The ONLY 5 Habits You Need to Get Lean in 2025

Summary

Highlights

• Increasing your energy flux can help you eat more and lose fat! 🔥
• Track your body weight and food intake to see real progress. 📊
• Sleep quality impacts your mood, hunger, and even your fat loss. 😴
• High-quality meals with protein, veggies, and grains keep you full and energized. 🍎
• Set clear goals to guide your daily actions towards leanness. 🎯

Key Takeaways

• Adopt a high-energy flux lifestyle: eat more, move more, and get lean! 📈
• Track your progress like a pro to stay on top of your weight goals. 📝
• Sleep isn't just about quantity; quality sleep is crucial for fitness success. 💤
• Fuel your body with balanced, high-quality meals for lasting energy. 🍽️
• Define your 'why' and set actionable goals to drive daily progress. 🏆

Overview

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction The introduction highlights a startling statistic: only two out of ten individuals attempting to become lean will succeed, and just one of them will maintain their results long-term. The chapter points out that many people fail because they depend on quick fixes that are not sustainable. The key to lasting success, according to research, top coaches, and observations of the leanest individuals globally, lies in five daily habits. The author has personally achieved a body fat percentage of 11% by applying these strategies, aiming to demonstrate their effectiveness.
• 01:00 - 06:00: Habit 1: Increasing Energy Flux This chapter focuses on the concept of "Increasing Energy Flux" as a crucial habit for losing fat effectively. Contrary to the traditional advice of simply eating less to lose fat, it suggests that some of the leanest individuals actually consume more calories while maintaining low body fat. The chapter refers to a 2016 scientific study that supports this counterintuitive approach.
• 06:00 - 10:00: Habit 2: Self-Monitoring Habit 2: Self-Monitoring discusses a study on three groups categorized by their calorie intake and activity levels. Despite consuming the most calories, the high energy flux group—those eating over 3,000 calories a day but exercising a lot—were the only ones to lose body fat. They reduced their body fat percentage from nearly 20% to a lean 16% and maintained this for years.
• 10:00 - 15:00: Habit 3: Prioritizing Sleep This chapter examines the importance of sleep in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The author sought credible evidence and collaborated with Dr. Eric Trexler, a researcher at Duke University and science adviser for the Built With Science Plus app. They utilized data from a large-scale American health study known as the ENHS database. The study involved a statistical analysis to compare the calorie intake between individuals with average body fat percentages at 19% against those with higher body fat levels.
• 15:00 - 18:00: Habit 4: Building High-Quality Meals The chapter discusses the observation that people with higher body fat, theoretically, should consume more calories. However, data shows that leaner individuals report eating more, approximately 300 calories extra daily. This discrepancy is often because people with higher body fat either lack experience in accurately monitoring their food intake or are hesitant to report all that they consume.
• 18:00 - 21:00: Habit 5: Setting Goals and Action Planning Chapter 5: Setting Goals and Action Planning dives into the importance of accurately understanding and setting personal goals, particularly in the context of nutrition and fitness. An example is given where an interviewer questions the accuracy of a person's self-reported dietary habits, bringing to light how easy it is to misjudge portion sizes and calorie intake. This chapter raises intriguing questions about how individuals might underestimate their caloric intake yet manage to maintain a lean physique. Through meticulous analysis, it is shown that leaner individuals may tend to misreport their dietary habits, highlighting the complexity of goal setting and tracking in personal health.
• 21:00 - 22:00: Conclusion and App Promotion The chapter discusses the concept of a high energy flux lifestyle where individuals consume more calories but also engage in significantly more exercise. This interplay may contribute to their leaner physique. Some factors, such as increased muscle mass in lean individuals and potential underreporting of calorie intake, are also considered. The chapter aligns these observations with insights from experts like researcher Eric and Dr. Mike Isrel, a PhD holder and competitive bodybuilder, who have noticed similar patterns in their work.

