What Should I Eat To Lose Weight?

More often than not these clients have spent a lot of their lives trying to find the answers, trying every ‘diet’ (I dislike that word, by the way!), maybe losing weight along the way, only to put it straight back on again, and often more!

Do you sometimes say to yourself…..

“I can’t eat any less!”

“I’m sick of thinking about food”

“Why is my friend losing weight and I’m not?”

“I’ve tried every diet there is and now I am heavier than when I started out.”

What should I eat to be my ‘happy’ weight?

The journey to being your ‘happy’ weight starts with what you really want to achieve, and if you are willing to CHANGE to reach that goal.  All too often people start with good intentions only for these to fizzle out a few weeks down the line.  This is a lifestyle change, fuelling your body the right way for life!

My first question to you would be, “what are your GOALS?”  Take a minute now to write your goals down and then ask yourself WHY you want to achieve that goal.

You may have heard about “CALORIES IN v CALORIES OUT” , you may be a calorie counter, use apps, spreadsheets or simply rely on nutritional labels on the back of food packages to help.  STOP!  Life is too short to spend your day second guessing the calories that you are consuming.  So many factors make this an impossible task including the type of food you are eating, genetics, current body composition, food absorption rates within your gut, inaccuracies of food labels (up to 25% incorrect!) and even whether you are eating the food raw or cooked!

Instead let me coach you on the right type of foods to eat in the right portion!  

Start by spending the next 3 days writing down everything you eat and drink.  Use this food diary if it helps. This task alone can be very enlightening, even somewhat scary to some clients.

Can you already see areas that need to be changed?

Now let’s look at the type of foods on the plate.  Our BODIES require 4 main categories of food, you may have heard of as Nutrients (Macro & Micro). To keep it simple I focus on:

PROTEIN – like meat, fish, eggs, beans, legumes and dairy

FATS – healthy ones like extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado, nuts and seeds

CARBOHYDRATES – smart ones like whole grains and root vegetables.

VEGETABLES – putting the colour of the rainbow on your plate to ensure you have a great mix of nutrients.

But how much of each type of food should be on your plate?  Well it depends on your goals.  Some people want to add muscle, some want to use food to fuel their workouts or sport, but a majority of clients come to me to lose weight.  So let’s focus on ‘weight loss’ 

Have you ever spent hours weighing out your food by the gram?  Gosh, even the most competitive athletes can’t always keep this up!  As a Precision Nutrition Coach we use a much easier and less time consuming way of ensuring the right portion is on your plate…..Your HANDS!  Yep, they were there all along!  No more scales, and you can take them everywhere with you ?. Here is an infograph to show you what I mean. 

Infographic courtesy of Precision Nutrition

Remember that being your ‘happy’ weight is about “Progress not perfection.”