Am I ready for fat loss?
The 9-point checklist we use with our clients:
a fat loss checklist?
Most of us jump into a fat loss phase without doing a ton of planning. Why? Because the motivation usually stems from an emotional reaction.
Examples:
Hating the fit of a new summer bathing suit
Seeing an unflattering photo of yourself
Getting on the scale after a long hiatus and seeing a number you dislike
By doing some deep-diving into the why, when, and how a fat loss phase might fit into your life using this checklist, we can predict much faster and sustainable results.
Losing body fat stresses on our bodies, and if our foundational habits aren’t in place ahead of time, we risk burnout and our progress stalls.
1. Consistent Tracking
Have you consistently tracked your food and body weight for at least 8 weeks?
There’s a reason this is number one. Tracking will build awareness, accuracy, and accountability—key factors in a successful fat loss phase.
This data allows you to identify trends, understand your true maintenance calories, and fine-tune your meal blueprint without the pressure of a deficit.
Without this foundation, it’s easy to miscalculate intake, making fat loss harder than it needs to be.
How To: Download a food-tracking app (we like Cronometer) and start getting familiar with your daily intake. Use an app like Happy Scale to view your body weight data graphically.
2. eating Protein is easy
Have you consistently hit protein targets and are not concerned about hitting them when deficit targets are in place?
Protein is crucial during fat loss to preserve muscle mass, support recovery, and manage hunger.
If you struggle to hit your protein target in maintenance, how can we know that you’ll be able to eat enough in a deficit?
Consistently meeting your protein needs before cutting ensures you have go-to foods in place to sustain muscle and satiety when calories drop.
Pro Tip: Making simple swaps from higher-fat protein sources to lower-fat ones (like swapping 85/15 to 93/7 ground beef) will help create the deficit while maintaining protein intake.
3. Have been at maintenance
Have you been eating at maintenance or higher for at least 12 weeks?
Spending time at maintenance or in a calorie surplus before cutting ensures your metabolism, hormones, and training performance are in a favorable position to handle a calorie deficit.
At the end of the day, if you don’t know how much to eat just to simply maintain your body weight, you’re shooting in the dark to set your calorie deficit numbers. That’s inefficient AF.
Prioritizing maintenance first will set the stage for a smoother, more successful fat-loss phase. Fat loss shouldn’t be a rushed process.
How To: See our previous post walking through how to set your personal maintenance calories.
4. Gut and Hormone health
Do you have predictable gut and hormone health trends?
Let’s be real: this should probably also be #1.
If you're constantly dealing with bloating, irregular digestion, extreme hunger swings, low energy, or unpredictable cycle symptoms, a calorie deficit can amplify these issues.
Before cutting, you should have an understanding of how your body responds to different foods, stress, and recovery.
Pro Tip: If things feel off, it doesn’t mean you need some influencer detox. You just need some time at maintenance eating real, whole foods (in most cases, not all).
5. medication adjustments
Has it been >90 days since your last medication, hormonal birth control, or HRT prescription change?
Hormonal and other medication adjustments can significantly impact metabolism, appetite, water retention, and overall energy levels.
Since it takes time for the body to adapt to these changes, jumping into a fat-loss phase too soon can make it difficult to gauge true progress or manage side effects.
What To Do: Wait at least 90 days to allow your body to stabilize, ensuring that any shifts in weight, hunger, or performance are due to your nutrition and training—not lingering medication effects. This is the best time to eat at maintenance to keep as many variables consistent as possible.
6. Eating whole foods
Are you eating 80% whole foods daily (meats, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, dairy)?
Prioritizing whole, nutrient-dense foods before entering a fat-loss phase ensures you’re fueling your body with the vitamins, minerals, and fiber it needs to function optimally.
Highly processed foods can make managing hunger, energy levels, and digestion harder—factors that become even more important in a calorie deficit.
Pro Tip: Focusing on food quality will likely increase your maintenance calories because real, whole foods help regulate appetite and support gut health. Solidifying this habit will make fat loss feel easier and more sustainable when the time comes to cut calories.
7. Stress, Sleep, and mood
Are you in a particularly stressful season of life? Lacking sleep? Poor mood regulation?
Fat loss is a stressor on the body, and if you're already dealing with high stress, poor sleep, or emotional instability, adding a calorie deficit can make things worse.
Chronic stress and sleep deprivation impact hunger hormones, recovery, and decision-making, making fat loss feel significantly harder.
Before cutting calories, ensure you're managing stress, getting quality sleep, and maintaining stable mood regulation (to the best of your ability—new moms and shift workers, we salute you).
Pro Tip: Getting less than 6.5 hours of sleep during a cut promotes higher muscle loss than fat loss.
8. Time
Do you have the ability to focus on a deficit while tracking daily for the next 8-12 weeks (this likely means a minimal travel/vacation schedule)?
Fat loss requires consistency, and if your schedule is packed with travel, social events, or unpredictable routines, sticking to a structured deficit can become challenging; it often will look like you’re not making progress on the scale.
Frequent dining out, irregular meal times, and limited control over food choices can make accurate tracking difficult and slow progress.
What To Do: Try to find an 8-12 week window where you can commit to tracking, meal prepping, and training without major disruptions. If not, consider waiting until you have more stability.
9. Endurance Goals
Not currently training for a specific endurance event (marathon training, cycling race, triathlon training, etc.)?
Repeat after me: Fat loss and performance goals do not mix.
Performance-based goals require adequate fuel for performance, recovery, and overall resilience, while a calorie deficit can increase fatigue, hinder recovery, and elevate injury risk.
If you're training for a major race or competition, your priority should be fueling appropriately to support performance.
Warning: Cut during the off-season or in a lower-intensity training block when your body doesn’t have to compromise energy levels or performance.
Takeaways
The next time you want to start a fat loss phase, take a look back at this checklist and see how many categories you can check off.
All 9 items listed here are not required before cutting, but we use these foundations at Elevated Pursuit Nutrition to get the best and highest quality results for our clients in their fat loss phases.
You will often hear us refer to ourselves as “not a fat loss first company.” And that’s because we don’t like our clients to waste their time.
We know how to optimize a fat loss phase, and to do so, we rely on the foundations first.
Next time you think you’re ready for fat loss, prove to yourself that you have earned it.
