📌 Small Swaps That Actually Add Up (Evidence-Based, No Extremes)

I shared this on Instagram, but I want the context to live here. This wasn’t about perfection, restriction, or doing more.

It was about applying well-established principles consistently and letting time do the work.

Here’s the list in full — with the why.

1️⃣ Black coffee

Liquid calories add energy without much satiety, and people don’t reliably compensate for them later in the day. Swapping milk-based coffees for black coffee is one of the simplest ways to reduce daily energy intake without touching food or hunger.

This isn’t dieting, it’s just removing calories that weren’t pulling their weight.

2️⃣ Reformer or some form of strength work

This isn’t about burning calories.

Resistance-based training supports:

lean mass retention

metabolic health

long-term body composition changes

Adding reformer or strength into the week is about what weight loss is made of, not just what the scale does.

3️⃣ More fibre

Higher-fibre diets are consistently associated with:

improved satiety

better appetite regulation

lower overall energy intake over time

Not because fibre is magic, but because meals that contain fibre are simply harder to overeat.

This is about making eating easier, not stricter.

4️⃣ High protein

Protein intakes around 1.8–2.2 g/kg/day are well supported in the literature for:

lean mass retention

satiety

supporting body composition changes during a calorie deficit

This stayed consistent the entire time.

Fat loss without protecting muscle is not the goal here.

5️⃣ Creatine monohydrate

Creatine is one of the most researched supplements we have.

It supports:

strength and power output

lean mass retention

training quality

This is about performance and muscle, not fat loss directly, but it matters if you care about how your body adapts.

6️⃣ Strategic swaps (example: powdered peanut butter)

This isn’t “fat is bad”.

Peanut butter is nutritious and very calorie dense.

Using powdered peanut butter occasionally keeps the flavour while reducing energy intake when the calories aren’t adding value.

This is calorie awareness, not fear.

A note on the apple preload 🍎

As mentioned in the video, this comes from randomised crossover controlled trials published in Appetite showing that eating a whole apple before a meal can reduce total energy intake at that meal, even after accounting for the apple itself.

It’s not a hack.

It’s an example of how food structure, fibre, and volume influence intake.

Big picture 👇

Fat loss still requires a calorie deficit that part isn’t controversial.

What is flexible is how that deficit is created.

Small, low-friction changes:

are easier to sustain

protect training quality

reduce the need for extremes

That’s why they work.

focus on long-term outcomes, not quick wins.

If you have questions about how to apply any of these in your own week, drop them below — that’s what this space is for.