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Those who are successful at fat loss know their body well and how it responds to nutrition and training. Here is an in-depth fat loss guide to help you lose fat and keep it off. Best of all? it's free! Learn more.

Many people have the desire to lose weight. More specifically, many people desire to lose body fat (BF). However, most of those people do not know how to go about it. They see conflicting messages everywhere, from one fad diet to another, one person telling them one thing about training and someone else telling them differently.

Those who are successful at fat loss know their body well and how it responds to different aspects of nutrition and training manipulation. Those who do not know look to those who are successful and try to emulate their methods. What everyone needs to remember is that everything is individual. What works for one person may not work for another.

However, there are three keys to fat loss that apply to everyone:

Goal Setting
Nutrition
Exercise

Each key is important, and without one of those keys, whilst one may lose weight/BF for a time, they are less likely to keep that weight/BF off.

This article is going to discuss each key, and make suggestions on how to utilize them effectively for fat loss.

Key #1:
Goal Setting

The first thing that you need to do, before you look at diet and exercise, is to set goals. Look at where you are now, and what you want to be. Your end goal can be whatever you want, because as long as you give yourself a realistic timeframe to achieve it in, you can achieve anything that you want!

Once you have set your long-term goal, then you need to set smaller goals - these are your short-term goals that will help you get to your long-term goal. Goals made should be SMART goals.

Specific: You must be specific in what your goals is - i.e. I want to lose 4% BF in 8 weeks.
Measurable: You must be able to measure your progress towards achieving your goal - i.e. %BF can be measured doing a 6-8 skinfold body composition test every week.
Adjustable: Your goals must be able to be adjusted if for whatever reason something happens and they no longer become realistic for the period that you have set yourself.
Realistic: Your goals must be realistic - i.e. losing 4% BF in 8 weeks is realistic; losing 4% BF in 2 weeks is NOT.
Time-Based: You must set a time frame over which you want to achieve your goal; have specific start and finish dates- i.e. I want to lose 4% BF in the period 13 July to 6 September.

Key #2:
Nutrition

Once you have set your goal(s), the second thing you need to look at is your diet. Diet is the most important component to fat loss, comprising 80-90% of your success.

When you look at your nutrition you should think "diet", as defined by a diet plan that can only be sustained for short periods of time (i.e. low calorie or low carbohydrate diets). When you think "diet", you should think lifestyle eating (i.e. your diet should be something that you can easily maintain all year round, with the only thing you change about it being the amount of calories consumed, based upon your body goal).

Your diet plan should incorporate 6 principles:

Adequacy: Your diet provides enough energy and nutrients to meet your needs (Wardlaw & Hampl, 2007).

Balance: Not over consuming any single type of food (Wardlaw & Hampl, 2007).

Energy Control: You need to know what your energy needs are (i.e. maintenance), and allow for that; to ensure that you get the nutrients that you require without going in excess of your required calories, use foods that have a high nutrient density (Wardlaw & Hampl, 2007).

Nutrient Density: Select foods that deliver the most nutrients for the least energy (Wardlaw & Hampl, 2007).

Moderation: Moderating portion sizes; and consuming foods that contain high fat and sugar in moderation (Wardlaw & Hampl. 2007).

Variety: Eating a variety of foods day-to-day (Wardlaw & Hampl, 2007).

Key #3:
Exercise

ou will lose fat by dieting alone, but not as effectively as you would using a calorie controlled diet and exercise plan. If you just dieted, you would end up as a smaller version of yourself.

Exercise helps you to build muscle (which helps you to burn more calories and lose more fat in the process), as well as helping you feel good about yourself, and providing a way to destress. The FITT and SOAP principles should be applied to your exercise program.

The FIIT principle:

Frequency: "The number of training sessions completed in a given time period" (Baechle, Earle & Wathen, 2000, p. 401).
Intensity: The level of exertion that you are training at (Baechle, et al., 2000) - i.e. if you are training for basic strength you will be using 80-90% of your one repetition maximum (Wathen, Baechle & Earle, 2000).
Time: How long the session lasts for (Baechle, et al., 2000) - i.e. resistance training should last no longer than 45-50 minutes.
Type: What mode of exercise is being performed (Baechle, et al., 2000) - i.e. aerobic, anaerobic, strength, power, etc.