#48 7 Micro habits that unlock fast fat loss in 2025

In this episode of the Never Diet Again podcast, Max and Mollie reveal seven simple but powerful micro habits that can accelerate your weight loss journey.
 
These are the same habits their clients use to see consistent, sustainable results—without restrictive diets or intense exercise plans.

🎙️ Highlights include:

✅ Why eating more at meal times can help you lose weight
✅ The importance of protein and nutrient-dense foods for fat loss
✅ The truth about snacking (and why it’s sabotaging your progress)
✅ How mindful eating can revolutionize your relationship with food
✅ Why walking more steps daily is the easiest way to boost fat loss
✅ The surprising impact of digital distractions on your health

Whether you’re just starting your journey or looking to level up in 2025, these habits are easy to implement and designed to fit into your real life. 🎉

🎧 Listen now and discover how small, consistent changes can lead to big results.

Watch my The Cravings & Fat-Burning Masterclass:  https://www.neverdietagain.uk/register-podcast

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/max.lowery/

Book a Food Freedom Breakthrough Call: https://www.neverdietagainmethod.uk/call-ig

Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00.088)

today's episode, I'm sharing the seven micro habits which will accelerate fat loss in 2025. These are the exact same tips and advice which I give our one-on-one coaching clients. If you do these habits consistently in the long term, you could hit your fat loss goal.

So if you are someone that every January is Googling all the different ways to lose weight, all the quick fixes and ends up giving up by February, make sure you listen to this episode because these micro habits are the only thing that you need to lose weight in 2025.

Speaker 1 (00:34.126)

Hello, welcome to another episode of the Never Diet Again podcast. I'm Max Lowery, a women's weight loss coach, been helping women lose weight for the last 10 years. I'm joined by one of our Live360 coaches, Molly. Hello, Molly. Today we're going to take you through the seven micro habits which will help accelerate fat loss in 2025. So these are the exact same habits which we gave our clients at the very start of the program. And to be honest, if you were just to do these habits consistently, you would get big fat loss success.

Hi everyone.

Speaker 1 (01:04.509)

Of course, you do have to start addressing some of the psychological stuff, the mindset stuff as well to get long term success. But these habits are very, very powerful. So let's start at the top. And this is probably going to be the most surprising one. And you can tell me your opinion on this and on how you used to eat before working with us, Molly, but eat more at meal times. You know, might sound completely counterintuitive. However,

What we have seen, when most people are dieting and trying to lose weight, they are restricting and depriving themselves at meal times. And what that means is that hunger builds up throughout the day and that can lead to snacking and bingeing and overeating in the evenings or snacking, bingeing, overeating on the weekends. So by eating more at meal times, eating until you're full, feeling satisfied, you're actually going to reduce your overall hunger.

and therefore potentially reduce your overall calories. Because it's the snacking and the binging and the mindless eating in the evenings which cause a big increase in calories.

This one's quite an interesting one, because even with my friends, often they joke at how much I eat at lunch, breakfast and dinner. And you're going to go on to the second point, but I think the key thing for me is 60 to 70 % of it is salads, vegetables, nutrients, dense meals. So I think often people shy away from volume.

Let's help out.

Speaker 2 (02:41.41)

But actually, if it's full of those foods that help you feel full, give you the vitamins that you need and obviously satisfy you. Volume isn't the most important thing if it's filled with the right things, but yeah, constant joke of how do you eat that much at those meal times.

Yeah, be honest, I get the same as well. I like eating big portions. I don't like feeling like I want more at the end. And that's kind of why the two meal day for me personally and eating two meals does work. But even if you're not eating two meals, even on like, basically we advise our clients to eat three square meals per day and really eat until you're full. And we'll go into the next point in a second. But when you do that, like you will notice a drop in your hunger levels. And if you're eating three meals,

and follow the tips afterwards, you'll realize that you don't actually need any more than that. You don't need to snack. You don't need to be binging and overeating. And if you are, it's likely to be psychological, which is a whole nother kind of story, which we'll go into in another podcast. So don't be afraid of eating more. Eat proper meal times. mean, this sounds so basic, but I think in the modern world, and especially in past 10, 20 years,

The traditional three square meals a day has kind of gone out the window and people are just eating mini meals. At some point, a nutritionist said in the, don't know when it was, but she said you should eat six times in a day to make sure that you never experience hunger and to constantly stoke your metabolism, which is just complete bullshit and I think is unsustainable and unenjoyable for most people. If you're a bodybuilder, maybe, but if you're trying to lose weight, like yes, you could lose weight doing that if you're still in a deficit.

