Never Diet Again with Max Lowery

80/20 Weight Loss Rule: Eat Pizza & Still Lose Fat!

• Max Lowery

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Think you need to be perfect to lose weight?

That’s exactly why most people fail.

In this episode, I break down the 80-20 principle—a game-changing approach that makes weight loss sustainable without guilt, restriction, or starting over every Monday.

Here’s what we cover:
 🔥 Why perfectionism is sabotaging your progress
 🔥 How 80% consistency is enough to see real results
 🔥 The biggest mistakes people make (and how to avoid them)
 🔥 How to enjoy pizza, chocolate, and wine without derailing your goals

If you’re stuck in the all-or-nothing cycle and want a real way to lose weight for life, this episode is for you.

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://calendly.com/maxlowerycoaching/food-freedom-breakthrough-call



Max:

Most people think they need to be 100% perfect to lose weight, and that's exactly why they fail. Everyone knows the feeling you eat one bad thing and suddenly you think you might as well start again on Monday. But what if I told you you only need to be 80% consistent to get results? What if you could have the pizza, the wine, the chocolate without guilt and lose weight at the same time? That's exactly what we're going to talk about today the 80-20 principle. It has the potential to break all or nothing thinking. It can stop guilt and it can make long-term weight loss much easier. How do you create a life that allows you to lose weight, eat the foods that you love and sustain the results? Over the last 10 years, I've helped thousands of people do exactly that.

Max:

I'm Max Lowery. I'm an author, personal trainer and weight loss coach. In this podcast, I'm going to share my top tips and tricks from within my one-on-one coaching program. It's my goal to give you the tools and understanding so that you never diet again. In this video, I'll show you exactly how to use the 80-20 principle to make weight loss effortless. I'll also teach you about the biggest mistakes and how to actually make it work in real life.

Max:

But first to start this video and to help illustrate my point, I'm going to share a story. So let's talk about Janet. She's trying to lose weight, she's being good, she's following a strict diet, eating healthily and doing all the right things. But then one day she walks into work and a colleague has brought in a birthday cake. Janet loves cake, but she sees the cake and tells herself no, I can't have any because I'm on a diet. She watches everyone enjoy the cake and all she can think about is how much she wants a slice. She spends the rest of the day obsessing about the cake. By the time she gets home, she's feeling so deprived, frustrated and fed up that she ends up grabbing a snack and then another, and then another and before she realized it she's eaten a whole pack of biscuits and a bar of chocolate. And now she feels like a failure again. She tells herself I've blown it and I'm going to have to start again on Monday.

Max:

Let me know in the comments have you ever felt this way? Does this sound familiar to you? Let me know. What if I told you you don't need to be perfect to lose weight? What if Janet could have just enjoyed the cake and still made progress. That's exactly what the 80-20 principle allows you to do.

Max:

So what is the 80-20 principle and why is it not a rule? The 80-20 principle is very simple If you're 80% consistent with your healthy habits, you'll still get results. The idea actually comes from something called the Pareto principle, which is an economic rule that says 80% of outcomes come from 20% of efforts. When you apply this to weight loss, it means you don't need to be perfect, just consistent. Great quote, I heard, is consistency beats intensity. It's better to be 80% consistent instead of going 100% all in. So I don't like calling it a rule, because no one likes rules. Rules feel restrictive. Rules make us feel like we have to be all in or out. This is a principle, a way of eating that gives you structure without making you feel trapped and deprived. Let me know in the comments if I've got any perfectionists watching this right now who are cringing hearing this. So why does the 80-20 principle work for weight loss?

Max:

Most diets fail because they're too extreme. The second you tell yourself you can't have something. It's all you think about. It's basic human psychology. No one can live a life of restriction and deprivation when you've got willpower and motivation. Maybe this will work, but as soon as life happens, you're going to end up making mistakes and feeling like a failure. This cycle of restriction, deprivation, giving in and binging and overeating and then feeling guilty is known as the diet cycle, whereas the 80-20 principle can remove that pressure and allow some room for fun and freedom and flexibility.

Max:

So how do you apply the 80-20 principle in real life? Well, it's actually very simple. So, ideally, 80% of your diet will be whole foods, nutrient-dense, cooked from scratch, so filling up on lean proteins, healthy fats and fiber-rich foods, instead of foods that have a marketing campaign and a long list of ingredients you can't even pronounce. So if you do that 80% of the time, it means 20% of the time you can enjoy fun foods, whether it's pizza, chocolate, ice cream, wine or beer, whatever you enjoy eating. So eating in this way means you can eat the foods you enjoy without guilt, because no food is off limits. And if you're consistent, 80% of the time, that's all you need.

