Two halves this week: a short one on training — how to actually get the most from each session in a deficit — and a longer one on nutrition. Your calories have come down this week, and we're going to talk about why, when to stick vs adjust, what causes the scale to lie, and why this almost certainly isn't your last fat-loss phase.
Training — the short half
Progress conservatively
Don't lift the heaviest weight you can, blow yourself out, and feel like shit for a week. Leave room to progress. Push when you feel great. Pull back when you feel flat. That's how you build long-term consistency without burning out.
Feel good, go for it. Feel a bit shit, pull back. Simple as.
Train with intent
Approach every session fully focused. Do your best on the day. I owned a personal-training gym for 10 years — we saw 100-150 people through there a day. The one ask was always the same: give your best, whatever your best looks like today.
Sometimes your best is terrible by your own standards. Doesn't matter. Your best on a day is always enough.
The non-negotiables in a deficit
Training in a deficit is tough. Slack on the basics and it goes from tough to brutal:
- Hydration
- Protein
- Sleep
- Stress management
These are the bricks. Dial them in and training feels infinitely easier. Ignore any of them and you'll feel like shit — I promise.
Move with intent — protect your muscle
This is a fat-loss phase — not a "finish looking like a rake" phase. The goal is to maintain (and where possible build) muscle while body fat drops. Weight training does that for you, but only if you show up with purpose.
Ditch distractions:
- Phone on charge in the corner, or in your gym bag
- Pen and paper works for logging — cheap log books on Amazon do the job
- Read the programme before the session, not during it
Consistency beats perfection — the two-day rule
You'll have off days. You'll miss the odd session. Don't beat yourself up — draw a line, send it, move on. One bad day doesn't break the block.
Two-day rule: if you mess up one day, you don't mess up the next. One hot day doesn't make summer — and one missed session doesn't kill a programme. Stack good sessions back-to-back. That's the game.
Nutrition — calories have come down this week
You'll have noticed your calories tick down slightly on your tracker. Whether you should actually drop yours depends on what's happening already.
If you're still losing weight on your current numbers, stick. Some of you lost 2-3 kg in week 1 — if you're still trending down, don't rock the boat.
If progress has stalled and you've been compliant, follow the tracker's lower number.
This isn't your last fat-loss phase
Quick reframe before we go further. This is not a one-and-done. You'll do this fat-loss phase, reverse-diet for a week or two back to maintenance, and then potentially need another phase later. And another. And another.
I've just set up two 1:1 clients with hefty fat-loss goals. Between now and March they've both got five fat-loss phases mapped out. Roughly:
- Now → August: fat-loss block (nobody wants to diet through summer holidays)
- September → October: next fat-loss phase
- Break through November
- Quick fat-loss phase to mid-December
- Diet break through Christmas to the first week of January
- Final fat-loss phase to hit the goal
Why does this matter? Because we don't burn the candle at both ends. If you finish the Shred and just keep dieting, you'll rebound — sometimes ending up heavier than where you started. You need the breaks. The long game is a series of focused phases with maintenance in between.
Not seeing progress? Start here.
Fat loss is never a clean diagonal line. It zig-zags up and down for loads of reasons that have nothing to do with whether you're actually losing fat.
What makes the scale move (that isn't fat):
- Fluid intake — 1 litre of water = 1 kg on the scale
- Salt intake — high-sodium meals = water retention
- Stress — raises cortisol, slows digestion, holds water
- Carbs — every 1 g of carbs holds about 3 g of water. Pasta day = scale spike.
- Intestinal weight — food sitting in your gut
- GLP-1s (Ozempic, Mounjaro, Reta) slow digestion — food sits longer. Worth noting: people abusing these drugs are starting to develop intestinal issues, so don't mess about with dosing.
- Muscle soreness / inflammation from a new programme = temporary swelling
- Creatine — great for performance, holds water
- Hormonal cycles — periods drive big swings
- Poor sleep — bumps fluctuation and hunger
- Poor digestion in general
That's why we use waist measurements and photos. Weekly and monthly trends matter more than any single day.
Honesty — this is where most people are stuck
If you're not seeing progress, the first question is honesty. People hate this question — I've been on the receiving end of it too. You feel like a victim. "I'm doing everything, I promise."
But are you actually doing everything?
- Are you tracking every meal, every snack, every sauce — Monday to Sunday?