But you're essentially having to cook and prepare six healthy meals. And then you're potentially going to be hungry all the time. Because you just, your body will start to expect all those meals. So just three square meals a day. Go back to basics. Sit down like a human being at a table. Don't eat on the tube. Don't eat at a desk. Don't eat in front of the TV. Eat in front of the, in front of the, table with your friends and family. Make it social. We'll make a big, big difference.

Speaker 1 (04:57.262)

Cool. Number two. Eat nutrient dense foods. So what does that mean? So it basically means that foods have been created by nature, essentially, instead of created by human beings, by big food, what we call food-like products. So it's meat products, animal products, dairy, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, pulses, things that nature have.

created, things that don't have a marketing campaign behind them, things that don't have to be labeled gluten-free or fat-free or vegan or whatever it is. It's raw ingredients as close to their natural state as possible. And the reason for this is because you're actually going to be nourishing your body. All these foods are full of fiber, micronutrients, vitamins, minerals, and you're going to give your body what it needs. And for these kinds of food, it's much harder to overconsume.

Whereas the food like products which have been created by human beings to essentially make you eat and over consume as many as you can. There's no off switch, much easier to over consume. Whereas it's much, know, if you're eating, you know, chicken and some fresh vegetables, you're going to feel full eventually. You're not going to get that same feeling of needing more and more and more. So not only are you nourishing yourself properly, giving your body what it needs,

which actually means you'll end up feeling less hungry. These foods are also harder to over consume. And I think people can get confused by this. There's a lot of conflicting information out there, but it really isn't that complicated. We don't actually spend a lot of time on nutrition with our clients. We do it right at the start. And you know, maybe the first two weeks we get them into good habits with nutrition, but then it all

goes into the psychological and the mindset stuff because that is the stuff which makes it difficult. The nutrition stuff really doesn't have to be complicated. You don't need strict meal plans. Just cook from scratch from fresh ingredients most of the time. If do that, it's going to make a big difference.

Speaker 2 (07:05.08)

think as well, especially with cooking food at home, you know what you're eating, you know what you're eating, you know what you're consuming, and bring it back to weight loss. You know how many calories you're eating from what ingredients, and people can...

And I mean, Max lives in France, so has lots more access to organic vegetables, but you can go to our local store and buy a salad that's full of lots of things that we don't really know what's in them. So I think even when we're talking about how to build your plate, it's you know, cooking at home, enjoying cooking at home, cooking from scratch, knowing where your ingredients are coming from and honing in on that rather than trying to buy things conveniently.

that feel like they're healthy, you really get comfortable and enjoy cooking things from scratch at home.

Yeah, And if you want to ask to go into more detail on this, we actually have a whole podcast on how to meal prep and make cooking much, much easier. So do check that out. It's a few episodes before this one. But yeah, when you are cooking from scratch, fresh ingredients, you know exactly what goes into the food and they the food labeling is intentionally confusing. You know, they say it per 100 grams or they they don't actually tell you right in this pack or in this

in this meal there is this many calories or this much oil or whatever it is and even if they do most people aren't looking. You just have to understand that any food which is created by human beings for profit is going to be compromised in terms of quality, they're going to be trying to maximize cost and that means that they are using cheap ingredients to bulk things up. Often these ingredients have no nutritional value to them and there's a whole...

Speaker 1 (08:52.59)

There's a lot of issues with it. And it's not to say that these foods are inherently bad and you should feel guilty for eating them. That's not what we're trying to say. We just want to empower you with the right information, the right knowledge to make informed decisions as an adult. If you want to, you know, have a takeaway once or twice a week, you know, go ahead. You can still lose weight doing that. Our clients do it. But if you are mainly eating nutrient dense food,

meals, you are going to feel so much better within yourself. You'll feel less hungry. Your energy levels will skyrocket. Your immune system, your overall health will be through the roof. Your gut bacteria, all this kind of stuff, your digestion, know, going to the toilet is all going to improve as a consequence and it's going to make weight loss much, much easier. Which leads us into number three. So kind of dialing in a bit more into nutrition. So we have three different macronutrients.

fats, carbohydrates and protein. And nearly always it's a war between carbohydrates and fat on what is the most important macronutrient for fat loss. But actually the most important macronutrient for fat loss is protein. Protein is your best friend and even more so if you are a woman over the age of 40 because you need to maintain bone density and muscle mass. So you actually need to eat more protein above the age of 40. So

Why is it the most important macronutrient? Well, I would say that the biggest reason is because it is the most satiating macronutrient. You are going to feel very full when you eat protein. So if you have kind of lean chicken breasts, know, tuna, salmon, things like that, if you really prioritize that, those kinds of foods at each meal, you're going to feel fuller for longer, which obviously means you're less likely to snack and overeat and binge in other situations.

