When you set out to lose weight you are going to run across so much BS
- One weird trick to lose belly fat
- Eat this and not that!
- Do THIS exercise to show your abs
- This food will make you fat, this other food will make you skinny
- Buy these expensive supplements to get the best results
The Fact is
- The boring BASICS are still the most effective things you can do
- No food makes you skinny or fat. Context matters!
- You simply can not, say it with me, can not spot reduce fat
- There are no super foods that will burn up all your fat. It doesn't work like that.
- Supplements are where all the attention is given but are the least effective tool in your tool-belt!
The 3 Pillars of Successful Weight Loss
- Caloric Deficit
- Adequate Sleep
- Picking up heavy stuff and putting it down again (resistance training)
Why?
- A caloric deficit is an absolute requirement to lose weight
- Things start to go south pretty quickly if you aren't sleeping well.
- Sending an anabolic muscle building signal to your body will not only add lean body mass, which makes you look amazing, but it will increase your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) meaning you will burn more calories every day automatically!
It starts with awareness
Most people don't have a clue how much they are eating, if they are over eating certain macro-nutrients or eating a balanced diet. They don't know which food choices are calorie dense and which are more favorable choices for allowing a lot of food to be consumed while losing weight.
It starts with tracking
Nobody wants to weigh and measure the rest of their lives, but a little effort done now will pay dividends for the rest of your life. The good news is
I have personally lost almost 50 pounds and kept it off without tracking using only intuitive eating as my guide. I didn't start there! It took a lot of education and determination to get here.
I didn't want the following to be true. I really didn't. I tried paleo dieting, low carb, etc... but in the end it boils down to
Calories IN... Calories OUT
All diets that work, work because they put you in a caloric deficit
That's not to say food quality doesn't matter, but in terms of losing weight you have to create a caloric deficit.
Next up comes Macros
That would be
- Fat - 9 calories per gram
- Carbs - 4 calories per gram
- Protein - 4 calories per gram
Other things
- Fiber - 0 calories per gram
- Alcohol - 4 calories per gram.-
Your total caloric load is made up of macros. (Macronutrients)
How much you eat of each is your "Macro Ratio"
For a standard diet I recommend the following.
- Get your calories here: https://www.iifym.com/iifym-calculator-v2/ using the "total body weight formula"
- If you plan to lift then you can enter 2 days per week at 60 minutes of activity for your exercise modifier. Add additional if you plan to do a day of cardio.
- If you are just getting started I would recommend you do not do cardio. (You read that right) Cardio is something you can add when your weight loss stalls, so you should ride the wave of "newbie gains" until your diet stops working. I would suggest a 15% deficit.
Cardio sends a clear signal to your body to use calories efficiently. This effectively means that overtime excessive cardio can slow down metabolism.
Don't lower your calories as you lose weight. Only lower them if you hit a long term plateau (3 weeks-ish) and consider raising activity first. Add walking or other NEAT is going to be most effective if you can swing it. You can consider adding 2 sessions, max, per week of HiiT cardio lasting no more than 30 minutes. You don't need to add this unless you hit a plateau. If you have time, walking more is always the best answer. This is called "Raising NEAT" (you can google it).
*If myfitnesspal gives you extra calories for activity don't raise your caloric goals. Keep the targets the same. Your calorie number already has your activity modifier included in it.In the myfitnesspal app go to goals > settings. Enter your caloric value from the calculator
In the macros calculate .6g per pound of your bodyweight. So I weigh 229# so that would be 137.4g protein. Slide the protein % until its just over this number (in my case I have it set to 150) Anywhere between .6 and .8 is great.Why this number? In many peer reviewed literature .6 grams to.8 grams is the amount of protein daily that the body could potentially use for muscle synthesis. So if you are losing weight your body will shed muscle if you starve it of protein. Remember, you want to lose FAT not WEIGHT
Check out The myth of 1 g/lb: Optimal protein intake for bodybuilders
TL;DR - People are eating WAY too much protein. .6 Grams is more than enough.
