Spring is here and summer is just around the corner, which means many of us might be thinking about how to achieve that hot girl/hot boy summer bod. A quick internet search on “how to lose weight” yields over a billion articles and websites. It’s overwhelming.
Now, we aren’t here to give you a hack on how to lose weight fast because, frankly, that’s neither healthy nor sustainable. What we do want to promote is how and why you should maintain a healthy diet.
Lifestyle > A Fad
There’s always going to be this new, sexy version of a diet i.e. the South Beach diet, Paleo, Keto, and now, intermittent fasting. However, there is no quick fix because progress doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process that may take months or even years to reach your goals, but it should be something that you move towards your entire life.
Fad diets may get you results in the short term, but it’s not sustainable. Oftentimes after stopping these diets, people go back to how they were eating before and they go back to where they started. It becomes a cycle that is not only damaging to your physical health, but also your mental health.
What is sustainable is having this mindfulness about what you’re eating and why you’re eating certain foods.
Calories and Weight Loss
If your ultimate goal is to lose weight, then the only way to do that is by eating in a calorie deficit. You naturally spend calories just by existing, so if you eat a certain amount of calories that is less than that, you will lose weight.
You should not be hungry when you change your diet.
However, before you start to cut calories out of your diet, it’s important to understand your body and know what your personal caloric intake should be. If you are hungry when you change your diet, it means that there is an issue and that you are not getting enough food to sustain yourself.
Make sure you’re still getting all the nutrients you need.
If you feel tired or cranky, it could be that you’re not getting enough nutrients. Listen to these signals because deficits of nutrients like protein, vitamins, iron, fiber, etc. can cause increased fatigue and irritability. If you are unable to obtain necessary nutrients from your diet, then it’s important to take those necessary supplements.
I personally don’t eat meat for environmental reasons, so I have to make sure that I’m getting enough protein from other sources and supplementing my diet with iron and vitamin B12 pills.
Simple Changes
Calorie reductions. You can reduce your caloric intake by simply counting them. Some simple ones are eliminating calories by opting for water instead of soda or juice and reducing snacking.
Although intermittent fasting may seem like a reason intermittent fasting works is because it essentially shortens your window for eating throughout the day, which ideally reduces your caloric intake.
Choose nutrient dense food. Eating nutrient dense food like fruits and vegetables can help you feel full and are able to supply caloric and energy needs without needing to eat an exorbitant amount of it. Nutrient poor food like Oreo's, however, have a lot of calories for a small amount of food and you don’t feel full afterwards.
Make adjustments instead of eliminations. For people that don’t like counting calories, there are many adjustments you can make to still reduce your caloric intake. For example, meal prepping. Going out to eat or eating pre-packaged meals can result in excess sodium and calorie intake.
Meal prepping gives you more awareness of what is being put into the food and gives you a better opportunity to make healthier choices.
Portion sizes. Being aware of how many calories are in portion sizes is important because you may be eating more than you realize. Sometimes it’s hard to visualize how much three-fourths of a cup or 20 grams is. So think about how much you eat then actually measure it out. Having this physical representation will help you understand not only how much you need to eat to feel full, but will also help you make better choices about how you consume your calories.
What to Look Out For
Trans fat
Fat oftentimes has this negative connotation and a lot of us avoid it when we see it on the nutrition label. but we actually need fat to survive. However, there are types of fat we should avoid and one of those is trans fat, especially in canned foods.
Trans fat is a solid at room temperature, so the more trans fat you ingest, the more difficult it is for your body to clear it out. This is an issue because it can buildup and line things like your blood vessels, heart, and organs, which result in an increased risk of developing heart disease and stroke.
Sodium and Sugar
Although these are important to have in moderation, it’s important to ensure that you’re not eating too much of it.
Excess sodium causes water fluid retention - which means you’ll might feel and look bloated. It also can cause issues with blood pressure. Too much sugar also has health ramifications like an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
A good rule of thumb is to just look at the daily serving size percentage and use that to gauge if you are in excess of your daily allowance.
Vitamins and minerals
There’s this running joke that Americans have the most expensive urine in the world. Our body doesn’t store many of these excess vitamins and actually excretes them through our waste. Because the food that we have access to are generally fortified with a lot of the vitamins and minerals we need, all the excess vitamins we take come straight out in our urine.
Now, we aren’t saying don’t take your vitamins, but you don’t need to go the extra mile of spending more money on food because of these added vitamins and minerals. (Unless you want to.)
Be kind to yourself.
I know we say this after every blog post and podcast episode, but I think it’s something to always keep reminding ourselves in everything we do.
It’s okay to crave unhealthy or processed food sometimes. They are specially formulated to make you want it, so it’s okay to eat it in moderation. At the end of the day, it’s about building healthy habits and making better choices to help improve our quality of life.
Take care of yourselves, friends 💛