Not only that, there's something called the thermic effect of food, TEF. And that is essentially the calories you burn to process and digest food. So you use calories, you use energy to process the food, and protein has the highest thermic effect. And it can actually equate for up to 10 % of your total daily calorie burn. So all the calories that you burn in a day, so your basal metabolic rate,

Speaker 1 (11:17.09)

your activity, your exercise, your knee, and then you have the thermic effect of food. So 10 % is not something you should ignore. And you're going to be closer to 10 % if you are really prioritizing protein.

Could you give any examples on protein sources, so ideas for breakfast, lunch and dinner that people could use?

Yeah, so I would say switching up a predominantly kind of carbohydrate and especially processed carbohydrate breakfast to a protein dense breakfast could change your life. It really could. So when I used to eat breakfast, this was a long time ago now, probably over 10 years ago, my favorite thing was Greek yogurt with like honey and berries and maybe some nuts as well. I would also have something egg-based.

I think back in the day when I used to work in finance, I would have scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, feta cheese, which was really good. But equally, you could have, you know, we have clients who have chicken for breast for breakfast or steak for breakfast. Or I think Shane, one of the head coach at Live 360 has steak for breakfast sometimes. You don't have to have, you know, the idea that you have to have these breakfast foods at breakfast time is very...

It's essentially created by food manufacturers again. know, cereal, cereal, for example, was the first highly processed profitable food, and they kind of commoditized breakfast and own breakfast ultimately. So this idea that you have to have these breakfast like foods to break your fast in the morning, but actually you can eat whatever the hell you want. What do you usually morning?

Speaker 2 (13:04.302)

Well, I was just about, some of you listening to this, probably none of you actually listen to this, won't know this, but I struggle with PCOS and I would say having a high protein breakfast was the biggest change for me. I often would skip breakfast or have something quite fruity, granola, you yogurt, lots of what.

is online and actually I now have, this might sound gross to people that aren't I have usually mackerel, boiled eggs, bagels and mushrooms. That is actually my biggest meal of the day and I just find that it sets my appetite for the day, my energy levels for the day. I have the same thing pretty much every breakfast to make it easy, but that was the biggest change for me having a breakfast that's full of

Lovely.

Speaker 2 (13:59.216)

protein.

Yeah, and this is why, obviously, I wrote a book called The Two Mill Day and I am an advocate of intermittent fasting. But this is why, although I think it's really powerful and effective and has changed my life, everyone's different and women especially need to be more flexible with it, need to be more careful with it. And especially if you have an underlying hormonal issues anyway, it can potentially make things more difficult and more challenging.

So this is why knowing yourself, knowing your body and potentially working with a coach who has experience with these kinds of things makes a huge huge difference because you could be sabotaging yourself and making life much much harder. honestly, our clients that actually prioritize protein at each meal and really go to town on this, they are so surprised how they just don't feel hungry. They're losing all this weight and they just don't feel hungry at all.

And you do have to eat more protein than you think. If I remember correctly, for an active female, it is 0.8 grams to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. So that could be like 80 to 120 grams of protein, potentially, which is a decent amount. You only have to eat this much protein when you're in a fat loss phase. You can drop it.

when you're kind of at maintenance, but when you're losing weight, really focusing on protein will make a massive, massive difference. All right, so moving on to the next micro habit, number four, which is, I probably think is the biggest game changing habit ever. Stop fucking snacking.

Speaker 1 (15:51.95)

Seriously, once you're eating more at meal times, once you're focused on nutrient dense meals, once you're filling up on protein, you do not need to snack. And if you are turning to snacks in between meals, it's psychological, it's perceived hunger, it's habit, it's boredom, it's procrastination, it's routine, it's stress, it's sadness, whatever it is, it's got nothing to do with hunger.

