Latest / Fit for Hiking / Ep. 130 How to Put Fat Loss on Easy Mode (By Supporting Your Metabolism)
Transcript
- Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a long time fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. In combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential and become inspired to live your most vibrant life. You're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for Hiking podcast. What's up you guys? Welcome to another episode of the fit for Hiking podcast. This is your host, Brady, and we are officially listening to the very first podcast of 2026 of the New Year. So we're going to really hit it hard today, because I know that this is kind of a time of year where we're feeling hungry. We're feeling eager to, like, actually make shit happen, like we want to make some moves. So if that's you and you're like, okay, this is it, I'm ready to really crush it this year. I'm tired of my excuses. I'm tired of the BS that I tell myself, my limiting beliefs, all of that. And you want to actually see some body transformation in 2026? Then this episode is for you. We're going to talk about how to put fat loss on easy mode. So if you are looking for any sort of body recomposition, leaning out, getting toned, fat loss, whatever you want to call it, if any of those ring a bell for you as a goal for you right now, then you need to listen to this episode. Okay? How are we going to put it on easy mode? We're going to focus on metabolic health and doing the right things to actually get the results, you know, about 5 or 6 years ago. I was a personal trainer. I was doing so many of the things that people think are the right things. I was honestly, I can genuinely say more active than anyone I know. I was teaching classes, doing in-person personal training. I was sometimes working out twice a day. I would say multiple times a week. I was always doing like hit style classes, lightweights, fast paced sprints, running, all of the things that people think, wow, that burns a lot of calories. Like, that's a fat loss workout right there. And I was always dieting. I was always cutting carbs. I was doing all of these things, and yet the scale was slowly going up. I was seeing negative progress. I was puffy, like, if you see photos of my face, I literally have like such a round, puffy face. It's crazy. What a difference. Um, versus now. And I'm doing almost none of that stuff now, and I've gotten way better results. Lost and sustained £25 over the past few years between having two kids still maintained it and 17 total inches like, that's a lot. I'm not a super large person to begin with, so definitely saw massive transformation by sharing, by doing what I'm sharing with you today. Okay, so if you want to see 2026 as your beginning of your transformation, if you want to feel like a different person by the end of the year in all the best ways, let's get into it. Okay, so. If that law's feels really hard right now, you feel like you're eating healthy, you're working out consistently, but your progress is either nonexistent or it's painfully slow. We're going to talk about how to make it easier when you're not just chasing the calorie burn and actually supporting your metabolism the right way. So why does it feel so hard? There's a couple different reasons. There's the diet regain and diet cycle. So you're feeling really motivated. You start a diet, then it doesn't work. Or you just like can't keep up with it. So then you fall off. You regain the weight and repeat cycle. Many, many people are stuck in this for years, if not decades. The next one is we feel like we're always in a diet that's not actually leading to results. So we're kind of always quasi dieting, but we don't really ever have structure or a plan, so it's not actually working. But we always feel like we're in a diet restricted mindset. So that sucks. It's like you're constantly mentally dieting without actually seeing the physical progress. Next reason would be overwhelmed from too much information. This can make you feel so much harder because you're like, am I doing the right things? I don't know, like there's so much stuff all over the internet, social media, everywhere that is contradicting. So it's hard to know if you're doing the right stuff. Chronic restriction, which lowers metabolic output over time. And I would say this is like the outliers. Like not a lot of people are actually falling into this category when you look at what they're actually eating, but they maybe think they are. But there are some women who actually are chronically restricting in their only eating like 1000 to 1200 calories consistently over time, and your metabolic adaptation is taking place. So you are now adapted to that low range of calories, high stress, low recovery. These can also lead to hormonal shifts. And those things can kind of amplify the struggle. And we experience this a lot as women because we have so many different hormonal shifts throughout our lives. So fat loss isn't hard because you're doing too little. It's hard because you're doing too much of the wrong things oftentimes. And that was very much the case for me, very much the case for so many women that we see coming through mountain metabolic coaching as we get them to a better place. So what does fat loss on easy mode actually mean? It's not going to be effortless or instant. Okay, so I'm not going to just like tell you to take a weight loss shot, take a supplement, take peptides, or do this like one thing and then magically you're going to drop all the weight. It's just going to melt off. No, that's not how it actually works. But it is going to mean fewer cravings, less food obsession, more efficient workouts. So you aren't having to manually burn calories 365 days a year and having more energy. So it's going to just make this whole process so much easier without all of the major struggles. When your metabolism is supported, your body is going to allow fat loss instead of resisting it. So that means getting and staying lean becomes a whole lot easier. Okay, so the metabolic metabolism mistakes that make fat loss harder are one eating too little for too long. So skipping meals chronically low protein because you're just not eating enough to actually eat enough protein. A lot of women are drastically under eating protein and have no clue. Even if you think, oh, I'm prioritizing protein. I am a perfect example of this because this past week I was like, oh my gosh, I've been doing so well with my protein. I actually tracked for a day and I was only at like 80g, like, and I'm someone who has a lot of experience with this. It is so easy to underestimate protein, underestimate or overestimate calories if you really