What Sustainable Fat Loss Actually Looks Like

00:00The way you look at sustainable training is meaning that you have progressive overload in it. It includes rest because there's so many women that just train seven days a week and they don't include a recovery day. If your training constantly leaves you feeling exhausted, inflamed, injured, or burned out, that's not sustainable. So sustainability looks like progressive overload, recovery, rest, knowing when to push yourself and knowing when to not. What's going on, my friends? Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The WarriorBabe Show.

00:32Or if this is one of your first episodes, welcome to the show with your host, Nikkie Stott. And on these episodes, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. Today's episode, episode number 342, I want to dive into unpacking what sustainable results actually look like. Because so many women say they want sustainable results. But if we're being really honest, most don't actually know what sustainable looks like.

01:07And it's not, you know, I'm not saying that's your fault or you should know all these things or like you need to know what sustainability looks like. What I'm saying is so many women are used to or you are used to what extremes look like. You are so used to what fast looks like. You know, you're so used to, if this is you, diving into a program, being consistent, not being inconsistent, trying to get back on track, finding the next thing to jump into because that program didn't work because really you didn't work the program.

01:38So now you're looking for the next program to get into. And then try and go all in and you burn all the ships and you go no carb. And then, you know, you're doing extremes. You're doing two a days. You're in the gym for three hours, right? A lot of women know what that world looks like. But the sustainable side of it, I think that feels a little bit more unfamiliar. And that can feel a little like almost like underwhelming because this one side of things is thriving and push, push, push, go, go, go, cut, restrict, extreme.

02:12That when you get into like the sustainable side of things and you actually start implementing things that will apply to that result, it's very underwhelming. Okay. So I want to dive into talking about, I wanted to redefine it. Like, I wanted to give you guys the real, the practical, like the science-backed, like lived experience way. Because if you guys understand what sustainable truly, truly looks like, you'll stop quitting something that's actually working for you.

02:42All right. So let's start here. Let's start with what does sustainable actually, what does it not mean? We'll start there. It does not mean that you have 100% compliance of macros every single week. It doesn't mean that you have zero missed workouts. It doesn't mean perfect sleep. It doesn't mean that you're never feeling bloated. It doesn't mean that you're never stressed. It doesn't mean that you never go off plan. That is some fantasy world. And also that's what a lot of programs or quick fixes promote. And they promote this fantasy world.

03:13But it's not, it's not realistic. And it's not sustainable. Sustainable means that you don't fall apart when life isn't ideal. It means like, if you miss a workout, you, you, you wake up the next day and you try and get the workout in that you missed, right? There's programs that are talking about you got to get six workouts in a week. And that leaves only one day for you to have some like makeup room where it's like you hitting four workouts in a week is, is enough for any individual to be successful with.

03:44So think about it. If you start on a Monday, which has actually happened to me last week, because we had a blizzard in Pennsylvania, where Monday, I wasn't able to get to the gym. But typically, I like to go Monday, Tuesday, sometimes Wednesday, Thursday, Pilates Friday, and then I'll go on Saturday. Or sometimes I'll go four days a week, which is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Pilates Friday and Saturday. Because of the blizzard, I took off Monday. And that still allowed me to get in my workouts for the rest of the week, because I was able to push just push my workouts back a day.

04:20And rework when I was going to get the gym to fit in those fit in my workouts, right? So it's, if you miss a workout, you just you get back on to the next one. If you overshoot your calories, you would just resume like there's been times where I have had a big breakfast. And then there's been days where I have not eaten anything after that. And then you get right back on track the next day. Or if you overshoot your calories in one meal, it's like, okay, the next meal, you can make the choice to just do better. If you have a stressful week, then you just need to just keep to your minimum standards.

04:53Okay, I have a very stressful week. I just need to get in, making sure I'm getting my steps in and drinking my water and getting to bed in early time. Maybe it's a week that you don't get your workouts in, and that's okay. And the difference between someone who gets like the real long term results, even like take me for an example, like I'm 11 years into this. And I'm someone who like, even though I if I go off track, or I'm not aligned with the calories or the workouts of the week, I just get right back on track, say the next day or the or the next week.