And this is exactly the process that we go through with our clients. We help them fuel themselves correctly with the exact same habits that we're talking about right now. And that basically opens up and puts a lot of emphasis and focus on what's going on with the perceived hunger and the psychological hunger. Snacking is a new thing. I'm 34. When I was 10, 11, 12 years old, snacking was frowned upon.

my teachers, my parents, my grandparents would really get pissed off when I would snack because they would say, I'll be ruining my appetite for my main meal. But at some point in the last 20 years, again, Big Food, know, Nestle, all these massive companies have essentially normalized snacking, normalized grazing, and they've even...

led us to believe that experiencing any sensation of hunger is not okay. You should never ever experience any hunger at all. And that has basically, and guess what? They've got these food-like products, these snack products which are easy and convenient and they're everywhere to make sure that you never experience hunger. And what that leads to is essentially food addiction. You just become someone who is dependent on a constant stream of food and it leads to

you become metabolically inflexible, which essentially means that you are dependent on a constant stream of food and you're not able to utilize your stored energy in the form of fat and glycogen and carbohydrates you have in the muscles and the liver. The classic way to tell if you are metabolically inflexible, if you skip a meal and you feel like shit, you you, you're, you feel lightheaded, you feel dizzy, you feel lethargic, you can't focus, you feel hangry, you know, this

Speaker 1 (18:13.368)

hangry thing is a clear indication that you are metabolically inflexible. Long term, well short term that's going to lead to potentially the dependence on food. So basically eating more than you would like, you're to have to be snacking on sugary things to keep your blood sugar levels topped up all the time. Long term, potentially that can lead to metabolic disease, type 2 diabetes, potentially strokes, all that kind of stuff.

We are designed to be metabolically flexible. We are designed to be able to effortlessly shift between the food that you're eating and our stored energy. So this is one reason why I do like fasting is it does very quickly get you into being metabolically flexible. And, you know, it's still relatively early in the morning. I'm fasted now. I could do this podcast at midday, fasted and still be full of energy and really focused. And it is an empowering thing to be able to not

have to be dependent on that constant stream of food. Going off with a bit of a tangent here, bit of a rant, but snacking is a very, very big problem for weight loss.

I think with snacking as well, has become so normalized that people don't realize they're doing it. know, something I get on so many occasions from our clients, especially at the beginning.

they're quite confronted with how much snacking they're doing. And they, you know, as they join, they say, I didn't think that I snacked. So I think if there's one thing to take away from the podcast is even today, just see how often you're turning to food. See if you're, you are snacking, see how much you're grazing throughout the day. And actually just creating that awareness is the first step to changing this. But it's quite surprising how many people find it quite confronting when they start the program.

Speaker 2 (19:58.826)

of how much snacking they do without realising.

100 % hear this all the time. No, I don't turn to food in times of stress negative emotion and then they go through this process and like oh wow I didn't think I was an emotional eater, but I was I didn't think I was a snacker, but I was I thought I was eating a You know nutrient dense diet, but I wasn't But there was a so I've done this I've done little tests on and like experiments on on the clients because we've had a few skeptical clients when I say just drop the snacks and

they don't think that it's going to have that much of an issue. They don't think it's going be that much of problem for them. So I say, look, just track, like eat normally, don't change anything and only track the food that you're eating outside of your square meals. Right? And I mean, every single bite of food counts. Even if you eat a single crisp, a single biscuit, you have to track it. And nearly always it was a number between 400 and 600 calories. Then

I came across a study, I think it was last year, 2023. 20,000 people were followed in the States and they were trying to see how many people snacked. Of those 20,000 people, 90 % of them snacked, which is very, very high. So everyone is snacking. And for the 90 % that did snack, it was a number between 400 and 600 calories. So let's say, let's just call it 500 to make the math easy. If you're eating 500

Let's say that you're roughly at maintenance, i.e. you're not on a calorie deficit, you're not on a calorie surplus at your three square meals. But then you're eating 500 calories worth of snacks every single day. That technically is potentially a pound of fat that you could put on in a week. If you do that for four weeks, obviously four pounds of fat. So, and this is the thing.

Speaker 1 (21:55.498)

all these people that were snacking were actually relatively health conscious and they felt like they were eating healthy meals but they weren't losing weight and this is something we hear all the time is I'm eating healthy food but I'm not losing weight I'm making all this effort you know I'm cooking from scratch from fresh ingredients I'm prioritizing protein but the weight's not coming off and then we realize that it's because they're snacking and we help bring awareness to what's going on and help them realize that it all counts you know

Lots of the clients that we work with end up negotiating with themselves saying, no, this basically doesn't count. And of course, you know, I deserve this and all this kind of negotiation like which goes on inside their heads. It all counts. And snacking is a big, big problem. You are sabotaging yourself and making life much, much harder for yourself in so many different ways, not just weight loss. Number five, mindful eating. This is such a boring tip.

