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Your Two Numbers: Goal Weight x 12 and Goal Weight x 0.7

Two numbers matter: a daily calorie limit and a daily protein minimum. Hit their averages over time and you can eat and drink whatever you like.

Your daily calorie limit and your daily protein minimum are really the only two numbers I track with clients. How you set up the rest is up to you, as long as those two numbers are where they need to be. This is where all the freedom comes from.

As long as you know, track and average the right ranges for these two numbers over time, you will continue to lose fat and keep your muscle. As long as you hit your numbers, you can eat and drink whatever you'd like. Know your numbers. Know you'll progress. Enjoy your freedom.

Notice we use your GOAL weight for both, not your current weight. You're eating and moving like your future self starting today.

Number one: your Daily Calorie Limit

Goal weight (in pounds) x 12 = your Daily Calorie Limit

To lose fat, you must be burning more calories than you're consuming. When you burn more than you take in, you're creating a calorie deficit. A daily calorie deficit paired with enough protein and good fat leads to fat loss over time.

For example, if your goal weight is 160 pounds, your limit is 160 x 12 = 1,920 calories per day. If your goal weight is 200 pounds, it's 2,400.

Technically, this number already creates a deficit for you. When possible, you can come in further under it to speed things up. Using 200 pounds as the goal weight, you could come in at 1,900 calories for the day, as long as you're getting enough protein, enough good fat and feeling well energized. A daily 500 calorie deficit has been a sweet spot among successful clients over the years.

One rule on that: always ask yourself, "Am I hungry or am I low energy?" If it's a hunger pang but you're feeling good, keep going. If it's low energy, fogginess or shakiness, eat. Don't be a hero.

Number two: your Daily Protein Minimum

Goal weight (in pounds) x 0.7 = your Daily Protein Minimum, in grams

A 160 pound goal weight means 112 grams of protein a day. A 200 pound goal weight means 140 grams.

Almost every client I've worked with is underdoing protein at the start. The reason this number matters so much is a naturally occurring human inconvenience called sarcopenia, the body's natural loss of muscle tissue as you age. The less muscle you have, the slower your metabolic rate. The slower your metabolic rate, the fewer calories your body burns at rest each day. It's the main reason it was easier to maintain or lose weight 10 years ago, and even easier 10 years before then.

When you cut calories without enough protein, you lose fat but you also lose muscle along with it. This is the slipperiest (hey look, a new word) of all slippery slopes. You want to lose fat, not muscle. For our purposes, think of protein as protecting the muscle you already have.

This is a minimum. You can exceed it by as much as you'd like, as long as you're staying under your calorie limit.

The floor under your fats

Goal weight x 0.35 = your minimum grams of fat per day

At 160 pounds, that's about 56 grams. Fat keeps you full and satisfied, and going too low is one more way a plan turns miserable. Treat this as a floor, not a target. Protein is the number to chase. Calories are the number to stay under. Fat just shouldn't drop below this.

Carbs aren't the enemy. They're delicious. Cutting them out completely creates a sense of deprivation that lights the fuse on a ticking time bomb. Once your protein and fat are covered, the rest of your calories are yours to spend however you like.

A quick calorie cheat sheet

Anything you consume aside from water or tea has calories. Even a cup of black coffee or a piece of chewing gum has a few. Here's how it breaks down:

• 1 gram of protein = 4 calories
• 1 gram of carbohydrate = 4 calories
• 1 gram of fat = 9 calories
• 1 gram of alcohol = 7 calories

You have to track, at least for a while

At this very moment, can you tell me about how many calories you consumed yesterday? And how many grams of protein? I can see the deer-in-headlights look from here.

If you don't know a close answer to those two questions, you are simply guessing with your fat loss. Eating "clean" doesn't cut it. You can eat healthy food all day long and not make the kind of progress you're after.

Download a free calorie tracking app and track for at least the first 4 weeks. Think of it as a crash course in nutrition. It's a little tedious, but you won't have to track forever. We are creatures of habit and tend to eat the same 20 or so foods over and over, so the app saves them and it gets easier fast. The end goal is for you to know intuitively how much you're getting a few months from now, which lets you set your fat loss on autopilot.

Pro tip: enter your own two numbers in the app. Do not use the preset numbers it picks for you.

And a word of caution on the other side of the equation. Apps and watches tend to overestimate the calories you burn through exercise, sometimes by a lot. Don't eat those calories back. Let movement be a bonus that widens your deficit, and keep your eye on the two numbers you control.

If you'd rather not do the math by hand, plug your goal weight in here and you'll have all three numbers in a minute.

Your takeaway

Take your goal weight. Multiply by 12 for calories and by 0.7 for protein. Write both down, put them in your tracking app today, and aim to average them over the next 30 days. That's the whole game.