The truth is – there are no specific foods that are completely off limits when losing weight.
It all depends on your goals and your health needs.
For example, if you are an individual that is in relatively good health and otherwise just looking to shed a few pounds, the specificity by which you approach your dieting will be less of a concern than if you were a diabetic needing to closely monitor your blood sugar levels.
The point is – you first need to define why it is that you are trying to lose weight before you can determine what foods to eat or not eat.
For the sake of this article, I am going to assume that the individuals reading this article do not have any major health concerns such as diabetes or other pathologies that would require a specific dieting protocol.
I am going to assume that you are looking to lose some or a lot of body fat and you want to know what you can and can’t eat to do so.
In this article, I am going to share with you the basic tenants to successfully losing weight and some mistakes that you may make along the way.
What to Eat and Not Eat for Weight Loss
It is not the foods that you are eating which cause excess fat tissue, it is the quantity of the foods you are eating.
Now, I have always been an athlete and coach that is very careful about my food choices.
I have always placed an emphasis on the quality of the foods that I eat and believe that from a health perspective it would be ludicrous to assume that quality does not matter – quality being defined by source and ingredients.
Many people come to me waiving their fancy nutrition plan in my face and how they have been following it to a T but still can’t seem to lose fat.
It doesn’t take me but a few seconds of analyzing the typical diet plan to realize that the emphasis is on “healthy” food choices and eating “small portions” but there is very limited emphasis on caloric content and energy balance.
Calories vs Healthy Foods
Calories are a unit of energy and regardless of how healthy a food may or may not be – it still contains potential energy.
I don’t care if it is an avocado or a candy bar – both have calories and both will be converted or stored as energy accordingly.
Setting aside the minutiae of how certain foods will affect your metabolism and potentially be less likely to store as fat, we cannot get around the notion that a calorie is in fact a calorie on a chemical level – energy.
The reason we have calories listed on food labels is because it allows us to quantify the energy that a particular food item has.
I’m Trying to Lose Weight, What Should I Eat?
If you think that by eating ‘healthy’ foods like avocado toast and chicken all day that you are exempt from the laws of thermodynamics, you are sadly mistaken.
I don’t mean to sound cynical when I say this but it is true.
You do need to be concerned with your food choices but even more importantly, if you are strictly talking about the fat loss process – calories reign supreme.
You need to be very careful about recording the caloric content of your daily food choices to ensure that you are in a caloric deficit if the goal is fat loss.
Once you dial in on how much food you are eating, then you can begin to micro manage the other factors like which foods affect our hormone levels etc.
All of these little details are the icing on the cake – no pun intended – of what it takes to be healthy, fit and lean.
However, if you jump right into food choice obsession, you miss a critical and simple element of the fat loss process – energy balance.
Your Diet for Energy and Weight Loss Starts Here
In order to lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit.
What does this mean?
Well, simply put: eating less calories than the amount of calories it takes to maintain your weight.
Dial in to how much you are eating and what your goals are.
Then ask yourself, what is the appropriate caloric prescription?
Then ask, how can I fill this caloric value with healthy foods?
The 5 Steps to Weight Loss Using a Calorie Approach
Here is a quick breakdown of how to lose weight with a calorie approach.
1.) Determine your Basal Metabolic Rate(BMR) – this is just the amount of calories it takes to run all of your bodily processes on a daily basis.
This calculator is super easy to use and gives your BMR.
Subtract 300-500 calories from this number and consume that quantity of food each day in order to lose 1lb per week.
Ex: For a 40 year old woman who weighs 150lb and is 5 foot 7 inches – her BMR would be approximately 2200kcal if she moderately exercised.
2.) Now subtract 300 from this number and that gives her 1900kcal to eat each day in order to lose 1lb per week.
Now that you know your caloric needs, it is time to put it to practice.
3.) Going off of the last example, think of that 1900kcal as your ‘budget’ for the day.
You have 1900kcal to eat and so you need to choose foods that will let you get to that number but not surpass it.