just aren't tracking and have no dang clue where you're actually falling with all this saving calories all day, or skipping breakfast and then overeating later in the day. Um, always following some sort of diet for several years, several decades. Some women genuinely are eating too little sometimes and then binging other times. And so that that's the reason for the slow weight gain is because yes, they're under eating at times, but then it turns into a surplus because they're overeating and way over compensating for that. So it's important to understand the distinction between true metabolic adaptation. So actually getting your metabolism to an adapted state where it's used to really, really being underfed versus just not having true calorie awareness. There's a difference, right. And that's what we kind of help women decipher in our program in this first step. To using cardio to create a deficit. So over reliance on things like hit or long term endurance, running, things like that, it's going to increase your hunger. And it also is not burning as many calories as you think, even as the machines are telling you or your Apple Watch is telling you, those things overestimate. Okay, so looking at those numbers and always obsessing over calories burned is really kind of a trivial approach. Um, requires manually burning calories every day versus burning at rest. This is really a big part of putting it on easy mode. I don't want to have to manually burn hundreds of calories every single day. I want to be able to burn more calories at rest because I have more muscle and a more efficient metabolism. Okay, so that's a big part of this whole process, is doing the right types of workouts to get your metabolism working for you. Number three is never leaving a fat loss phase. You have no plan. You're just like always kind of under eating. And then you binge sometimes and under eating and then binge. This makes it really hard to ever see progress. And I know because I did it right. I did this for years and. I see so many women make this mistake. So you're not really committing to a fat loss phase or cut. You're just quasi dieting, which leads to crappy results and mental fatigue and metabolic adaptation. Number four ignoring other stressors. So you might be doing a lot of the right things, but you're ignoring your sleep quality. You're living a very high stress life. All these other factors in your life are filling your stress bucket to the point where it's overflowing, and then you're throwing hit and cardio. On top of that, mental and emotional stress can't really be separated from physical stress. Your nervous system senses it all as the exact same thing. So whether you're actually being chased by a tiger or you're stuck in traffic dealing with a ton of stress and your boss is calling you and you're getting familiar notifications, your body all registers that as the exact same thing. Okay, so you can't really separate those out. All of it. Contribute contributes to the same stress bucket and training without ample rest. Okay. So let's talk about the metabolism first fat loss framework. And this is what we do in our program mountain metabolic coaching. Step one you're going to fuel to build. This is important to do before you enter a fat loss phase. If you are metabolically adapted not everybody needs to. So I want to be clear on that. Some people are coming into our program and they are actually eating a lot, or they're eating average calories to maintain their weight. And it's okay for us to go right into fat loss phase. But if your metabolism isn't in a great spot, then this actually is very, very important before we can have a successful fat loss phase. So you need to get your maintenance calories healthy. You need to be eating adequate calories, adequate protein before you're heading into a cut. So this is where a metabolic reboot phase may be needed if you are in a bad spot coming into things. You need to increase carb intake, increase protein intake, and really work on getting maintenance up and then fat loss. Step two is training for muscle and this is hard for you if you are a cardio buddy. I know because I thought the same thing. I used to think once I get smaller then I'll start lifting weights for real. Like I'll follow a strength training program. I won't just do like these lightweight classes because right now I need to exercise for fat loss. ROM this is an approach that will absolutely keep you stuck, and strength training is going to have very much be the thing that changes your body composition even while you're overweight, even while you are not small enough, quote unquote yet. Okay, so do not wait until you've lost weight to start strength training. This is a really big misconception that keeps people stuck for a long time. So you're going to train 3 to 4 times a week strength training. We're not doing like super fast rest times. We're not doing circuits. We're not doing the fastest pace stuff possible, okay. We're focusing on gaining muscle. Muscle is your metabolic engine. So without enough you're not going to get toned. You can't tone bone, okay. You need that muscle in order to make this happen. Step three is we're going to lower stress and optimize hormones. So instead of all the cardio that you've been doing, you're going to walk instead every single day. We're just going to focus on getting that meat up. So your non exercise movement because that's better for your nervous system. And it's not going to make you crazy hungry. We're going to sleep as much as possible because this helps control your hunger hormones. So you're not going to overeat as much. Nervous system matters. So really paying attention to when you're feeling heightened all the time that you're spending in this like fight or flight state, we're going to try to focus on getting out of that. And there's a lot of stress regulation. Things that we talk about in the program and your coach can help you with. Daily habits like circadian rhythm, blood sugar balance, micronutrients for gut health. All of these things affect our hormones. It's not just like, oh, this one thing affects one hormone. All of this is like very much cohesive, right? So your workouts, your nutrition, your nervous system, your gut health, your hormones, your metabolism, they're all very much interwoven. So everything is going to affect everything. You can't separate these out. So we want to make sure that our daily habits are supporting healthy hormones, especially as a female. And step four we're going to go into a fat loss phase the right way by creating a small enough deficit that is not going to feel like you are doing anything crazy, like a crash diet, but it's going to be easy to