The Best Fat Loss Diet: How Successful Entrepreneurs Lose Weight
How many times have you failed a diet because you were overwhelmed with work?
Yes, weight loss is extra hard when running a business. But there's a way to do it! Being a busy entrepreneur with a stressful job is not an excuse to be out of shape.
There are many great examples of business owners who went from overweight to shredded. People who realized what’s preventing them from getting in shape. Then worked hard to achieve the physiques they wanted. All this without sacrificing business opportunities and growth.
Why It's HARDER to Lose Weight as a Busy Entrepreneur
Business owners face unique challenges. Trying to maintain good eating habits is not easy when dealing with things like:
- work hours spilling over to the weekends and holidays
- long international calls that may happen at any time due to time zone differences
- highly disruptive traveling schedule (let’s not forget jet lag)
- often assuming the role of a one-man operation managing multiple tasks
- making hard decisions that can potentially affect countless people
It’s not only a lack of time. All that stress drains your mental resources. There's also a high risk of developing a compulsive eating disorder because of work.
Every time you start a diet your hectic schedule makes it impossible to stick to it. At least not an extend where you achieve results. You might be able to find the time and willpower to attempt to lose weight. But for anything to work, it has to become a daily routine. That’s next to impossible when there’s a new emergency every hour that requires immediate attention.
All this doesn’t mean you can’t get fit. However, standard weight loss solutions may not work for you. Also, you might have to accept that there will be some unavoidable trade-offs. That could include giving up something on the business side. Or maybe losing weight at a slower rate.
How Is Business Affected When You're Out of Shape?
You may not realize it, but excess body fat hurts your business. You’re literally losing money, time-efficiency, and productivity by staying out of shape.
Poor eating habits can lead to:
- chronically low energy levels
- brain fog and decreased problem-solving capacity
- low motivation and decreased drive (linked to low testosterone levels)
- elevated stress levels (linked to increased cortisol levels)
- poor sleep and recovery
- weakened immune system
- health complications requiring extensive treatment (e.g. diabetes, heart problems)
Body fat is part of the endocrine system. It is responsible for the production and regulation of hormones. These are the body’s chemical messengers. They affect the function of metabolism, tissue repair and growth, sexual functions, energy management, sleep, mood, and more.
Everything in the body is connected. If one thing goes out of balance everything else is affected. A poor diet can easily result in a multitude of problems. Your ability to function properly will be greatly affected. Everyday tasks become much harder to deal with.
In simple terms, you turn into a dumber, slower, and sickly version of your normal self.
Which Is the Best Diet When You’re Crazy Busy?
You don’t need a diet. You need a system. In reality, the vast majority of diets can work. The most successful approaches to nutrition come down to a few basics:
- eat fewer calories
- consume adequate amounts of protein
- eat mostly whole foods
- minimize processed foods
These are things you already know. The issue is most diets have fairly rigid rules. Limitations that put you in situations that needlessly stress you out.
Imagine following a high-fat diet (e.g. keto). You go to a business lunch, just to realize it’s a vegan restaurant. Plant-based meals are not a problem per se. However, everything on the menu is high-carb. Now, you either have to go hungry or break the rules of the diet.
Diets based on specific meal timings or food selections changing across days are even harder to follow. This doesn’t mean you should always wing it. There has to be some structure to your eating habits. Basic rules and limitations that still allow for a great level of flexibility.
Lose Weight Despite a Hectic Schedule and Unexpected Events
You need a flexible system. One that allows you to deal with a variety of situations, despite what options are available to you at the time. Also, be able to handle missed or extra meals, without this significantly impacting weight loss.
When it comes to getting leaner, the most important thing is to reduce calorie consumption. Calories are how we measure energy in food. Energy used for growth, repair, and also to fuel daily activities. Excess calories that cannot be used up immediately are stored as fat.
The process works the other way as well. When you don’t consume enough calories to sustain daily needs, the body can tap into its fat stores. That’s what happens during a diet. You eat less and force the body to burn fat. Though increasing activity can also have that effect.
