Diets have names for the same reason fitness trends get flashy titles—because marketing sells. But at the end of the day, when it comes to losing weight, gaining muscle, or just feeling good in your body, the rules are simple. You need to:

• Be in a caloric deficit if you want to lose fat.
• Be in a caloric surplus if you want to gain muscle.
• Eat enough protein to support muscle retention and recovery.
• Drink enough water to stay hydrated and perform well.
• Get enough sleep so your body can actually function properly.

Everything else? Noise.

The Two Real Choices

When it comes to eating in a way that supports your goals, you only have two actual choices:

1. Track everything you eat. If you want total flexibility—eat whatever you like but count every single thing that goes into your mouth. That means the peanut butter on your toast, the extra spoonful of rice, and yes, the half-eaten chicken nugget you stole from your kid’s plate. Everything counts. If you get your calorie intake right, you will see results.

2. Don’t count—but eat clean. If the idea of logging every gram of food sounds like torture, then you need to simplify things. Stick to whole, nutrient-dense foods—lean proteins, vegetables, complex carbs. It’s a lot harder to blow your calorie intake eating chicken, rice, and broccoli than it is eating burgers, fries, and milkshakes.

What We’ve Learned After 15 Years of Gym Challenges

Over the years at Round 1 Fitness, we’ve seen just about every diet approach out there. And one thing is clear: eating “less” does NOT work long-term. When people try to slash calories too hard, here’s what happens:

1. You get tired and grouchy. Low energy and constant hunger impact your performance in the gym and your ability to function at work and home. Snapping at your family because you’re starving? Not ideal.

2. Your training suffers. A body that’s low on fuel won’t perform well. Weak, sluggish workouts mean you won’t build strength, improve endurance, or get the most out of your sessions.

3. You lose weight… but it’s the WRONG weight. Yes, if you starve yourself, the number on the scale will drop. But a higher percentage of that loss will come from muscle rather than fat. And that’s a disaster. Our goal isn’t just to lose weight—it’s to lose fat while holding onto (or even gaining) muscle.

Think about it this way:
If your weight stays the same, but you lose 2kg of fat, gain 1.5kg of muscle, and hold onto 500g of water, that’s what we call progress. You’re leaner, stronger, and healthier—even if the number on the scale doesn’t budge.

The Problem with “Named” Diets

Most diets that have a catchy name—Keto, Paleo, Carnivore, Zone, 5:2, Juice Cleanses—are either:

1. A marketing strategy designed to sell books, coaching programs, and meal plans.
2. A restrictive way to reduce calories without tracking them.

That doesn’t mean they won’t work in the short term. Anything that reduces calories will work… for a while. The problem is sustainability. If a diet forces you to cut out foods you love, makes social events miserable, or turns eating into a game of willpower, you’re eventually going to drop it. And when you do, old habits creep back in, and you’re right back where you started.

What About Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting (IF) is less of a diet and more of a strategy to control calorie intake. By limiting the time you eat, you naturally eat less. That’s it. There’s no magic metabolism boost, no fat-burning superpowers—it’s just a simple way to create a calorie deficit. If it works for you, great! But if skipping breakfast turns you into an angry, starving mess by lunchtime, it’s not for you.

Keep It Simple (and Realistic)

At Round 1 Fitness, we don’t push fad diets. Think back to the recent Fight Camp and the simplicity of that approach:

• Get enough protein. At least 1.4g per kilo of bodyweight for women and 1.7g per kilo for men to retain muscle while cutting fat.
• Stay in a calorie deficit if fat loss is your goal—but don’t starve yourself.
• Drink 2+ litres of water daily. Hydration matters more than people realize.
• Prioritize sleep. You can’t out-train bad recovery.
• Be consistent. A “perfect” diet that lasts two weeks is useless compared to a “pretty good” diet that lasts a year.

I’ve had a couple of people tell me “I can’t eat like that ALL the time…” – and I totally get it.  But if you stay on track from Monday to Friday with breakfast, lunch and dinner…have a fun ‘weekend breakfast’ on one day of the weekend and a night out in there somewhere…isn’t that going to be OK?  Staying on the ‘RIGHT TRACK’ 80-90% of the time will not only make your life simpler (no debates over what you’re going to get for lunch!) but it will make those meals out all the more enjoyable!

BALANCE: Your Diet Needs to Work for Your Life

Here’s the thing: your diet needs to be fine with real life. It should allow for:

• Birthday dinners. You’re not skipping cake on your kid’s birthday.
• Anniversary celebrations. Food and drinks with the people you love should be enjoyed, not stressed over.
• A beer or two after work on a Friday. If you’ve trained hard all week, you don’t need to feel guilty for unwinding.
• Watching the footy on a Sunday with a drink in hand. You’re not a monk, and you don’t need to act like one to get results.

The trick is balance. If most of your diet is on point, the occasional night out or social meal isn’t going to ruin your progress. What does ruin progress is the “all or nothing” mindset—where people either eat clean for weeks and then binge when they slip up, or they avoid social situations altogether because their diet doesn’t allow for them.

A solid nutrition plan should fit into your life, not force you to build your life around it.

The Bottom Line

There’s no secret formula, no magic foods, and no diet that “works” unless you can stick to it. If you want results, you need to understand what you’re eating, how much you’re eating, and why it matters. Whether you count calories or clean up your food choices, the principles don’t change.

Forget the fads. Eat enough, train hard, enjoy life, and focus on fat loss—not just weight loss. Keep it simple, be consistent, and let the results take care of themselves.

See you in the gym,

Michael.