adhere to. If we can't adhere to it, then it's not the right thing for you. Yes, you might see crazy fast results, but then what? How do you maintain it? Right? It needs to be realistic long term. So creating a small enough deficit but still big enough to see progress over time. Easier adherence. Less rebound okay. Weight gain after you're done. Better hormone response less metabolic adaptation. And no, we're not doing fat loss workouts. Your training is going to stay the same okay. So signs that fat loss is actually in easy mode that this is working. Your hunger should be predictable and not constant. So you shouldn't just be having like this all the time. Hungry? Yes, there's going to be times where you are having to restrict a little bit. You know, we're so afraid of that word. But like, if you're trying to lose weight, yes, there will be times where you're a bit hungry, you go to bed hungry, you're restricting a bit because maybe you had a super big meal. So the next one you're pulling back a bit. That's normal. That's okay. But you shouldn't be hungry all the time. Workouts should feel strong. Body recomposition should be taking place. So you're not just looking at the scale coming down, but you're noticing how your clothes are fitting, measurements improving. Um, progress photos are another great way to see this taking place. And weight is trending down slowly without the extremes. Okay, you shouldn't be having to do all these crazy things to drop weight, and you should not feel like you're on a diet. I can genuinely tell you that I have seen the physique progress that I have without ever dieting or feeling like I'm on a diet, or cutting carbs, or cutting sugar, or doing anything that drastic. In fact, the people who spend time with me would probably be like, you eat like a normal person, but I'm very, very consistent with the right things that actually move the needle for fat loss so that I can be more flexible in social settings so that I can go get ice cream with my daughter on a random Tuesday afternoon and not obsess over it. Okay. So those are all signs that you are getting to the place where fat loss is going to be on easy mode. And that's a beautiful thing. So who is this approach for and who is it not for? It's absolutely for women, you know, 25 to 50 who are wanting to finally see the progress that they've been working for, but not actually seen over time. So whether that's dropping £50 or maybe it's just the final £10 and you're like, I just feel puffy. I don't feel as toned as I think I should based on my efforts and how toned I want to be. If you have a history of dieting and have really struggled with that, if you have plateaued fat loss, or if you're just wanting sustainability, maybe you are always drawn to the extremes and you're like, okay, I've done that and it's it's just not working. Like, yeah, it works right now, but then where am I at six months from now or a year from now? So if you want something that is actually going to serve you long term, so you don't have to keep doing this over and over again, then this is for you. It's not for you. If you are looking for a crash diet, if you just want like the fastest possible results, this is not for you. If you want short term like quick fix, not for you. If you want the cheapest possible thing, not for you. This is a high quality program, so we're not going to be the cheapest out there. But if you don't want cheap results, you kind of have to be okay with investing in something that's going to get you where you want to be faster. So all of that to say, um, I hope that this has been helpful. This is kind of like a quick and dirty version of what we focus on in the program to support your metabolism and put fat loss on easy mode, and I promise this stuff works. You don't just have to trust me. You can look at all of our testimonials. We have a ton of amazing client results on our fit for Hiking Instagram page, so you can go to Fit Underscore for hiking and check those out. It's all over our page. Um, if you follow me on my personal Instagram, which is ponytail underscore on a trail, you can also go to my coaching highlight. And we have so many wins, so many client testimonials on there. So you can see it for yourself. And if you're looking for, um, just some quick tips of things to get started with right away. You can message me personally or the fit underscore for hiking Instagram page and just say metabolism and I will send you our metabolism reset cheat sheet. Okay, so this is just a quick way to get some steps of how to get started. A lot of this is what we already talked about today. So if it's more so the implementation that you're struggling with and knowing how this applies and fits into your busy life and your schedule and the things that you've struggled with in the past, then you don't need more information. You need to take some action here. So with that, I would definitely recommend applying for our coaching program. We have a couple spots left for starting January 12th, so if all of this is resonating, but you know that you need the support and accountability of a one on one coach to actually implement and stay consistent, then it's time to make some moves. So let's do it. You can message us and apply by just saying ready. So you can message me personally or fit underscore for hiking. We always have our application link in the show notes as well. So if you just want to go straight there go for it. You can click that link, apply and then I will reach out and we can chat a little bit more. Fat loss has always felt like a fight. This is your sign that it really does not have to. And it's so amazing to live in. Like the mental freedom of no longer having to put so much mental energy into food, obsession and calorie burn obsession and critiquing your body and not being confident and happy with where you're at. And I can speak from personal experience, like, it's such an amazing thing to walk through that and experience the freedom on the other side. So I would love to help you. My team is amazing and we've got you covered. If this is your goal in 2026. All right. So send us a message if you want to get started. If you love the show and can gain value from it every week, please share it with your friends. Give us a rating and review. Post it to your socials. All of those are really great, free, easy ways to help us out and we really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much for tuning in and I will chat with you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning into this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this. Be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at ponytail on Etrailer.com. Happy and healthy trails.