The ONLY 5 Habits You Need to Get Lean in 2025 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 for every 10 people who try to get lean only two will actually succeed but here's the crazy part only one of them will be able to keep the fat off for good so what's this guy's secret most people rely on quick fixes that eventually fall apart but after studying the research learning from Top coaches and analyzing the leanest people on the planet the secret comes down to just five simple daily Habits by mastering these strategies myself I recently got down to 11 % body fat and it felt almost
• 00:30 - 01:00 automatic in this video I'll show you how to do the same no gimmicks no fluff starting with habit number one increasing your energy flux so you've probably heard this advice before if you want to lose fat you just got to eat less but what if I told you the leanest people in the world often eat more calories while maintaining less body fat it sounds impossible but that's exactly what this habit does so back in 2016 scientists conducted a study where they
• 01:00 - 01:30 tracks three groups people eating fewer calories but not moving much people eating moderately and staying somewhat active and people eating over 3,000 calories a day that exercising a lot known as the high energy flux group can you guess which group saw the best results so despite eating the most calories the high energy flux group was the only one to lose fat dropping their body fat from almost 20% to a lean 16% and and maintained it for years
• 01:30 - 02:00 afterwards so what exactly is going on here well to find out I wanted more evidence so I called in Dr Eric Trexler a researcher at Duke University and the science adviser for our built with science Plus app using what's known as the enhs database which is just a massive study of the health and habits of Americans he ran a statistical analysis comparing the calorie intakes of the leanest individuals with an average body fat percentage of 19% to the least lean individuals with an
• 02:00 - 02:30 average body fat percentage of 35% theoretically you would expect that larger people with higher body fats probably eat more calories per day in reality we found a gap of roughly 300 calories where the leaner people actually reported eating more on a daily basis a lot of times people with higher body fat they either have uh less experience with self-monitoring their food intake so they have more errors in their reporting or they're just a little bit more shy about reporting everything that they ate but with en haanes you
• 02:30 - 03:00 have an interviewer there who says are you sure it was only 3/4 of a cup or did it look more like this which is actually a cup and a half and I noticed you didn't you didn't include any milk did you really eat dry cereal or did you have 2% or whole milk with that it raises a really fascinating question of you know is it possible that these Lear folks actually were eating like 300 more calories per day while maintaining a lanar physique now Eric's analysis not only show that leaner individuals tend
• 03:00 - 03:30 to report eating more but they also engaged in considerably more exercise creating what scientists term a high energy flux lifestyle now of course other variables could be at play here like leaner individuals having more muscle mass which can boost their calorie burn and as Eric mentioned the possibility of Under reporting calories but these findings align with what I've consistently observe to my own clients in fact Dr Mike isrel PhD researcher and competitive bodybuilder has noticed the
• 03:30 - 04:00 exact same thing what many people find is that if they have pegged their daily activity to a moderate high level again 8 to 12,000 steps is a rough estimate for many people kind of get you in that General range it kind of just keeps the machine humming along and allows you to eat a bit more food while simultaneously losing the same or having the same uh size calorie sink and that ends up supporting your training better supporting your cognition better it supports your mood better you're not as crazy hungry and and crav any anymore at
• 04:00 - 04:30 the same time you're losing tons of weight but a highly active lifestyle doesn't mean you're just doing a bunch of crazy cardio every day in fact all the experts I spoke to emphasize the power of plain old walking and just getting enough daily steps in even Pro natural bodybuilder and the lead coach Alberto Nunes who is known for getting to insane levels of leanness focuses on this more sustainable approach it could be something as simple as like hey no more than 90 minutes sitting in front of your desk like go take a little walk or
• 04:30 - 05:00 something or you start off the day with a walk uh or sometimes even like some people who have big enough gyms it's like hey in between sets don't bring a water bottle walk to the water fountain and come back right so you you get to be creative with it and what I like to look forward is like the path of least resistance and for most people no matter how chaotic or spontaneous your life might be there is a way to fit in some extra movement so here's what I personally do to ply this habit I already lift weights four to five times a week but I also make sure I'm taking
