Answer 5 questions to get a personalised fat loss strategy based on where you're starting from.
This quiz recommends a fat loss approach based on your body composition, eating habits, training history, and past experience with dieting. Different starting points call for different strategies — the approach that works for someone with a lot of weight to lose and no training history is not the same as what works for a trained person hitting a plateau.
Fat loss requires a calorie deficit — consuming less energy than you expend. This is the one non-negotiable. All successful fat loss strategies, regardless of the dietary framework used, work because they reduce total calorie intake. The method you choose matters primarily in terms of adherence.
Beyond the deficit, the two variables that most influence body composition outcomes (as opposed to just scale weight) are protein intake and resistance training. High protein (1.8–2.4g per kg) preserves muscle mass during a deficit. Resistance training provides the stimulus to maintain that muscle. Without these, you lose fat and muscle — ending up lighter but not meaningfully leaner.
Best for people with hunger management challenges, a history of binge cycles, or those who have previously abandoned diets. A 300 kcal deficit produces approximately 0.3 kg of fat loss per week — slow, but sustainable and least disruptive to muscle mass.
Appropriate for most people with a moderate amount of weight to lose and reasonable hunger tolerance. Produces 0.5 kg per week of fat loss on average. This is the range most supported by research for long-term weight maintenance — fast enough to see progress, moderate enough to sustain.
Appropriate for people with significant excess weight (high body fat), where the larger deficit still leaves adequate calories for nutrition. At higher starting weights, muscle protein synthesis is better maintained even in larger deficits. Protein intake becomes even more critical at this deficit size.
Metabolic adaptation is the reduction in total energy expenditure that occurs in response to prolonged calorie restriction. The body downregulates non-exercise activity (fidgeting, posture, spontaneous movement), reduces thyroid output, and becomes more efficient — meaning the same calorie intake produces less of a deficit over time.
The solution is diet breaks — 2–4 week periods at maintenance calories — which partially reverse metabolic adaptation without causing fat regain. Research supports diet breaks as a strategy that improves long-term fat loss outcomes compared to continuous restriction.
Should I do cardio or weights for fat loss?
Both. Resistance training preserves muscle mass during a deficit and maintains metabolic rate. Cardio increases total calorie expenditure. The combination produces better body composition outcomes than either alone. If you can only do one, resistance training is the higher priority for most people — you can create a calorie deficit through diet alone, but you can't replace the muscle-preserving stimulus of lifting through diet alone.
Why am I not losing weight despite eating less?
The most common causes are: untracked calories (portion creep, cooking oils, drinks), an overly optimistic activity multiplier in TDEE calculations, or metabolic adaptation from extended restriction. Restarting precise tracking for 2 weeks resolves the first two. A diet break at maintenance resolves the third.
Is it better to lose weight fast or slow?
Faster is not better for body composition. Rapid weight loss (above 1% of bodyweight per week) is associated with greater muscle loss, faster metabolic adaptation, and higher rates of weight regain. Moderate rates (0.5–0.75% of bodyweight per week) produce better body composition outcomes and are easier to maintain.
Do I need to count calories to lose fat?
Not necessarily — but some form of awareness of intake is important. Many people lose fat successfully through dietary structure (eliminating specific foods, eating at set times) without explicit calorie counting. However, if progress has stalled, tracking calories precisely for 2–4 weeks almost always reveals the source of the problem.