05:26Okay, so it's like, the difference between someone getting results long term and someone who keeps restarting isn't it's not your lack of discipline. It's just your recovery time, like how quickly do you recover from the imperfection? And that's a skill. But at the same time, that's sustainability, because there's a lot of you guys from from the world of extremes, a lot of like go in and all or nothing. It's like if you mess up, it's like crap, I mess up on the whole program. And now I can't, like now I need to go find something else so that I can be successful with that program from the start.

05:59But the same thing is going to keep happening over and over and over again. It's not that you need to give up on it. It's not that you need to keep restarting. It's like, okay, let me just honor the fact that I fell short, give yourself grace. And then how can you recover from that? And how quickly can you recover from it? As a perfect example is right that I already gave one meal, if you mess up, get back on track, the next meal, get back on track, the next day doesn't have to be I'm going to start over on Monday. But it is a skill. Okay. So I want to get scientific for a second, really quick, your body is wired for survival.

06:29It's not wired for you to look good. It's not wired for aesthetics. So when you create a calorie deficit, your body is like, your body goes into increasing your hunger hormones, increasing your ghrelin, decreasing your fullness hunger, your fullness hormone, which is your leptin. It reduces your non-exercise movement subconsciously and lowers your metabolic rate slightly over time. And it increases your stress sensitivity. Okay. That is normal physiological stuff that happens to your body when you put yourself into a calorie deficit or you create a calorie deficit.

07:04So when fad loss slows down, that is not you experiencing any type of failure. Right. So let me just like put it into example for a week or for, for, let me just put an example for, for the context of what I'm saying. Let's say you start a program and you're following it for your, you put yourself into a calorie deficit and you're following it for three weeks. And all of a sudden fat loss slows down. That does not mean that the program is not working anymore.

07:34That does not mean that you failed. That does not mean that one of your mess ups probably in those three weeks totally screwed everything up. That is just your body adapting. And that is how sustainable fat loss works. It works with adaptation. It accounts for it. Right. It, it does, it doesn't crash harder. It doesn't cut. You don't need to cut more aggressively. You don't need to put yourself in the gym for three hours. You don't need to double down your cardio. Your body just adjusts gradually. It will prioritize protein. It maintains the muscle.

08:04It protects your hormones. And because of that, it's slower. Fat loss starts to become slower. But slower means that you're preserving lean muscle mass. It means that you are protecting your metabolism. And then you'll notice some of you guys, if you're starting this, like, hear me out. Like, you start a program for three weeks. You notice a lull. It could be, and it's different for everybody. It could be four weeks. It could be five weeks. Your macros could work for two, three months. And then you could experience a lull. It doesn't mean that it's not working anymore. It just means that your body is adapted and it needs a little bit more time to create.

08:39Maybe some of you guys have heard, like, a whoosh where you see a big drop in either body fat percentage or weight. It's like this big whoosh when you're tracking your progress. That says your body is adapted and now it's, you didn't really change anything. It just needed time to catch up to the adaptation for it to utilize its resources differently. As I'm saying here, right, it's protecting your metabolism. It's preserving lean muscle mass. It's finding different energy stores to pull from to continue to create a fat loss.

09:09It's doing all these things. It's prioritizing your muscle. It's prioritizing proteins, protecting your hormones, X, Y, Z. Think about it like this. Sustainable fat loss might average 0.5 to 1 pound of loss per week. And some weeks it's going to be nothing. And some weeks water retention is going to mask your progress. Your period is going to mask your progress. Stress is going to mask your progress. Stress might spike your weight. Have you guys ever seen those graphs where in, like, a one-week span, your fat loss, and I'm doing this with my hand. So for you guys that are just listening in audio, but it goes up, it goes down, it spikes up again, it spikes down, it goes up, it goes up, it spikes down, it spikes down, it goes up, and it spikes down again in, like, a week.

