I Swapped 20 Pounds Of Fat For 20 Pounds Of Muscle — Here’s How.

15 Daily Tweaks That Helped Me Become A Lean, Mean, Fighting Machine.

I haven’t always been fit.

In fact, in my early thirties I let my health get away from me. I tacked on a good 20 extra pounds of body fat, and I felt tired and sluggish all day long. (Not to mention my haircut was pretty darn bad… see below.)

Since then, my road to fit living has had many ups and downs, starts and stops — but over time I began to perfect and simplify my routines.

In time, these routines helped get me into the best shape of my life. Here’s proof of my transformation.

My 15 “tweaks” are all fairly simple — so much so that I hardly have to think about them anymore. Over time, they’ve become like second-nature.

Because of this, I’ve been able to sustain them for the past few years and have maintained a healthy body-fat percentage.

Give them a try. They just might change your life, too.

1) Drink Water First Thing in the Morning

This simple trick bestows numerous health benefits.

A few glasses of cold water just after waking helps re-hydrate you. It promotes skin hydration, re-energizes your mind, and helps fight toxins in your body.

For me, it literally wakes me up. I feel a wonderful jolt of energy from my morning water, and it sets such a good and healthy tone for the new day.

This is a trick that is super easy to do. First thing in the morning, just after rising from bed, before you brush your teeth, before you take your first sip of coffee, drink at least two large glasses of cold water.

You’ll be amazed at how such a simple trick can not only make you feel so much better — it will help you shift your mindset, first thing in the morning, toward healthy living.

At least it does so for me.

2) Wait on Breakfast — Fast For At Least 12 Hours

When it comes to fat loss, this is the biggie.

Intermittent fasting is a great way to sustainably control your calorie intake and to get your body in a state of Ketosis, where (simply put) you are burning fat for fuel.

The easiest way to do a fast, in my opinion, is simply to push back your breakfast to a little bit later in the morning. A popular fast is 16:8, where you fast for 16 hours of the day and eat all your meals in an 8 hour window.

This is what I do, and I easily get in a good breakfast, lunch and dinner every day (11 am, 1:30 pm, and 6:30 pm, respectively).

If you’ve never fasted before, I recommend a simple 12 hour fast each day for a week or so to get you started. This means if you finish your dinner at 7 pm, you won’t eat again until 7 am the next day, which is totally do-able.

You can then scale your fast from there — and be well on your way to solid daily fat burning.

3) When It is Finally Time For Breakfast, Opt For Savory, Not Sweet

This tip, combined with a good daily fast, will really get your body burning fat.

Breakfast is the most powerful meal of the day. What foods you put into your body at this time will determine how the rest of your day will go.

If you eat carbs and sweets for breakfast, you’ll get a huge glucose spike which sets you on your vicious roller-coaster ride of high and low energy and insatiable sugar cravings.

If, instead, you eat savory — things like eggs, turkey, nuts, etc — this will satisfy you, fueling your body with protein and energy — and you’ll simply step off that vicious roller coaster ride of sugar crashes and cravings, Scot-Free and feeling fine.

4) Drink Protein Smoothies to Curb Your Sweet Tooth

Speaking of sweet teeth… If you know the certain times of the day when you’re typically tempted, a good protein smoothie can work wonders.

I used to crave cookies and brownies as my late afternoon snack (usually right when I got home from a long day at work). What I do now is make a smoothie instead.

I include Whey Protein powder, ⅓ of a frozen banana, frozen blueberries, and frozen power greens (things like spinach, kale, rhubarb, etc), with unsweetened almond milk.

It’s the best of both worlds — a power punch of protein and nutrients, and it obliterates my sweet tooth.

5) Meal Prep — High Protein, Low Carb

Remove temptation from your daily routine entirely: plan your meals — right down to the very last snack.

I write about this in other articles. What I typically do is consign my Sunday afternoons to meal prepping (grilling/cooking most of the meals I will eat in the week). I typically make about 3 or 4 high protein low carb meals with large portions, which will last me through the week.

Also, I try to eat out as little as possible. This helps my savings — both for my wallet and my waistline.

6) Get Yourself a Standing Desk

Okay. Enough with food for now. Let’s talk about lifestyle.

If you don’t have one already, you really need to get yourself a standing desk. Or, at the very least, do what I do which is stack some books on top of each other and work from there.

Sitting is the new smoking, many now say. It’s another slow and silent killer in our society.

If you’re able, try to turn as many of your daily sitting activities into standing ones instead.

7) When You Do Sit, Make Sure It’s No Longer Than 20 Minutes At Any Given Time

Let’s talk a bit more about sitting.

Some studies suggest that when we remain inactive for 30 minutes or more, our metabolism can slow by upwards of 90%.

