Built By Riz

The middle is where fat loss gets dangerous.

Not because nothing is working.

Because enough has changed for you to feel comfortable, but not enough for the mirror to match the result you have in your head yet.

You’ve lost a few kilos.

Your clothes fit differently.

People around you are starting to notice.

But you still feel stuck in that awkward gap between the old you and the body you’re working towards.

That’s when your brain starts bargaining:

“Skipping one session won’t matter.”

“I’ve earned this heavy weekend.”

“Maybe this is the best I can do.”

That is the comfort trap.

The danger isn’t one imperfect session or weekend by itself.

It’s allowing that moment to become permission to stop and slowly giving back what you already built.

You will not feel as motivated as you did at the beginning forever. Motivation is finite. Your plan cannot depend on constantly feeling fired up.

So stop treating fitness like an on-and-off switch.

Treat it like a dial.

When life gets chaotic, dial it down:

• Do your minimum training sessions
• Hit your minimum steps
• Hit your minimum protein
• Keep tracking your food
• Stay in a calorie deficit
• Manage your stress and sleep as well as you can

You do not need maximum effort every week.

You need enough consistency to keep the process alive.

Then, when things ease up, dial it back up and go all in again.

Do not mistake the uncomfortable middle for evidence that the process has stopped working.

You are not back at the start.

You are further than you have ever been, and too close to throw away what you’ve already built.

Save this for the week you start negotiating with yourself.

Most people judge the whole process based on the first few weeks.

Of course it feels hard. You are changing things you have repeated for years.

Training three times a week feels like effort because training is not normal for you yet. Getting your steps in feels annoying because you used to sit more.

Food also takes more thought. Before this, you did not really care that much about what you ate.

At the start, you are trying to get a result while building the routine that produces it. That is why the beginning needs more effort.

Once you repeat it enough, the same routine takes less mental energy. You stop debating with yourself every time you need to train. You know which meals work for you. Your steps become part of the day.

Look at people who have trained for years. They can look relaxed in the gym and still look great. What you cannot see are all the reps they had already put in before you saw them.

A lot of people quit while everything still needs thought. They assume the amount of effort they need today is the amount they will need forever.

Do not decide the whole process is too hard to keep doing while you are still learning the routine. You have not reached the maintenance part yet.

Be honest: what was your first impression of me?

I might regret asking this.

Most people cut food again before they know what went wrong.

Your maintenance target starts as a guess. You find the useful number by eating at that level and watching the trend.

If your weight goes up, the target was likely too high. If it drops, the target was likely too low. This test comes first. Your fat-loss target is only as good as the number you started with.

Now you can work backwards from the goal.
Say the goal is 10kg in about 16 weeks. That gives you a rough gap to create each day. In this reel, 2,000 calories for maintenance minus a 600-calorie gap gives 1,400 calories a day.

That is an example. It is not your target.
You can create the gap with food and steps. Then look at the full result each week.

Weight is one clue. Your waist can shrink and your lifts can rise even when the scale does not. Photos can show changes the scale misses. If that is happening, eating less may be the wrong move.

A coach should not hand you one number and cling to it. The job is to read your progress and know when the plan needs to change.

DM READY if you want a plan built around how your body responds

"It's your hormones" can explain why fat loss feels harder after 40.

It cannot be the sentence that ends the investigation.

Perimenopause and menopause are real. Medication can be part of your care. Your margin for error may be smaller than it was in your 30s.

But a complete audit also asks what changed around the same time.

Did the promotion cut your steps?
Did walking disappear when work got busier?
Did dinner move later?
Did cooking at home become delivery, eating out, food apps or client dinners?
Did strength training and protein become inconsistent?
Did your intake stay the same while your movement fell?

When movement drops and food intake does not, the energy balance changes. That is a changed equation, not a character verdict.

None of this means ignoring your hormones or arguing with your doctor. Review your blood work and correct what is genuinely deficient with appropriate medical guidance. Then keep working the levers that still respond: build muscle, get enough protein, create a sustainable calorie deficit, and shape food and movement around the life you have now.