• 05:00 - 05:30 at least 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day and to help with this after every workout I do 10 minutes of cardio doesn't matter what I just pick whatever I feel like doing that day and at some point later on in the day I'll also take at least one long 30 to 60 Minute walk and if it's raining out I'll just hop on my under desk treadmill and lastly I try to incorporate an exercise snack after every couple hours of sitting whether it's up and down a flight of stairs walk into the furthest bathroom anything that gets me up even if it's just for a
• 05:30 - 06:00 minute so I want you to start small pick one of these tips and just build from there and if you found any creative ways to stay active I would love to hear them so drop them in the comments below but for the best results you also need to pair this with habit number two and let me ask you something if you were trying to save money would you do it without ever checking your bank account probably not cuz you'd have no idea how much you're spending you're saving but that is exactly what you're doing when you try to transform your body without keeping track of anything in fact
• 06:00 - 06:30 there's a really interesting study by Thomas at all where researchers analyze members of the national weight control registry now this group is like the VIP Club of successful weight loss everyone in it has lost at least 30 lbs and kept it off for a full year or more so we're talking about the top 20% of people who actually succeed in getting lean and staying lean so what's their secret well there was one top habit most of them had in common
• 06:30 - 07:00 self-monitoring they track their progress daily whether that was body weight food intake or activity levels but with so many things that you could track how do you know what's actually worth paying attention to here's how the experts rank then rank one by a long shot is body weight because if you're consuming decent amount of protein and you're losing weight it kind of doesn't matter what you're consuming because it's clearly working if you're not monitoring your body weight you're you're completely in the dark I know people who have very meticulous step tracking very meticulous macros that they don't keep tabs on their body
• 07:00 - 07:30 weight and they're like I don't know if the diet's working how how could you possibly know if the diet's working the second most important thing is macros because your Macros protein carbs fats and then obviously calories derived from that are like the real big working Gears of your diet and they're going to have a huge effect on your results I think the first seven eight years of my training all I did was kind of just eat clean and and train really hard and while I was able to do some good things with my physique I was never able to get as lean
• 07:30 - 08:00 as I wanted it was so eye opening to me the first few times I I tracked my food the first few weeks I was like wow I had no idea just in general I was prone to overeating that much and then rank three is steps someone's kind of sitting on the couch a lot and their diets really stalling then yeah step tracking and more than that increasing the step count is a really big deal Dr Eric trixler also recommends one more thing to look out for just the way your clothing fits the scale is not moving but my shirts are loose around my belly they're tight
• 08:00 - 08:30 around my arms they're tight around my chest like good things are happening here so especially with someone who can stand to actually gain a lot of muscle while losing fat for them tracking that clothing fit or circumferences also becomes really critical but to avoid overwhelming yourself start simple begin with just one habit tracking your body weight aim for at least three to four WS per week preferably in the morning before eating or drinking but after using the bathroom just to keep things consistent only once you've got that
• 08:30 - 09:00 down move on to tracking your nutrition now you don't have to do this every single day nor do you have to do it forever but knowing how much you're actually eating is crucial and I know I know tracking can be a hassle so I've tried to help make this as easy as possible for you with our new built with science Plus app which I'll talk more about later but basically you just snap a photo of your meal and it'll estimate the calories for you logging everything right into the app and it even keeps track of your daily steps and body weight so all the data you need is in one place but as powerful as these first
• 09:00 - 09:30 two habits are you're just not going to see the results you're after if you neglect habit number three the results are cataclysmically bad we're talking about losing pounds and pounds of weights on a caloric deficit and losing only muscle we're talking about if you're gaining weight that you're gaining pure fat and zero muscle at the same time even if you're training hard sleep is such a critical component of keeping muscle on your body and getting the fat off that it is what I call it absolute non-negotiable and it's not
• 09:30 - 10:00 just about muscle and fat Dr Eric Trexler explains how poor sleep creates a horrible ripple effect everywhere we find that folks who are underslept they are really susceptible to excessive hunger they're really susceptible to exaggerated stress responses um and so you know they're hungry they get stressed out more easily and so they're eating due to hunger but they're also eating due to stress and there's this kind of like multi-directional relationship and you might think the solution is as simple as get 8 hours of
