1. Select the right diet
Diets aren’t meant to be temporary! This understanding has been wrongly created by the likes of marketing strategies, influencers and even scholars / professional representatives with health backgrounds. Rather your diet should be one you enjoy (mostly) and an eating style you can sustain with relative ease. Perhaps you like to eat low fat or low carb? Or maybe plant based or paleo style diets. Simply ask yourself “can I sustain this eating style.” If the answer is no, you’re on a road to al but certain failure. Find a diet you can sustain!
2. Establish a daily meal routine
Routine helps create habits and habits are instinctive. Initially this will take time and thoughtfulness. Overtime however repeated eating times will become habit. This helps to prevent unnecessary snacking and reduces the need to overeat. You body instinctively anticipates food based on habit. Retrain your brain to expect healthier foods at regular and consistent times is much more effective than the simplistic nature to which it sounds.
3. Increase general movement
I’m not talking exercise here that’s different. Rather I’m referring to standing, walking, pottering and all the day to day activities that increase energy expenditure. As a guide aim to hit at least 10,000 steps per day. This sounds crazy high, but it’s not. It’s equivalent to an hours brisk walk. Even the most sedentary people can quickly achieve this daily step count. Find ways to move. Hard when you have an office job or sat writing health and fitness articles😉, but get creative. Walk the kids to school, stand up whilst tapping at the computer (yes I’m stood up right now) just look for ways in your day to increase your steps.
4. Vegetables & fruit
In that order! Prioritise your veg first and have a few pieces of fruit per day. Variety is key to ensure you’re consuming plenty of different nutrients. “eat the rainbow” different coloured veggies and fruits contain an assortment of phytonutrients and micronutrients. Often packed with fibre these help keep you fuller for longer. If you have a big appetite eating plenty of these food types keep help signal satiety hormones thats indicate fulness. Fruits can be high in fructose and therefore less satiating, but don’t eradicate them from you diet. Berries are great and relatively low calorie. Things like grapes, peaches and pears are fine but higher in calories and not all that filling. focus on vegetables and fruits that are higher in fibre and lower calorie and you won’t go wrong.
5. Get educated
Knowledge is key; a universal fact and exactly why our coaches up-skill clients in areas of fitness, nutrition and mind. Having the ability to understand what your eating, how to behave, how to workout and more enhances your ability to make better choices more often. And therefore increases your chances of sustained achievement. There’s lots to learn so keep asking questions and doing your own research. A good starting point is understanding macros, energy balance and being able to effectively read food labels. The combination of which can help you self monitor you daily food intake. Ensuring your need eating more than is required and choosing foods high in nutritional value.
6. Avoid liquid calories
Prioritise water or low calorie squashes over fruit juices and highly sugared carbonated drinks. High calorie drinks have little to no nutritional value and can very easily be over consumed. These calories can rack up considerably without any fullness or goodness. Sugar free carbonated drinks are fine and studies have them to be very helpful for some people when adhering to a fat loss diet. Alcohol is metabolised much differently and requires its own article, but if you do drink then focus on low calorie option like clear vodkas and gins, mix with sugar free liquids to keep the calorie count down. The occasional “healthy” smoothie is fine. Just ensure its packed with fruits and veg, freshly made and consumed no more than once per day.
7. Eat slower
As simple as this sounds, eating slower has a tremendously good physiological and psychological impact on your ability to lose fat. First off, satiety signals take around 20 minutes to reach the brain, indicating food has been eaten to a satisfactory level. Secondly by eating slower and chewing more your predigesting the food in your mouth which supports effective digestion. Better digestion enables the body to absorb more nutrition from food, assist better bowl movements and help energy levels. you saliva contain enzymes like amylase, protease and lipase that breakdown carbs, proteins and fats. The secretion of these enzymes also signals the brain as to the types and amounts of foods you’re eating to ready the appropriate stomach juices in anticipation of foods arrival.
8. Stop eating
Not literally of course, I’m referring to during meals. Assuming you’ve actioned number 7 in our list then you’ll likely feel satisfied whilst your eating. Stop eating when you feel content. This means, not too full or hunger, but comfortable with the amount of food you’re chowing down. on a scale of 1-10, 1 being famished and 10 being stuffed, you ant to be aiming for a feeling of between 6-7. This takes practice especially if you’re a prolific large portion eater.
9. Eat regularly
The title are conflicting I’m aware. Again here though I don’t mean all of the time, but eat little and often. A clichéd statement that is often very true when it comes to successful fat loss. If you allow your body to become to hungry your likely to overeat at your next meal. You will also likely. take poor choices because your decisions are lead by the need to feel full again. Instinctively your more likely to choose foods higher in calories, fats and carbs and less likely to eat a high fibre protein based dish that is more beneficial to you.
10. Macros
Macronutrients (Proteins, fats and carbs) directly impact how we look, feel and perform. Understanding which ratio of macros to eat will likely have a big impact on your ability to achieve and sustain fat loss. There are lots of theories as to the “best” macro split for particular body and health goals, but there is one universal truth that all Diets agree on. PROTIEN!! If I had a penny for every time I said protein, I’d have lots of pennies and no space (plus be very rich). Protein is your priorite most people need to consume between 1.6g & 2.2g per kg of weight per day. This amount goes up or down depending on your goals, dietary habits, body composition and lifestyle. Protein is harder to overeat and has the highset TEF (Thermic effect of food) of all of the macros. In fact on average, for every 100 calories you consume of protein around 35 of those are burned up during digestion alone. Carbs and fats are your full sources and how you split these is less important and highly individual. Diets like keto are mostly fat, whereas traditional guidelines are higher carb. With protein agreed on, I go back to my very first point in this list. Select a diet and macro split that works for you!
