Welcome to 1-3-1 Fridays, my weekly newsletter, where I reveal evidence-based strategies to get lean, strong, and create optimal health.

You'll receive one personal health insight, three actionable tips, and one concrete action step. Let's dive in.

What's in store for today:

• A simple 3-step weight loss formula you can use to drop body fat (for life).
• Why 95% of people over 30 are losing muscle and strength every year - and what to do about this.
• The principle behind working out less and getting better results in minimal time.

Sequence matters.

For most people, the main focus of health is nutrition and exercise.

Why this isn't incorrect, there's also a correct sequence of health areas to consider.

Take air, for example.

If you didn't have oxygen or couldn't breathe properly, you'd be toast within minutes.

Whereas you could go weeks (potentially) without food.

So breathing > nutrition.

Both are important, but one should be prioritized first before the other.

Let's look at hydration (water) next.

You could probably go without water for about a week or so, but you could live without exercise for years.

So hydration > exercise.

I could continue with comparisons between sleep and exercise, nutrition, and mindset. Etc. Etc. Etc.

The point here is that health is a continuum.

On the continuum, you have many different areas of health.

The way you sequence your health will determine:

1. How long your results last
2. How simple your health is

Both things are important.

Most of us burn out before creating our ideal health and body.

Shiny object syndrome and the all-or-nothing mindset are the main culprits here.

(as well as a toxic fitness industry and comparison social media).

So sequence matters.

But there's still another problem:

People are impatient. You're impatient. So am I.

So if I were to tell a new client/student that this is the optimal health sequence below:

Breathe > Hydration > Rest > Energy Balance > Strength > Macros > Micros > Movement

I’d expect a lot of pushback. The first months will focus on correct breathing, air filtration, stress management, drinking clean water, and getting enough rest.

All of this would happen before I start talking about energy balance and keeping a regular caloric deficit.

Ouch.

Unfortunately, we've been trained to crave permanent results in 90 days or less.

Happens to me, too.

Ideally, I’d work with someone who has no time limits. I’d need about a year or less to cover each area thoroughly.

In that case, I’d follow the sequence above, or something similar, as my roadmap.

In fact, it's part of what I'll be taking myself personally going into 2026 as my own health experiment.

Again, everything in health is based on testing and experimentation.

Test things for yourself. Keep an open mind and be ready for failure because it offers valuable feedback.

Without this approach, lasting change will be tough.

So slow down.

Enjoy the ride. Take in the views.

This is your health and life.

Enjoy it.

Lesson: Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

Here's Your 1-3-1 Friday:

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1.) 3-step weight loss formula

If you’re tight on time yet want to drop weight, here’s what you need to do.

Step 1: Clarify how much weight you want to drop.

The gold standard for fat-loss (weight loss) is around 1 pound per week (0.5-0.75% of your current body weight).

So if you have 20 pounds to drop, give yourself around 20 weeks or so.

Expect to lose 3-4 pounds of water weight in the first 2-3 weeks. After that, your fat loss should stabilize at about 1 pound per week.

Without clarity and direction, weight loss will be challenging.

Set the right expectations based on evidence-based results.

If anyone is promising you to drop 10 pounds in 2 weeks, I can guarantee you that it won’t be 10 pounds of body fat.

Which leads me to step 2: Use negative energy balance (deficit)

To lose body fat, not just weight, you must help your body use stored fat.

The reason is simple: eat less.

When you eat less, your body sees this as a sign to start to use stored body fat as a new source of energy.

Think of this as you stop going to the grocery shop each week and start to use the food in your pantry as backup meals.

That’s basically what happens to your body.

When you eat less, your body then starts to use (‘eat’) stored body fat (your ‘pantry’) as a source of energy.

How many calories should you drop daily?

Around 500 k/cal per day.

This will give you a weekly net loss of around 3,500 k/cal, which is about how much energy is stored in 1 pound of body fat.

Science is pretty cool.

Step 3: Track your progress (in any way possible)

For something to be scientific, you need to track your progress.

Throwing darts at a wall while blindfolded is like trying to lose weight without tracking your data.

You can’t expect to hit your target without knowing where you’re aiming.

Here’s the caveat: data is relevant in the context of your current experiment.

Which means you don’t need to track calories forever.

How we track things inside VFR App :)

However, you do need to have accurate information for an extended period.

Your current habits are what landed you in this mess in the first place.

It will take time to rewire your brain and build new habits.

These changes will eventually transform your identity.

Tracking builds awareness.

That awareness is what you’ll eventually use for the rest of your life in different ways.

After 8 years of working 1:1 with hundreds of clients worldwide, I’ve seen a clear difference.

Clients who own their data and track it regularly succeed more than those who don’t.

It’s night and day.

And since results are my reputation, I no longer work with clients/students who aren’t willing to be coachable.

Aka have a beginner’s mindset (or growth mindset).

If your way isn’t working for you, why don’t you try a different way?

Don’t forget what they say about insanity.

2.) Losing muscle and strength

Muscle loss is a real thing.

After 30, the rate of atrophy (muscle loss) can range from 3% to 8% per decade.

That’s a lot.

So losing muscle (and strength in tandem) is inevitable if you’re a human living on planet earth.

