How would you feel if I said there was a really easy and painless way to lose 2 stone?

We’re so often bombarded with the idea that you need long, brutal workouts and live on magic tea and salad leaves to drop weight. But that’s because you being sold a quick fix.

Instead of punishing yourself, how about you look at it this way. To drop two stone, you need to burn an extra 96,000 calories. Now, you can either run non-stop for 73 hours to create this calorie deficit, or you can simply create a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day for 192 days.

Most people can create a deficit of 500 calories without feeling tired and miserable. A Snickers bar has about 250 calories, and a moderately short workout would bag you the other 250. That’s without changing anything else with your current lifestyle.

I go into more detail in this video

Here’s the transcript of the video.

Tregs: Let’s talk about this, guys, okay? Calorie deficits, thanking you. Let me try and balance this. Let me try and balance this. Calorie deficits. I follow a guy on Instagram called Martin Macdonald, not a … Yeah, kind of. I’ll get a picture and put it in members club, Daz. Martin Macdonald, he was on my podcast. He runs a great business called Mac-Nutrition. Friend of mine. Very successful. He was talking about calorie deficits yesterday on his Instagram stories.

Tregs: Something that was really interesting was he spoke about … Somebody asked him, said, “I want to lose 2 stone.” If I asked this to a client, “Would losing 2 stone change your life?” That’s quite a significant drop in weight. That is a very significant drop in weight. Normally, if I’ve got a PT class and I say, “Look, let’s look at losing 2 stone,” they’d be like, “Yeah, I’d be happy with that.”

Tregs: Here’s what I see a lot of in January. A lot of people come in. They’re like, “I want to lose a stone this month. I want to do XYZ.” Well, calm down a second, right? What I’ve been saying to a lot of clients is, “What did you lose last year in total?” Generally what I see is this: most people ended the year the same weight as what they started it. That kind of tells me something, that whatever you did wasn’t working. Maybe you’re too aggressive. Maybe you didn’t look at the long-term plan. You were just like, “Got to lose this weight in January! It’s after Christmas. I feel like shit.” There’s a different way of looking at it.

Tregs: Martin Macdonald did some calculations yesterday, and he said, “If you wanted to lose 2 stone, which is 28 pounds, that is a calorie deficit of 96,000 calories.” So you actually have to burn 96,000 calories more than you take in. He equated that being a 500 calorie deficit a day for 196 days. I did a screenshot of it. I’m going to share it later. I thought it was brilliant.

Tregs: If you said to somebody, “Would you like to lose 2 stone this year? Would you like to lose 2 stone this year? Would that change your life?” A lot of people would say yes. Well, actually you could lose that being consistent for seven months of the year, being in a deficit every day, or just a weekly deficit of 3500 calories. So you could use the whole calorie borrowing method and things like that. It doesn’t have to be a strict 500 a day.

Tregs: Currently after Christmas, I’m working on about, just myself, 2300 calories a day. That’s a nice number for me. It’s not too aggressive, but with my movement and my current weight, height, activity levels, all that, that gives me a pound a week weight loss. I think to myself, “That’s good.” But we all know weekends come along. People like a beer. They go out, etc., etc. But actually how I feel on 2300 calories is great. Fantastic. I can eat plenty of food. I feel good. But it’s just about maintaining that, right? So whilst I feel good on it, we all know that we tend to overeat on the weekends and things happen and all of a sudden you’ve had a few beers. We’re humans. We’re emotive creatures. We’re not robots, okay? Because if we were robots, we could just go, “We’re going to eat 2300 calories a day,” and everything would be easy, right?

Tregs: But it did make me think more and more about people playing the long game. I’m having a lot of conversations with clients. At the minute, I’ve got some of my bespoke clients. They’re on quite low calories. Now, I will never … If I’ve got a client who wants to lose weight, I’ll never tell them to eat more. I’ll say you have to stick to a deficit that you can maintain and sustain.

