Don’t trust everything you read. Except Here. Trust It All.
Welcome to my Blog. Here you can learn everything you want to know about getting stronger, losing weight and managing your diet, in an empathetic and scientific way.
7 Practical Tips To Make Counting Calories Easier
One of the most frequent complaints I get from clients on the Strong & Confident Program is that they just don’t have the time to track their food.
Once they have cooked the dinner, eaten the dinner and then washed up after - its either their bedtime or their children’s bedtime…and the act of meticulously going through what they ate that day, and most importantly trying to remember everything they ate that day, is obviously going to be the last thing on their mind - whether they want to achieve their goals or not.
And I get it.
80% of my clients, throughout my career have been busy parents, and realistically you have to look at their lives and question whether tracking their calories is really going to add stress or take the stress away from their life.
And much of the time it will add stress - which will have far more negative repercussions on their fitness than whether they choose to track calories.
About a month ago, I did a Seminar here on the Gold Coast, Australia, all about Tracking your calories, and I wanted to share with you what we all went through on that day.
Table of contents for: 7 Practical Tips To Make Counting Calories Easier
Does Calorie Counting work?
Why should you track your food?
Informed Consent on tracking your calories
7 Tips to make Counting Calories Easier
How To Be In A Calorie Deficit Without Logging Your Food
There is a quick summary of my 7 Practical Tips on YouTube. But to understand the principles and the whys and wherefores behind counting calories - keep reading!
Does Calorie Counting work?
This is a very hotly debated topic.
There are people out there…on the internet…who will tell you that tracking your calories simply doesn’t work…simply because the calorie amounts on packages aren’t accurate.
This study [1] called ‘Food Label Accuracy of Common Snack Foods’ found that:
“Measured energy values exceeded label statements by 8% on average in pre-packaged convenience meals (12), which is slightly higher but consistent with the label disparity of 4.3% in packaged snack foods. Also consistent with this study, most products in our sample fell within the allowable limit of 20% over the label calories per Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations”
This is a shocking revelation, but it’s still only 8% out.
The last time I checked, 8% was a pretty small amount. Let me put it to you thus, if I gave you 92% success in your Goals…would you take it?
Exactly.
So let me ask again; Does Calorie Counting Work?
And it’s a resounding yes provided you have never had an Eating Disorder.
If you have ever had an Eating Disorder then please don’t engage in Calorie Counting. And if you need help with that please contact the Charity BEAT here [2].
There are issues relating to Calorie Counting, and I go into those later in the article. But the main answer to this question is the following:
Yes. Calorie Counting does work.
This study [3] took participants over one year, and depending on their consistency with dietary tracking, split them into three Groups.
Rare Trackers equalling <33% days tracked (114 days out of 343)
Inconsistent Trackers 33-66% days tracked
Consistent Trackers >66% days tracked (228 days out opf 343)
Please note that consistent trackers qualify at just two-thirds of the time available to them - not 100% of the time available to them.
All participants were asked to:
Maintain daily food journals and physical activity records;
Reduce portion sizes;
Reduce foods high in calories, fat, and simple sugar;
Increase consumption of fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products;
and
Weigh themselves frequently and at least weekly (more on this here)
They each worked with a Health Coach, and attended interactive sessions designed to educate them on nutrition and exercise adherence.
The results were:
“Only consistent trackers had significant weight loss (-9.99 pounds), following a linear relationship with consistent loss throughout the year. In addition, the weight loss trend for the rare and inconsistent trackers followed a nonlinear path, with the holidays slowing weight loss and the onset of summer increasing weight loss. These results show the importance of frequent dietary tracking for consistent long-term weight loss success”
It also concluded the following:
“Early in the program weight change of consistent trackers did not differ from rare or inconsistent dietary trackers. However, rare or inconsistent trackers gained weight during the holidays but the consistent trackers' rate of weight loss did not change as they sustained their rate of weight loss from the first quarter. Hence, successful behavioural interventions should emphasize the benefits of consistent dietary tracking for participants, motivating individuals to track for at least 5 days of each week for sustained and clinically significant weight loss"
This study teaches us a lot about weight loss.