It really I one does it though. No. But this is the thing, it's so boring, no one does it. It's so obvious, no one does it. But when you actually do it, it is very, very, very powerful. Mindful eating is essentially just slowing down and paying attention to your hunger cues, using your senses to enjoy the food and to really listen to your body and eat.

hopefully only eat to a point where you are satisfied instead of over full and stuffed and uncomfortable. It is, mindfulness essentially is awareness in my opinion. I have a mindfulness coach and my mindfulness coach is actually in the program, Ed, and we have a podcast with him. Mindfulness, I think, is one of the most powerful things in the world. I think everyone can benefit from it and that's why we've got him in the program.

But mindful eating is going to lead to a reduction in calories, essentially. If you are listening to your body, eating slowly, really asking yourself the question, could I actually stop eating here and would I be satisfied for the next few hours? If you start doing that repeatedly at every single meal, that's going to lead to a reduction of, let's say, 100, 200 calories, breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day. And suddenly, without changing what you eat, without being restrictive, the weight's falling off you because you're just listening to your hunger cues.

Speaker 1 (24:20.078)

We have something called the hunger scale. Number one being stomach empty, know, nothing there. And 10 being Christmas day, lying down on your side like a dog panting, because you're so full. That's usually me. And ideally you want to be eating not past an eight, really, if you can help it. And this is the whole thing of eating until you're 80 % full, which the Japanese have. There's a specific word for it. I can't remember what it is, but

That's what they all do. They don't overeat. And I was recently in Japan for our honeymoon in April, spent a month there. And the crazy thing is I've never seen more restaurants and more food anywhere in my life, in any country. That's just everywhere. Their entire culture is based around food, but there is no one that is overweight. I don't think I saw a single overweight person. And there's obviously, a lot of people in Japan. I was there for three weeks.

I don't think I saw a single person that was overweight. They have the lowest rates of obesity and obesity-related disease in the developed world. So obviously this stuff works, but it is boring.

With, I think with all of these as well, none of these are new concepts. If I think about growing up or even my granddad, he will sit every single meal and sit at the table and he lives alone now, my grandma's passed away, but he will sit at the table, eat in silence and enjoy his meal and even thinking about growing up.

we would be told to sit at the table, no phones, know, throw away our magazines and our books and everything. It would be very much sitting and eating your meal and you couldn't even have a conversation or try and cause any distraction until you finish your dinner. So with this, it's what used to happen. It's not anything new, but it's really finding that time to have your meals, enjoy your meals and be present, not constantly feeling distracted and it be a source of stimulation.

Speaker 2 (26:23.618)

throughout your day.

100 % you know I get asked by people who aren't within the program like how do you help your clients or what works and I have a very boring response is the basics done consistently It's what we're talking about right now done consistently But the hard the hard thing is is the consistency and that's where the mindset and the psychological stuff comes in If you have dieted for your entire life, then you're going to be full of limiting beliefs or nothing thinking

negative self-talk, emotional regulation is going to be all over the place. And maybe you have developed an identity of someone that cannot succeed at weight loss. So even with these sensible tips, which are sustainable, because if you, if you're not also addressing the mindset, then you're not going to find that consistency. But yeah, like my granddad as well, he was taught, I don't know why, who I think his parents to chew everything 30 times. Yeah. So he would eat so slowly.

but he'd never ever ever had any weight to lose. He was always very slim, know, always walked, always, you know, like your grandfather sat at a table. And that's something which I have definitely adopted. Not that I have a habit of eating too quickly, which I have to really work on. I have to really practice the mindful eating, but we, my Lido and I never ever, ever eat in front of the TV. Like we always sit down at the table. just, I just, I don't know what it is. So that's just become a thing. It's not even like,

There's no question, there's no potential scenario in which we would eat in front of the TV. And I think part of that is because I'm a bit of a clean freak as well. Well, and we've got nice sofas and everything. But I think it's just a really important thing to sit down at a table. Like, I live in France, and there's a very strong food culture here. And it's a stark difference to what goes on in the UK. Food is bit of an inconvenience.

Speaker 1 (28:24.378)

You know, you're wolfing down a meal through your lunch break and you're only taking a half an hour lunch break. You know, you're eating things out of packets. Whereas here there's a two hour long lunch break. It's sacred. Nothing gets in the way. If you walk into a shop at five to twelve when they're about to knock off for lunch, they look the French give you. I mean, they, yeah, it's, it's, they're utter disdain, especially when they hear that you're English as well.

But know, they eat with their family, they cook, they're very aware of where the food comes from. Where I live there's a strong kind of agriculture and farming area. And I honestly think that is what, you know, everyone's busy. If you have children, if you have families, that's just an opportunity to sit and talk and form emotional bonds and, you know, problem solve and, you know, be a family ultimately. And I think that modern...

modern environment of being distracted, children on their phones, TV on the background. Not only is that ruining relationships, but you are going to overconsume. Like if you are not being mindful and you're distracted, you're going to eat quicker and you're not going to be listening to your feelings. Your body's natural feelings are feeling full, which leads to overconsumption. Like I said earlier, do it breakfast, lunch and dinner. It means one or 200 calories extra at each meal.

