com

Above all, do yourself a favor and by any means fall prey of those claiming to have the “magic pill” (AKA, the miracle diet or the groundbreaking supplement) to lose weight and keep it off.

Keep working towards your goals… you’re moving forward (even when it doesn’t seem that way),

Ivan Iniguez

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