The first lesson is that consistency is what matters, and consistency doesn’t mean as much as you think it does. It is simply just two-thirds of your time.
The second lesson is that tracking is a behaviour that supports other behaviours like having a Coach, reducing portion sizes, and eating more fruits and vegetables.
The third lesson is that scientifically 10lbs is a significant amount of weight to lose in a year.
As a coach, my point here is you need to stop comparing yourself to people on Social Media. What you see on there, compared to what real world results truly look like vary greatly.
Follow Me On Instagram:
Why Should You Track Your Food?
One of the most common occurrences in people who are trying to lose weight and getting frustrated with the outcomes in terms of weight loss is that they often overestimate the calories they are burning and underestimate the calories they are consuming.
As this study concludes:
“The failure of some obese subjects to lose weight while eating a diet they report as low in calories is due to an energy intake substantially higher than reported and an overestimation of physical activity, not to an abnormality in thermogenesis.”
This basically means that it comes down to your Calorie Deficit, rather than there being an issue in the way your body metabolises food.
The hypothesis has been tested in two other ways as well. This study pipped Dieticians against Non-Dieticians and found that even dieticians under-report their energy intake somewhere between 223 and 116 kcal/day, compared with the non-dieticians who underreported between 429 and 142kcal/day.
This just goes to show…that even those who are really well educated on food and nutrition still underestimate the calories they are consuming.
This doesn’t mean that learning about nutrition and your food isn’t worthwhile. The dieticians were still better with an average over-reporting of 169.5kcal/day compared to the non-dieticians which averaged 285.5kcal/day.
And finally,
This study actually paid people to be accurate. They were giving out $50 bonuses to be accurate with their diet recall on four occasions. One group had to be accurate the first two times, the second group accurate the second two times, and one group received no bonus at all.
And guess what happened:
“Energy intake did not differ within or between groups at any time, and the number of under reporters was not associated with group at any time. Overall, the incentive was ineffective.”
So by tracking your food, you reduce the risk of being inaccurate. In fact, tracking your food is the most accurate way to tell if you are or are not in a calorie deficit for that day. We have no other way of knowing this information, and if you want instant feedback about your weight loss day on day - then tracking your food is the best way to go about it.
In terms of overestimating the number of calories, you are burning this comes down to many things. The main one is that we trust our smartwatches to be accurate with this information when this study [5] demonstrates.
It found that Smartwatches at their most accurate, in terms of judging energy expenditure are off by between 27% and 93%.
The study also found that they are better at reading heart rates.
Personally, as a Coach, I don’t like clients on my Strong & Confident Program to focus on Calories burned from exercise - because that can destroy your relationship with exercise and create very extreme behaviour that will only lead to failure.
You should focus on eating to your deficit - and exercising to get strong enough to fight a bear in the woods.
Informed Consent when tracking your food
As I mentioned above, you should not track your food if you are recovering from any form of Eating Disorder.
But I also take my responsibility for your Mental Health very seriously so I want to let you know about the drawbacks of tracking your food, before I give you the 7 Practical Tips To Make Counting Calories Easier.
Then you can decide whether or not it is a behaviour you are safe to engage with.
This study [6] analysed 5.5k posts on Community Forums, like MyFitness Pal, and discovered what the practical difficulties are with tracking food.
Success is attributed to a “goal weight achievement”
Of 94 people, only 22 thought they were empowered enough to no longer need to track their food
Can be a tedious practice
Not knowing how much of a food to enter
Not being able to find foods in the database
How do you track restaurants and eating at a friends house?
