You're Probably Not Eating Enough Food to Lose Weight
This is a line I’ve said so many times to clients in my facility. You see if you have a bad lifestyle and are putting on weight a simple reason may just be an over consumption of calories.
With refined and processed foods it’s very easy to clock up calories, so let’s say you wake up one morning and that’s it! This is the day it’s all going to change. You’ve been talking to Mary up the road and she’s telling you that you just have to eat ‘Clean’. So you plan out your day with 3 meals and no snacks that looks something like this:
Breakfast
½ Grapefruit, Liberte Greek Yogurt (100g), ½ Lemon squeezed in water.
Lunch
1 Chicken breast (We’ll average it at 100g) and salad
Dinner
Palm Size Steak fillet (100g) with Onions, Mushrooms, Broccoli and Carrot sticks.
Now I’m sure some of you are looking at that and thinking ‘Where is he going with this? That looks like clean eating to me’.
Well it is clean eating; there is nothing wrong with any of that except one very big issue. Did you read my children’s food diary in last week’s blog? If I was to feed them just that I’d be listening to ‘I’m Starving!!!’ all day long.
Let’s break it down.
Breakfast – Carbs 25g - Fats 0g – Protein 13g – Kcals 152
Lunch - Carbs 17g - Fats 13g – Protein 25g – 296 Kcals
Dinner – 8g Carbs - 20g Fats – 27g Protein – 317 Kcals
Total - Carbs 50g - Fats 33g – Protein 52g – 765 Kcals
Now here is some homework for those of you that care. You have the above now I want you to roughly calculate out what you should be eating using the following calculator.
This will give you a guide and not an exact measurement but together with a food diary app like MyFitnessPal you’ll get an idea soon enough how much volume of clean food you have to be consuming. Think of every one you know who is of optimum health. The one thing they all have in common is that it appears they never stop eating.
Click HERE to work out your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)
Now if you’re looking to lose weight select the figure to lose .5kg per week. Yep that’s it ignore me and pick the 1kg a week figure.
Let’s look at Mary as an example:
40 years old
5ft 7’ (170cm)
75kgs
Training 1-3 times per week and looking to lose .5kgs per week
TDEE – 1496 Calories per day
Protein: 75kgs (Mary’s weight) x 2.2g = 165g (660 kcal)
Fat: 75kg (Mary’s weight) x 2.2 x .4 = 66g (594 kcal)
Carbs: 1496 (TDEE) Minus 666 (kcal Fat) Minus 660 (kcal Protein) Divide by 4 (Calories per gram of carbs) = 61g
So Mary needs to consume 165g Protein, 66g of Fat and 61g of carbohydrates every day.
I cant stress this enough. This is only a guide. If you do your figures but find after a week your energy levels are falling through the floor then try adding an extra 20% to your carbs or if you feel great but aren’t dropping weight. Before dropping calories make sure that you recognise any hidden calories in your food. It’s amazing how picking when preparing food every day can add up. Or consider other things that can be healthy but high in calories like salad dressings or nuts.
If you have any questions on this or any of our blogs please don’t hesitate in replying with a question or if you enjoy it I love receiving those messages as well.
Until next week,
Love and Happiness,
John T.