focus on this one thing

When it comes to losing weight, there’s really only one thing you gotta focus on first before you worry about anything else. Just this one thing:

Your diet.

Your diet is the the driver in a car.

Everything else you’re worried about (workouts, sleep, types of food to eat) are mere passengers on the journey. Do they matter? Sure. But they’re not the ones that make the car move forward.

Until you’ve figured out your diet, don’t worry about all the other stuff first. Don’t worry about that ab exercise that promises you abs in 4 weeks. Don’t worry about your workout split. Don’t worry about how long you’re sleeping. If you haven’t figured out how to stick to a diet consistently for the long term, that needs to be your focus first.

Too many times I’ve seen people worry so much about sleep and workouts that they end up sacrificing their diet instead. It should be the other way around. In the beginning, sacrifice everything else and focus on diet first.

That’s your number one priority for fat loss.

After you’ve figured out your diet and can stick to it consistently for weeks and months without too much trouble at all, then start worry about sleep, about workouts, about all the other stuff that do help and could benefit the journey.

Worrying about all the other stuff other than diet is like trying to cook fried rice, getting all the ingredients ready, getting the perfect wok, the right oil, stir-frying the garlic and onions first for fragrance, and as you’re about to cook the rice you realized you don’t have any rice cos you were too focused on prepping all the other ingredients.

The only way to sustainably lose weight is to consistently eat less than your body expends. That comes from your diet primarily.

Remember this is just for a weight goal, if you got muscle goals or health goals there are of course other things to focus on as well. But when it comes to weight loss, weight gain, or weight maintenance, diet is king.

Focus on the right things and all the other stuff falls into place a lot easier. Don’t let all these shorts, tiktoks, IG reels, convince you otherwise. A lot of them have no idea what they’re talking about, and majority of them haven’t even been through the journey themselves.

Don’t get caught up on some “secret” or shortcut.

There isn’t one.

Patience and hard work is required no matter what.

—Po