Today's check-in day. A bit of this overlaps with Monday's lecture — no harm hearing it twice. This one's about assessing progress, checking compliance, and making smart adjustments. Plus the hunger management piece that lots of you will start needing this week.
Three things to track every week
- Scale weight. Daily, every morning, post-bathroom, pre-food. End of the week, look at the average. Did it go down, stay the same, or go up?
- Visual progress. Do you look leaner? Are your clothes fitting differently? What's the mirror saying? This is why we take the photos.
- Subjective feedback. How's your energy? How's training feeling? How's your sleep? How are you recovering?
That's the full picture. It's never just the scale.
Compliance — the question that decides everything
Be honest. Were you 100% compliant this week? That means:
- Did you hit your calories — Monday to Sunday, not just Monday to Thursday?
- Did you hit your macros?
- Did you get your steps in?
- Did you get your training sessions in?
If your compliance was under 100% — we don't adjust nutrition. Making changes to a plan you're not actually executing is wasted adjustments. The fix isn't a new target. The fix is doing the current one.
If your compliance was 100% and the scale isn't moving and the visuals aren't changing — then we adjust.
The two levers — pull one at a time
When it's time to adjust, there are only two levers:
- Reduce calorie intake — slightly. Not slash it.
- Increase output — e.g. push your steps from 8,000 to 9,000 or 10,000. Same intake, more NEAT.
Pick one. Don't change both. If you move two things at once, you can't tell which lever did the work.
What "good progress" actually looks like
Progress is steady. Not linear — steady. If the scale is drifting down, visuals are changing, you're compliant, and you're sticking with the plan, don't overcomplicate it. Stay the course.
What if progress is too fast?
The flip side — if the scale is dropping quickly, you're feeling run down, and your performance is tanking, the deficit's too steep. The fix is the opposite of cutting more:
- Bump calories up by 200-300
- Monitor how you feel for a week
- Adjust again if needed
Too fast isn't winning. Too fast is burning out.
The weekly check-in — in this order
- Assess progress — weekly trend, visuals, energy, training.
- Evaluate compliance — were you actually on point every day?
- Make smart adjustments together — one lever, the right one.
The truth is simple: the more compliant you are, the faster and more efficient your results will be. Trust the process. The system works — we just need to adhere to it, or modify it for your specific circumstances.
Hunger management — you're going to feel it this week
You're in a calorie deficit. Your body is adjusting. You will feel hungry. That's normal — that's part of the process.
What we want to avoid is overly hungry — the uncomfortable kind that leads to snacks, cravings, poor food choices, and eventually a binge. Two key tools handle most of it.
1. Hydration — 3-4 litres of water per day
Water fills the stomach and dampens the false hunger signals that often aren't actually hunger at all.
- Pint of water before every meal, then drink through the meal.
- Carry a bottle around all day. Don't sip — take gulps. Sipping never gets you to 3-4 litres.
2. Fibre — 30-40 grams per day
Fibre slows digestion and keeps you full for longer. Load it into your breakfast and lunch especially.
- Fruit, veg, lentils, whole grains
- Chia seeds, flax seeds
- Avoid leaning on bars or powders — go for real food where you can
Summary
- 30-40 g fibre a day
- 3-4 litres of water a day
- A pint of water before every meal
Small habits, massive difference to how you feel and how easy this process becomes. Friday Q&A is next — get your questions in.