the only way to gain fat...

Today’s letter is inspired by the amount of questions in my inbox that asks “is [this] ok?” where [this] could be anything from eating a certain food, eating at a certain time, doing a certain exercise, or sleeping at a certain time.

So I wanna get one thing straight with you today, and hopefully understanding this will help you clear up a lot of uncertainty and confusion in your weight loss journey.

Here we go.

There is only one way to gain fat, and that is by consistently eating too many calories.

Eating yolks of eggs isn’t gonna make you fat, drinking whole milk instead of low fat milk isn’t gonna make you fat, eating white rice isn’t gonna make you fat, doing less cardio isn’t gonna make you fat, sleeping after you eat isn’t gonna make you fat, including ice cream and cake into your diet isn’t gonna make you fat.

None of those things by themselves is gonna make you gain fat.

Gaining fat is the sum of everything that you’re eating on a regular basis. Not a small specific aspect of it. You can do all the things on the list above and still lose weight if you’re consistently in a calorie deficit.

Eating too much for one day, one week, or one month may gain you some temporary weight in the short term, but the moment you get back onto your regular routine and keep it up consistently for a few weeks that temporary weight gain will go away and you’ll be back on track making progress again.

Stop worrying about the minor details and look at weight loss in a bigger picture. It’s not about what you did once, it’s not about what you did sometimes, it’s what you do most of the time.

You gotta stop fearing all rumors on things that make you gain fat. They’re all false. They’re myths. They’re old wives tales.

Stick to the facts & fundamentals of weight loss and aim for consistency and longevity in your routine so the results that you’re getting from it is permanent. You’re not gonna mess up your journey by sleeping after you eat, or adding some sugar in your coffee, or being not able to work out for a week. You mess up your journey by believing myths and making the journey impossible for you so you give up.

The giving up part is what messes you up

You’ll always be making some sort of progress whether it’s mentally or physically in this journey if you don’t quit. It’s a long journey, treat it like one. It’s one that’s supposed to be equal parts enjoyable and develop you towards your goals.

—Po