THE SIMPLE SECRET TO WEIGHT LOSS (SPOILER: IT’S NOT A DIET)
Time and time again I see women turn to diets where they:
- Restrict foods they love
- Eliminate entire food groups
- Eat as little as possible
- Follow diets without understanding IF it’s right for their body and situation
I see it leaves those same women high and dry without results, a worse relationship with food and a harder struggle the next time they try to get their body to respond.
Is this you too?
Well, you aren’t alone and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Yet it sounds like it’s time for you to break this cycle. As a nutrition coach, I want to break down the myths of dieting and help you lose weight healthily.
How To Identify Your Symptoms of Dieting
Answer me this… When was the last time you spent time NOT dieting?
IF you can’t remember, dieting might be just the thing holding you back and causing you to not see results. To get sustainable results, we need to dig deeper to the root; you can say goodbye to the weight IF you are willing to do the work to address the reason that it is there in the first place.
You know if you haven’t addressed the root cause of your weight because you:
keep regaining weight
restrict major food groups
have low energy or fatigue
struggle to sleep through the night or prioritize enough sleep
have digestive issues like gas, bloat or constipation
have hair falling out, your nails are weak and you are cold all the time
still suffer from terrible anxiety or depression
classify PMS as the worst time of the month or have an irregular cycle
obsess over food and struggle to enjoy it
All the “named” diets, detox teas, restrictions, fat burners, cleanses… are NOT going to address the root of WHY the weight is there in the first place. Which means, even if you did lose some weight using those methods, it will very likely come right back on when you stop.
You may not know this, however it’s important that you do: quick weight loss using unsustainable methods comes at the expense of your metabolism, hormones and digestion (and yes all the “named” diets, detox teas, restrictions, fat burners, cleanses are unsustainable methods). Weight is a symptom and understanding WHY is going to leave you with the reigns to control over it long term.
Why You Can’t Lose Body Fat
Why are you, a 20 or 30 or 40 something year old aiming for a 1200 calorie day!?
If you hang out in the diet world long enough, searching on Google or Instagramming fat loss, you’ll be bombarded with food restrictions & time restrictions as the answers. You’ll find 1200 & 1500 calorie ready to follow meal plans for you to purchase to “lose weight”, “shred fat” & “drop lbs”.
Yet every person I know that has purchased one of these ends up right back where they started, frustrated, purchasing yet another “plan”or looking for another route to the same goal they started with.
For starters, any diet will ONLY work, if you’re in a caloric deficit.
(IMPORTANT) In order to understand this, you also have to know that your metabolism is adaptive. Your body adapts to the amount of food you consistently give it. So after eating a certain amount of food for a time period, you will need to continue to adjust that as your metabolism adapts to that new intake.
HOWEVER, the problem that so many of you are in is that you have been dieting and under nourishing for a long time so your body has created some not so awesome shifts (dysfunctions).
Let me explain.
Your body uses a certain number of calories just to keep you alive & functioning, things like breathing, heart rate & brain function. This is called your basal metabolic rate (BMR). From that number, you then also burn calories in your day via walking, chewing, digesting, exercise, hand motions, etc…
When you continuously under-nourish, your body begins to use alternate fuel sources like lean muscle mass, it forces hormonal changes to happen during this “protective mechanism” mode, most notably affecting leptin, thyroid, & testosterone. These changes begin the cascade of events leading to a depressed metabolic level.
So if you wonder why you can’t lose body fat, it might not be because of your lack of willpower or that you just can’t stick with that 1200 diet plan, it might be that your body is being smart.
Diet smart & get help if you don’t know how so that you don’t pay for it later (literally & figuratively). The advice out there can be overwhelming, so if you’re looking for guidance - fill out an application & let’s chat.
Start The Change: You Must Earn The Right to Diet
Take a moment to assess your lifestyle day today:
How much are you actually eating? (It is NEVER as much as you think!)
What does your intake quality look like? Are you just hitting nutrient numbers or portions or are you also aware of your colorful produce items including vegetables and fruits, choosing better quality animal products including pasture raised, organic, wild and grass fed?
How do you feel at the start, throughout and at the end of your day?
Something many do NOT know is this:
You are likely going to have to enter into a different kind of diet before you can actually "diet”.
Meaning, you’ll need to spend some time getting your body into optimal balance in order to lose fat before you try to use the tools of food amount and training to ‘lose weight’. This surprises a lot of people as they treat the weight as a solution to ‘getting healthy’ when it’s getting healthy that will ultimately help you lose the weight and keep it off.
If you ask any of our successful clients, they will tell you, setting up the foundations and creating optimal balance before attempting weight loss is WELL worth the reward (they’ll all vouch that frustration is a thing of the past).
So, what does ‘the right place’ mean?
It’s common for new clients to share that they have been attempting to diet for a long while (usually 2+ years) via the means of eating less and doing more. Afterall, this is the most abundantly shared route to creating shape change, however, notice how many people it DOES NOT work for? After two decades of coaching, I’d say… the majority.
If someone is already under-eating and then goes to eat less and do more… we are going to have a very stressed out body. Now add on low quality or quantity of sleep, your daily job stresses, other life stressors, multitasking and then any lack of nutrients, digestive issues, etc and we’ve got a VERY down-regulated metabolic system.
