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Aggressive Fat Loss in an Enjoyable Way! (for real)

The fat loss game is simple: Be in a calorie deficit as long as it takes to burn all the fat off.

Simple enough but the problem lies in the “as long as it takes” part.

If you have 10-15 lbs of fat to lose that means you have to stay in a deficit 5-7 weeks. So almost two months you have to be conscious of how much you eat, resist cravings, and manage social events where you have to eat out.

That’s the problem right there. The patience. The waiting game. Habit change.

Most people have no problem sticking to an extreme plan for a few days.  Feeling miserable for a week to get to their goal is a very attractive trade off.

But as we all know these plans don’t work. Fat loss takes time. You can’t lose 10-15 pounds of fat in week. Not even if you fast for 7 days.

So the only way you’re ever going to reach your fat loss goal is learning how to stay in a deficit for a longer period of time.

Two Ways to Reach your Fat Loss Goal

There are two ways to do this:

1. Pure Willpower

This is the scenario where you know you have to eat less so you just do it. It doesn’t matter how you feel, how hungry you are, or what social invitations you have to turn down. You do whatever it takes to be in a deficit.

That’s admirable and it works absolutely great. However, what are you doing with your life? By doing this you can no longer do the things you wanted your physique for in the first place. Things like going out, hanging out with girls, or chilling with your friends or family.

No, this is not the way. So consider the next point.

2. Fitting your Fitness Plan into your Lifestyle

This is where you learn to eat a calorie deficit without making a fuss about it. You don’t talk about your diet, you don’t think about it – because it’s normal.

This is the key.

All lean (and sane) people know and use this secret. They engineer their food environment and eating habits so that they don’t need to use willpower.

I’m not going to lie, this a skill and as all skills it needs to be learned. But if you’ll take the time to study this subject you will be amazed by how easy it is to reach your fat loss goals.

Fitting your fitness plan into your lifestyle comes down to mastering 3 pillars of successful fat loss:

The 3 Pillars of Successful Fat Loss

1. Managing Hunger

This is the big one. Feeling satiated on fewer calories than you’re used to takes a special approach. You have to trick your mind and body into thinking you’re eating more food than you actually are.

We’ve found 2 ways to do this:

*Eating lower calorie foods so you can eat the same volume of food as before
*Eating bigger meals so you get stuffed once a day even in a deficit

Both will work but it’s best if you use them together.

Is it really possible to eat more while dieting than you were eating when maintaining? Surprisingly, yes. I’ll show you how to do that later in this article.

2. Eliminating Cravings

Would you be willing to give up all your favorite foods so you can be as shredded as possible? Some people do just that, but there’s a better way.

We want an amazing physique so we can enjoy our life more, not subtract from it. And delicious food is a pleasurable experience I think no one would like to give up on.

Here’s the good news: You can have any food you like while being in a deficit. I’ll show you how later in this article.

3. Managing Social Events

Would you go to your mother’s birthday and refuse to eat cake? So you can be as shredded as possible?

That’s got to be painful. Some people do it… but I’d never want to do that. And I’m sure you also love your mom more than you love shredded abs.

But again we have good news: You can have cake and shredded abs at the same time. You can still participate to social events where food is served and still be in a comfortable deficit. I’ll show you how in the next session.

Achieving all 3 pillars of Fat Loss Success

My friend and partner Greg has found a way to stay in a deficit while doing all these things: staying full, eating your favorite foods, and having an active social life.

He called it The Aggressive Fat Loss Program.

Here’s how it works:

Hunger management

To ensure satiety while cutting we use two simple tools: Intermittent Fasting and Good Food Choices

Intermittent Fasting (IF) is a pattern of eating where you skip breakfast and push your first meal back 4-6 hours after waking up. Oddly enough, short term fasting has appetite suppressing effects so this strategy helps you get through half of the day without consuming any calories and without thinking about food.

Here’s how your day might look like:

1. Wake up at 7 AM
2. Go without food until 1 PM (you can have black coffee and water)
3. Break Fast at 1 PM
4. Stop Eating at 9 PM (you can have 2-3 meals from 1 PM to 9 PM)

This pattern of eating saves a lot of calories for the second part of the day which as we’ll see next makes a big difference for your social life.

Reducing meal frequency also means you get to enjoy bigger meals. Bigger meals help you get full – this helps reduce physiological hunger and eliminates the mental stress of eating less.

Now let’s see how to use Good Food Choices. By Good Food Choices we mean foods that are filling, delicious, and nutritious (lean meats, eggs, low-fat dairy products, veggies, fruits, potatoes). When we combine IF with the right Food Choices we get something beautiful: big meals that are highly satiating, delicious, and nutritious.