When asked to rate difficulty by meal type, respondents rated packaged food (average: 6.5) and fast food (6.3) as significantly easier to journal than home-cooked meals (4.6), buffet meals (3.7), ethnic food (3.7), restaurant meals (3.6), foods served by friends (3.2), and foods consumed at parties (2.9)
I’d just like to highlight a few points here:
“Success is attributed to a “goal weight achievement” - this is always going to be an issue on an App like MyFitness Pal - because it keeps reminding you how much you will weigh in x amount of days, if you keep up the behaviour you set that day. Although some will find this motivating I am here to tell you that your success is not defined by hitting a weight on the scale. Your success is determined by engaging in behaviours over a consistent period of time. If you set these behaviours and execute you will gain confidence and strength - as a consequence of that you might lose weight.
I think I summed this up best when I said on Instagram:
“How do you track restaurants and eating at a friends house?” - there are two schools of thought here:
If you don’t eat out too often - mainly if it’s just a special occasion - then you shouldn’t be tracking in the first place, you should be enjoying the moment.
If you eat out more and are worried about the calories, do your best at figuring out what you had when you get home…then add 30% to account for factors of food that are out of your control - like the amount of oil used by the Chef.
The same study [6] then also analysed Mental Health outcomes relating to tracking food and it found:
Food journalers report feelings of shame, judgement, or obsession associated with current designs. P6 reported journaling “made me feel guilty sometimes”, while P27 noted a lack of positive feedback: “I always felt guilty when I ate too much, and there wasn't that much pride when I was under my goal.”
“Sometimes I feel like not logging things because I know it’s really unhealthy.
“It made me too focused and obsessive about what I was eating”
“It was more of an on the way to an eating disorder thing than anything else (tried to keep calories extremely low)”
“I think I was hesitant to do the logging if not alone”
“I had more of a problem with eating out at a friend’s house because I didn’t want to ask for ingredients or mention that I was logging calories”
You should never feel shame around a behaviour you are engaging in and if you are feeling that way then please do not operate in that behaviour.
If what you are doing is not making you feel strong and empowered - then why o why are you doing it?
You shouldn’t have to suffer - and I don’t want you to suffer at all.
In terms of going over your calories sometimes - and that leading to a feeling of failure - please remember that no matter what you do - you can’t fuck this up - because when you engage in a fitness journey - it shouldn’t be defined by an endpoint, it should be a move to building an active lifestyle and pulling yourself into balance.
Therefore, all you have to do is get back on track the very next day.
The human body doesn’t gain weight that quickly, so there really isn’t a need to panic when you go over.
1. Don’t try to be perfect in an imperfect system
The whole system around calories is flawed.
When we establish someone’s Basal Metabolic Rate which is the point upon which we begin to figure out their deficit calories we are making it our “best guess”. This guess is based on years and years of study across millions of people, but it is still a guess.
And the food industry does the same. In 1991 the Australian Food Standards Code used to state:
“That the value shown in a Nutrition Information Panel was deemed to comply if these values (of energy, carbohydrate, starch or fibre) did not vary by more than 20% from those values actually present and 10% variation was permitted for other nutrients”
And although these figures are no longer part of Law they are still regarded as acceptable folklore in the Food Industry.
The current Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code does not permit or mandate any limits on accuracy of the levels of nutrients expressed in Nutrition Information Panels but only requires that these values be ‘average’ values. Maximum and minimum quantities are required in regard to claims for polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acid contents of food.
And in the US a study called “Food Label Accuracy of Common Snack Foods” [7] we have already seen that calories in published are not that reliable.
Being consistent with tracking your food, to get a best guess is good enough, and by doing that you still get results as you will be holding yourself accountable and over time will improve your choices to help you get to your goals.
2. It’s Not A Life Sentence; its a Period of Education
When you approach anything in life with the view of “What can I learn about this?” as opposed to “Can I pass or fail this?” you will automatically improve your relationship with that behaviour.
Tracking your food is no different. You should do it to learn about the energy in food, to learn about how your choices over a day impact your energy and ability to control your stress. Its a way of finding out if your weekends are destroying your progress and what eating in balance really looks like.