Instead of exacerbating this stress with MORE exercise and even LOWER calories… our first goal is creating an optimal physiological baseline.
Now this is going to be your GOLDEN TICKET!!
THIS is HOW you not only earn your right to diet, but where your calorie deficit and exercise efforts will ACTUALLY create results.
Where you start is going to be very unique to you. Most of the time we’ll need to address:
- Energy
- Stress
- Sleep
- Nutrition (what and how much)
- Training (what and how much - and making sure its progressive)
- Digestion
- Movement
- Hormones
- And more
When you do this you’ll be able to align what needs to change in terms of your daily behavior patterns to support the results you desire - HELLO SUSTAINABLE WEIGHT LOSS!
This is how we help our clients and how we support you LONG after working with us. We educate you, teach you and support you in doing the stuff that most don’t even know they need to do. We support you in building the strategies, knowledge and behaviors to sustain how you desire to feel and look.
But what is the “diet before the diet”?
Now, let’s just focus on nutrition real quick because the "diet before the diet" is just as important as the diet itself. I’d even say MORE important because without it, you’ll likely not see great results, if you get any at all.
Let me ask you, every time you diet, does it have a name? Is it called…
Keto
Whole 30
Paleo
Juice Cleanse
Intermittent Fasting
Do you know what all of these have in common?
They all create a caloric deficit by restricting something. Whether the restriction is the hours you eat or an entire food group, they are all causing you to eat less calories through some form of restriction, which is why they cause weight loss, because you are intaking less.
The reason I bring this up is because 99% of the clients I get have tried one, if not all, of these diets, and are still… HERE.
So, you have to begin to ask yourself, WHY? Why put in so much effort only to end up back here again?
It’s time to address how much you’re eating. Eating MORE food scares a lot of you. Yet if you have been on a diet for 10+ years and are still fighting to lose weight and be your goal shape? Your body is trying to tell you something (and eating more might just be part of that answer!)
If you’ve spent those last 10+ years…
Intentionally or unintentionally under eating
Restricting calories, carbs or food groups
Eating 1500 calories or less
And/or never intentionally taking periods of time to eat. more. food.
Then it’s time for a change. Get in touch to find out how we can set up your personal diet foundations.
The Magic Pills to Weight Loss
The tool I often use (but not always) with my clients is one you may have heard of and it revolves around logging your nutrition or macro and micro nutrients. Sometimes this can be referred to as IIFYM (if it fits your macros) or Macro counting, however I like to steer people because a feeling usually comes about when someone thinks of the typical tool of macro counting.
We teach very differently how to use the tool and WHEN to use it to benefit from what it is helping you understand about your body.
Nutrient logging is NOT a diet.
It is a tool.
It is a way in which I can teach you about how your body works, understand how you are feeling, gather insights on what might be missing and more. The nutrition you get from the foods you are choosing help you to optimize your energy, digestion, mood (anxiety and depression feels), hormones and stress.
With macros I can measure nutrients & create custom nutrition plans which can be adjusted over time to ensure progress and change in body composition or performance. This is what makes it a tool, one that allows me to coach you in a way that educates you in the process of your goal so you can learn how to support your health and goals long after we are done working together.
I’m going to give you some tools to start on your own, they’re simple general nutrition principles (that might sound too good to be true - but aren’t) will help:
🍳 Yes, eating more protein is a very good place to start
🙅🏼♀️ Weight loss and fat loss are NOT the same thing
🔄 Learning how to cycle through phases of eating at maintenance, in a reverse diet, and a strategic calorie deficit... WILL CHANGE YOUR BODY & LIFE
🌮 Make sure to incorporate those favorite foods here and there and find foods and meals you enjoy... sustainability!
👀 Chronically dieting is only going to cause greater health issues and frustration. If not already, just wait...
✍🏼 If you haven't tracked your food before, you're doing a lot of guessing and likely restriction with hope for change vs strategic change
✨ THESE are the magic pill 💊
Take Action
Think about it, how many years will you spend chasing the body you want instead of actually living at your goal?
Many people are scared to invest in themselves however, I urge you to rethink the next $99, 6-week plan or that $60 juice cleanse and add up all the expenditures you are spending on random supplements hoping it will be the magic one and instead invest in a coach who can help you look at your WHOLE body systems, lifestyle and mindset so you can learn your body and build sustainable results.
In health, fitness & nutrition coaching we help you:
Build your weak habits into strong ones.
Create systems and strategies to improve behavior patterns
Improve your consistency and self accountability
Educate and teach you how and why
Optimize your bodily systems
Support your food relationship by building trust in your body (when's the last time you can say you trusted your body!?!)
Get you to your goals!!!
The only diet you should be purchasing is the “put your name here” diet.
Education is so important when it comes to dieting as if you don’t understand why you are doing something, you will forever be a slave to the person, program or thing that is getting you results. With all the different diets advertised to us either from friends, coworkers or social media, it’s hard to know what we should actually be doing.
We offer both Health Consultations and Health Coaching to support you on your journey.
We also have a ton of free resources in our blogs and sent out weekly on our Wellness and Weight loss Wednesday newsletter, join here!