Belly fat is really easy to gain but seems almost impossible to lose. Now, you're probably aware that your diet is the key to losing fat from this area, but you likely have no idea where to start, let alone how to keep the process going long enough to get rid of the most stubborn areas. Today, I'll show you step-by-step in three stages how to eat to start losing fat and how to keep that going until you've successfully lost all of your belly fat for good.
Before we dive into the three stages, let me explain what these stages mean and why you need them in the first place. You're likely somewhere between a body fat percentage of 15 and 25, or maybe even higher. Regardless of where you are right now, you need to lose enough fat from other areas of your body before your body will start prioritizing burning off your belly fat for energy. For most people, this starts to really happen around 15% body fat. By the time you reach around 12% or 10% body fat, your belly fat will be almost completely gone.
While your diet is key to achieving this, the diet you use to get you from, let's say, 25% to 15% most often won't be enough to take you down to the next level of 12%. The same is true for going from 12% down to even 10%. As you get leaner and leaner, there are certain things you need to be aware of and certain changes you should make with your diet to prevent you from getting stuck and to prevent you from losing muscle.
Stage 1: Kick-Start Fat Loss
The first stage is designed to kick-start the fat loss process and keep it going until you get to about 15% body fat. Throughout this stage, your hunger levels will be low, your risk of muscle loss will also be low, and physiologically it will be the easiest stage to get through. This stage is actually quite simple; there are only two factors you need to focus on: calories and protein.
Let's first talk about calories. You don't need to completely cut out carbs, sugar, or any of your favorite foods. All you need to do is create what's known as an energy deficit to start forcing your body to burn body fat for energy. You create this deficit by consuming fewer calories than your body burns every day. To find the appropriate energy deficit for your body, take your body weight in pounds and multiply that by anywhere from 11 to 13. If you're a taller individual, younger, or more active, go with the higher end. If you're shorter, older, or less active, go with the lower end. The number you get will be a rough estimate of the amount of calories you should eat every day.
But to hit your goal calorie intake, some foods are better than others. I recommend focusing on what's known as low-calorie density foods. These are foods that, for the amount of space they take up in your stomach, will only add a relatively low amount of calories to your daily total. For example, here's what 200 calories of Oreos look like compared to 200 calories of strawberries and carrots.
Not only that, but since low-calorie density foods tend to be unprocessed, they also tend to require more calories to burn and digest than more processed foods. As for how much of a difference this can make for fat loss, a recent 2019 study took 20 adults and first ran them through a diet consisting of only high-calorie density processed foods for two weeks. Afterwards, they switched them to a diet of low-calorie density unprocessed foods for two weeks. In both conditions, they were allowed to eat as much food as they wanted.
The result? The processed foods diet led to almost 2 pounds of weight gain. Once they switched to the unprocessed diet, however, their daily calorie intake dropped by over 500 calories and they ended up losing over two pounds.
At the end of this stage, I'll provide a list of low-calorie density food items for you to pick from. But before that, there is one more factor you need to pay attention to. Although eating fewer calories than your body needs will help you lose weight, you want as much of that weight loss to be from fat rather than muscle. This is where protein comes in.
You need to start eating more protein. In fact, in studies where subjects go on the same diet and lose the same amount of weight, the ones who eat more protein end up losing more fat and less muscle. As for how much protein you should aim for, a good recommendation for relatively heavier males in this stage who are at a higher body fat is to eat one gram per centimeter of your height. So, if you're 175 centimeters tall, you need to eat around 175 grams of protein per day, with the rest of your calories coming from carbs and fats. If you're a relatively lighter individual or closer to 15% body fat, then you want to multiply your body weight in pounds by 0.8 and at a minimum eat that many grams of protein per day.
This might sound like a lot at first, but as you'll see, it's pretty easy to do if you choose the right protein sources. To apply this, take a look at these lists: here's a list of some low-calorie density unprocessed foods, and here's a list of protein sources ordered from highest to lowest in terms of how much protein they contain relative to their calories. Use these lists to build your meals throughout the day and try to have one lean protein source and at least one serving of fruits and/or veggies in each of your meals.
For example, instead of a muffin for breakfast, have some egg whites with blueberries and oatmeal. You definitely still can have processed foods now and then, but just be mindful of your serving sizes and enjoy them in moderation. Focus only on calories and protein every day, and if you're consistent, you'll be able to get your body fat down to 15%.