You get to decide when that period of education is over and when you feel empowered enough to move away from tracking your calories - because that is the goal here. The goal isn’t to be tied to MyFitness Pal for the rest of your life.
You should want to be educated enough about nutrition so that you never have to open an app ever again.
3. There is no right or wrong, just exploration
One of these days I’m going to get this printed on a t-shirt. It’s true of exercise, and it’s true of nutrition.
If you go over your calories, the only person judging you is you.
If you don’t hit your protein target, the only person judging you is you.
Every time something sub-optimal occurs the good news is that you have the opportunity to learn from it, grow from it, and ultimately succeed from those lessons.
You are only every investigating, course correcting and developing - you are not passing or failing.
4. If it’s in a packet: Track it!
This is so simple it hurts. MyFitness Pal and any other tracking app you might use will have what’s called a Barcode Scanner. It will literally take you a matter of seconds to get all of the nutritional information you need about that food by scanning the barcode.
Therefore if you eat something with a barcode. on the packet - which will be a fair 75% of the food you eat - just track it.
5 . Set Up generic value amounts for Fruits and Veggies
Let’s be very clear - no one ever gained weight from eating too many fruits and veggies. Even if you are a Vegetarian, I promise you fruits and vegetables in your diet are not the problem here.
And when it comes to tracking them, they can be really annoying to put into an app accurately.
Therefore you should just set up a generic value for Fruits and Vegetables, save that into your App and just use those every time you have your Veggies at dinner.
Personally I just scan a bag of frozen vegetables set it to 100g and use that every time I have dinner - irrespective of what the Vegetables actually are.
6. Eating Out? Add 30% to your meal
I alluded to this earlier in the article - but it’s a strategy that makes everything. more accurate for you when you are trying to track your food.
The best way to track your food when eating out would be the following:
1. See online if the restaurant publishes their calories
2. In the restaurant take a photo.
3. When at home, best guess the amounts.
4. Add 30% to every amount even if the restaurant does publish their calories
That way you have the bases covered.
And remember if you are out celebrating - celebrate. Don’t worry about the calories on special occasions - just worry about getting back on track the next day.
7. Cook Meals that are already Calorie Tracked
This is the one that perplexes me the most when it comes to people who are trying to lose weight and using calorie tracking as a solution to that.
It also perplexes me with clients on my Strong and Confident Program - who are tracking - as they have access to over 250 recipes all with calorie tracked barcodes including vegetarian and vegan options - yet they still say that tracking is too hard for them.
All the hard work has been done for you.
In fact, if you Google “MyFitness Pal Dinner Recipes” you get 688,000 results and the top one is all with the Macros and Calories already figured out for you.
So use that resource.
I guarantee you will be able to find a version of your favourite meal that is now Barcode Scannable or has all of the nutritional information figured out for you. Then you just have to copy and paste.
The brass tax is if you can’t be bothered to copy and paste some information or spend ten minutes finding the information on the internet to be able to track your calories - then engaging in a fitness journey will always be a slog for you.
How To Be In A Calorie Deficit Without Logging Your Food
There are other things you can do to keep your calories in check without necessarily logging your food.
But bear in mind, the only way to truly know if you are in a deficit each day - is to log your foods.
I have two strategies for this.
The first is a three meals, two snacks which I outline here:
This is very simple.
Each day you are allowed three meals.
Each meal must fit on one plate.
Between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner you can have a snack.
I have found applying this structure is incredibly effective.
The second strategy is called The Five Awesome Rules For Fat Loss Life.
This is a list of 5 things you need in order to lose weight:
Be in a Calorie Deficit
Three Litres of Water A Day
Protein and Veggies at every meal
8-10k Steps A Day
7-8 hours of sleep a night
And if you want help figuring this out then watch this:
Did You Find This Useful?
Across this website, I have other Articles all about Tracking your Calories and managing your Calorie Deficit:
Added to that it would be AMAZING if you wanted to become my friend.
