Bodybuilding veteran Lee Priest has shared his no-nonsense approach to trimming stubborn belly fat—and it doesn’t involve completely banning your favourite foods overnight.
In a video published on the Sam’s Fitness – Gym Equipment YouTube channel, the former IFBB pro explained why gradual dietary changes are often far more sustainable than attempting to quit unhealthy eating habits cold turkey.
Priest built a reputation throughout the 1990s and 2000s not only for his impressive physique but also for his dramatic body transformations between the off-season and contest prep. During his competitive years, he was known to gain significant weight away from the stage before completely overhauling his diet ahead of competitions, consistently returning in elite condition.
Although retired from professional bodybuilding, Priest continues to train regularly and remains a trusted voice within the fitness community. With many people looking to lose the extra weight gained over the holidays, he believes the formula for reducing body fat is much simpler than many make it out to be.
For Priest, the foundation starts with cleaning up your nutrition, staying active and remaining consistent.
“You know what’s bad, you know what’s good,” he said. “Stay away from the s*** and just eat clean food. Do cardio and train, and you’ll get rid of that pudgy little belly fat. I know I gotta do it. I just don’t want to cut out all the good food. When I say good food, I mean the ice creams and stuff.”
While acknowledging his own weakness for treats, Priest explained that one of the biggest reasons people struggle to lose fat isn’t necessarily their main meals—it’s everything they eat in between.
Reflecting on his own contest preparations, he revealed that diet soda became one of his tools for managing hunger when calories were low.
“If it wasn’t time to eat again and I’ve got hunger pain, I’d go and just drink [diet soda]. Because as soon as you get hunger pain, then you eat and you eat. When I used to bulk up, it was all that little bit of snacking.
If you add up all the little snacks you have during the day. By the end of the day, that could be an extra 2,000 calories just from grabbing something here, a banana here, a chocolate bar here, a handful of cashews here. When you cut all the snack food out, it makes a huge difference.”
Rather than focusing solely on the obvious meals, Priest argued that small, seemingly harmless snacks can quietly derail a calorie deficit. Those extra handfuls, bites and sweet treats can quickly add up over the course of a day, making fat loss much harder than expected.
However, despite advocating cleaner eating, Priest doesn’t believe an all-or-nothing mentality is the best solution.
He warned that completely eliminating sugar and high-fat foods overnight can be a shock to the body, making it far more difficult to stick with a new eating plan for more than a few days.
“Your body does go into shock because you just cut out all the fats and sugars. The first week I get lightheaded, and my stomach is like ‘Oh God’. It’s almost like being a drug addict. When I was on OxyContin, I cut that out, and your body still craves it and wants it.”
He added:“Generally, when you go cold turkey after a couple of days, you’re like f*** this.”
Instead of relying on willpower alone, Priest recommends making smaller, manageable changes that naturally become long-term habits. Swapping unhealthy snacks for fruit or simply reducing portions over time can make the transition much easier without triggering the intense cravings that often cause diets to fail.
“Do little things slowly. Say you’re eating junk food… maybe just have half, and then slowly, slowly, fade it out, or replace it with something healthier.
If you’re eating a chocolate, maybe grab some grapes, then slowly eat into the sweetness of the grapes, or peaches, or something. Substitute it for something healthy and make the change rather than go cold turkey.”
Ultimately, Priest believes there is no secret formula when it comes to achieving a leaner physique. While contest preparation required extreme discipline during his bodybuilding career, he insists most people don’t need to go to those lengths to improve their health and body composition.
Instead, he says consistency with clean eating is the biggest factor for anyone simply looking to lose weight, reveal their abs and feel better overall.
“If you can get down and stay down, like I used to for contests, you don’t have to go contest crazy, extreme. But if you just want to eat clean to lose weight, have your abs, and feel better, just eating clean food, it’s not that bad.”
Featured image credit: Sam’s Fitness – Gym Equipment / YouTube / Lee Priest / Instagram