Watch the video at the top of the article and you’ll understand what I mean.

Satisfying Cravings

You’ll love this part.

Instead of managing cravings, Greg took a direct route and prevented them altogether. How? By fitting your favorite snacks into the diet right from the beginning.

Remember Intermittent Fasting and how it saves a lot of calories for just two or three meals? How hard can it be to fit your favorite dessert or treat into your diet? Not hard at all.

One of the smaller meals of your cutting plan can be your favorite treat. If you watched the video at the top of this article you saw that I had a bar of chocolate as one of my meals. That was planned and you could do that as well everyday and still lose fat like clockwork. In the Aggressive Fat Loss Program the diet is set this way:

1. Fast 4-6 hours after waking up
2. Black coffee during the fast to blunt appetite
3. Drink a lot of water to promote wellness and prevent false hunger
4. Have a piece of fruit when you get hungry
5. First meal (30-60% of daily calories) – if this is the smaller meal, it can be your favorite dessert
6. Second meal (30-60% of daily calories) – if this is the smaller meal, it can be your favorite dessert

Lifestyle and Social Events

Almost all social events happen in the evening. For this reason it makes sense to have most of your calories in the second part of the day. Intermittent Fasting helps you do just that.

If you have a dinner planned at 8 PM, you can save 60% of your daily calories for that event. If you’re an average sized male, that can be 1200 calories. You could go to a restaurant and have pretty much any meal you want and still be in a deficit.

Hell, you may even be able to have a treat as your first meal. You could have a small meal or a treat at 3 PM, a piece of fruit at 5 PM and a delicious meal at the restaurant. You won’t even have to mention you’re cutting at dinner. In fact, people may be blown away by how much you can eat.

Psychological stress of dieting = eliminated.

Now it’s your turn

This is our way of making cutting a breeze. Would you like to learn how to do it too? Remember it’s a skill and once you master it you’ll have complete control over how you look.

The complete course on effortless cutting can be found here: the Aggressive Fat Loss Course.

And if you want to study each topic on it’s own you can do that by reading these articles:

If you have any questions I’m here to help. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think and if you need some support. I read and answer every comment. 


Do you want a lean & ripped “Hollywood”actor physique like Joe Manganiello in Magic Mike?

If so, the first step is to get really, really lean and reveal incredible muscle definition. Then you can start a lean gaining phase to build proportionate mass in your shoulders, chest, and back.

The Aggressive Fat Loss Program comes with a full training program to help you do just that! 

Click Here to learn more about it.

32 Comments

  1. Tom on July 16, 2015 at 11:23 pm

    Hey Radu I’m currently doing the aggressive fat loss program and the workout. I hate going to the gym just to train legs lol. How does your workout for cutting look, I noticed in your video you mix legs with some upper body exercises. I’d love it if you could share it with me as I wanna do summet more like ur doing. Thanks in advance man.

    • Radu Antoniu on July 17, 2015 at 8:19 am

      Hey Tom! I hear you man haha

      Here is my current routine:

      Workout A
      Weighted chins – 5, 6, 8 RPT
      Deadlift – 5, 6, 8 RPT
      Pendlay Row – 5 x 6
      Calves 3 sets to failure

      Workout B
      Flat Bench 5, 6, 8 RPT
      Incline DB Press 5, 6, 8 RPT
      Barbell Curls 5-7, 6-8, 8-10 RPT
      Bent Over Flys – Rest Pause

      Workout C
      Standing Press – 5, 6, 8 RPT
      Lateral Raises – Rest Pause (lately I’ve been doing hanging lateral raises)
      Leg Press – 3 x 8
      Skull Crushers – 3 x 10
      Leg Extensions – 3-4 x 12
      Calves 3 sets to failure

  2. Joseph Johnson on July 17, 2015 at 12:54 am

    What a fantastic first V-Log. It really shows how easy and achievable the intermittent fasting lifestyle can be. I really like how you pushed the majority of the protein into one meal, and included the advice of pushing the meals to later in the day. I was listening to some of Greg’s podcast earlier and this is an excellent illustration of this. Makes me want to change my routine up even a little bit more. I also liked how you broke the meal up – protein with the salad and carbs from the potatoes later. Saw that was closer to bed time so those carbs definitely help prepare you for a good night of sleep. You are blowing my mind with cooking the potatoes directly on the rack – I am going to do that this weekend and give it a try – fantastic idea, my friend. That chicken also was sizzling and looked delicious – I’ve never really baked chicken – opting instead for grilling it or just sautéing it in some oil. Going to give that a try as well! Really great post – Radu!