As my friend, I will send you some amazing help, like a book called 27 Ways to Faster Fat Loss, workout plans for both the Gym and home workouts, and much more. Just put your email in below:
References:
Jumpertz R, Venti CA, Le DS, et al. Food label accuracy of common snack foods. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2013;21(1):164-169. doi:10.1002/oby.20185
Beat. 2021. The UK's Eating Disorder Charity - Beat. [online] Available at: <https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/> [Accessed 15 September 2021].
Ingels JS, Misra R, Stewart J, Lucke-Wold B, Shawley-Brzoska S. The Effect of Adherence to Dietary Tracking on Weight Loss: Using HLM to Model Weight Loss over Time. J Diabetes Res. 2017;2017:6951495. doi: 10.1155/2017/6951495. Epub 2017 Aug 9. PMID: 28852651; PMCID: PMC5568610.
Lichtman SW, Pisarska K, Berman ER, Pestone M, Dowling H, Offenbacher E, Weisel H, Heshka S, Matthews DE, Heymsfield SB. Discrepancy between self-reported and actual caloric intake and exercise in obese subjects. N Engl J Med. 1992 Dec 31;327(27):1893-8. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199212313272701. PMID: 1454084.
Shcherbina, A.; Mattsson, C.M.; Waggott, D.; Salisbury, H.; Christle, J.W.; Hastie, T.; Wheeler, M.T.; Ashley, E.A. Accuracy in Wrist-Worn, Sensor-Based Measurements of Heart Rate and Energy Expenditure in a Diverse Cohort. J. Pers. Med. 2017, 7, 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm7020003
Cordeiro F, Epstein DA, Thomaz E, Bales E, Jagannathan AK, Abowd GD, Fogarty J. Barriers and Negative Nudges: Exploring Challenges in Food Journaling. Proc SIGCHI Conf Hum Factor Comput Syst. 2015 Apr;2015:1159-1162. doi: 10.1145/2702123.2702155. PMID: 26894233; PMCID: PMC4755274.
Jumpertz R, Venti CA, Le DS, Michaels J, Parrington S, Krakoff J, Votruba S. Food label accuracy of common snack foods. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2013 Jan;21(1):164-9. doi: 10.1002/oby.20185. PMID: 23505182; PMCID: PMC3605747.
Why Can't I Lose Weight No Matter What I Do?
Choose a Lego Head above.
Any Lego Head.
And I imagine its pretty close to how you are feeling about your weight loss efforts…and how you happened to end up here…reading this Article.
And if you have been trying to lose weight for a while now…and you have ended up here, reading this, then I am sure you probably feel more like this:
To find the images of the Lego Heads I used two words:
“Angry” and “Frustrated”
This gives me one sole goal for this article - as your Coach - to remove your frustration and your anger about your inability to lose weight no matter what you do - and be able to set you up on a path to success.
Just like my friend Jenny who lost over 7kgs working with me online on the Strong and Confident Program.
She came to me at her whits end - having spent hours on the Gym floor, following every single piece of advice they gave her on diet and exercise. Sometimes she would exercise twice a day just to try and achieve a change on the scale, in her clothes or how she felt about herself.
And still couldn’t crack the “secret code” to weight loss.
Then we spoke on a video chat, she was very emotional and I held out my hand, told her to stop worrying, and together….we’ve got this.
She achieved this by just doing 10mins a day every day for 3 months.
Because she had a process that she could trust.
And that is what I am going to share with you today in order to make you feel empowered, strong and confident to finally Google the term:
“How to get strong enough to wrestle a bear in the woods”
Please remember this article is not from a Medical Perspective - it is a Coach’s perspective on why you aren’t losing weight no matter what you do.
I am presuming you have been to the Doctor, and got the all-clear from any severe Metabolic conditions, I am also going out on a limb and saying that if you have Hypothyroidism, PCOS, or are currently struggling with the symptoms of Menopause what I am going to share with you is still relevant, and will still work - it just is that much harder.
