Your workouts are dialed in. Check! Your macros are dialed in. Check! Then why do you look the same, and why hasn’t the scale moved in the past week? Achieving the shredded look for skin season is all about balancing calories in and calories out, and maintaining workout consistency. But if your results have slowed to a crawl and you’re doing all the right things, here’s a missing piece of the puzzle you may not have considered.
Eating skills. Eating what? Isn’t the only skill involved in eating putting it into your mouth as soon as possible? It is not only how much you eat, but also how you eat it, that counts. Josh Hillis, the author of Lean and Strong, which has won the Benjamin Franklin Silver Medal Book Award for psychology, and a personal trainer and nutrition coach since 2004, is about to share how to elevate your eating skills.
How Eating Skills Help You Get Shredded
You’re not the only person surprised that eating skills exist. Before reading Lean and Strong, I had little idea what eating skills were and how they could help you get lean. But now I’m a believer. But don’t take my word for it; let Hillis explain the importance of eating skills.
“Eating skills are behavioral ways to shred. If counting calories is looking at the scoreboard, eating skills are passing, shooting, and dribbling. Everyone can lose weight by counting calories and tracking macros, but most people struggle to maintain their weight loss after they’ve hit their goals. People who can shred and maintain it without counting macros or calories have developed effective eating skills. Eating skills are the behaviors of weight loss,” explains Hillis.
The Eating Skills Checklist
He goes into great detail in his book, but for our sake and purposes, Hillis briefly explains a list of skills that will help you lose fat and keep it off.
- Plating a balanced ‘Ish’ meal: This means aiming for a mix of protein, carbs, healthy fats, and veggies at each meal without stressing over perfection. The “Ish” permits you to be flexible rather than rigid.
- Plating food that will last you for 4 to 6 hours: Instead of grazing or needing constant snacks, build a meal that truly satisfies—enough fuel to carry you to the next meal without crashing or feeling stuffed.
- Putting the fork down between bites: Eating slowly helps you stay more present, enjoy your food, and notice your body’s hunger and fullness cues before overeating becomes automatic.
- Checking in about fullness mid-meal: Halfway through eating, ask yourself, “Am I still hungry? How full am I?” This mindful pause puts you back in control and helps prevent that feeling of being too full later.
- Pausing for 10 minutes before getting seconds: This will give your brain and body time to catch up. That pause helps determine whether you’re still hungry or tempted by taste or habit.
- Fasting 4–6 hours between meals: Spacing out meals helps retrain your natural hunger rhythms and reduces impulse snacking, making you more in tune with true hunger rather than eating out of boredom or emotion.
The Eating Skills Details
Hillis says what has been explained so far and below will likely work for many people transitioning from calorie or macro tracking. Here is how he wants you to implement the eating skills checklist to help you achieve the shredded look.
Balanced Meals
The Harvard School of Public Health’s “Healthy Eating Plate” is a good place to start: 25% protein, 25% carbohydrates, 50% vegetables, and some healthy fat. Many people increase their protein intake slightly to retain or improve muscle. Heavy on the ISH. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Something close-ish to balanced will be enough.
Plating Strategy
You want two things to help you shred:
Reduce snacking: Your meal should get you to the next meal. Snacks have a very low impact on fullness, so meals and snacks will always have more total calories than just meals, even if those meals are slightly bigger. Snacks work great for bulking because they make consuming extra calories and, hopefully, protein easy. You shouldn’t need that on a shred, if you’re getting enough protein at meals.
Fasting for 4 to 6 hours between meals: Feeling hungry 30 minutes before meals is normal. Feeling hungry 2 hours before meals is excessive and unnecessary, meaning meals are too small. If someone doesn’t get hungry at all before meals, that means their meals are too big. You have eaten enough food when you’re hungry between 3 ½ and 5 ½ hours after your last meal.
Checking in with Your Stomach
Begin practicing the art of checking in. What do I feel in my stomach if I pause ½ through the meal? What do I think at ¾? What do I feel towards the end? Start noticing those feelings, and pair that with fasting 4-6 hours between meals. Notice which meals give you 4-6 hours and what it feels like in your stomach at the end of those meals. Once you master your fullness cues, counting calories and macros will become a thing of the past.
Hit the Pause Button
Pausing for 10 minutes before getting seconds does two things to help your shred. First, it stops the momentum of eating. By stopping it, you can feel if you’re full. Second, it gives you more time for the fullness signals to kick in. Check out his book Lean and Strong to learn how eating skills can help you keep weight off without dieting, counting calories, or tracking macros.
