A client once asked me:
“What do you think of pink Himalayan rock salt?”
I said:
“Depends. What do you want it to do?”
She didn’t say anything.
She just tapped her stomach.
Belly fat.
That was it.
She’d heard somewhere that pink Himalayan salt could help get rid of it.
I still remember that conversation because, weirdly enough, I actually use pink Himalayan salt myself.
There’s a grinder of it in my kitchen.
Every time I see it, I think of her tapping her stomach.
And I get it.
Because wouldn’t it be brilliant if that was how this worked?
A couple of twists over your dinner.
Bit of salt.
Belly fat gone.
Job done.
Unfortunately, pink Himalayan salt is very good at making your meals taste better.
Its fat-burning powers are somewhat less impressive.
And this isn’t really a story about salt.
It’s about something nearly all of us do.
We desperately want there to be something else.
Something we’ve missed.
A food.
A supplement.
A detox.
A different diet.
A metabolism hack.
Something that explains why that last bit of body fat won’t shift.
Anything other than being told:
“Keep doing the boring stuff for a bit longer.”
Because that answer is annoying.
Especially when you feel like you’ve already been making an effort.
And this client definitely felt like she had.
Over time, the conversation changed.
Maybe it was her age.
Maybe it was her hormones.
Maybe her body just didn’t respond like it used to.
And to be fair, age and hormones can affect things.
They can make managing your weight feel harder.
But eventually we got to a point where we decided to properly test what would happen if we removed as much guesswork as possible.
She did one of our 12 Week Shoots.
That’s not something we’d normally throw somebody into when they first walk through the door.
It’s much more focused.
She tracked her calories.
Kept her protein high.
Got her steps in.
Weight trained three times a week.
And started paying much more attention to the whole week rather than just the bits she was proud of.
That last one mattered.
Because Monday to Thursday had never really been the issue.
The weekend was a different story.
And there’s nothing unusual about that.
You can be bang on for four or five days and then quietly eat back a large chunk of the progress over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
A meal out.
Few drinks.
Takeaway.
Bits while you’re cooking.
Something sweet afterwards.
Breakfast the next morning because you’re hanging.
None of those things are terrible.
You’re allowed to have a life.
But they still count.
And once she stopped looking for the reason it couldn’t work and properly committed to the things that could…
The light bulb went on.
Her weight came down.
Her shape changed.
And eventually the belly fat she’d originally pointed at came down too.
No Himalayan magic required.
Just enough of the right things, for long enough.
Which brings me to my highly advanced guide to losing “stubborn body fat”.
Ready?
1. Get into a calorie deficit.
There it is.
The boring answer.
For your body to lose stored fat, over time you need to be taking in less energy than you’re using.
You don’t need to starve yourself.
You don’t need to live on lettuce.
But the deficit has to actually exist.
2. Keep your protein high.
Make it a priority with your meals.
It helps keep things simple and supports the muscle you’re training hard to keep.
3. Get your steps in.
Nothing heroic.
Walk.
Move.
Do it regularly.
4. Weight train three times a week.
Keep lifting.
Keep progressing.
Give your body a reason to keep hold of the muscle while your weight comes down.
5. Keep going.
Important one, this.
6. Check your weekends.
Ah.
There it is.
The bit nobody likes checking.
If progress keeps stopping, have a proper look at all seven days.
Not just Tuesday when you had chicken and vegetables.
7. Still not moving? Adjust your calories.
Small change.
Nothing stupid.
Then give it enough time to tell you something.
8. Keep going.
Yep.
Again.
9. No, you can’t stop yet.
Three good weeks is great.
It also isn’t very long.
10. Keep going.
11. Stop searching for another diet.
The current one might be working perfectly well.
You might simply need to follow it properly for longer.
12. Keep going.
13. Yes, it’s taking longer than you wanted.
That’s probably the most frustrating bit.
You’re training.
Watching what you eat.
Getting your steps in.
Turning things down.
Making an effort.
So naturally you want something back.
And when progress slows down, your brain starts searching.
Maybe carbs are the problem.
Maybe you need fasting.
Maybe your metabolism has packed in.
Maybe you need some supplement you’ve just seen online.
Maybe you need pink Himalayan salt.
Or…
Maybe you need another few weeks.
14. Keep going.
15. Nearly there…
That’s often the truth about “stubborn” body fat.
It isn’t necessarily refusing to leave.
You’ve just reached the stage where the easy progress has already happened and patience matters more.
Ironically, that’s often when people change everything.
They abandon the plan.
Try something new.
Get stricter.
Get fed up.
Have a blowout.
Then start again on Monday.
And suddenly another month has passed.
The most useful thing you can sometimes do is far less exciting:
Stop restarting.
Get your calories roughly right.
Keep protein high.
Train three times a week.
Move plenty.
Be honest about your weekends.
Then give the bloody thing time.
Because that client eventually found the answer she was looking for when she first asked me about Himalayan salt.
It just wasn’t the answer she hoped I’d give her.
The boring stuff worked.
She just had to stick with it long enough to find out.
-Ryan