    • Radu Antoniu on July 17, 2015 at 8:40 am

      Thanks brother!

      Yeah, there are so many ways you can split up your meals with IF to make it enjoyable. The AFL way is a lot of fun, I ate like that yesterday too haha. I’ll do it again today too.

      However I prefer 3 meals a day so I made a few changes to it. Yesterday I had a small meal around 2.30 PM (protein and veggies as the first meal instead of the apple), then around 6 PM I had a bar of chocolate, and then around 9 PM I had 300g of chicken with tomato sauce and 1-2 hours later I had a big serving of potatoes. I’m loving it.

      You should try out different setups and see which one you enjoy most 😀

      Oh yeah, cooking the potatoes directly on that grill is the best food idea I’ve ever had haha. You should definitely give it a try! And let me know what you think. Baked chicken is also good if you let it cook until it is crispy. Make sure to estimate your macros before cooking it because it looses a lot of water weight if you let it get crispy like that.

      I always appreciate your comments Joseph! Keep in touch 😀

      • Joseph Johnson on July 17, 2015 at 2:10 pm

        Yea, I am going to try both recipes tomorrow and also work over the weekend to switch things up a bit. I’ll even try the three meal thing over next week and see how that goes.

        Keep up the great work, Radu!

        • Radu Antoniu on July 18, 2015 at 9:31 pm

          Awesome!

          Keep in touch 🙂

  3. Calin on July 17, 2015 at 6:26 pm

    Salut Radu,
    Doar o intrebare. Nu ar trebui prima data sa incercam sa schimbam alimentatia, sa invatam sa mancam cat de cat corect si doar apoi sa apelam la IF sau orice altceva? Nu e o schimbare prea mare si prea brusca?
    Din august intentionez sa redevin cum eram odata (cu ceva patratele 🙂 ). Vreau sa slabesc cel putin 10kg. Cum ar trebui sa incep? Cu cat citesc mai mult pe net cu atat sunt mai confuz. Ce program de la tine mi_ai recomanda sa achizitionez? Am nevoie de un plan altfel sigur dau gres.
    Multumesc si mult succes in continuare.

    • Radu Antoniu on July 18, 2015 at 9:36 pm

      Salut Calin!

      Buna intrebare. IF nu e drastic. E doar un mod prin care e mai simplu sa stai in deficitul caloric necesar slabirii de grasime.

      E mult mai greu (parerea mea) sa mananci 4-5 mese impartite pe tot parcursul zilei decat sa mananci 2-3 mese mari in stil IF. Atata timp cat numarul de calorii si de proteine, grasimi si carbohidrati e la fel, modul cum mananci pe parcursul zilei nu conteaza pentru rezultate, dar conteaza foarte mult pentru usurinta cu care tii planul.

      Eu ti-as recomanda Programul de Definire X0 sau daca stii engleza programul Aggressive Fat Loss. Sunt foarte similare, doar ca al meu are 3 mese pe zi iar al lui Greg 2 mese pe zi.

      • lia on February 1, 2017 at 6:05 pm

        Buna., Radu, as dori sa stiu daca e ok pentru o femeie sa tina IF si daca ar obtine si rezultate. As dori sa slabesc aprox 10 kg. Am 1.60 cm si 73 kg. M-as simti bine pe la 65 kg. Anul acesta voi implini 44 de ani, am doi copii. Daca trebuie sa cumpar un program de alimentatie, let me know, tx!

  4. Nexus Natty on September 17, 2015 at 4:46 pm

    Great article Radu.. I am your big fan, from India. I weigh 135 lbs does that means i will have to eat 135×10 = 1350 calories for cutting.. I still have 10lbs to lose.? It will be great if you help me with this. Thanks.

    • Radu Antoniu on September 18, 2015 at 8:52 pm

      Thank you 😀 Glad you enjoy the content !

      I very rarely recommend people to eat 10 calories per pound. It’s only for the people that have a lot fat to lose and a high calorie deficit doesn’t affect them negatively.

      I usually recommend cutting with 11-11.5 calories per lbs.
      But are you sure you still need to cut? If your waist is already very thin (43-44% of your height, I suggest you start lean bulking)

      • Nexus Natty on September 21, 2015 at 7:03 pm

        Haha.. Yes i am cutting.. Im 5’5 bro.. In India thats the average male height ? my waist is around 48%. That’s why im leaning down to 43-44% as per your advice ?

