​I’m sure this will come as a shock, but, when you don’t sleep well, life sucks.
 
What you may not know and what’s worse by far (let’s get our priorities straight here), is that your gains will suffer.
 
You could have the best training program and diet in the world, but, if your sleep is inadequate, you’re going to struggle with:
 

• Losing fat
• Gaining muscle
• Improving training performance

 
Yes, that’s basically everything.
 
Fortunately, improving sleep is easy, cheap, and more anabolic than expensive supplements, pre-workout formulas, and other less useful yet “sexier” fitness tools.
 
So don’t sleep on this low-hanging fruit. (See what I did there?)
 
Keep reading for a comprehensive guide on:
 

• The benefits of sleep on your gains
• The negative effects of inadequate sleep
• What “good sleep” is
• Practical tips to improve sleep
• Sleep supplements

 
Let’s delve into it.

Reflecting on the past two years of coaching people online and in person, I created a list of the advice that my clients have found most helpful in the pursuit of their goals, but that seems to be underrated in an online fitness space rife with detox teas and abs-blasting workouts.
 
This article breaks down these tips into the following categories:
 

1. Nutrition
2. Training
3. Habits
4. Mindset

95% of diets fail, so diets don’t work.
 
… Or do they?
 
If you take a look at the scientific literature, there’s actually plenty of evidence to the contrary. For example, we know that diets inducing a caloric deficit are effective for fat loss regardless of whether they’re high in fats, carbohydrates, or protein.
 
In other words, any diet can work as long as it involves a caloric deficit.
 
The real problem is maintaining the resulting weight loss.
 
For instance, a review of nearly 30 long-term studies on weight loss and maintenance in the American population showed that more than half of the weight lost was regained within two years, and 80% was regained within five.
 
For this reason, experts consider maintenance of 5 to 10% of your weight loss “a great achievement”.
 
But why is it so hard not to put weight back on?
 
When a new client signs up for online coaching to lose fat, what often stands out to me is their mindset: In their experience, a diet is a short-term, excruciating “eat chicken breast and a green leaf for every meal” endeavour, not an attempt to change their lifestyle for the better in the long run.
 
After a few weeks or months of this torture, they go back to the same way they were eating before, regain weight, start another diet, and so on.
 
This vicious cycle is unfortunately common because most diets give you rules to stick to, whether you like them or not, instead of habits that you can incorporate into your long-term lifestyle.
 
This article is perfect if you haven’t had much luck maintaining fat loss after your previous diets, because it does exactly what those diets didn’t do: It teaches you five habits you need to have in place not only to lose fat, but to keep it off, too.
 
If you’ve been spinning your wheels with countless diets for as long as you can remember, you don’t want to miss this one.