We have all seen that guy or girl in the gym who is there every day without fail. From the outside it looks like they are doing everything right. They strength train 3-4 times a week and never miss cardio.

But guess what? Their body isn’t changing.

They’re putting in tons of work and yet they look the same as they did when you joined the gym over a year ago. Sound familiar? Let’s be honest this is the story of most people you see in gyms today. The problem is they are not focusing on their diet! If I had to guess they aren’t managing their stress properly or sleeping well. But for the sake of this article let’s just focus on diet and why it is the most important factor when it comes to achieving your physique and fitness goals.

The bottom line is no matter what you do, what you eat and how much you eat trumps everything at the end of the day. If you want to look better naked then you must focus more on what you eat and how much. Which leads me to my next point….

Calories Count!

If you want to lose weight, then guess what? You need to put your body into a calorie deficit. If your goal is to build muscle and gain weight, then you need to be in a calorie surplus. Properly planned macronutrients are also very important. But I will cover that in another article.

Every diet works! It doesn’t matter if you do a ketogenic diet, Paleo, low carb high fat, high carb low fat, Atkins etc... As long as you put yourself into a calorie deficit then you will lose weight.

When it comes to choosing what diet you’re going to use, adherence is the number one factor to consider. It doesn’t matter what you do, but if you choose to do a diet you can’t stick to then there will never be any progress. I would rather my clients and I develop a diet that is 80% perfect and it’s something that they can stick to for many years than give them a 100% perfect diet and have them give up 2 months later because it’s something they can’t handle. A person who’s on an 80% perfect diet for 5 years will look like a superhero compared to someone who does everything right but for only 2 months.

Always design your diets with adherence in mind.

Food choices do matter in terms of overall health but if you eat too much grilled chicken breast and sweet potatoes you will still struggle to lose weight. At the other end of the spectrum you can eat a diet consisting of only Twinkies and cookies but if you are still in a calorie deficit at the end of the day then guess what? You will still lose weight. This isn’t a healthy option and I don’t recommend doing this but if all you care about is dropping some weight it will work.

I prefer sticking to foods that have single ingredients. Food that our ancestors would have eaten. Proteins such as grass feed beef, wild caught fish, free range chicken, eggs and any wild game. For carbs I like sweet potatoes, certain fruits and white rice for post workout. Yes, white rice isn’t paleo, but it is digested well by most people and it can be a valuable post workout meal.

Coconut sugar is a great natural sweetener that goes well with sweet potatoes. Getting your fats through grass feed beef and butter is especially tasty and good for you. Avocados and olive oil are other tasty fats that can be added to the meal.

The word diet doesn’t need to be associated with bad tasting and boring foods.

All the foods I mentioned above can be made into an amazing meal that taste so good that you look forward to eating it.

With tons of different food tracking apps available right on our phones, tracking your calories has never been easier. Simply chose a well-reviewed app and plug your food in for every meal. If your goal is to lose weight and you eat 2000 calories for 1 week straight and you don’t lose or gain any weight, then you should try eating 1800 calories for a week or two and see what happens. If your weight drops by 2-3 pounds, then that’s perfect. Stay at that calorie intake for the next few weeks or until your weight loss stalls.

Don’t be tempted into reducing calories for the sake of reducing calories! If you are leaner and the scale is dropping at a decent rate, then there is no need to make an adjustment.