Tregs: I’ve done 1700, 1800 calories a day when I was trying to lean down as much as I can for running a half marathon, because I just run better at a certain weight. That was great, but I wasn’t too happy on those calories, not as happy as I am now. Not as bubbly and up for it. I remember … If you’re on slightly more calories, you’re going to create a bigger output in training, so you probably get it in effect. If you’re on slightly more calories, you’re going to be able to push more in training. I just found on 1800 calories a day, I was kind of just … I was losing weight, don’t get me wrong. I was getting lean but kind of wasn’t enjoying my day-to-day life as much as I should, wasn’t enjoying my training as much as I should.

Tregs: So the fact I can eat 2300 calories, lose a pound a week, great. All I’ve got to do is … And I’m just using myself as an example. All I have to do is do that for 196 days. Deficit, 500 calories a day, very easy, every day. I lose 2 stone. I don’t want to lose 2 stone. I’m just giving you an example about how you can play the long game, because I think too many people in January are going, “Got to get it off. Got to smash it.” I’m working with a lot of clients now and I’m going, “Let’s look six months down the line. Let’s look 90 days. Let’s look 180 days down the line. Let’s look down the line, okay, and play the long game.”

Tregs: Playing the long game, what actually I like … Yeah, great, guys, and do you know what, guys? If you’re on low cals and you’re feeling good, crack on, okay? I always say this: can you sustain it? If you can, great. If you find that you’re not feeling so good, up your cals a little bit. It ain’t a problem, okay? So if you’re feeling good, crack on, carry on doing it. As long as you’re in a deficit, giving yourself plenty of nutrients, great.

Tregs: This year, think about … If you put the work in now … Let’s say you look at over 90 days, so from January 1 to, oh hell. From January 1 to March 31 is 90 days, okay? January 1 to March 31 is 90 days. You imagine you were consistent for these 90 days, and then when the seasons change in April, you’ve already put a big chunk in your weight loss goal from being consistent during these darker months. I’m just being consistent. Nothing unsustainable, just being consistent. Does that make sense?

Tregs: Don’t be in a rush for this. You’ve got to enjoy it. Somebody has just joined one of my six-week plans a couple of weeks ago, and he’s like, after six days, a new client. After six days, he’s going, “I’m feeling good. actually, I’m feeling really good. I’ve got loads of energy. I’m loving the workouts. But my body’s not changed.” That was a genuine question. I said to him, “Dude, this is a journey, man. You’re six days in. How long did it take you to get out of shape?” Right? You are six days in, okay? This is a journey. You’re not going to see changes in your body in 14 days or in six days. It’s going to take probably a month, six weeks until you really start to see changes. You’ve got to embrace the change and everything that comes with it. It’s like people want to look better now, but actually you just said you’re feeling better. Is that not enough? Is that not enough? Surely feeling good should be the primary objective, and then the weight loss becomes a byproduct, right? I hope that makes sense.

Tregs: Next point I want to talk about is, and this is again, it’s just giving you guys some food for thought. I’ve been playing around, I just posted on my page with some higher fat, higher protein breakfasts. In the years gone by when I didn’t understand calories, I’d have been like, “Yes, paleo breakfast is all clean.” Basically, my breakfast this morning was, and it was a later breakfast because I was out last night with my lads. I had five eggs cooked in butter, I had bacon, three bacon, I had one avocado, I had some spinach leaves and cucumber. Now, there’s not really much calories in the spinach leaves and cucumber. Probably 50, right? But there’s calories in the butter, the eggs, the bacon, the avocado. I factored it in, and it … No, I haven’t gone keto. It’s about 1100 calories, so 1100 calories. Those calories count, trust me. But here’s the thing: that breakfast keeps me full all day. So higher fat, higher protein breakfast for me, I’m not telling you it’s the only way, help keep me satiated.

Tregs: I’m just trying to give you some food for thought. These are just my musings. There’s not a right or wrong way, okay? Somebody said to me the other day, “Well, that’s quite high in calories. Why don’t you just have some carbs or something? Surely you’d get more enjoyment out of that.” Never, mate. I love a bagel in the mornings. When the coffee man comes around 9:00, I have a bagel, coffee. I said, “Look, I could have two bagels and a latte and get me a thousand calories. But actually, what would happen is I’d feel hungrier very, very soon.” At the minute when I’m trying to maintain a sustainable deficit, I find that actually a higher fat, higher protein breakfast works for me in the morning, keeps me full all day, and then I’ll enjoy some carbs in the evening with my meal.

