Nutrition and Eating Healthy for Weight Loss

For years I have watched people have a hard time with their nutrition. Everyone has reasons (or excuses) for what they eat. And I used to feel like everyone knew the difference between good foods and bad foods, but I am not so sure anymore. One thing I am sure of is that no one is happy with where they are with their fitness. Everyone has a goal and 99% of people want to lose weight and tone up. In this post I am going to give you an outline of rules to follow. In the future I will expand on this topic and give you tricks of the trade that trainers use to help their clients lose weight.

The first thing we need to talk about is under eating in an attempt to lose weight. Your body needs food. Its like gas in the car. If you don’t have it, then you don’t go! The easiest way to judge whether you are getting enough substance (notice I didn’t say quantity) of food is your energy level. Why starve and feel horrible.

Next we need to discuss how many times a day you should eat. You have probably heard that you should eat small meals frequent throughout the day. That is correct but realize that if you eat once a day and tomorrow you plan on eating 7 times, it may be a lot to handle. Try this progression. Start by solidifying breakfast, lunch , and dinner. Proteins, carbohydrates, and healthy fats ( we’ll talk more about this later). After you can eat 3 meals a day that you would not be embarrassed to tell your trainer about start adding a small snack in between and lunch, and lunch and dinner.  When this is feasible, start making the calories of these meals equal and add a small snack before bed (usually very lean proteins with little carbs). This may take some time to accomplish feeling good with 6 meals a day but it is obtainable for all!

Realize too that no one is expected to eat perfect and never cheat. I use an 80/20 rule. Eat as perfect as you can 80% of the time, and be more relaxed with your choices 20% of the time. This is not a pass go, collect $200 free pass to freak out. This is a chance for you to get your cravings out of the way so you don’t cheat more often. If you need to lose a considerable amount of weight I recommend you have a cheat meal instead of a cheat day if possible. If you have been working on your nutrition for a while, I would structure your cheat day to be on events like birthdays, holidays, concerts, and other special occasions that will take you out of your norm.

What are good foods? Depends on who you ask right. Lets look at the basics. Proteins are typically but not limited to meat, fish, poultry, cheese, eggs, and milks. A serving of protein is assumably 3oz of meat, 1.5oz of cheese, and 8oz of milk. Each meal you eat should include a portion of protein. No excuses! We’ll talk about why more in depth in another post soon. Next, carbohydrates are broken into simple carbs (sugars) and complex carbs (starches and fibers). We prefer complex carbs like vegetables, whole grains, and legumes to simple carbs like cakes and cookies, sugary beverages, etc… You goal is to have 1 serving of carbohydrates at each meal as well. 1 slice of bread, 1/2 cup of oats, 1 cup of veggies, or 1 medium fruit. With carbohydrates, variety is the key to get a wide range of nutrients. Last but not least, fats are necessary to your diet. Try to limit fats to monounsaturated fats like olive oil and avocado or polyunsaturated fats like Soybean oils. Guess what, butter is fat, salad dressings and mostly fats, pizza has huge fat content. Be aware of what you put in your body!

Like many topics, we have barely touched on nutrition and eating healthy. But you have to have the basics before you can grow into something more. When you are looking at your options for meals, ask yourself what would Ryan pick or what would my trainer think about my choice. It will open your eyes. The worst thing you can do to yourself is to know better but do it anyway. Hold yourself to a higher standard. By doing this you will see results far beyond anything you can do in the gym alone. You MUST take actions today to be better tomorrow, but know that I don’t expect anyone to be perfect immediately. I just want you to improve everyday. So work hard, have fun, and thank you for making fitness your lifestyle!