Making adjustments for fat loss

I’ll start this firstly by saying, no diets work forever (and absolutely shouldn’t either), but adjusting and assessing protocols to a diet is fairly integral if fat loss is the goal. 

Ultimately dietary adherence is pretty important. If fat loss has stalled, is it because adherence has diminished? If so, why? It could be stress, your environment, a shift in focus, food choices and these all could lead to subconscious overeating. 

So first of all, be honest, and ask yourself, have you ticked every box consistently? If the answer is yes, move to the next level…

If adherence has been spot on and markers of change (photos, measurements, how clothes fit etc) still aren’t budging, then changes and adjustments may need to be made.

I’ll caveat that by saying, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It’s easy to get caught up in wanting to alter things when it’s not needed e.g. program hopping, excessive cardio, unnecessarily restricting calories, or, more commonly, when results feel like they're not happening fast enough (poor Susan who was sold the dream of losing a stone in a week and now thinks that's a realistic expectation). 

Ultimately, measure and monitor, be reactive if/when necessary and if you struggle to make decisions yourself, get a good coach who can help you with that. 

If you can’t, a good place to start would be to monitor your intake for 7-10 days. Monitoring can be done in several ways; tracking via an app e.g MyFitnessPal, taking photos of your food or writing what you eat down on paper. This will give you an idea of what your average intake is. Once you’ve done this, you can then reduce this average from 10-20% and monitor progress from there. 

 There is no magic number when it comes to fat loss or improving body composition. Starting somewhere, collecting data and adjusting accordingly is going to be one of the most appropriate and accurate approaches when it comes to achieving your body composition goal.