        • Radu Antoniu on September 21, 2015 at 7:42 pm

          Awesome!

          Let me know how things go.

  5. Haik on September 29, 2015 at 8:38 pm

    Hey Radu,

    I’m a young teen male who weighs 130lbs and is 5’5. I have quite a bit of muscle of me being pretty young just a layer of fat covering it. I say maximum 8lbs. How many calories should I eat to get a 6 pack before the end of this year? Also do my macros matter if I’m getting in at least 80 grams of protien. I do calisthenics and play high school soccer. Thanks . Keep up the great content.

    • Radu Antoniu on September 30, 2015 at 8:09 pm

      Hey Haik!

      You sent me an email as well right? Check your inbox I answered your question there 🙂

  6. Andy on October 17, 2015 at 11:05 pm

    Hey Radu. I’m finding it tough to get my protein in, I need 185g and it seems like a lot, Im in a stage of fat loss and its going well, I’ve dropped 10 Ibs, I’m getting around 100g of protein daily but I’m so full which I guess is a good thing when trying to lean down, how much does it matter that im not hitting the 185g? Thanks

    • Radu Antoniu on October 18, 2015 at 10:04 am

      Hey Andy!

      Yeah that’s a nice problem to have. You need to get at least 0.85g per lbs. If you can’t get that through food, have a protein shake to add a few more grams of protein.

      It matters because protein is necessary for muscle mass maintenance during a cut.

  7. anton on October 24, 2015 at 8:02 pm

    Hi Radu
    just want to say i really enjoy your articles & videos – lots of good information

    also wanted to ask about the potatoes – dude what temperature do you set your oven at? i want to try cooking them like that but i dont want them to cook to fast & burn haha.

    • Radu Antoniu on October 26, 2015 at 9:10 am

      Thanks Anton!

      Hmm I couldn’t really tell you. My oven is pretty old and doesn’t have a temperature reading. You can set the temperature lower than optimal, it’s just going to take longer for them to cook.

      Try a lower temperature next time 😀

  8. Thi Ha on November 16, 2015 at 4:33 am

    Hey bro,

    Thanks for sharing. How is your current body?

    Btw, each meal contains 35% protein and fat + carbs for the rest.

    What is the fat and carbs you eat?

    Thanks.

    • Radu Antoniu on November 17, 2015 at 9:46 am

      Hey!

      I set calories first, depending on the goal. I get those calories from about 0.9g of protein per lb of BW (or 1.9g per kg), 25% of the calories from fat and the rest from carbs.

      I do this both when cutting or bulking.

  9. Al on March 17, 2016 at 7:06 am

    Hi,

    Thank you for all the information you’ve put all out here.
    I’ve just had a couple of questions. I’ve been doing this IF (16-8 plan) for about a month. I usually wake up around 9am, have my coffee and hit to gym on an empty stomach and right after work out around 10am I break my fast. I eat two other meals until 6pm when I go to the fasting mode. I’m trying to cut and have maintained my calories deficit for 500-600 calories for 5 days a week. (The remaining days I usually eat at the maintenance level).
    Is it really necessary to be in a fasted mode after waking up for 4-5 hours and eat at night instead? Does my system work? How many days do you do the IF in a week in cut period?

    Thanks a lot

  10. Vicotria on April 8, 2016 at 12:38 pm

    Salut. Am 18 ani, 54kg , 160cm. Pt o competitie treb sa dau jos pina la 46kg. Si am la dispozitie doar o luna, intrebarea, cite calorii sa mentin cu un asa program? si asta nu va afecta leptina si cartizolul? care va duce la efectul plato? cum sa-l evit?

  11. Cale Anderson on May 11, 2016 at 9:18 pm

    Hi Radu I was wondering if i could see your transformation for the aggressive fat loss 2.0 program. Im around 13% bodyfat and im thinking of trying it for a quick cut. I want to get to 7-8% body fat before i start putting on muscle.

  12. Joe on May 24, 2016 at 2:16 pm

    Hey, hey, Radu,

    I know you’re on the bench at the moment, so I hope you got the time to answer my question.

    I want to try your fat loss program as follows:
    wake up – 8 am
    fast until – 2 pm ( break fast with solid meal, main course + salad)
    quick snack – 4:30 pm ( just before workout )

    Now the question: – would you suggest I go for another meal after workout, or just stick with a solid protein shake? Around 7-8 PM. Or should I just put the second meal right before the workout, and take the protein shake before bed?