If you need help with PCOS and Weight Loss then read this:
The structure of this article is a little different from my “normal” ones. For each header, I am going to pose you a question for you to answer - from there I will hope to establish some holes in your approach to losing weight - and I will tell you the science-backed solution to fixing that hole in your approach.
By the end of this article, you will be able to reset, reapproach and feel reinvigorated to help make the changes you need.
All I ask from you, as you read this, is that you are honest with yourself in how you respond to these questions.
If you are able, to be honest, then I will be able to help you…and we can make you feel more like a Super Hero in your weight loss journey. We can literally get you eating ice cream and losing weight….
Which in truth is the ultimate goal anyway isn’t it?
Table of Contents for “I Can’t Lose Weight No Matter What I Do”
Are you in a Calorie Deficit?
Are you sleeping enough?
Are you blaming your Metabolism?
Are you making the most of your Metabolism?
Are you restricting your diet too much?
Are you being consistent?
Are you expecting your movement to do the job for you?
Are you on a plan that is making you unhappy?
Are you too stressed?
Are your expectations too great?
Are you comparing yourself to others?
Question 1: Are you in a Calorie Deficit?
If you have read any of my work before then you will know that a Calorie Deficit is the only way you can lose weight.
As in you need to burn more calories from your body than you are putting into it - and this is what a Calorie Deficit is.
Very simple to understand - but not easy to implement.
If you have found this article, and you have never heard the term Calorie Deficit before then this is the reason you are not losing weight no matter what you do.
You should probably watch this for further context on what a Calorie Deficit truly is and how to set yourself up in a Deficit:
If you have heard the term before, and believe it is what you have tried to implement - then keep reading because every single point I am going to explore in this article is literally going to be the best Coaching advice I have for you to investigate WHY you aren’t in a Calorie Deficit DESPITE your best efforts.
So lets get into it…
Question 2: Are you Sleeping enough?
I have laid out the correlation between sleep and weight loss in one of my more recent Blog Posts: Why Does Sleep Affect Your Weight Loss?
In writing that Blog, I came to the realization that Sleep is probably more important to a human in order to lose weight than a Calorie Deficit.
Because…
Without enough sleep, you simply will not be able to get into a Calorie Deficit.
In a nutshell…sleep helps you process your emotions like stress and anxiety. When we are deprived of sleep, there is greater activity in the part of the brain known as the Amygdala [1].
The Amygdala is responsible for your emotional responses to what is happening to you during the day.
In subjects who are more sleep deprived, the Amygdala is buzzing with activity, and therefore the sleep-deprived person is responding more emotionally than if they had their 8 hours a night.
And if your emotions are high and negative, your Caloric intake increases.
As the study ‘Modeling the Effects of Positive and Negative Mood on the Ability to Resist Eating in Obese and Non-obese Individuals’ [2] states:
“We also demonstrated strong associations between food craving and these eating behaviours, particularly after following a negative mood induction in obese individuals”
WOULD YOU LIKE A MONTH OF FREE COACHING WITH ME?
Question 3: Are you blaming your Metabolism?
Throughout life, you may have heard lots of different theories on your Metabolism. The two main ones are:
Your Metabolism slows down as you age
Your Metabolism is broken or Starvation Mode
Let’s deal with your slowing Metabolism first.
A new study called: Daily energy expenditure through the human life course [3] has found that your Metabolism is stable throughout your adult life from the age of 20 all the way up to the age of 60.
This is despite going through Menopause and Pregnancy.
This is good news. As it now clearly shows us that assigning blame when it comes to weight to something that is “out of your control”, ie; your Metabolism, is not a useful strategy.
You can now look past this, and start investigating other reasons you may be unable to lose weight - more than likely one of the other points in this blog.
And as for your Metabolism being broken from a history of eating too little…that is also not relevant.
You can’t break your Metabolism.
The thoughts on this stem down into something known as Starvation Mode; the idea that if you eat too little over your life then your body goes into a “survival mode” or a “starvation mode”.
