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How To Waste Years Dieting Without Losing Belly Fat (Stop This) | Zac Mason | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: How To Waste Years Dieting Without Losing Belly Fat (Stop This)
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Summary
Core Theme
Sustainable fat loss for busy men requires moving beyond restrictive diets and embracing a phased, identity-driven approach that addresses underlying psychological patterns and normalizes a leaner physique.
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If you've been on and off dieting for
years, but you're not losing belly fat
for good, this needs to stop. In my nine
years of coaching busy men, I've seen
the same patterns over and over. It's
not about being lazy, but doing the
things I'm going to explain in this
video wastess years of effort without
getting and staying lean. So, I'll show
you the mistakes that are keeping men
stuck at 20% body fat and above, and
then what you can do instead to finally
get lean and maintain it. For many guys,
it always starts the same. They decide
to finally get serious. So, they set
like some extreme goal like losing 10
kilos or 20 lbs in 6 to 8 weeks. But
what they don't realize is just how big
of a deficit that actually requires
because 1 kilo or 2.2 lb of body fat
equals 7,700 calories. So to drop 10
kilos or 22 lbs, that's 77,000 calories
spread over 6 weeks, which is 42 days.
That's an 1,800 calorie deficit every
single day, which simply isn't realistic
for most people unless you're eating
next to nothing or you're doing some
crazy fasting while still somehow
keeping your daily movement really high.
Instead, the smarter and far more
sustainable approach is working on this
in phases. So you drop the first 10 lbs
or 5 kilos, which is usually the
easiest. Then instead of rushing
straight into the next one to lose more
and pushing yourself harder, actually
prove that you can keep that 10 lbs or 5
kilos off for at least 1 to 2 weeks
before starting the next phase. If
you've got work, travel, events, or just
a stressful patch of life coming up,
then you might need an extra week or two
so that you can just maintain things
before pushing hard again. And that is
perfectly fine. This is not a race. But
when you start with unachievable goals
and then you push even harder, when the
scale doesn't respond, you eventually
hit a wall. Then you lose that momentum.
You feel demotivated and eventually kind
of give up, which means you're going to
restart a new diet next year or whenever
that is just to lose the same fat that
came back on from the last diet. And if
you even do manage to lose weight this
way, the next problem is where
everything's going to collapse. After
reaching your fat loss milestone,
whether it's 30, 40, or 50 lbs, most
guys think they're done, even if they're
not as lean as they expected to be. Then
it's really easy to slip back into the
old habits instead of locking in your
results. And because the new weight and
habits aren't stable yet, you can
rebound really fast. Suddenly you feel
like you up and you failed and you can't
do this and everything just starts to
crumble, right? Not because you're weak,
but because the approach had no
succession, a phase to slowly return up
to your maintenance solves this. It's
also called a reverse diet. Gives your
body a chance to stop the deficit and
then you gradually adjust to higher
calories without putting on more body
fat. But if you're not lean enough when
you start this, doing this isn't going
to get you leaner unless you
significantly ramp up your training and
your daily calorie burn above the levels
that you've been at. This is also a good
time to consider doing a lean bulking
phase to prioritize muscle growth and
strength. However, I doubt that you want
to get fat again. And when men skip this
succession phase, they almost always
regain what they had just lost, which
then forces them to restart another diet
months and years later, repeating the
same cycles again and again. But if you
have actually reached your goal and you
are as lean as you want to be, then this
is the perfect time to do this reverse
diet phase. You simply incrementally
increase your calories while closely
monitoring your leanness and your
strength gains over time. And if you
start gaining more fat, not just weight,
then you know, okay, I'm in a surplus
now. So, you just kind of scale it back
a little bit. And this can be as simple
as a 100 calorie increments to, you
know, testing this for one to two weeks
at a time and being consistent. This is
harder than it sounds because most
people push so hard and so fast at doing
fat loss, they haven't given their mind
enough time to drop the old habits and
the cravings that used to keep them
stuck. So once the fat loss diet ends,
then the deprivation drives them to eat
more than they can handle. And fat
regain is always easiest right after
reaching your goal because you've been
in a deficit for a long time. Your
metabolism has adapted slightly. But
it's not just discipline or going slow
that can keep you stuck in dieting for
years. I'll explain why. Albert Einstein
supposedly said insanity is a definition
of doing the same thing over and over
and expecting different results. And
when it comes to dieting, I would have
to agree. The problem is many people
start a diet that will never work long