The proof sequence matters because it shows that progress can happen while hormones are still part of the wider picture. Those women kept working the controllable levers before every condition became perfect.

Harder is real. "Nothing I do will matter" is the belief that has to go.

If you are in your 40s or 50s and you want a plan that accounts for your hormones without treating them as the end of the conversation, comment READY. I'll show you exactly how my clients lose the weight and keep it off.

Your current limit tells you where to start.

Build your training from there. When your body can handle more, add more.

If running is the goal, keep strength training in the week. Your legs still need to get stronger as the distance goes up. Keep training your hips, glutes and hamstrings. That work is part of becoming a better runner.

Build both together.

You will need that strength for far longer than one race.

“This is the leanest and the best I’ve ever looked. This is the most I’ve ever eaten.”

Before that, Rachel was doing a f**kton of CrossFit and HIIT classes. She thought more training and less food had to be the answer.

She kept adding more to the week, which left barely any room to recover. Each new class felt like progress, but it left her more tired for the next one.

Rachel then chose a result she was happy to keep. She made training fit around the rest of her life. All those classes were no longer something she had to do forever.

Her weight has held without the old routine. She has more energy now and does not spend the day feeling tired.

If you only ask what gets you lean, you may end up with a routine you hate. Ask one more thing before you start. What will you still do once you get there?

HYROX changed the way I think about my “peak.”

Eight years ago, I was at my strongest, fastest and most explosive. For a long time, that was the version of myself I measured against.

Then HYROX made me start again with running, something I wasn’t naturally good at.

A 5K took me roughly 35–36 minutes. My first solo race took 1:43. Being a beginner again was humbling, especially after spending years doing CrossFit and powerlifting.

I spent two years rebuilding my running. The 5K came down to under 25 minutes. My second solo race was 1:21, about 22 minutes faster, if I remember correctly.

I’m 37 now. My strength and explosiveness are close to where they were eight years ago, and my running is much better.

So I don’t see my peak as one younger version of me anymore.

HYROX showed me that I can still choose something I’m bad at, give it time, and become better than I expected.

That’s what made me believe in myself again.

Before you start losing weight, decide how you will stop dieting.

Most fat-loss plans end at the goal weight. That is where the regain often begins.

Steph went from 60kg to around 53 to 54kg. She wanted to run faster and do more pull-ups, so a lower bodyweight helped.

After months in a deficit, staying on 1,500 to 1,600 calories was no longer the right job. Diet fatigue was high and recovery was slow. She needed an exit phase.

An exit phase moves food back toward maintenance in planned steps while the habits stay in place.

Steph kept training as her food went up. She reached 2,200 - 2,300 calories. As of this week, she is at about 2,400.

At one point she messaged me:

“I don’t know how the f**k I’m losing weight. I’m eating more.”

Now her weight is holding as her food goes up.

Do not copy her calorie target. Her intake fits her high activity and muscle mass. Copy the decision to plan the exit before the deficit ends.

Write down:

• what marks the end of your fat-loss phase
• how you will raise food
• which habits stay in place
• what weight trend tells you to hold or adjust
• how you will work toward an intake you can keep

More food does not make fat loss automatic. Lower food is also not always the right next move.

A complete plan helps you lose the weight. Then it shows you how to leave the deficit while keeping the habits that got you there.

If you have lost weight before and it keeps coming back, comment READY. I’ll reach out to see if I can help.

I was supposed to do my deadlift program.

I felt wrecked. Tired as s**t. The program was not happening.

I still went to the gym. I did 15 minutes of maintenance work and left.

The 15 minutes mattered because I had already decided that a smaller session still counted on a bad day.

The miss becomes a problem when the next session is left undecided. It sits in your head until Monday feels like a cleaner place to begin.

Pick the two sessions that make your week count. Put them in your calendar like meetings.

If one gets knocked out, move it. If the full session is off the table, use the minimum version you decided beforehand.

Before your next session, write down what that minimum version is. Mine was 15 minutes.