Tregs: Again, I’m not telling you to do this. I’m just asking you, right? You’ve got to go by how you feel. Ask yourself all the time, “How do I feel?” I guarantee you this, right? Most guys want more energy. Most guys want to wake up with some get-up-and-go. Most guys want to get up and feel like, ” hell, yeah, I’m ready to rock here. I don’t feel shit.” So your primary focus should always be about how am I feeling? What is my energy like? What is my clarity like? That should be the primary question.

Tregs: Scott, I just said I’m on 2300 at the minute. That’s me at the minute. I’m not in a rush or anything. I’m really happy with where I’m at. I’ve got a couple of races coming up. Thank you, Daz. We’re always evolving mate. We’re always evolving. There’s my client. I’ll just give him a little beep. Hang on. Two minutes. Got to go in two minutes.

Tregs: Yeah, my calorie goal for the day is 2300 at the minute. That gives me a pound a week off based on my activity. But I’m not in a rush for anything, mate. I’m in a good place. I actually just picked up a hamstring injury yesterday, so that’s scuppered things a little bit. But hey, it’s not about me, it’s about you guys.

Tregs: All I want you to think about, because I’m going to have to go in a minute, is how you feel. How do I feel? How are these foods making me feel? Because it’s all very well getting on the scales and going, “Yeah, I lost 4 pounds this week!” But you feel like shit, and you’re going, “When does this end?” What happens if you’re feeling good now, you’re in a deficit you can maintain and it’s really easy, and you’re just going, “This is good. Okay, I can stick to this. I’m not asking when it’s going to end, because I actually feel really good. If I can do this for the next 90 days, I’m going to be feeling shit hot when the seasons change.” I want you to think about that, right? So think ahead.

Tregs: One of my goals this year, a personal goal of mine, is to finish my one-to-one coaching earlier three days a week. At the minute, I do it two days a week, but we just got a dog. I want to try and finish earlier three days a week. What I mean by earlier is I want to be finished by 4:00 so I can get home and the kids are home from school, and I’ll be kicking a ball around them in the field. We’re taking the dogs for a walk. That’s one of my goals.

Tregs: One of my goals is actually to put in a really good shift now with my nutrition and my training between today and that date so that when that time comes, my fitness and my energy, my clarity is all even better than it is now so that every night of the week I can be out in the field, or three nights a week, with my two sons. My one son is six. My other one is five in two days. They’re really into their football now, and they’re training, doing all that. But I want to spend more time with them out in the field kicking the ball.

Tregs: So one of my goals is in the next 90 days, is that these are the dark, boring months. You come home, it’s dark, you can’t go out really far with the kids. You can’t play football in the field. But in 90 days, or come middle of April when the seasons change and the clocks go forward, I’ve got to do that. I’ve got a little goal in my head of, right, I’m going to be that level of fitness, that weight, because I’ve put the work in now, okay?

Tregs: I’m not in a rush. 90 days is a nice time, and I want you to start to think about it like this, guys, all right? Stop panicking that you’ve got to get all the January weight off now. You don’t have to get it off now. Play the long game. What happened if you lost 2 stone this year? Would it change your life? What if you could do it sustainably without any suffering? Because, you know, a 500-calorie deficit a day ain’t that hard to achieve. If you’re hitting a 1500- or 1000-calorie deficit a day, that might be. That might be. You might drop weight quick, but you’ve just very much got to go on how you feel and what is more sustainable.

Tregs: So think 90 days from now. Think 180 days from now. Think three quarters of the year, so 270 days away from now. Those small, daily, consistent changes, they’re going to add up. You could be a completely different shape, completely different energy levels, if you just played more of a longer game this year.

Tregs: I’m going to ask you this question now because my client’s just getting changed. If you ended 2018 at the same weight that you started it but your goal in 2018 was to lose weight, then something went wrong. I’m not having a go at you. Something went wrong. Maybe you come out the traps too much trying to be too aggressive, okay? Don’t let that happen this year, okay? If losing 2 stone would change your life, or a stone, surely be better to do it slowly, sustainably, comfortably where you get to enjoy life, where you can still maintain a good output in training, and it just take three, four, five months longer.