Even if you're trying to lose weight and the food that you're eating is nutrient dense, you're going to be putting all this effort in. But because you're distracted, because you're not mindfully eating, the weight's going to come on. So it's a very, very powerful tip. If you actually do it consistently, it means you can eat all the foods that you want. You can go out for the meal, have the pizza, have the dessert, but just listen to your body's internal cues.

makes a huge difference.

Speaker 2 (30:17.674)

Enjoy the food. How many people listening to this, especially if you're having your lunch at work and you've ate your lunch and you don't even realize that you've done it, you you get to it and you're like, I don't even know if that was nice or not nice. Whereas the whole point of this is enjoying your food, feeling satisfied and feeling fueled based on those meals because you've been present and mindful and just enjoyed it while you've ate it.

And this tip is, this is like an added bonus here. This tip is particularly powerful if you have been diagnosed with ADHD. And a lot of our clients have been actually. So women are getting diagnosed later and later. It's becoming more recognized. But essentially with ADHD, it impacts your reward response. the, you react to dopamine. And often people with ADHD, they have a higher craving for dopamine, the reward of dopamine. But then,

And you can get that from various different things. But for lot of our clients, it's food. So you crave the dopamine that you're going to get from food. But then actually when you eat the food, the response is blunted. So you have this, basically this perfect storm environment of you're craving it, but you need more to scratch the itch as it were. Whereas someone who is neurotypical might crave a bit, not as much, they're not obsessing about it.

And then when they have like a bite or one cookie, they're like, that's really good. Whereas someone with ADHD can, can eat more. And that is further blunted when the person with ADHD is experiencing stress and negative emotion. So you're someone that has ADHD and has a history of turning to food and times of stress, negative emotion. The one, the biggest tip that you can, to that you, can give, and this is what the research says, I was really into this the other day to increase.

The reward that you get from the food is to eat mindfully to no distractions, no radio, no phone, to use your senses to slow down and enjoy the food and eat mindfully. You will get more of a dopamine response from the food, which potentially means to less calories consumed, which I think is very, very interesting. Number six, aim for seven to 15,000 steps per day. Okay. This is so powerful. We constantly say this to our clients.

Speaker 1 (32:42.732)

The only safe way to accelerate fat loss is to get more steps in. That's it. I would never say, right, accelerate fat loss, eat less because that's unsustainable and cause loads of problems. Whereas, and I also wouldn't say it, but to exercise more. So, you know, go and do seven workouts in seven days, which is what most people are going to do this January, because that's going to lead to a load of problems as well. Whereas steps, it's safe, it's free. It doesn't raise your hunger levels.

and it will burn a shit ton of calories. It really will. If you get, if you were to get 15,000 steps in a day, you could be burning like a thousand calories, which is quite big, especially if you're also tweaking the food as well. The issue with hard exercise is you can feel stiff and sore. You often have to go to a gym. It's often not that enjoyable. If you do have a lot of weight to lose, then it's high risk. If you're going to a gym and the personal trainer has no idea,

what he's doing, he or she is doing, which I'm going to be honest is most of the time, they are going to get you to do high intensity exercises, jumping up and down, jumping on a box. If you've got weight to lose, 10, 15 kilos, 20 kilos, you're wearing a weight jacket. And that is a big risk on your knees, on your back, on your ankles, on your, you know, on everything. So just getting steps in is so, so powerful. And again,

like with the protein thing, like with the clients that actually mindfully eating, the clients that get more steps in, lose more weight and quicker in a sustainable and safe way. Not only that, it's going to improve every aspect of your life. know, really walking is the solution to most of humanity's problems, I think. It's going to decrease stress, increase focus, increase relaxation. You know, there's so many benefits to it. It's one of my non-negotiables.

It's easy as well, right? You know, it's, you can walk anywhere, anytime, any place. You know, a lot of our clients are traveling or have kids or go on holidays and steps is something they can take anywhere with them and find small opportunities throughout the day, whether they're able to do a longer walk or just find 15 minutes, five, six times throughout the day. You know, there's nothing that's ever going to stop you being able to get a few steps in.