09:49But then you looked at that same graph over the comparison of six months, and it's actually going, the spikes are happening in a downward trend. That means it's, you're still working as long as you're going down in a downward trend. And that's why some people give up so early on. Because they see these spikes, they see themselves maintaining the same weight, and they're like, what the heck, nothing is working. Yet, if you just play the long game, and you continue to follow the program that you're on, being inconsistent, imperfect, not inconsistent, but being imperfect,

10:22and allowing yourself to make some errors and mistakes here and there, sustainably, over time, you're going to see a trend going down. And the women that lose 20, 30, 40, 50 pounds and actually keep it off, they moved slower than they wanted to. But they knew mentally that this is part of the long game. It's like, it's, it's just switching the mentality from accepting you guys being on a long game, because you didn't get where you are in six months, if you have 20 pounds or 30 pounds to lose.

10:56Or even you didn't think about anybody that doesn't have, you may be lean of fate, and you're looking to lose the next five to 10 pounds. Just think about the habits that you've developed over the years. Maybe there's just some certain types of habits that need to shift, that are new, that are, that are what you're doing now, because clearly what you're doing now isn't working for you. So something new needs to change. That takes time. So allowing yourself and accepting the fact that it's going to take time, your journey is going to be a little bit more fun, easy, and you're on the sustainable track at that point.

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13:04Let's talk about the nutritional aspect of it. Sustainable eating isn't sexy. It's structured. It can be repetitive. It's predictable. Those three things I just said, that makes it very powerful. Because I talked about this in a couple episodes before, but decision fatigue is real. When you're constantly trying new plans, trying new recipes, eliminating food, switching tracking methods, starting fresh, restarting cleanses, trying this new tea, detox tea, trying what this person's recommending on social media, you're doing that every week or trying something

13:35new every week, you burn mental energy doing that. Sustainable energy is going to reduce that cognitive load for you. What it looks like is maybe having three to five go to breakfasts that you just alternate or switch out on a weekly basis. Maybe it's the same for your lunches, you have three to four go to lunches. And you're just alternating them. Like I said in a couple episodes ago, with trying to just be repetitive with your food. And I know that some people are like, that's boring.

14:06I don't like it. But clearly what is working for you now is maybe causing you too much stress and you need a simpler approach to it. Maybe you don't want to think about food. And so this is just a strategy to try and implement to see if it works for you. And you don't have to keep eating the same things. Like I'm saying, switch up things. But just make sure you keep it consistent so that you're not putting so much mental stress on how and what you're going to eat. Because nutrition is one of the hardest things, you guys. Like if I was just talking to a friend over the weekend, it was like, I was like, she was

14:39like, I'm short of my nutrition. I'm like, girl, everyone does. If we all had nutrition down 100%, we'd all be walking around with some rocking bodies right now. So give yourself grace in this category. But I'm telling you guys, if you implement this stuff, like three to four go to breakfast, three to four go to lunches, protein anchored at every meal, portions that you understand, meals that your family can eat too, flexibility built into it, right? That is a sustainable approach, at least even to just nail down the nutrition aspect to kick

15:11it off, really. And then you can start playing and be adding recipes and different things like here, like months and sometime into it once you've developed some type of structure that you can lean on in the beginning. It's not thinking about like, oh, I need to eat clean versus not eating as bad. It's not like this food's bad and this food's good. No, it's more about like, this is effective versus this strategy that I've been doing is kind of ineffective. Healthy doesn't always mean, it doesn't mean it needs to be hard. And it also means like going back to like the eating, I need to eat clean and I need to

15:45versus not eat as bad. You can still eat clean. Like, I just want to point this out. You can still eat clean and still under eating protein, over consuming and calorie dense foods, miss total intake targets, swing like wildly on the weekends, right? Like eating clean. Whenever somebody says I try and eat clean or try and eat healthy, I'm always like, yo, can you unpack that for me? What does that actually mean for you? And they start listing off that they eat three meals a day. And I'm like, do you think that's enough for you?

16:15So I got the people are like, oh, I'm eating way too much food. And I'm like, let's actually look at what that data really says, what the number really says. Tell me again what you're eating. And we open up my fitness plan. We start logging the foods. It's 350 calories each meal. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle

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17:21That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. That is just over a thousand calories in a day. So right when you would like allow yourself to bring that type of awareness to the table, eating clean, eating healthy on a side tangent now over here, you can still do all the things that I just said. Under eat, over consume, miss targets, swing on weekend, etc. Sustainable eating aligns with your goals, right?