This does not exist.
Your body metabolically adapts but does not stop as the study Metabolic slowing with massive weight loss despite preservation of fat-free mass [3] concluded:
“RMR declined out of proportion to the decrease in body mass, demonstrating a substantial metabolic adaptation” .
in 1944 the University of Minnesota wanted to find out what extreme Famine does to a population and crucially how to rehabilitate people out of extreme famine in the wake of World War 2.
The study [4] started with, starving people. For real. In study conditions.
36 participants were recruited and were put into Prisoner of War conditions. Made to do manual labour, walk 22 miles a week and were fed 50% of their caloric needs.
Oh, it gets worse…
They did this for 6 months.
One participant cut off his fingers just to get out of the study early…
And as you can imagine it got pretty rough for them. On average each participant lost 25% of their body weight. Here is a photo from the experiment:
But crucially what happened to their Metabolism?
Their metabolisms were performing about 20% lower than predicted after losing weight - their metabolisms adapted.
But this was a two-fold experiment. Participants were put into a “recovery diet” to help them regain the weight they had lost, and after 12 weeks their metabolisms were re-assessed. In 12 weeks their metabolisms were only underperforming by 10%. And in some cases - there was no Metabolic damage at all.
So after being put into Prisoner of War Camp-like conditions, given just 5o% of their caloric needs each day and being forced to do what can only be described as a fuck tonne of exercise, their Metabolisms were not “broken”.
And if you look at this study it would suggest that if you followed the recovery of the subjects in the Minnesota Starvation Experiment for longer than 12 weeks - their Metabolism made a full recovery.
And…
Each participant continued to lose weight throughout the whole experiment.
Question 4: Are you making the most of your Metabolism?
Your metabolism (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is made up of four components.
As you can see in the chart above, your Basal Metabolic Rate which is 70% of your Metabolism is the largest portion of your Metabolism. But it is also largely out of your control. This 70% is determined by your Sex, Height, and Weight. It's how your body just keeps your body functioning to get the most out of your Metabolism, as in, to burn the most amount of Calories each and every day, you should focus on your NEAT.
This makes up 15% of your Daily Caloric burn.
It outranks your time in the Gym by 10% and outranks the food you eat by 5%.
So how do you increase your Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis?
Aim for 8-10k steps a day
Stand up when on the phone
Stand up when at work
Have walking meetings/social events
Park further away from the shops
Fidget more
Stand up on Public Transport
Use the upstairs toilet, not the downstairs toilet
Stand when you brush your teeth
Many people when they want to begin to lose weight will prioritize in this order:
Exercise in the Gym
Nutrition
Daily Movement
Even to the point that 2 and 3 sometimes don’t even get thought of.
But in truth it should look like this:
Nutrition
Daily Movement
Exercise in the Gym
Question 5: Are you restricting your Diet too much?
Restriction of calories can lead to weight loss.
That’s basically what a Calorie Deficit is.
But there is a dark side to this as well - and this dark side is probably the number one reason people yo-yo diet AND just can’t seem to lose weight no matter what they do.
This is what occurs:
You decide to lose weight
You jump onto a Calorie Calculator and get an arbitrary number of calories to lose say 1kg a week
That number is a very low amount of calories
You manage to stick to this very low number for a brief period
The hunger and the restriction gets too much
You stop restricting but you don’t go into a balance
You go into a Binge
This binge lasts two months because now you feel like you failed
You gain weight again
You repeat the cycle
And what happens is you spend more time out of a deficit than in one which will lead to short and sharp results with the weight loss - but ultimately you will feel like you are constantly failing and unable to ever lose weight because it’s just too damn difficult to do.
This is what I describe as a classic Binge and Restrict Cycle.
You blame yourself for not being able to stick to it.
When in truth you were always set up to fail from the start.
When you over restrict - you have to compensate for that at some point down the line and this creates a swing of too much restriction and too much indulgence.
