Fit Not Fad: Nutrition For Weight Loss
Join Bianca as she discusses how you should approach your diet for weight loss, in episode seven of the Fit Not Fad podcast.
Calculate Your Daily Caloric Expenditure Here
Bianca Grover: Hi and welcome to episode seven of the Fit Not Fad podcast. In this episode we will be discussing the impact of your diet on weight loss. This will include how much you should eat, foods you should eat, foods you should stay away from, how to avoid overeating and reverse dieting.
A reminder that this is not a medical podcast and I am not a doctor. Before making any drastic changes to your diet, consult your physician.
To start off, it is important to understand the concept of caloric intake and caloric deficit.
How much should I eat in a day?
Your body requires and burns a certain amount of calories every day. Most of these are burned by your resting metabolism and others may be burned through physical activity. Your resting metabolism is how many calories your body burns to function. If you are looking to improve this metabolism, you should listen to my previous podcast on Building Muscle.
The amount of calories you eat in a day, is called your caloric intake. To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you are eating. Pretty simple.This is called being in a caloric deficit.
A healthy caloric deficit is between 100 and 500 calories below your caloric intake. A consistent caloric deficit within this range is a key component to weight loss. Dropping below this range can damage your metabolism, cause fatigue and headaches and lead to extreme hunger or nausea.
In order to stay within a healthy range for your caloric deficit, you must understand two things.
How many calories you are eating in a day;
And how many calories you burn in a day - Also known as your daily caloric expenditure.
Both of these numbers will change from day-to-day and from person-to-person.
Measuring Caloric Intake
You can measure your caloric intake by reading the nutritional labels of your food to count and calculate the amount of calories you are eating. This may seem daunting, but this is one of the most accurate ways to determine your caloric intake.
The MyFitnessPal app created by Under Armour is a great resource for this. It scans the barcodes on your food and keeps track for you.
Calculating Your Daily Caloric Expenditure
To calculate how many calories you burn in a day, we are going to look at the basal metabolic rate, the thermic effect of food, the calories your body burns through non-exercise activity and calories burned through activity.
The basal metabolic rate (BMR) refers to the number of calories burned daily to simply stay alive, not including physical activity, digestion or moving.
The thermic effect of food (TEF) refers to the energy we spend digesting the food we eat. This accounts for about 10% of your daily caloric expenditure. It is important to know that protein takes more energy to break down and process. Eating a high protein diet will in fact result in more calories being burned.
Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) refers to the calories we expend through activities of daily living such as doing dishes, walking the dog, moving from one chair to another. This is not exercise.
Physical activity expenditure (TEA) refers to the amount of calories we burn through intentional exercising such as cardio, resistance training.
Total Daily Energy Expenditure = BMR+TEF+NEAT+TEA
We add all of these numbers up, and that gives us the daily expenditure. If you are looking to calculate this, I have placed a link below this podcast.
If you have - or intend on buying - a smart watch, most calculate your daily expenditure and do a pretty good job.
Simply subtract your Daily Caloric Expenditure and your daily caloric intake, and you get the caloric deficit.
Portion Your Food
If this method is a little too much for you, you can rely on your hand. Your hand can be used as a measuring tool for portion sizes. This is an easier method, that provides loose guidance. This method varies between males and females.
For Males (Every Meal)
Two palms of lean proteins
Two fists of vegetables
Two cupped hands of carbs
Two thumbs of fats
For Females (Every Meal)
One palm of lean proteins
One fist of vegetables
One cupped hand of carbs
One thumb of fats
Foods to Include in Your Diet
There are certain foods out there that simply do more for you. Whether they are nutrient rich or minimally-processed, here are some examples.
Here are some foods that are good sources of protein:
Eggs or egg whites
Chicken
Duck breast
Pork
Lamb
Turkey
Fish
Here are some foods that are good sources of carbs:
Beans or lentils
Plain Kefir
Quinoa
Farro
Potatoes
Whole grain, black or wild rice
Steel cut and rolled oats
Fresh or frozen fruit
Here are some foods that are good sources of healthy fats:
Extra virgin olive oil
Egg yolks
Avocado
Chia, flax, pumpkin or sesame seads
Cashews peanuts or almonds
Olives
Fresh coconut
Foods to Avoid
There are certain foods out there that do more harm than good. Whether they are loaded with junk or over-processed, here are some examples.
Here are some foods that are not a valuable source of protein:
Fried meats
Protein bars
Processed deli meats
Sausage
High-mercury fish
Here are some foods that are not a valuable source of carbs:
Cereal bars
Flavored milk
Fruit juices or soda
Fries or chips
Pastries
Pretzels
Here are some foods that are not a valuable source of fats:
Butter
Corn oil
Canola oil
Processed cheese
Dressings
Vegetable oil
Bacon
Reverse Dieting
It is important to keep in mind that having a restricted diet and frequent caloric deficits can sometimes - but not always - lead to feelings of exhaustion and hunger. When this happens, I might recommend reverse dieting.
Reverse dieting is the process of gradually increasing the amount of calories you are consuming, in order to promote long-term weight maintenance. This can restore those drained energy levels and help fight off the hunger.
This method calls for small increases, which depend on the individual, but can be somewhere around 50 to 70 calories at a time. This helps to strengthen a potentially damaged metabolism without forcing the individual to gain large amounts of weight.
It may seem counterintuitive, but eating more can help you lose weight when done right.
I hope you enjoyed this episode and that this information was useful to you. If you did, and if it was, please share this with a friend, family member or on your social media. Until next episode, thanks for tuning in and be mindful of what is on the end of your fork.