- Divide Fat and Carbs evenly - For fat and carbs I find the ratio really doesn't matter. I let carbs/fat fall wherever they may. Depending on what I'm eating I may have a very low fat day or a very high fat day. I don't really care either way and it won't impact weight loss. CARBS DON'T MAKE YOU FAT, OVEREATING DOES.
Here is how I personally run my diet.
How Rusty Loses weight
- Hit minimum protein for the day. If I go over no big deal
- Once protein is hit, ensure a caloric deficit by not going over my caloric goal by more than 100 calories. If staying in a deficit means missing my protein goal that day then don't hit the protein goal. In order of importance Calories are #1, one day of low protein shouldn't make a difference
Undulating calories
It makes it easier for me to save calories for the weekend. I cut 100kcal on all weekdays and then save up that balance to enjoy my weekend a bit more. Average calories are all that matters.
Binging
At some point you may end up binging. If I binge then the next day I fast. Generally I"ll skip breakfast and lunch and eat dinner. If I'm starving then I'll eat low calorie veggies to get me through. Cucumbers and spinach are my goto. You can eat almost infinite amounts of each.
Nutrient density
You want to focus your diet on HIGH VOLUME foods with low calories. Here is a basic food list that will work for everyone
- The following are just examples of some foods that will help you "hit your macros, brah". It's a pretty short list, so don't get angry if I missed your favorite cut of meat*
Carbs
- potatoes both white and sweet. Bonus points if you reheat potatoes to increase their quantity of resistant starch
- Oatmeal (I prefer instant oats)
- Fruit - I like apples and berries the best due to the volume
- Bananas - I prefer this as a pre-workout carb, generally mixed with oatmeal
- Veg (also technically carbs) I aim for 4 to 6 cups of green veg per day. Cucumbers (technically a fruit) are something I eat a lot of. They have almost zero caloric value and are a lot of volume.
Protein - The mythical and magical Macro
- Ground meats (turkey, lean beef, chicken)
- Chicken Sausage - Read labels and select links with the best calorie to protein ratio
- Canned chicken breast - Sounds gross but pan fry it with taco spice and it will taste just like chicken out of a crock pot.
- Canned Tuna - Skipjack tuna at aldis has excellent macros! Also skipjack is lowest in mercury
Sardines - Eggs
- egg whites in cartons
- Whey protein - I recommend "Muscle feast" on amazon and it's $8 a pound. Tastes a little thin but it's very pure (90% protein vs most brands are 70%) and has an excellent A rating on http://labdoor.com tests. I mix with one TBSP of PB2 for a little nutty flavor
- Zero percent greek yogurt - This is an excellent substitute for sour cream on potatoes. You can add this to a baked potato in place of butter etc. 1/2 cup of sour cream on a baked potato with "slap yo mama" cajun spice is a diet go to.
- Low fat cottage cheese - I mix this with a few tbsp of salsa
- Fish
- Pork tenderloin
- Leaner steaks
- Bison
I get my fats from meat generally speaking.. but will use butter/coconut oil, olive oil etc.
I generally don't eat bread, but will use a bun if i make burgers. Nothing wrong with bread other than it's high in calories (see our rule about high volume low calorie diet!)
Treats
- Enlightened ice cream bars
- Yasso frozen yogurt bars
- outshine fruit bars
- air popped popcorn with no added fat (mist with water and then salt it with garlic salt) pickles!!
- If you're hungry chug 16oz of ice water and wait 20 minutes. If still hungry eat a cucumber.
Make it your own but a few tips
- Don't drink your calories (I make an exception for a protein shake). No smoothies etc. Food volume will be lower and you'll get hungry
- Eat lots of fiber. I aim for 39G. LOTS of vegetables. High volume and low in calories. I regularly will eat an entire steamer bag of frozen vegetables
- If you prefer, this eating strategy can be an effective way to control hunger (Intermittent fasting using the LeanGains method). This allows you to eat big, but it's compressed to a "feeding window" This means you eat all your food for the day in a short period of time. Practically speaking this means skip breakfast, have a smaller, protein heavy lunch, and then your macros should allow you to be flexible with dinner.