17:52And when it's consistent, it just becomes automatic. So not having to bury these mental loads of what am I going to eat? When am I going to eat it? I want to have all these recipes in it, X, Y, and Z. It just becomes, if you can allow yourself that strategy that I just said with, with interchanging some meals and just logging in protein in every meal, consistent will become automatic and automatic will become sustainable. And I'm literally saying all of this because that's exactly how I went about my journey. I ate, because I was a bodybuilder, the same meals.

18:23But in eating the same meals, it taught me to be able to eyeball portions and also taught me to learn what is on my plate. This is a protein. This is a carb. This is a fat. And over time, eating the same meals for eight months straight while I'm in prep, even longer because I would even take it into account my off season with some leniency. But it allowed me to see this is how much food I'm actually eating in a day. It's only 2000 calories or something like that, right?

18:55So it just allows you to paint a different perspective when you be consistent with something and then it becomes automatic because you can just guess or you just become accustomed to the portions. And then that becomes sustainable because you can learn how to plug and play. To focus on sustainability, it also prioritizes you to continue getting stronger and stronger, right? It builds into, we're talking about nutrition. Now let's talk about training.

19:25It builds into you having and prioritizing strength. Why? Because when you focus on building muscle, right? And this is how to, it's not that you need to jump on the next six week workout program. Okay. And if you do, that's awesome. But like having somebody to hold you accountable in the strength category at like working with a coach, someone that is able to see what weight you did this week and challenge you to increase your weight next week and ask you questions on how that weight feel.

19:56How did it really feel? Were you fatiguing? Were you, were you getting to the point of, you know, fatigue of burnout or whatever? And you're able to unpack that with someone, someone's going to actually push you harder. But with you having a sustainable training approach and not just something that, a lot of women I hear try and work the same program for six months. If you don't change your workout program at least every four to six weeks, or even sometimes you can push the six to eight week category, your muscles are going to plateau.

20:28Your muscles are going to not feel like they're being challenged. In order for you to feel like you're being challenged, you need to be able to have programs that are changing, right? And why, so you guys know how I feel about muscle, right? Muscle improves your insulin sensitivity. It naturally raises your metabolic rate, your metabolic resting rate. It supports your bone density, keeps you stronger, it increases longevity and improves glucose disposal throughout your body.

20:58It enhances your hormone health and longevity. Like it just improves your aging trajectory. So think about it as metabolic armor. It's not just about being aesthetic. It's about building this metabolic like gatekeeper is where I can look at it. And so going back to my point in terms of like those people that do six months training or say working out or they're doing a different workout every week. If you, the way you look at sustainable training is meaning that you have progressive overload in

21:32it, meaning my point to the example of what I was just talking about with working with a coach, someone who actually challenges you to increase your weight on a weekly or monthly or basis, depending on what the progressive overload looks like for you. It includes rest because there's so many women that just train seven days a week and they don't include a recovery day. Sustainable training and having some, not only the sustainable training aspect, but having accountability, it avoids someone that's just going to go into the gym and just put, punish themselves for eating too much and do cardio or overtraining.

22:02Right? If you're a train, if your training constantly leaves you feeling exhausted, inflamed, injured or burned out, that's not sustainable. So sustainability looks like progressive overload, recovery, rest, knowing when to push yourself and knowing when to not. So one last thing before we start closing it off is having a mindset. Like this part matters. Having a sustainable mindset. On sustainable journeys feel very chaotic. And maybe you guys can relate to that because you're in the, you're, you have the mentality

22:37if you're in it and you're doing a program that I mentioned earlier on the podcast where it's like six weeks, it's all or nothing. You're cutting cars, restrictive, yada, yada. We've all been there. In the midst of that, if you are feeling like, or saying I blew it or I'm starting over or I'm going to need to just restart on Monday, I'll fix it on Monday. This isn't working for me. I need something new. That is an unsustainable journey. Sustainable journeys feel more calm. And I'm saying this because I'm literally like living in this right now.