Max:

Really quick one for me. Guys, I don't run ads on this podcast and I do aim to give you as many high-value tips and tricks as I can for free. All I ask in return is that you help me spread the word. That way I can help as many people as I can to never diet again. The way to do that is to rate, review and share this podcast. A review will only take 30 seconds, but it would mean the world to me but, more importantly, it could help change the life of someone else.

Max:

So what does this actually look like in terms of numbers and calories? So if your goal is weight loss, you need to work out what is your total weekly calorie target to still be in a deficit. Then work out 20% of that total number to get your flexible calories, or your 20%. So that is the total amount of calories that you could eat in a week of fun foods. Then divide that number by seven to work out exactly how many calories per day can come from fun foods. So, for example, if you work out that your weekly total calorie target is 14,000 calories, so that's 2,000 calories per day you can eat, and that's still a slight deficit. 20% of that 14,000 is 2,800 calories. So in the space of a week you could eat 2,800 calories worth of fun foods. Divide that by seven and that's roughly 400 calories you could eat per day of fun foods. This can make weight loss much easier because you know exactly where your flexibility is. Let me know in the comments if you have any specific questions about these equations.

Max:

Unfortunately, people do make some very common mistakes when incorporating the 80-20 principle, so let's explore those so you don't make them. The biggest mistake is that they completely underestimate their 20%. They think they're sticking to 20%, but in reality they're closer to 40 or 50 percent. This is usually a problem for people that have never tracked their calories and have no idea about calories. If this sounds like you, just try tracking your 20 percent calories, don't worry about tracking the whole foods. Just be as accurate as you can with the chocolate, the pizza, the wine or whatever it is.

Max:

The second is some people use 80-20 as an excuse to overeat. Remember this is not a cheat meal where you're gorging and binging. They often turn 80-20 into 60-40 or even 50-50, and this can slow progress. The key is to keep structure in your 80%. And finally, some people are actually too rigid with the 80%. They get completely obsessed and hung up on what is 80% and what is 20% and it just becomes this whole confusing thing. Remember this is a principle, not a rule. You're not going to get it perfect, so just do the best that you can.

Max:

A common question we get asked by clients is should you reserve all those fun calories for the weekend or should you break it up over the seven days? The answer very much depends on you as an individual. What I would say is, if you do eat the fun food every day, just be careful, because the nature of these hyperpalatable, high sugar foods is that they're very difficult to self-regulate and to stay in control with. So it might be better to save it for the weekends. This is what I personally do. So why does the 80-20 principle actually work?

Max:

At the end of the day, weight loss comes down to one thing a calorie deficit. You don't have to eat clean 100% of the time to be in a calorie deficit. You could technically eat pizza, wine and chocolate every single day and still lose weight as long as you're in a calorie deficit. But prioritizing 80% whole foods helps with hunger, energy levels and long-term health. So the 80-20 principle takes the pressure off making weight loss more enjoyable and sustainable. And guess what, when something is more enjoyable and more sustainable, you are more likely to do it in the long term, which means long-term weight loss success. So, to recap, you don't need to be perfect to lose weight. 80% consistency is more than enough. You can eat your favorite foods and lose weight at the same time, and this is ultimately how you can break the all or nothing cycle, get out of the guilt mentality and lose weight in the long term. Let me know in the comments what beliefs this brings up. Do you still feel that you need to be perfect to see results? If you got value from this and you want to learn more about sustainable weight loss, make sure you hit, like and subscribe. Even better, share this with a friend who you think needs to hear this.

Max:

For some people, the 80-20 principle can be a very difficult thing to incorporate. It can be really hard to get out that guilt mindset and to stop labeling foods as good and bad. If this sounds like you and you think you need more help, there are two ways that you can get in touch. If you click the link below, you can watch my cravings and fat loss masterclass, which will teach you my three-phase system and how we get long-term results with our clients. If you want to take it to a next level, then I suggest booking in for a food freedom breakthrough. Call. On that call. We will help assess to see if you are stuck in sugar burning mode, to see what the root cause of your weight gain is and give you a clear strategy on how to lose weight and keep it off the rest of your life. Just click the link below. Thanks for watching. See you in the next one.