Speaker 1 (35:06.766)

100%. And I think again, it's this modern lifestyle where it's just not the natural thing to walk. I walk here. walk, you know, walk before people had no choice. Whereas now we've got public transport, we've got cars, we've got, you know, all this convenience, but actually all this convenience in the short term is making life very inconvenient in the long term because you end up overweight, sick, and you can't move properly because you haven't been walking. You've been sitting down on a desk for your entire life. So, you know, just

Look at ways you can inject more steps into things you're already doing. If you're commuting into work, could you park further away at the station? Could you get off a stop early and then walk? If you live in London or a city, could you actually just walk the whole way into work? You know, one of my clients, once or twice a week would, would walk like 10 kilometers into work. And that just ramped up his steps quite drastically. And the weight started to fall off him. And then he actually started to enjoy it as well.

Because remember, the goal isn't to get 10,000 steps in, the goal is to become someone who loves walking. And that happens when you do it consistently, all of a sudden you feel so much better. And that reinforces you wanting to do it and go out of your way. And you do become that person who goes out and gets his steps in whatever the weather.

I slightly took walking to an extreme of walking marathons around London a few years ago. So we're not obviously advising that, but something that I learned just through walking was just that time to reflect as well. know, the time to reflect in between meetings or over the weekend or...

find new restaurants, know, so many restaurants I found in London that I didn't even find on Google. So I think, you know, even seeking walking as a way to connect with people or explore new areas or as a social time with friends, there's so many benefits, as Max has already said, not just weight loss.

Speaker 1 (37:05.262)

100 % It will improve your life in every way I think. Essentially we are designed to walk, we're designed to move. Everyone's back problems, everyone's mobility issues is all from the fact that we're sitting down for most of our time. So if you can set your life up in a way where you're getting steps in without even trying, then that's going to drastically increase your health span in the long term and it's also going to make weight loss much, much easier.

final tip is probably going to surprise you and it might be some confrontational for some of you. Guess off your phone. And look, I say this not from a place of judgment because this is something I really struggle with myself. You know, obviously running a business that's online, having to use social media, it's something I'm constantly having to manage and balance. But get off your phone because the...

Big limiting belief that we hear our clients or people we potentially work with is I don't have the time to get steps in. I don't have the time to prioritize protein and to cook from scratch from fresh ingredients and to eat nutrient dense foods. And really the raw hard facts are in. The average person in the UK is spending three hours a day on their phone.

Yeah. So, and if we do the numbers, I don't have them in front of me, right? So if you're spending three hours on your phone, I put them in basically. It meant that if I spent at the age of 34, three hours on my phone every day for the rest of my life, eight years on your phone.

my

Speaker 1 (38:50.604)

Yeah. Eight years, though there are all sorts of calculators. I encourage you right now to go on Google and search screen time calculator and you'll be able to put in your name. Sorry, not your name, your age, how much time you spend on your phone. You can check that on your screen time feature on your phone. Every phone has one. And then it basically will turn out how many years there's one that does how many, how many years for the rest of your life? How many months, how many

hours and it breaks it down and basically it's shocking. But so essentially people have this perceived sense of busyness. And again, there's no blame or judgment here. Like these phones are designed in a way to keep you addicted. You know, they are essentially slot machines. They give you random, intermittent reward and dopamine response, which keeps us hooked. And I really, really noticed this in myself and it's something I'm constantly trying to manage. But essentially everyone

feels busy all the time because we have all these what are known as low status tasks to complete emails, whatsapps, text messages, phone calls, Facebook messages, Instagram messages which are there in our pocket all the time and leading to this underlying sense of feeling busy and stressed like you have to do all these tasks all the time and I'll tell you what I've been to a few kind of digital detox cabins and

It is incredible how many hours there are on the day when you're not on your phone. Like time goes so much slower. So anyone that tells themselves they are too busy to do any of the things that we've laid out on this podcast, take a look in the mirror. No, well, first go look at your screen time and then take a look in the mirror and ask yourself, am I really too busy or could I maybe spend an hour less on my phone every day?

And an hour, you could be doing half an hour of cooking and eating and half an hour workout or half an hour of steps. Like, it really does come down to a matter of priorities, but also just being aware that this is a thing and this is a problem. There are all sorts of apps you can use as well. So I use an app called Opal, O-P-A-L, and that kind of locks me out of certain apps. Like you really do have to go quite militant on this to break the habit because it's so ingrained. You know, the amount of times I've gone to check my phone,

Speaker 1 (41:18.19)

Like I wanted to Google something or, you know, check an email and then suddenly I'm on Instagram scrolling and it's I'm like scrolling for like 10 minutes, like 10 minutes lost. It's, it's insane. And that's because they are completely and utterly addictive and they are designed to keep us hooked. So you like I delete apps on weekends. I'm completely locked out of apps before 9am and after 9pm. So there's like 12 hours every day where I can't check things. There's all sorts of things that you can do. But ultimately stop telling yourself that you don't have the time.