The main culprits here seem to be:

• Ageing (can’t change this)
• Malnutrition (can change this)
• Decrease in testosterone (*can change this)
• Sedentary lifestyle (can definitely change this)

Except for point #1 and possibly #3, you can positively influence all these challenges.

As for ageing, while you can’t stop the inevitable march towards the end of your life (was that too morbid?), you can certainly slow it down.

You can also reverse aging in some ways. Exercise helps regenerate new cells in various tissues, including muscle.

As for point #3, there’s an interesting thing that happens with men after 65.

In about 60% of men over 65, testosterone levels were tracked to be below normal youth values.

The term coined to describe this process is andropause.

But testosterone doesn’t automatically drop off right when you turn 65 as a man (or woman).

It’s steadily dropping year by year, leading up to your 60s.

Similar to muscle loss (atrophy), these processes are decades in the making.

Which means there’s something you can do about this.

But for my male readers (and women with partners), it seems men have their own version of menopause.

Give them some grace and love, too.

Here’s your solution to slow down and even stop muscle loss:

• Lift weights 3-4x a week within 70-90% intensity
• Eat a protein-rich plant-based diet mixed with whole foods, fruits, and veg
• Move your body each day and aim for 7,000 steps daily

Muscle loss is a real thing. I’ve experienced it several times intentionally and unconsciously.

When you’re young, you can take a few hits.

But the more you age, the higher the risk of continued muscle loss.

Play with the odds in your favor.

3.) MED your fitness results

What if you could work out less and see better results?

95% of the clients we help are overachievers.

Which means they like to do a lot.

Some people need to do more, but for those we help, that’s not the problem.

Instead, the perfectionist’s all-or-nothing mindset shows up, along with excessive working out.

However, for the overachieving student, the sequence of health becomes even more important.

If you work out 5-6 days a week but don’t breathe well, stay hydrated, or rest enough, your results will be slower and worse.

An uncomfortable truth in fitness is that doing more doesn’t always mean better.

The concept of overtraining becomes relevant, especially when you’re working out too frequently.

The main goal of training (not exercising) is to give your body a stimulus of 10-20% above your normal status to force it to adapt to the exercises used.

If you often stretch beyond this limit, it can lead to a real breaking point.

I’ll emphasize again: doing more doesn’t mean better.

Doing less and correctly in the right sequence equals better.

So MED means minimum effective dosage.

Just like a prescription drug, exercise, when done right, is a prescription for your body.

It releases a mix of hormones and chemicals in your body, leading to some cool results.

Working out more might not be the best way to boost your strength and muscle growth.

There’s a rule of thumb to keep in mind when lifting weights.

The rule of MED is a simple way to get the MOST out of the minimum amount of work in exercise science.

In the high achiever and productivity culture that we all live in, more is often seen as better.

However, when it comes to exercise science, less is more.

Research shows you can lift weights just once a week (Super Slow Training).

However, most people lack the right equipment to do it properly.

Striking the right balance between results and training is essential.

A meta-analysis shows that healthy older adults need a minimum amount of exercise to build muscle and strength. This dosage can still produce great results.

Their conclusion?

• A training frequency of two sessions per week
• A training volume of two to three sets per exercise
• Seven to nine repetitions per set
• A training period of 50-53 weeks
• A training frequency of three sessions per week
• A training intensity from 51 to 69% of the 1RM
• A total time under tension of 6.0 s
• A rest of 120 s between sets
• A rest of 2.5 s between repetitions was the most effective.

The findings are still early, but they match what I’ve observed over 15 years of lifting weights and 8 years of coaching others.

As a side note, as you adjust to the training variables, you’ll need to tweak your training over time to keep seeing improvements.

However, this is a solid framework to help you hit the gym this week and start seeing results.

Try this out and let me know how it does.

1 Action Step

 

How can you re-order the sequence of health in your life?

Client of the Week

Barbara is a busy woman. Mother. Teacher. Community Leader. She also felt insecure in her body and health.

She was struggling with dropping the post-pregnancy weight, along with regaining her strength.

Our strategy: Focus on setting up her training days in the gym (3 days) plus 2 days of cardio (since she enjoyed it).

We also set up a modest caloric deficit and focused on staying within ~200 k/cal of her caloric goal.

Paired with increasing her steps and eating more fruits and vegetables, we kept things simple.

Our wins: Down 20 lbs, 4 inches from her waist, and confident enough to hear a two-piece outdoors (check out her second photo!).

She also became one of the strongest members in her gym, lifting 145 lbs on her barbell squat after several dedicated months of rebuilding her strength using the specialized training techniques we taught her.

She's a great reminder that no matter how busy we are, health must be our priority.

It touches everything else in our lives.

One Quote To Finish Your Week Strong

Back home in my own bed this weekend.

There's no place like home.

Plus, it's my favorite time of year. :)

As promised, get leaner on plants in under 5 minutes.

Till next week,

Whenever you're ready, there's 3 ways I can help you:

1. Connect with me on ​Facebook ​and ​Instagram ​and let's be friends.
2.  ​Join our free Facebook Group​. Get free trainings on how to get lean and strong with plants.
3. Want to drop body fat and build lean muscle in a fraction of the time with ease? ​Apply for Accelerator 1:1 coaching.​ 

References

•  ​https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2804956/