term, but it will work well in the short
term. I'm talking about diets like keto,
carnivore, um, extended fasting, paleo,
Atkins, raw food, shake diets, whatever
the trend is for the month. I'm not
saying all those diets are bad, by the
way. But for most busy guys, they simply
do not last. However, they do work for a
few weeks, maybe a few months. So, the
assumption becomes the diet works. I
just wasn't disciplined enough. But if a
tool has failed you once, twice, maybe
even three times, then it's the wrong
tool for the job because it doesn't fit
your lifestyle or your preferences. So,
it's easy to get trapped in this loop
of, you know, you do keto for 2 months,
you lose a bunch of weight, then you
fall off the wagon cuz of Christmas
parties and whatever, you regain some
fat, and then because it worked the
first time, worked for that one to two
months, then you do keto again next
year, and you just keep repeating the
same pattern, you know, lose, fall off,
regain over and over. And busy men with
travel, business, kids, social
commitments, all this can't necessarily
follow rigid structures forever. And the
more times this cycle repeats, the more
discouraged you're going to feel, the
more pressure you're going to pile onto
yourself to be perfect the next time
that you do it, which leads directly to
the next trap that silently destroys
being consistent without you even
realizing it. So, if one meeting in your
day runs late, do you cancel the rest of
your day, go home, curl up into bed, and
I hope not. But when it comes to
dieting, men place extremely high
standards on themselves. If they eat a
chocolate, if they have a wine, or they
grab a handful of chips, they act like
they've completely ruined everything and
need to ride off the entire week until
next Monday. But that is not how fat
loss works. There is no on andoff
switch. Whether you eat Twinkies for
breakfast or a kale salad for dinner
every day, at any point in time, you're
in one of three states. You're either
maintaining the body fat you have,
you're gaining more body fat, or you're
reducing body fat. That's it. You don't
need fresh organic daily produce from
farmers markets, meals, or hours in the
kitchen prepping meals like Jamie Oliver.
Oliver.
>> Hi guys, welcome to the Ministry of
Food. I've got a bit of a bonus, but
it's not hard. It's just over a
centimeter thick, so it's not wobbling.
Lovely. And you're going to rub it
backwards and forwards again and again
>> just to lose fat. You just need
consistency. And if that sounds too
simple, you are over complicating it.
And if you expect yourself to eat
cleaner than a bodybuilder who is one
week out from competition, 8:00 in the
morning I'll have fish and a rice cake.
At 10:00 I'll have fish. At 12:00 I'll
have fish and a rice cake. You're going
to feel like a failure every time that
you don't eat like that. And it's this
perfectionist mindset doesn't just break
your diet, it sets you up for another
problem that can instantly drain your
progress. So most guys stick to their
plan from Monday to Friday. They feel
very disciplined and then things start
to loosen up on Friday night which can
spill over to Saturday and sometimes
even Sunday. So it's like this domino
effect. Being so strict during the week
makes it easy to fall into the trap of
thinking that you can splurge a little
bit on the weekend. But come Monday
morning, you're heavier than you were on
Friday and now you feel like [ __ ] And
if this keeps happening, it simply means
that you're neutralizing your deficit or
you're tipping into a slight surplus,
which means that you're not losing fat
at all. And despite thinking that you
were good during the week, this is going
to keep you stuck, just like it keeps
many guys stuck at 20 25% body fat uh
for years by being consistently
inconsistent. You know, works, dinners,
birthdays, travel, football nights,
drinks with the clients, none of these
are the problem. You can still get lean
doing this if you eat more on weekends
as long as your overall weekly deficit
and your weekly average weight is
trending down. The problem is not
knowing how to navigate these higher
days without wiping out your entire
week. And what makes this even tougher
is that these moments trigger another
pattern that drives more overeating far
more than people like to admit. You can
have the perfect plan during the day,
but if work stress hits at nighttime or
you're exhausted after a long stressful
week, suddenly the pantry and the fridge
become a coping mechanism. And many guys
don't want to admit that they're
emotional stress driven eaters. Many do
as well. It's incredibly common,
especially for busy dads and
professionals who are working a lot,
high stress, and limited downtime. Food
just gives this quick hit of comfort, a
break, a reward after a long day. And
often none of that shows up in the meal
plan you thought you were following. But
really, the problem isn't the food. It's
the unconscious patterns behind it. When
stress is driving your eating, it
becomes almost impossible to stay
consistent. Because the trigger is more
powerful than your conscious choice. The
emotional pain overrides your good
intentions. The solution, though, is not
to beat yourself up. Don't punish
yourself. There's clearly some unmet
emotional needs that need support. And
typically, these emotional patterns were
formed decades ago, even in childhood.