We honestly, we work with some of the busiest women around. So Ellen, one of our great testimonials you can hear on the podcast, she's a full-time GP. She's got three children under the age of six, I think. And she's lost, I think almost 60 pounds in seven months, which is incredible results. So there is the time there. The issue is if you think you have to sign your life away,

which most diets are encouraging, then yeah, you're gonna believe that you don't have the time. But if you get the support and accountability from experts, if you have hard, true, you ask yourself hard questions and look at your screen time and actually just take a look at your life and look at where you're wasting time and distracting yourself, then you're gonna find that you probably do have the time.

And I think with changing this, main thing, you know, it feels like you need a lot of motivation, a lot of discipline. And the best way to do that is finding, as Max just said, opportunities to create friction. So whether it's using apps that are already on your phone, but even for me, I actually leave my phone in the other room. So I'd never have it in my bedroom. I never use it after nine o'clock. My phone, I actually need a new phone because it's that slow, but I'm kind of enjoying the fact that it's that annoying to use that it's making me not

want to go on it, again, slightly extreme, but finding ways to create friction to make this easier, especially as you're building this new habit, will help over time. You it's not something that you'll be able to change overnight. It's hard. It's there all the time. And I think even people having it on their desk where you can physically see it, there's that temptation. So these small changes that you can do to reduce the amount of motivation you need will help to change this over time.

Speaker 1 (43:37.26)

Yeah, you've raised a really important point there. So I made a decision a few years ago that my phone will never ever go into my bedroom. And it doesn't. I'm in my office now. I've got a charging station over there. And I charge it there. Like it goes there from nine o'clock and it doesn't go on. Like it's 10 o'clock my time now and I haven't turned on yet. That has been the most powerful like habit or the hack that I've done for a long time. Because I used to wake up and spend like an hour scrolling and

you know, not only is that an hour wasted where I could be doing some, you know, something productive and like getting closer to my goals. When you look at your phone first thing in the morning and actually depletes your dopamine stores. So for the rest of your day, you're going to struggle with focus and attention. And when you complete a small task, like something at work, you're not actually going to get that dopamine reward from it. You're going to feel quite unfulfilled. it really does. And I noticed this occasion, you know, very occasionally I do look at my phone, scroll on Instagram first thing.

For the rest of the day, it's a shit show. Honestly, I can't focus. Nothing gets done. I'm distracted for the rest of the day. So, you know, this habit here will mean that you're going to have the time to do the things you need to to lose weight, but it's also going to have drastic impacts on your mental health, your focus, your attention, your productivity, your job. You're going to make more money as a consequence. You're going to have more time and energy for your family.

The phone thing is a big, problem. If you want to go into more detail on this, read a book by Cal Newport called Digital Minimalism, and it will really help you understand exactly what is going on here. Cool. So we had eat more at meal times. This will reduce overall hunger and therefore reduce extra unnecessary calories. Eat nutrient dense meals. You're going to feel fuller for longer. You're going to nourish your body, give your body what it needs. And again,

When you do this, you're going to feel less hungry and potentially lead to less calories consumed. Fit up on protein. It is the most filling macronutrient nutrient. So you're to feel fuller for longer and again lead to reduction in calories. Stop snacking. Stop fucking snacking. It's completely unnecessary. It's a new thing. No one like this wasn't happening 20 years ago. If you're snacking.

Speaker 1 (45:52.12)

You're sabotaging yourself. If you're following those first points, you don't need to snack. And if you are, it's psychological, which you also need to address. Practice mindful eating. It's going to increase satisfaction. You're going to enjoy the food more, and it's going to lead to a reduction in calories. Aim for 7,000 15,000 steps. It's safe. It's free. It will improve your life in countless ways. And you're going to burn more calories doing that than you will in a structured workout. But it won't raise your hunger levels like hard exercise does.

And finally, get off your phone. The biggest issue is people feeling like they don't have the time to do the things they need to do. But trust me, if you have a smartphone, you are likely spending one, two, three hours a day mindlessly scrolling. So you do have the time. Do these consistently in 2025 and you will get big results. I've given you a load of really high value tips and information here from within our coaching program. Give them a go.

And if you find you can't be consistent with them, then likely you need help with your mindset and the psychological stuff. And that's where we can come in. You know where we are. All right. Hopefully this has been useful, everyone. Thank you very much, Molly. And we'll see you on the next one.