- Black coffee only for breakfast (no calories), skip the butter. It's a gimmick.
- Snacking - I suggest just not snacking. I find it easier to just eat at defined mealtimes
When you start weight your proteins and foods on a digital scale. Maybe even consider taking a photo of your proteins at various sizes. Just get used to what 4oz of chicken looks like etc. I'm pretty good now with ball parking, but I assure you, you probably are eating more than you think once you actually track your intake - Don't go nuts with trying to nail your macros Exactly. No matter how anal you think you are being your probably getting it wrong. So get within 10% is fine. Just hit minimum protein and stay under your calories. That's good enough! Don't eat in a way that defies common sense. Don't chug olive oil if you are low in fats. If you find yourself needing to do something stupid to "hit macros"... don't.
The dreaded scale
- I suggest tracking weight daily and taking a 10 day average. If you have an iphone the app "happy scale" will do this for you. I think it's $4.
- If you are going to lift weights you will experience a body recomp. This means trading fat for muscle. The scale "gains" will be very slow while this occurs. My suggestion would be to take measurements. If you are going to use
- Strong for iOS you can enter your measurements in that app. Let me know what type of phone you have. I lost an entire pants size with minimal weight loss(which is awesome!!)
- Water weight - On any given day there may be as much as 4# of weight gain or loss due to water weight. Just remember it's literally impossible to lose or gain that much weight no matter how much you worked out or binged. Perhaps 1/2 pound. LONG TERM TRENDS are the only thing your body will respond to. So just remember that your weight is a trend and not any given weigh in. Stay calm if the scale jumps 2 or 3 pounds on a given day
- Weigh yourself first thing in the morning AFTER you pee and BEFORE you eat anything.
Myths
- Lots of small meals to stoke metabolism -- PROVEN FALSE
- Meal timing - doesn't matter at all
- Eating boatload of protein (beyond .8g per #) - Proven that the body can't use that much. .8 is already * 2 standard deviations above highest recorded levels
- Can't eat after 8.. (see point 2)
- Must eat breakfast (see point 2)
- Anabolic window (must eat after workout XYZ stuff) - see point 2
Resources
http://www.eatthismuch.com - put in your macros and calories.. it'll spin up some ideas. It's kinda fun to play with
Reading
Buy this book. It has everything you need to know in it
Flexible dieting overview
https://www.muscleforlife.com/what-is-if-it-fits-your-macros-and-does-it-work/
https://www.muscleforlife.com/clean-eating-and-weight-loss/
Why simply eating healthy won't make you lose weight
https://www.muscleforlife.com/clean-eating/
Why if you ignore healthy eating you are doing it wrong
Meal plan tips
https://www.muscleforlife.com/healthy-meal-planning-tips/
But but my brother said carbs are evil and my sister said you have to be a vegan....
Look, this article isn't about food dogma or how to be an orthorexic
Almost all foods can be healthy in the right context including sugar. For example if you are fueling a long mountain bike ride an electrolyte drink with sugar might be exactly what you need.
Really this article isn't about any diet dogma. I personally choose to eat mainly organic and unprocessed whole foods because I believe they are the best path for optimal health, but I'm also not afraid to mix it up with some pizza and beer.
You have one go at this life and you don't want to live your life in fear of having a good time always worrying that the instant you smell some gluten you are going to ruin your diet and gain 100 pounds.
If you are 100% convinced your particular dogma is the answer you can still apply a basic flexible dieting template to what you are doing to achieve your body composition goals.
What about supplements
I keep it pretty simple. The "Get Shredded(tm)" stack
What? That's it, but what about vitamins, and fish oil, etc etc.???
Listen you can obviously make the most expensive Pee possible and it's still only going to give you 1% extra boost and that's probably being generous.
