PROTEIN, SLEEP, STEPS

Before you worry about supplements or fasting windows, get these three right for a month.

Nearly every man I start with is under on protein, short on sleep and doing about four thousand steps a day. Fix those three and most of the other problems get quieter on their own.

Protein: roughly 1.6g per kilo of bodyweight, spread over the day. For most blokes that means adding a proper hit at breakfast, because that's usually where it's missing. It keeps you full, it protects muscle when you're losing fat, and it makes the rest of your food easier to manage.

Sleep: seven hours, consistently, is worth more than any pre-workout. If you're getting five and wondering why your lifts have stalled, there's your answer. Fixed wake-up time, phone out of the room, and no heavy training within two hours of bed.

Steps: eight to ten thousand a day. Not on the treadmill at the end of a session — just walking, in daylight, ideally in the morning. It's the cheapest fat loss tool there is and it does your head good.

None of that is exciting. All of it works. Do it for four weeks before you spend money on anything else.