This is the key to fat loss. Being in a caloric deficit is the one rule you cannot ignore. This is your limitation. However, almost everything else related to food can change. Meal timings, meal composition, meal size, even day-to-day consumption.
Keep your average weekly intake low. Some days you may enjoy a pretty big meal. Some days you can barely have time to grab a bite. It’s the average that matters. Keep track of your daily intake and make sure the total weekly stays low. Then you’re good.
Limitations of Flexible Dieting
Theoretically, you can eat anything at any time, provided you stay within your calorie limitations. That allows you massive flexibility. But it’s far from a bulletproof method.
You need to measure food intake in some way. Either by tracking calories using phone apps, or keeping a food log. If you’re new to food logging you have to be very strict in the beginning. Though over time you’ll memorize the caloric values of most foods.
Tracking calories doesn’t mean you won’t overeat or make mistakes. You need to develop the habit first. Then continuously exercise disciple to do it consistently. Losing fat is not easy. But it can be made easier. Flexible dieting is one of the simplest and most effective solutions.
The basic principles of other diets still apply. Most of your calories should be coming from whole foods. Theoretically, you can lose fat on a diet consisting of entirely processed foods. But most junk food is too hard to resist. You’ll find it hard to not go over your calorie targets.
Lastly, you still need to retain some basic eating routines. Yes, total weekly consumption has the highest importance. It’s still not great if daily or even per-meal consumption changes all the time. Managing too many variables makes reaching the weekly target almost impossible.
Bottom line, flexible dieting is not a miracle solution. But is by far one of the best solutions for busy entrepreneurs. It provides you with a ton of options for diet customization. Also, unexpected events become much easier to manage without affecting your fat loss.
How Do You Start?
There are a number of apps that make food tracking almost effortless. Just follow the instructions provided. Some of the most popular apps include:
Note that apps rely on algorithms that might not always work perfectly given your unique situation. Calculated targets may be off. The database might lack certain items or the nutritional values can be incorrect.
That’s why you may also want to consider working with an experienced fitness coach.
How Do Successful Entrepreneurs Keep the Weight Off?
It’s important to realize diets are not meant to last forever. Most fat loss phases end after a few months. The more fat you have, the lose the longer it will take. But knowing there’s an end to it is is an advantage. It makes it easier to accept and deal with temporary trade-offs.
However, there’s an important caveat. Achieving great results is only worth it if you are able to maintain your new lean body. You don’t want to regain all the fat back soon after the diet ends.
As a busy entrepreneur, you want to fix the problem once. Not having to revisit it every several months. That’s why you need to cultivate the right habits to prevent work from ruining your body again.
The Last Diet of Your Life: How to Stay Lean Forever
There are people who stay lean without following structured diets all the time. Those are individuals who have implemented a few key lifestyle changes.
Most strategies aim to decrease energy (caloric) intake or increase energy expenditure. Combining a few approaches leads to even better results.
Here a few examples:
- At least half of your meal should consist of fruits or veggies – these foods are very filling and also low in calories. You’ll easier time dealing with hunger without consuming too many calories.
- Nore more than 10-20% of foods should be heavily processed – most junk food is highly palatable and very caloric. By limiting such options you minimize energy intake.
- Implement fasting – you can explore full-day fasts or intermittent fasting to reduce food intake throughout the week or day.
- Lift weights at least 3x a week – lifting weights helps build muscle. Apart from the calories you burn during strength training, muscle growth also helps improve metabolism.
- Implement cardio at least 2x a week – a fairly easy way to remain active if you have no gym experience. Start with 30 mins on the treadmill or stationary bike. Over time you can increase the intensity, duration, and frequency of sessions.
- Hit at least 7,000 steps a day – by far the simplest way to increase the amount of energy you use up during the day. Walking is a highly-sustainable habit. That makes the most-effective way to burn the most calories throughout the week.
Based on your physique goals you may still have to do some structured dieting occasionally. But staying in shape requires far less effort than getting in shape.
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