A colleague of mine shared that she has been eating healthy and drinking her flat tummy teas yet she has not been losing any weight.
Why hasn’t she been reaching your goals despite all she has been doing? It’s simple: calories in and calories out.
The truth is, whether you are trying to gain weight or lose it, it’s a game of calories. Many will argue it’s not, that you can actually lose weight while maintaining a high caloric daily intake. However, this is only true if your energy activity level for the day is higher than what you are storing daily. So, at the end, you are still consuming less calories than what your body is using. That’s the simple truth; it’s not rocket science. If you want to lose weight/body fat you must consume less calories than what your body is using in a day and if you want to gain weight and add muscle you must have a surplus of calories for your body to build upon. Perhaps re-read that last sentence again.
So why is eating healthier still not helping you achieve your goals of weight loss? The truth is that many healthy foods are still calorie packed; they carry high amounts of calories. For instance, almonds or seeds which are healthy for you as they contain good amounts of Omegas are 9kcal per gramme. All fats are higher calories per gramme, whether they are good or bad fats. Another great example is Quinoa. It’s a superb healthy food choice but one cup cooked has roughly 222 calories coming from 39g of carbs, 8g of protein and 4g of fat.
I mean it’s an amazing food to include but most people don’t stop at 1 cup, they easily serve themselves 2 cups as 1 cup doesn’t look like much. At the end of the day making food selections that are healthy for you is not necessarily going to help you achieve the body you are looking for.
How do we obtain the best of both worlds? Obviously, we don’t want you to lose weight in an unhealthy manner. The key to all of this is portion size and knowing your caloric intake for the day. Furthermore, not only knowing how many calories you need but where they come from. If you are a 200-pound man trying to lose weight you surely want to keep at least a minimum of 160g of protein in your daily intake. That’s .8g of protein per your bodyweight. Going lower than that might hinder your lean muscle mass weight and when it comes to body composition you aren’t trying to lose lean muscle, just fat. So, it’s crucial you know how many calories you need and know how to break them into your three macros. If you don’t know how to do to his then here’s a simple generic way to know the basics.
Protein: consume a minimum of .8g of protein /lbs of weight
Fats: Consume 20% of your daily caloric intake from healthy fats
Carbs: After you’ve figured out how many calories you have left, then add them in the form of complex carbs and veggies. Even further, consume most of your carbs before and after your exercise plan.
Obviously, you want to lose weight in a healthy manner, so make sure you include foods high in sources of minerals and vitamins from your food. Chicken and broccoli by themselves won’t provide you with many nutrients on a daily basis. I highly encourage that you use a good multivitamin.
So, there it is; very simple, if you are trying to lose weight don’t go believing that organic or natural are better for your goals, they might still carry the same if not more calories than the regular version of what you are eating. Eating healthy is crucial but knowing how to eat for your goals is more important.