So, stuff like therapy or deep inner
work can help unwind these. But the real
issue is that we really want to face
these root causes of the stress and the
emotions. But when we do, it's very
short-term discomfort for long-term
freedom. And this pattern alone can keep
you stuck above 20% body fat, even when
everything else looks good enough. But
even deeper than stress eating is
something that most men don't notice
because it's so familiar. They're so
close to see it, which I'll explain
next. Most guys don't realize how good
they would feel at 12 to 15% body fat,
better energy, sleep, confidence, better
blood markers, performance in work, in
the gym, and just life would be great.
Everything improves. However, one of the
biggest reasons men stay stuck is
because they have normalized being in
that 20 to 25% body fat. It doesn't feel
urgent. It doesn't feel extremely bad
because everyone else around them is the
same or bigger. It just feels normal.
But once you experience this leaner
level, you realize how much your old
normal was actually holding you back.
And this mindset alone wastes years.
Because if you don't believe that
feeling amazing is available to you,
then you never can consistently go after
it. And the truth is staying lean isn't
just about habits. Because without this
last thing I'm going to explain, your
habits will never stick. Some may not
agree, but I believe if you truly nail
what I'm about to talk about, you will
never have an issue with being fat. If
deep down you still see yourself as
someone who's trying to lose weight, you
know, giving it a crack, hoping,
praying, wishing, and all this, you're
always going to fall back to the same
old patterns. But when you start asking,
"What would the lean version of me do?
How would he think? How would he feel?"
Then you can start to develop this new
identity. Because if you see yourself as
the guy who can't lose weight and is
overweight for a whole long list of
reasons, then all of your feelings and
your thoughts and your actions are going
to be based on that over the long term.
It's like still thinking yourself as the
guy on a diet instead of the lean man
who simply eats and trains like a lean
guy. If you said to me, "Zack, do you
want a beer?"
>> Saying no is the easiest thing because I
don't identify as a drinker anymore.
It's not what I naturally do, unless
it's a conscious choice and I want to
enjoy a drink. This doesn't happen
overnight, though. And if you've never
been lean, you might think, well, how
the hell can I identify as a lean guy
when I'm overweight? Well, it's like any
habit. It takes practice again and
again. Kind of like the ocean crashing
onto a rock cliff headland. Over time,
that rock is going to change shape
because of the repetition of the water.
And it just so happens that in a way
where you don't really notice the change
until you look back 6 to 12 months uh
later and you're like, "Oh [ __ ] I don't
even do those things anymore."
Admittedly, this can be one of the
hardest things to do. Harder than a
diet, harder than a tough workout
program, but it's the only thing that
locks in the physical changes.
Otherwise, anyone can drop 30 to 50 lbs,
get lean, build muscle. But if they
don't own that identity, it's just going
to be a temporary character. They're
playing until the show's over, and then
they keep repeating the same things year
after year instead of finally becoming
that lean guy. And if this is something
you want onetoone coaching and
accountability with, my metabolic recall
method is designed for busy men who want
to get and stay lean with a busy
lifestyle. To get more info, tap the
link in description. You can read more
about that. Or or if you prefer to go
this at your own pace, you can get all
my systems in the business body
blueprint routine. Link is also in the
description. After you do that, go watch
this video next to see what men's body
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