23:09And I've been living in it for, for years now, but it's not, if I can think back to my chaotic states of like, really just like not knowing what to do and being so confused, it's chaotic. It's like, I tried this program, but it's not working. I lock in and going to the gym, working out, but I can't get my nutrition down. So I blew it. So I need to start over on Monday. None of this is working for me. So I need to start over something new. So I've been there, done that. And I know you guys have been, has as well, have as well.

23:40Being on an actual sustainable journey. Like it's like, if you mess up on a meal, it's like, oh, that was just an off meal. It's all right. I'll get back to it tomorrow. One meal is not going to throw you off track. What I should say there is one meal is not going to ruin your progress. No, not at all. And instead you're like, okay, I'm just going to adjust. Or, you know, I recognize that this is just my lifestyle. This is a long game, right? The tone is different. The feeling is different. It's less emotional. It's less reactive. It's more stable. And then when you are living in this, that type of language narrative mindset, that stability

24:16is going to compound. So if you can build emotional stability around fitness and food, you'll remove 80 to 90% of the self-sabotage cycle. But I'll tell you this, sustainable looks so boring. It is not as overcomplicated as so many people think it needs to be. It literally just looks like walking, lifting, eating protein, drinking water, sleeping, repeat. Get my blood work checked. See if all my stuff is in alignment. That's it. It's not some fancy trend.

24:48It doesn't go viral. It doesn't look impressive on Instagram. But do that for 12, 24, 36 months. It changes your entire physiology. The basics aren't just basic. They are the foundations of a successful, sustainable journey. And sometimes when I say like sustainability is boring is because when you are building the foundations, a lot of these basic things seem so minute and invisible while you're building

25:23it. And it won't, you won't see it until it's been months or even, or even years into your journey. You don't have to be restricted. You don't have to be chaotic. It doesn't have to feel chaotic. You don't have to be on the next best trend. Those things are not like they're, they're why so many people feel overwhelmed, confused, conflicted. What do I do? What do I need to eat? When do I need to train? That's what's causing the mass confusion in the fitness industry when really this is all you need to do.

25:53Okay. So zoom out. If you strength train three to four days a week, if you eat adequate protein, if you maintain a small deficit while you're, you know, going to fat loss, or if you reverse and retrain your body, if you sleep well, if you manage your stress, if you don't, if you don't quit every three to six weeks, then in 12 months, your body composition is going to change. Your metabolic rate will stabilize. Your insulin sensitivity will improve. Your hormones will regulate. Your confidence will rise. Your relationship with food will calm down.

26:26And most importantly, your identity is going to shift because you are no longer going to be in this chaotic. I need to try this diet. I need to lose the weight. You're not going to be in that anymore. You're going to be in this sustainable feeling of calm. But most of them will never experience that. I will tell you that right now because they will chase novelty. Sustainable sustainability requires you to be repetitive and repetitive feels uncomfortable in a world addicted to new things and trying new things and a new shiny object that is in

27:00the market. Look at it as time plus consistency, plus your physiology, your, your mental, your mental narrative on this, that is going to be a massive transformation. So if your journey feels like it's slower than you expected, or it's less dramatic than you hoped, or it's more repetitive than exciting, that means you're probably finally doing something right. Remember, sustainability isn't flashy. It's not trendy. It's not going to go viral. It's the foundations.

27:31It's powerful. You don't need something new. You need to stay exactly where you are. And you need to allow time, consistency, and the narrative of your mind to change. And that's going to equal your transformation. That is how you win. Guys, if this episode resonated with you, go send this to a friend that needs to hear it. Go share it with your aunt. Go share it with your daughter. Go share it with your coworker. Go share it with your best friend. Share it with somebody. All right? And then screenshot this episode. And let me know what resonated the most with you guys in this episode.

28:04I would love to see that. And tag me on social media. All right, guys. Love you guys. And I'll see you in the next episode. Peace out. Real quick. If this episode resonated with you or gave you the push that you needed, I'd love for you to pay it forward. Drop a quick rating and review. Share the podcast with someone who might need it. And help me keep spreading the word. Your feedback not only helps the show grow, but it might just be the nudge someone else needs to kickstart their transformation. Thank you so, so, so much for your support.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.