An easy fix for this is to simply set a timer for 20 minutes whenever you sit down. Once said timer rings, stand for a minute or two, walk around the room a couple of times — and that is really all it takes to help you stay alert and to keep your metabolism functioning properly.

This is such a simple (yet effective) bio-hack that every school and company the world over should truly consider implementing as part of a daily protocol.

8) Drink Water All Throughout Your Day

Okay, back to food and drink.

We already talked about starting the day with water. But your water intake should definitely NOT stop there. You need to be drinking water all throughout your day.

Water keeps you properly hydrated, of course, but it has many, many other health benefits as well. Sufficient water consumption helps your brain stay focused and alert, it improves your energy, speeds up your metabolism and helps curb your appetites, so that you eat less throughout your day.

In fact, if you’re not drinking enough water throughout your day, you might think you are hungry at times when what you actually are is dehydrated.

9) Eat Your Meals In The Proper Order

This is another simple, simple, life hack that helps your metabolic health immensely.

Here is the correct order to eat your meals:

1. Start with Veggies and high fiber foods
2. Move on to your protein and fats
3. End your meal with carbs

That’s it. It’s really that simple. Yet this will have a huge effect on your glucose spikes. When you eat fiber first, this provides a great protection for your body so that you absorb the glucose you get from your carbs much more slowly.

This simple tweak could, in all honesty, help you burn a whole lot of fat without even really changing the actual contents of your meal.

10) Move After You Eat

Every cell in your body uses glucose for energy.

Any movement you make burns glucose. And the more intensely a muscle contracts in your body, the more glucose it will burn.

After a large meal, you will have a spike in glucose (especially if you don’t eat your foods in the right order). One simple fix to burn some of this excess glucose is to move after meals.

Go for a walk, do some chores, drop to the floor and do a few push-ups, or, if you’re at work and have to stay at your desk, simply flex your calves for a few minutes — just do whatever you can to get your body (and your muscles) moving.

11) Avoid Ultra-Processed (i.e. Packaged) Foods

Eat whole foods — the kind of foods you find on the outer sections of the grocery store.

Avoid, as much as you can, ultra-processed, packaged products.

This tip alone will help you lose fat very efficiently. Ultra-processed foods are highly palatable and are usually loaded with empty carbohydrates. This means they make you overeat stuff which your body doesn’t even need.

Cut it out entirely — the chips, the bars, the cereals, the cakes, the candy, the cookies. Eat whole foods instead — and watch the fat fly away.

12) Make Simple (But Vital) Carb Swaps

Here are a few simple swaps I’ve made that have worked wonders: I’ve replaced my white rice with quinoa, and my pastas with squash or cauliflower.

Aside from fasting and savory breakfasts, this has been one of the best tweaks for burning away my belly fat.

13) Wean Yourself Off Sweeteners

I haven’t had sugar in my coffee for well over a decade now.

And the beauty of it is… without the added sweetness, I get to savor the actual taste of coffee.

In fact, my unsweetened morning coffee has become the most amazing treat of my day.

Most of us consume way too much sugar on a daily basis. For the Western world, it’s become a silent killer.

Be kind to yourself (especially your future self) and cut out the added sugar entirely.

Once you get through the first week or so of withdrawal, you’ll be oh so glad you did. You’ll feel much, much better — and your energy will reach an all time high.

14) Commit To At Least 10 Minutes Of Vigorous Exercise

The more the merrier here, of course. But if you’re strapped for time, 10 minutes is all you need.

You’d be amazed at what 10 intense minutes can do for you — so long as you remain consistent and do it daily.

If you’re not currently exercising consistently, then make the simple commitment to do just this. Pick a time slot in your day and make the deal with yourself that you will work out hard for those ten minutes.

Do push-ups or squats — or Google a ten-minute HIIT Workout. (YouTube's got thousands of them.)

Just do something — and do it daily.

(And the brilliant thing about this, of course, is that those ten minutes might just stretch into 30 — and then you’ll be well on your way.)

15) Sleep… Optimize Your Sleep With These 4 Tips:

• Don’t Skimp On Your Sleep Duration — Aim for around 8 hours every night.
• Turn Down The Lights After Dusk — Once the sun has set, turn off overhead lights and minimize screen time.
• Maintain Sleep/Wake Time Consistency. Try to go to bed at the same time every evening and wake up at the same time each morning. Don’t let yourself get jet-lagged on the weekends.
• Buy Yourself a Sleep Mask — Most are cheap and oh so worth it. Reducing your light exposure at night will help improve your quality of sleep, which helps your health in so many ways.

Try these tweaks out for yourself on a daily basis. Make them a part of your routine — and you’ll be amazed at just how good you’ll begin to look and feel.

Dear reader, I hope you liked my story. Thank you so much for reading. If you would like more stories about health and happiness, don’t forget to follow me here on Medium. Have a wonderful day!