    I think I have around 20% body fat, so I’d like to fast at least 14 hours a day. Height: 187 cm, Weight: 80 kg.

    Let me know what you think.

    Best regards, Joe.

    • Radu Antoniu on May 26, 2016 at 8:50 am

      Hey Joe.

      I would have a solid meal but it depends how many calories you have left.

  13. Jarrod on October 4, 2016 at 10:01 pm

    Hey Radu. I’m your big fan from New Zealand ??
    I was just wondering how to burn fat while maintaining if not gaining muscle at the same time. I’m currently 187lbs and 5″11 . I am 15 years old and have quite a lot of visable muscle on my legs and arms but have a layer of fat stopping me from seeing the abs I desperately want. I would say there’s a maximum of 10kgs covering them. I’m currently going to the gym 4 days sweet doing cardio and weights. While training kickboxing,MMA and Brazilian jiu jitsu 6 times a week. I’m not looosing or gaining weight. I’ve been at 185-187 lbs for the past 2 years. I’ve been going to the gym for 1 year now and the other trainings have been for 6-7 years now. I’m so prepared to put more work into loosing weight but I’m struggling to find an aggressive fat cut program. I was hoping you might have some ideas for food to eat and when to eat it and maybe some gym plans.
    Thank you so much

    • Radu Antoniu on October 5, 2016 at 6:55 pm

      Hey Jarrod!

      I understand. As a novice/intermediate lifter, if your training program is good you will gain muscle on a cut as well. It’s just hard to notice because muscle growth is much slower. You could lose 10kg of fat in 3 months while only gaining 1kg of muscle. Check out this article.

  14. Drake on January 17, 2017 at 8:47 pm

    Hey Radu,

    Great article, very helpful information. I was just hoping to get your opinion. I usually wake up early and hit the gym right away (usually around 5am). I’ve always been told I need to have a protein shake right after lifting but with an IF plan I wouldn’t break my fast until around 11. Do you think a post workout shake is necessary or can I just wait until I break my fast?

    Thank you!

  15. Dali on February 27, 2017 at 1:19 am

    Please come out with a program for women

  16. Jan-Agda on June 4, 2017 at 12:19 pm

    Buna Buna Radu 🙂

    I’m a 24 yo young female and student .. It’s been a long time I am dieting , trying a looot of diet … This year I struggled a lot finding the right diet .. eating 4-5 samll meals a day wasn’t satisfying for me at all ! So since few days I am trying the intermittent fasting .. I saw a video on 16/8 interlittent fasting by a female youtuber that I also follow and I wanted to know what do you think about what I am doing ( I also watched yours and Kinobody’s video).

    Basically I am sleeping around midnight everyday because I am in exam session and I don’t attend classes anymore .. I do fast till 4 pm then from 4pm to midnight it’s my ” eating window” … Honestly when I started ; so the 3rd June I did not really watch what I ate .. Pizza + a salad ( I know haha) and stuff but I could eat only one meal … then the second day I was still on pizza but I did it myself .. the dough was made of blended oatmeal and I put not a lot of cheese + a salad .. then my last meal of the day around 11 was a piece of bread .. I usually eat more clean but I did not this week … Yesterday : sweet potato in the oven ( about 200g) + homemade ketchup without sugar and a salad as my first meal + a small pizza as the last one. I know I really have a problem with pizza those times haha. Besides that I do workout .. I am on Freeletics workout ( week 6 – 4 WO a week) + some dance classes here and there and I try as much as I can to do it right before to eat.

    I also don’t consume raffinated sugar and I drink a lot of water .. I mean a 1.5 L per day and more when I do workout.

    I really want to know if eating between 4 pm and 12am is a really bad things to do ? I chose that cause I don’t mind not eating in the beginning of the day as I am drinking water and I don’t mind snacking cause uselly when I do I over snack. Also, I had a problem eating really early in the evening as I am studing and stuff .. I am hungry and it’s hard for me to snack on healthy things at night when I did had another diet ..

    I am really willing to lose that weight just like everyone else as I am a little bit overweight, I did lost 1.3 kg this month and since I started the previous diet I went from 69.5 kg to 67.4 today and my height is 1m60.

    Thank you for your time and sorry for the long comment

  17. Susan on March 29, 2018 at 8:55 am

    Hello,
    Beautiful written blog. Hits the nail on the head. My question is about balancing intermittent fasting with weight training in the morning. If I don’t eat before a workout my glycogen levels drop severely and I go into a depression for 12 to 36 hours. I want to do the intermittent fasting but I absolutely cannot train in the evening. What do I do?

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