• 10:00 - 10:30 sleep every night but here's the surprising part Eric's analysis revealed it's not just about quantity I was thinking that people with higher body fat would report less sleep per night and I was completely wrong about that so they were like virtually identical at 7.5 hours of sleep on average per night and so I was like okay I was wrong but then it got a little more interesting because I dug into there's a questionnaire kind of question in a survey how often do you just kind of
• 10:30 - 11:00 feel tired and sluggish and sleepy throughout the day and that was where we found a difference despite the fact that hours of sleep per night were equivalent the leaner folks reported that they were were less frequently feeling tired and sluggish and sleepy throughout the day uh so that that leads to a really fascinating question which is you know perhaps there's a discrepancy in Sleep Quality between the two groups so how do you improve both the quantity and quality of your sleep well the good news
• 11:00 - 11:30 is that it's relatively simple even if your lifestyle makes it challenging to get enough hours in here's what I'd recommend first try to stick to a consistent sleep schedule even on weekends so if you do have a late night resist the urge to sleep in too late the next day just to avoid messing with your sleep patterns next watch your caffeine intake especially in the afternoon and evening as this can negatively affect your sleep even if you have it up to 14 hours before bed so this means if you work out later in the day just try not
• 11:30 - 12:00 to have coffee or pre-work up before personally for me even something as small as a dieet Coke after 2: p.m. completely messes with my sleep so pay attention to what works and doesn't work for you next While most adults need 7 to 8 hours of sleep some people fall into what's called a short sleep phenotype it's rare but fascinating my mom for example she thrives on just 5 hours of sleep per night and she actually feels worse with anymore but if you want to figure out how much sleep your body actually needs spend one to two months
• 12:00 - 12:30 being consistent with your bedtime and then let yourself wake up naturally without an alarm pay attention to when you wake up and also how refreshed you feel that'll help you find your ideal sleep duration and lastly if your lifestyle makes it hard to get enough sleep at night naps can be a GameChanger pro athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James swear by them whatever you can do can never ever substitute for sleep that is the greatest recovery for an athlete like myself for athletes all
• 12:30 - 13:00 over the world and research backs this up even a 30 to 45 minute nap can drastically improve gym performance especially if you're underslept but if these naps actually end up making it harder for you to fall asleep at night try shifting them earlier or keeping them shorter but even with enough sleep it's going to feel nearly impossible to get lean if you're not eating the right foods and this is where habit number four comes in building high quality meals let's first take a look at what the experts eat and I want to see if you
• 13:00 - 13:30 can spot any patterns yeah so like for for my breakfast like it'll literally just be like Greek yogurt peanut butter powder whey protein powder and then um like a fiber one kind of cereal that's basically just like pure insoluble fiber then later on in the day I might do my workout uh sometime in the afternoon and I'll often have a protein shake I'll finish that shake uh towards the end of my workout or just before I hit the shower then I get out of the shower and you know what I do is I just clean my
• 13:30 - 14:00 body and touch everything right in front of the mirror and for just a very few dollars per month you can have access to my bathroom I'm s not back on top my my my my apolog different different video different video uh and then so um after showering I'll typically get um you know some kind of meal that fits all of my needs there this is just like that meat and veggies and I put that in the microwave when the meat and veggies are nice and warm I get that out the rice
• 14:00 - 14:30 cooker always has warm rice I put that in for fat needs I often put in either canola oil olive oil or avocado oil as measure to me and mix that all together like an animal um and eat it while I'm downstairs here in this basement working so dinner for me is like the one time in the day where I get to enjoy something that's like cooked and hot so usually it'll be some sort of animal protein uh usually it's either salmon or or beef and surrounding that that's why I try to
• 14:30 - 15:00 get my vegetables as well because again I'm at ease to I get ta vegetables take forever to eat that's one of the reasons that they're so great for fat loss so I try to have them during that meal as well um and then um some added starch it could be a sweet potato it can be a potato we could have a few slices of uh of of sour dough bread did you notice anything you may not see it quite yet but they all take the exact same approach when building their meals I'm sure you've kind of seen this before and yourself and Friends where you like look at what quote unquote regular people are
