These 5 Habits Keep Me Around 11% Body Fat (All Year Long)

Spoiler alert: Jogging is not one of them.

Let me tell you a story.

Do you remember the time, back in the day (well over a decade ago now), when Peyton Manning was in practically every commercial on TV? There was this one commercial of his in particular that always used to bother the crap out of me.

I don’t remember the product (some cheap light beer, most likely). But what I do remember is Manning’s final line. He’d been trash-talking with some Average Joe type dudes, and one of them was wondering how he, this dude, could start losing his belly fat.

To which Manning responded, “If you’re over the age of 30, forget about it. I’d recommend you just start buying bigger shirts.”

Now, I, myself, was just about to turn 30 at the time. And this line bothered me to no end.

I realize that Manning had said this rather tongue in cheek — but I wasn’t laughing. In fact, every time the commercial aired I wanted to shout.

“That just can’t be right,” I said. “There’s got to be a better way.”

Turns out there is. I’m walking proof.

Here I am, over a decade later now, and I can safely tell you: there’s so many better solutions than merely buying bigger shirts.

Losing fat after 30 isn’t the easiest thing in the world, of course — but it’s totally do-able. With the proper habits and the right consistency, you’ll be well on your way to your ideal body weight.

Here are the five most essential habits I started implementing on a daily basis. They helped me burn my fat years ago (and they keep me lean and mean all year long).

1) Intermittent Fasting

I’ve been doing some form of Intermittent Fasting for the past 5 years now — and it has completely changed my metabolic health.

Of all the habits listed here, fasting is perhaps the single best strategy to help you lose your excess fat.

The reason for this is that fasting is a natural, sustainable way to lower your daily calorie consumption. When you have less time to eat in the day, chances are you will simply take in less food overall.

Moreover, Intermittent Fasting helps your body get into a state of Ketosis which means you’ll be burning fat for fuel.

Popular fasts are the 12:12, 14:10, 16:8, and 18:6, respectively. I typically adhere to the 16:8 fast, meaning I fast for 16 hours of my day and eat all my meals in an 8 hour window.

To give you an idea of how it works, here’s my typical daily eating schedule:

• Breakfast: 11 am
• Lunch: 1–1:30 pm
• Greek Yogurt Snack: Around 3 pm
• Dinner: 5–5:30 pm
• Evening Protein Treat (Smoothie and/or Egg whites): 6:30 pm

To begin your fasting habit, start doing this:

• Aim for 12 hour fasts during your first week.
• Remember, sleep time counts toward your fast. Which means that all you really need to do to get started is to push breakfast back a little bit (12 hours after your last meal from the night before).
• Also, during your fasting window, be sure to drink lots of water as this will help curb your hunger pangs.
• Unsweetened coffee/tea is okay too (so long as there’s no added sugar, sweeteners, milk or cream).
• As you get more comfortable in your fasting, you can begin pushing breakfast back later and later in the day to extend the fast and to reap the benefits of ketosis.

2) Savory Breakfast

Breakfast holds the power to boost or wreck your day.

When you eat sugar and carbs for breakfast (things like cereal, pancakes, toast, bagels, waffles, etc.), your glucose levels spike. This sends you on a reckless roller coaster of high and low energy and insatiable sugar cravings. These cravings will plague you throughout the entire day.

If, however, you opt for savory (things like eggs, avocados, walnuts, almonds, etc), you’ll fuel your body while avoiding the vicious cycle of spiked glucose.

You’ll have much more sustainable energy all throughout the day. And when the cookie jar is passed around later in the afternoon, you’ll be able to say (and quite easily), “No, thank you.”

3) Whole Foods over Ultra-Processed.

The ultra-processed food industry is a scourge on our society.

These companies pay millions of dollars every year to make their “food” as addictive as possible. Taste, smell, texture — these qualities are ridiculously optimized in these “foods” to make you literally crave them.

The major food companies hire experts of taste and chemistry to perfect every aspect of their Ultra-processed product so that the consumer cannot help but return for more and more and more.

Which is why you’re never satisfied with just one bowl of cereal or one bag of chips. You’ll always crave MORE.

These foods are designed to make you crave and overeat. As a result, we as a society are all getting fatter and sicker so that these few companies at the top can reap the profit.

If you want to change your life, cut out all this ultra-processed crap. Stop poisoning yourself for another man’s profit.

Eat whole foods — and get to feeling much, much better.

4) Walking.

Yes, walking…it’s as easy as that.

Here are some of the benefits to walking every day:

• Improves mood
• Increases metabolism
• Burns calories and supports weight loss
• Improves heart health (lowering chance of cardiovascular disease by upwards of 30%)
• Lowers the risk of Type 2 Diabetes
• Reduces stress
• Improves sleep
• Boosts Brain Power

The list goes on and on and on. Walking promotes creativity as well. Many of the top artists and writers throughout history have contributed their daily walks as part of their intellectual process.

I try to walk at least 30 minutes every day. Most days, I shoot for more.

10,000 steps had been considered the magic number for the past decade or so — but that number’s kind of up for debate at present.

The point is, whatever your current level of average daily steps, chances are you should aim to increase it — and by a good few thousand steps or so.

Our ancestors walked 15–20 thousand steps per day, and that’s what our bodies are designed to do.

Indeed, walking long distances is written into the very fabric of our DNA.

If you want to start burning fat and feeling much better in your life, it’s high-time you commit to more (and longer) walks.

5) Strength Training.

I realize that not everyone enjoys lifting weights.

I guess I’m lucky in the fact that I actually do like a good pump.

But if weights aren’t your thing, that’s okay. There are thousands of calisthenics and body-weight options for you instead.

Whatever it is, though, you do need to choose something that helps you build muscle on a weekly basis — 2–3 times each week, in fact.

There’s so much research out there about how crucial a role muscle mass plays on human longevity. (In fact the 2nd best indicator of how long you’ll live is your grip strength.)

But muscle also plays a huge role in fat loss, too. When you increase your muscle mass, you boost your metabolism. And the higher your muscle mass, the more fat you’ll burn for fuel.

Gone are the days where everyone thought the key to burning fat was simply to go for a jog every once in a while.

There’s nothing wrong with running, of course. I like to go for a run at least a couple of times a week — but I mainly do it for the positive boost on my mood — and, well, because I like it.

However, the exercise that helps burn far more fat is strength training.

When you’re working hard each week and growing your muscles, your metabolism will speed up quite considerably and your body will become like a well-oiled machine — burning fat for you even while you’re sitting on the couch.

A key to this is to train your legs and glutes (as these are the biggest muscles of your body, the growth of which will catapult your fat burning).

So there you go. Adopt these five habits today, and watch as your fat evaporates and your energy soars.

And then you can forget about the bigger shirts — you’ll be needing slimmer pants instead.

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!