4.) Simply use a free calorie counting app like myfitnesspal or any of the other ones out there.
This will allow you to scan the labels of the food items you eat or search for the items if they do not have a label.
5.) Each time you eat, simply adjust the portions accordingly in the app and watch your budget!
Get as close to that 1900kcal as you can and don’t surpass it!
You will lose weight at a rate of approximately 1lb per week if you follow this!
Diet Mistakes and 3 of the Most Common Diet Mistakes
After you understand these basic principles of how weight loss occurs and have begun to put it to practice, you may run into some minor road blocks along the way.
Everyone – myself included, will eventually make some mistakes when dieting.
If you feel like your progression has stalled while dieting to get leaner, perhaps consider the following three points:
1.) Improper Planning
When it comes to any successful diet, a plan of action is required for you to achieve what you set out to accomplish.
You need to understand your purpose, your time frame, and the obstacles that may prevent you from getting there.
I’ll start with the last part of the previous sentence because I believe it is the most important.
For example, if you are somebody that has a career which requires you to attend social gatherings frequently, you best believe that in your plan you must include a solution to this obstacle.
Social gatherings can be a big hindrance to your progress if you don’t have a solution to navigating the associated food/drink that comes along with this context.
Sit down and jot down what the biggest obstacles are between you and your goals.
Think about your day to day life.
When do you wake and sleep each night?
When are your typical meal times?
Do you even have typical meal times?
What does your work day look like?
Have a framework and get to know what your lifestyle needs are.
Everybody will have different ones, but it is imperative to define your own and think about how adding in a caloric regimen may affect your day.
2.) Improper Measurements
Let’s say you have the plan mapped out.
You understand all of your obstacles in a given day that will prevent you from eating the way you need to.
You understand your habits, cravings, and overall lifestyle.
Now what?
You are convinced that you are eating your prescribed calories but you are not losing weight.
Now presuming your math is correct with regards to your appropriate caloric breakdown, the problem is that you are simply inaccurately measuring.
It would come as a surprise to many, how much of a difference an extra teaspoon or quarter cup of this or that can make in the total caloric content of a day.
I believe the most accurate tool to measure your food is by weighing it.
However I understand not everyone will have the same neuroticism as me.
That being said, volumetric measurements can be quite accurate but make sure you are consistent with these measurements.
If your measurements call for a cup of rice, make sure it is a flat cup of rice.
Again, these little spillovers can make a big difference at the end of the week.
3.) Improper response
What do I mean by this?
Specifically, I mean with regards to your response to mistakes.
We all make them.
Throughout the course of any diet regimen, there will be mistakes.
Be it not hitting your protein macro for the day or spilling over on calories when your loved ones come to visit and decide to surprise you with a treat.
It happens, I get it.
However, falling off the rails occasionally is normal and to be expected.
The downside of slipping up, is how easy it can be to let it become often and no longer a – “once in a while thing.”
The response becomes, “oh well I slipped up today and there are only a couple more days of the week so I will restart on the coming Monday.”
Rhetoric of self defeat occurs.
An all or none mentality that simply is impossible to maintain.
Understand and come to terms with the fact that you will mess up from time to time, but a self-defeating attitude is bound to set you up for failure.
Make the mistake – move on, and course correct.
The damage is done so don’t keep punishing yourself. You can only change tomorrow.
What’s Next?
Now that you understand the basics to losing fat and some roadblocks that you may encounter, it is time to put your plan to action!
You made it this far reading this article, so let this be a sign that today is the best day to start!
As always, I would be happy to help you along your journey.
Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.
You can also find more help along your journey with these articles.
Who is Jakob Roze?
Jakob Roze is a Strength and Conditioning Coach and founder of Rozefit. His practice centers around empathic communication and relationship building. With an emphasis on pain free, functional movement patterns and strength training, Jakob Roze assesses each individual’s needs and prescribes exercise modalities appropriately in order to facilitate long term gains in strength and health. He draws from evidence based approaches and applies the knowledge in a personalized fashion to facilitate body and lifestyle transformation amongst his clients.