• 15:00 - 15:30 eating and you're like holy [ __ ] you think that's a meal my God and then they tell you they're like oh I can't seem to lose weight you're like listen I can tell you why like how do you build your meals it's it's kind of ridiculous so what separates a high quality meal from the average plate well it's surprisingly simple and it all comes down to three key principles start with a high quality protein Source this is non-negotiable think eggs fish yogurt or chicken roughly the size of your palm for us Fitness folks a meal just isn't
• 15:30 - 16:00 considered a meal without this next in most of your meals add one to two servings of fruits or veggies these fiber nutrient-rich foods will prevent you from getting hungry shortly after eating and lastly complete your plate with whole grains like potatoes brown rice oats Andor healthy fats like avocados or nuts now if these meals don't look quite as appetizing as your favorite take out that's completely normal stick to it long enough and your perception will actually start to change
• 16:00 - 16:30 yeah they're not as tasty as I don't know Takis or a hot dog or whatever it is that you like but there is a level of gratification that comes from it that is much steeper that is beyond the surface and that's when start things really start to like pick for people once they see their spinach salad is not just something they have to do to get where they want to be but they generally see that hey you know what this doesn't taste so bad like anymore I almost
• 16:30 - 17:00 rather eatat this than I don't know like the cheeseburger or slice of pizza from across the street because it fulfilled me in so much so many other ways outside of that like just initial thing of like wow this is tasty but that's kind of it but one thing you may have noticed about the experts I spoke to is they didn't hesitate when I asked about their meals they didn't say oh sometimes a grab take out or I just heat up Us in the fridge no their meals were deliberate structured and aligned with their goals
• 17:00 - 17:30 and that is where the final habit comes in and it's the one that ties everything together setting goals that drive the right daily actions most people say Goals that are either too vague or hyperfocused on the outcome like reaching a specific number on the scale even worse they focus on restriction like cut out sugar or avoid junk food but goals like this just keep you fixated on what you can't have and don't actually give you a road map for what to actually do and instead there's a
• 17:30 - 18:00 powerful research back method that makes achieving your goals far more likely creating a goal hierarchy think of it like building a pyramid with three layers that guide you from your overarching purpose down to the exact steps you'll take each day the first layer starts with your y this is your big picture goal the thing that gets you out of the bed in the morning it's not just about numbers on a scale or benching 225 it's about who you want to become for example I want to be a fit
• 18:00 - 18:30 healthy person who feels confident and energetic a goal like this gives you a deeper connection to your journey it's no longer just about doing it's about who you're becoming but before we move on I want you to comment below what is your why for this year for example do you want to be a healthy role model for your kids or do you want to feel more confident in your body or maybe you just know that you're capable of more and you want to realize your full potential Whatever It Is Write it in the comments
• 18:30 - 19:00 studies show that simply sharing your goal significantly increases the likelihood of you achieving it but now that you've defined your Why move on to the what and think of these like the categories that make up your transformation for example eating healthier sleeping better self-monitoring exercising consistently these goals they give you Direction but still leave room for flexibility and then lastly map out the how so this this is where you get super specific applying
• 19:00 - 19:30 the habits we went through earlier to lay out your daily routine to achieve your big picture goal here's an example weigh yourself every morning while brushing your teeth meal prep every Sunday and Wednesday to make high quality meals get 7 to 8 hours of sleep by going to bed at 1: p.m. resistance training for 45 minutes on Monday Wednesday and Friday before work and go for a 10-minute walk after every meal now maybe you just start with one of these but by breaking down your goals like this you shift your focus away from the out outcome like losing 20 lbs of
• 19:30 - 20:00 fat to the Daily process that will inevitably get you that result now if you're serious about making a change but you just feel overwhelmed or just unsure where to start our new build with size Plus app was designed for you it simplifies the entire process helping Define your goals laying out your daily checklist and easily tracks everything from your workouts steps and body weight to even your meals with just a snap of a picture plus it also a weekly workout and nutrition guidance to ensure that
• 20:00 - 20:30 you stay on track it's honestly just like having me as your personal coach in your pocket all you have to do is follow the plan and I promise you the results will come just like it has with countless others you can try 2 weeks for free over at builtwith science.com and see the difference for yourself also highly recommend giving this video watch next if you want to see the meal plan that I personally use to get lean and how our head engineer here copied it to get some pretty crazy results in just 30
• 20:30 - 21:00 days thank you so much for watching go crush your goals and I'll see you next time