The Only Nutrition Guide You'll Ever Need to Shred Fat

The fitness industry makes nutrition complicated on purpose. Fad diets, elimination protocols, supplement stacks — most of it is noise designed to sell you something. The truth about losing fat and keeping it off is simpler than you have been told. This is the guide Mikel wishes someone had given him at the start.

Stop Chasing Diets

Keto, carnivore, intermittent fasting, juice cleanses — they all work for the same reason. They put you in a calorie deficit. That is it. The strategy is not the magic. The deficit is the magic. When you understand this, you stop hopping from diet to diet and start building something sustainable.

The goal is not to find the perfect diet. The goal is to find an approach to eating that keeps you in a moderate calorie deficit consistently, that you can stick to without misery, and that fuels your training effectively.

The Simple Framework

Here is what Mikel uses with every client regardless of their goal. It is not flashy. It works.

• Eat in a moderate deficit. Roughly 300 to 500 calories below your maintenance level. Not a crash. Not starvation. A sustainable reduction that preserves muscle while burning fat.
• Prioritise protein. Aim for 0.7 to 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight daily. Protein keeps you full, preserves muscle mass, and has the highest thermic effect of any macronutrient.
• Eat mostly whole foods. Not because processed food is evil, but because whole foods are more filling per calorie, more nutritious, and easier to stay consistent with.
• Track what you eat. At least for the first few weeks. Most people dramatically underestimate how much they are eating. Tracking brings reality into focus.
• Drink your water. Minimum 2 to 3 litres daily. Hunger and thirst feel identical. Most people are eating when they should be drinking.

Protein Is Your Priority

If you take nothing else from this guide, take this: eat more protein. Most people eating a standard diet are getting nowhere near enough. When you are in a calorie deficit and training hard, protein is what stands between you and losing the muscle you have worked to build.

Good sources: chicken, turkey, lean beef, eggs, Greek yoghurt, cottage cheese, fish, and protein shakes as a top-up when needed. Build every meal around a protein source first, then add your carbs and fats around it.

What About Carbs?

Carbohydrates are not the enemy. They are your primary fuel source for training. Cutting them completely will tank your performance in the gym, which will slow your fat loss results. Keep carbs in your diet — especially around your workouts — and focus your cuts on overall calories rather than eliminating entire food groups.

Consistency Over Perfection

You will have bad days. You will eat off-plan meals. A birthday, a holiday, a hard week. That is life. One bad meal does not derail a fat loss journey any more than one good meal starts one. What matters is the pattern over weeks and months, not the purity of a single day.

Hit your protein. Stay in your deficit most of the time. Train consistently. Sleep well. The fat will come off. It is not complicated — it just requires patience and consistency that most people are not willing to apply.