Summer is soon upon us, and some of us might be rethinking our routines so we can throw on last year’s bikini without having a full-blown meltdown. If you feel like your diet and workout routine isn’t fully dialed in, there’s no better time than today to start making progress. Before you shudder at the thought of restriction, know that it’s not included in our gameplan.
Contrary to popular belief, getting a summer body doesn’t require white-knuckling your way through crash diets or surviving on iced coffee, cottage cheese, and protein bars alone. In fact, the habits that tend to make the biggest difference are a lot less dramatic and a lot more sustainable.
Keep reading for the tips and tricks experts recommend to lean out by summer without losing your cool in the process.
1. Prioritize Protein at Breakfast
While you should aim for 20 to 30 grams of protein at each meal, dietitian and personal trainer Jordan Langhough, RD, CPT, suggests prioritizing a solid 30 grams of the macro at your first meal of the day. Doing so, she says, will help you naturally eat less the rest of the day. “Protein is the most satiating macronutrient. It takes more energy to digest, meaning it will leave you feeling fuller for longer,” she explains. Ensuring you hit your protein counts at lunch and dinner can also lead you to end the day in a calorie deficit, thereby helping you to get leaner by summer.
2. Bulk Up Your Plate
When it comes to getting a summer body, most of us think we need to subtract items from our plates. But Gabrielle Kishner, MS, RD, CDN, founder of Nutrition By Gabrielle in NYC, rewrites that dated script by inviting you to see what else you can add to your plate for nutrients and satiety. “For example, instead of just having grilled chicken with potatoes, add a side salad to fill half your plate with vegetables,” she says. “This helps keep your energy steady and helps you feel full longer.”
Bulking up your meals with extra fiber is a great way to support sustainable weight loss—not to mention improve digestion, heart health, and other markers of well-being. Kishner reminds us that women should aim for at least 25 grams daily whereas men require 38 grams. “Fiber is huge for helping you feel full throughout the day and can be found in foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, legumes, and whole grains,” she shares.
Tip: To bump up your fiber count and help you slim down for summer with ease, consider adding Flatter Me Fiber GLP-1 Booster. It packs a whopping 10 grams of soluble fiber per serving.
3. Eat regularly throughout the day
Kishner emphasizes the importance of keeping regular mealtimes. “If you go too long without eating, you may feel extra hungry later,” she warns. “This can lead to eating very quickly or craving lots of sweets and carbs.” She advises going no longer than 4 to 6 hours without having something in your stomach, as well as leaning on balanced snacks in between your meals to tide you over. “When you snack, try to pair two food groups together, like fruit with peanut butter, yogurt with berries, or whole grain chips with guacamole,” she shares. “This helps keep your blood sugar steady and keeps you full longer.”
4. Lift heavy
Shifting your diet can help you drop weight, but resistance training is key to changing your body composition and helping you feel confident showing more skin in the summer. However, Langhough says that most women underestimate how much they can lift—and thus their progress stalls out. “Three-pound dumbbells aren’t going to change your body. If you can easily do 15 reps, the weight is too light,” she says. Instead, she says you should aim for a weight range in which you can do 6 to 10 reps. It should be doable but challenging. “This triggers more muscle growth and more fat oxidation than light weights used for high reps.”
And to put a pervasive myth to rest: Lifting heavy won’t make you bulky. On the contrary, Langhough says it’ll lead to tighter, leaner, and more defined muscles.
5. Chase progressive overload
Many people regard soreness as an indicator that you’ve had a good workout. However, Langhough says that this more likely signals that you did something new rather than something effective. To continue making progress on your summer body goals, you’ll need to progressively overload your strength training sessions.
“Progressive overload—the concept of adding 2 to 5 pounds, one extra rep, or one extra set—is the single biggest predictor of body composition change,” says Langhough. Up the ante week after week to continuously challenge yourself and stimulate muscle growth. “If the numbers aren’t improving, neither is your progress,” she says.
6. Increase Your Step Count
ICYMI, walking for weight loss might be the most underrated hack there is to leaning out. To get your body summer-ready, Langhough suggests upping your step count by 2,500 to 5,000 steps per day. While there’s no wrong time for a hot girl walk, one of the best opportunities to take one is right after eating. “A 10-minute walk after meals can lower blood sugar spikes by up to 30 percent,” says Langhough. “Post-meal walks support weight loss because they pull glucose into your muscles instead of storing it as fat and improve insulin sensitivity.” She says that a 10-minute walk equates to about 1,500 to 2,000 steps: a pretty solid dent in your daily quota that barely feels like exercise.
7. Treat Sleep Like a Fat-Loss Tool
A good night’s rest is more influential in the summer body equation than you probably think. “Poor sleep will make weight loss and body composition changes even more difficult,” says Langhough. That’s because inadequate rest messes with your hunger hormones: It spikes ghrelin (which makes you hungry) and crashes leptin (which signals fullness), thereby triggering cravings and leading to overeating.
Aim to get 7 to 9 hours of shuteye nightly. “Supplements such as magnesium glycinate before bed, a cool dark room, and consistent sleep and wake times will do more for your waistline by summer than another spin class,” says Langhough. “Sleep is the most underrated weight-loss intervention that we take for granted.”