- That tablespoon of peanut butter you didn't log. The extra oil in the pan. The extra coffee with milk. The biscuit with your brew. Each one is 100-200 calories — they add up fast.
My own story: pre-train Monster + chocolate bar. Drive home from training — another drink, another protein bar. Each round was ~400 calories. Five or six times a week, that's 2,000+ calories untracked. A whole day's worth.
The other classic: deficit Monday to Friday, then Saturday and Sunday goes out the window. 5 days at a deficit + 2 days well over maintenance = no deficit at all.
Other things to be honest about:
- Steps. Phone says 10k? Are you actually doing 10k, or are you doing 6k and convincing yourself it's 15k?
- Sessions. Planned 6, hit 4? Be honest in the tracker.
- Events. Birthdays, holidays, Easter, work trips wipe a week's deficit fast. A single Domino's with ice cream can do it.
I'm not demonising any food. I love a Domino's — ranch barbecue, chicken strippers, four cookies, enjoy every minute. But I also know what it does to my weight for the next 2-3 days. Understand the impact.
If you're in a window where fat loss is genuinely unrealistic (heavy travel, kids off school, massive work stretch), maintaining without gaining is a win. The habits you're building now serve you for years.
And if you're honestly doing everything right and still not seeing change — message me. Don't suffer in silence.
Energy balance, properly understood
Calories in vs calories out. The "out" side has four parts:
- BMR — Basal Metabolic Rate. The energy your body uses just to stay alive.
- TEF — Thermic Effect of Food. The energy used to digest food. Protein costs more energy to break down than carbs or fats — that's why high-protein helps. A steak is harder to digest than a bowl of Cocoa Pops.
- EAT — Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. The calories you burn in structured training.
- NEAT — Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. Walking, fidgeting, moving around. NEAT is where most of your daily calorie burn actually comes from — not your training session.
If you overestimate your steps or your training intensity, your supposed deficit might not exist at all. The maths only works if the inputs are honest.
Body recomposition is real
Sometimes you're losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time — the scale stays steady, but the mirror tells a totally different story. That's why photos and waist measurements are non-negotiable.
Last Shred — Kerr: lost 2 kg in 8 weeks. Two. Looked completely different. Natural, two kids, married, sedentary job — a wild visual result for a number most people would call a failure.
Some people lose 0.5 kg and look like a different person. Studies confirm body recomp is possible at all ages and training levels when the stimulus is right. Your programme is built for it — right tension, right reps, right frequency.
Progress comes in many forms
When someone tells me they're "not seeing progress," I ask:
- Is your energy better?
- Are you training harder / recovering faster?
- Is your mood better — nicer to be around?
- Is your digestion more regular? Less bloated?
- Is your sleep improving?
- Do your clothes fit better?
- Do you feel more in control around food?
All progress markers. The scale eventually reflects all of it — there's just a lag.
Delayed gratification — the rule of nutrition
Training gives you immediate feedback — pump, endorphins, the post-session buzz. Food doesn't. Food is delayed:
- How you eat today is tomorrow's result.
- How you eat this week is next week's result.
- How you eat this month is next month's result.
Stop expecting the scale to move on the day you put the work in. It doesn't work like that.
Stick with it — progress shows up suddenly
Rob Mason — last Shred. Started at 79 kg. Went 77, 78, 77, 76. Then sat at 77 for what felt like forever. Week after week: 77, 77, 77. Then week 9 hit and the wall fell over: 76, 75, 74, 73, 72, 71. Finished at 71 kg — 8 kg down.
But the scale didn't move for weeks. If he'd quit in week 5, he'd have missed the whole result. If you're doing the right things, the results will come. Often in week 4 or 5.
Week 3 action points
- Train with intent — phone away, programme open, give your best on the day.
- Lock in the non-negotiables: hydration, protein, sleep, stress.
- If your calories have dropped on the tracker and progress had stalled — follow the new number. If you're still losing on the old one, stick.
- Get brutally honest with your tracker. Monday to Sunday. Every snack, every sauce, every coffee.
- Check your steps and session counts against what you actually did, not what you intended.
- Take your photos and waist measurement. Trust the trend.
- If you're genuinely doing everything right and not moving — message me.
Optional lecture lands Thursday, Q&A on Friday. Get your questions in.