Stage 2: Fine-Tuning Your Approach
At this point, you'll likely need to refine your approach to continue getting results. Before we dive into the next stage, I'm curious: what stage are you currently in right now and what's your goal body fat percentage? Let me know in the comments down below and also let me know if what I'm about to say later on in this article changes your mind at all about your goal.
This is where stage two comes in, which involves going from 15% down to 12% body fat. By this point, you'll be hungrier, your fat loss will slow down, and you'll be at a slightly greater risk of muscle loss. As a result, this is where most people get stuck. There are two things that will help you overcome this.
First, you need to get more precise with your approach from stage one. As your body loses more and more fat, your metabolism will decrease and you'll start burning fewer calories per day. This is your body's way of protecting its remaining fat stores. This means the energy deficit you used in stage one to get down to 15% body fat may no longer be enough to get you down to 12% body fat. To overcome this, if you haven't yet been doing so, you should start tracking your daily calorie intake and doing so more carefully. You might not think this is necessary, but research has shown the average person will think they eat about 429 fewer calories per day on average than they actually do. So even if just temporarily, measure out your food to see how many calories you're actually consuming and ensure you're in an energy deficit.
Second, this stage is when you'll want to start addressing your carb and fat intake. Take a look at this list of carbs and fats. Although healthy fats are needed in your diet, on a gram per gram basis, fats contain more than twice as many calories as carbs do. Because of this, an effective approach is to keep your protein intake high as is, but lower your daily fat intake to the lower end of what's recommended for general health. This is about 20% to 25% of your daily calorie intake. As a result, you'll now have room to introduce more carbs into your diet. These extra carbs can not only help you better manage your hunger levels, but they'll also provide you with the energy boost to support your daily activities and performance at the gym, helping you burn more calories every day and better maintain your muscle mass.
Make these tweaks, and if you're consistent, you'll be able to get down to around 12% body fat. This is where stage three comes in.
Stage 3: The Final Push
This is the most difficult stage. While consistency with what we mentioned earlier will be the key to progressing through this stage, it's going to require more discipline and sacrifice.
First off, not only will you very likely have to be accurately tracking your calories every day, you'll also want to ensure your daily meals are making the best use of the limited calories you have. At this point, your hunger levels will be the highest they've been, so most of your meals throughout the day will need to come from high-volume foods that will help you stay full for fewer calories. I have a past video that shows the most effective high-volume food swaps to make, which I'll link at the end of this article.
This also means that you'll need to be more disciplined when it comes to social events and dining out. You don't have to eliminate these completely, but you will have to make wise choices when you're out and plan in advance for big meals or alcohol, both of which can drastically increase your calorie intake without you even realizing it.
Lastly, ask yourself if the sacrifices are worth it. In my opinion, for most natural lifters, a body fat percentage of around 12% to 15% is the most sustainable physique. It's practical to maintain, you get the health benefits of being leaner, and you'll still look great, especially if you have a good amount of muscle and well-developed abs from training. While getting leaner than this can provide a bit more definition and cuts, it not only requires a lot more sacrifice, but for many people, that's when daily energy levels and strength will start to be negatively affected.
Unlike our Built With Science member Patrick, who started off with a good amount of muscle, you might actually not end up liking the way you look being really lean if you haven't yet built up much muscle. So while you definitely can get to 10% body fat by pushing through with what you've learned, at least consider hanging around at a higher level of body fat first. Be proud of how far you've come and realize that the extra push just may not be worth it, especially if you can't maintain it.
Overall, guys, the strategy when it comes to your nutrition is actually quite simple. The hard part is staying consistent with it. You have to be clear about what your goals are and then find what you personally enjoy and can stick to consistently in the long run. If you're looking for step-by-step guidance with setting up your nutrition plan and finding foods and meals that you actually look forward to eating every day, head on over to BuiltWithScience.com and take my analysis quiz to discover the best approach for you and your body.
I'd also highly suggest watching this video next for an exercise to help you speed up the fat loss process, or give this video a watch for some quick and easy fat loss food swaps you can make into your diet right away.
Thanks for reading, don't forget to subscribe and share, and see you next time!
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