Step 1: Establish Starting Point and Consistency
📌 Achieving the lean 10% body fat goal requires long-term commitment, often 6 to 8 months, not just a quick 6 to 8-week crash diet.
📏 Success hinges on consistency over perfection; you must know your starting point to accurately set calorie goals and implement a training plan.
📉 Realistic time frames are crucial; aim for 12 to 20 weeks to safely move from 20-25% body fat down to a lean level.

Step 2: Caloric Deficit Strategy
🔑 Calorie restriction is paramount for fat loss; you cannot out-train consistently overeating.
⚖️ Begin by calculating maintenance calories and creating a mild deficit of 250 calories from food, supplemented by 250 calories burned through activity/training.
🥩 Maintain high protein intake, targeting 1 gram per pound of goal body weight, while avoiding unnecessary restrictive diets like keto or intermittent fasting initially.

Step 3: Training for Muscle Maintenance
🏋️ The gym's primary goal during a fat loss phase is to maintain or build muscle, not primarily to burn calories (use diet and cardio for that).
🧱 Stick to hard, heavy training using big compound lifts (squat, deadlift, press) relative to your current strength to preserve muscle mass.
⏱️ Proper tempo is vital, focusing on controlled eccentrics (lowering) and time under tension when muscles are lengthened; avoid switching to light-weight, high-rep classes, which lead to muscle loss.

Step 4: Calorie Expenditure (Output)
🚶 Increase steps as the easiest way to burn calories—for example, increasing from 4,000 to 8,000 or 12,000 steps daily.
❤️ Implement steady-state cardio (e.g., 30 minutes daily) as a preferred method over High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) because HIIT can increase hunger, making deficit adherence difficult.
⏱️ If time is extremely limited, HIIT can be used, but be aware it causes significant fatigue and may negatively affect performance in weight training sessions.

Step 5: Hunger Management and Sustainability
🛑 Hunger is the number one reason for failure in fat loss phases, leading to binging and diet abandonment.
🍴 To combat hunger, focus on high-quality whole foods, lean protein, and fibrous vegetables for satiety.
🗓️ Utilize techniques like calorie banking (saving calories across days for a larger meal later) or allocating 20-30% of daily calories to an enjoyable evening meal to ensure long-term adherence.

Step 6: Mindset and Long-Term Vision
🎯 Superficial motivations (e.g., beach looks, social media likes) often fail under intense hunger; success requires a deeper, intrinsic "Why" (e.g., higher personal standard, better health longevity).
🔄 The ultimate goal is not just reaching 10% body fat, but creating a sustainable lifestyle that allows maintenance at that level 365 days a year.
🧩 Choose enjoyable activities for cardio and build a routine that becomes automatic, preventing the cycle of dieting down and rebounding higher each time.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ To successfully maintain leanness, training stimulus must remain heavy and focused on compound lifts, regardless of whether you are cutting or bulking.
➡️ Start calorie restriction slowly (e.g., 250-calorie deficit) to prevent early burnout and severe hunger, allowing for adjustments later as weight loss slows down.
➡️ Prioritize sustainability; design your food plan to include enjoyable foods daily, which helps adhere to the calorie deficit for months or years.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Oct 26, 2025, 19:40 UTC