Then over a year, you have spent more time out of a deficit than in one - which is why you seem to never be able to lose weight.
It always comes down to sustainability and giving yourself a much longer-term view of your goals rather than trying to achieve what you want in a couple of months.
You need what I call…a wide angle lens….
When really you just need to be more level with everything to begin with. Drop your expectations of losing weight on a set schedule, because scale weight doesn’t work on a schedule, and give yourself a smaller deficit - which is wholly more sustainable.
To figure that out you can download my Free Fitness Goodies which includes a personalized calorie calculator which makes sure you set yourself up for success with sustainable methods.
Question 6: Are you being consistent?
It’s an infamous word, isn’t it? Consistency. I feel we all know what it means - and we all believe we are executing on it.
But much like the binge and restrict cycle outlined previously, when it comes to consistency what occurs is perfection and abstention - and often the perfection part of the pendulum is confused for consistency.
Many many many people tell me they are being consistent:
By going to the gym every day
By avoiding processed foods every day
By cutting out sugar all the time
By tracking their food every day
Whenever you use the words “every day” or “all the time” you are not being consistent.
You are striving for perfection. And perfection is impossible.
And then when you can’t keep up the perfect routine you are excusing for consistency the feelings of failure begin again…and you eventually give up.
You don’t need to do it every day. You don’t need to work out every day. You don’t need to track your calories every day. You don’t need to eat salads every day to have success.
You do need to do it consistently - a good guide for this is the 80/20 rule which would dictate that in a month you need to be hitting your goals around 25 days of the month.
As the study “The Effect of Adherence to Dietary Tracking on Weight Loss: Using HLM to Model Weight Loss over Time” [6] states:
“Successful behavioural interventions should emphasize the benefits of consistent dietary tracking for participants, motivating individuals to track for at least 5 days of each week for sustained and clinically significant weight loss"
Not 7 days, not even 6. At least 5 days.
That sounds like an 80/20 rule to me.
To find out more about how to implement consistency in your fitness journey head here: How To Stay Consistent With Your Fitness
Question 7: Are you expecting your movement to do the job for you?
Now I am sure you have heard the old saying:
"You can’t out-train a bad diet”
And this is pretty much true - although I detest over simplifications and cliches like this.
On an average strength training workout, you are burning maybe 300 calories.
At a real push.
You could try and get a bigger calorie burn in by doing some cardio or HIIT but these exercises increase your appetite - so any gains you might make in the Calorie burning department are going to be negated by your hunger increasing.
And for women, that increase in hunger can occur 3-5 days after you have actually worked out meaning it can become really unclear on what the root cause of that increased diet is.
You may well be reading this section and thinking:
“When I work out my watch tells me that I burn 600kcal a workout”
Well, again, your watch is lying to you. There are many studies like this one [7] that shows a wristwatch can be up to 25% inaccurate when looking at calories burned from exercise.
This isn’t to say that being in the Gym isn’t useful for your health and wellbeing - especially when you are wanting to lose weight - it is vitally important to help you get a sense of wellbeing, of strength and achievement.
But you need to get into the mindset of going to the Gym to “get strong enough to fight a bear in the woods” and you need to get into the mindset of your controlling your calories to try and help you lose weight.
The gym isn’t for burning calories, its for getting strong and proving to yourself that you can do hard things and repeat behaviours over time that will lead to your long term success elsewhere in your life.
Question 8: Are you on a plan that is making you unhappy?
This again is a very common behaviour and it doesn’t matter how great the plan is in terms of results, you will never be able to do it for long enough to actually see these results if you aren’t enjoying what you are doing.
I can think of many examples of Exercise regimens and Diets that do not prioritise balance and enjoyment - and sadly they are the ones that have a lot of marketing behind them and promise “fast results”.
When it comes to diet and exercise - enjoyment is the sole driver of success.
If you don’t enjoy what it is you are doing, but do see results, that’s great. But it just will not last. The results will be temporary and the inevitable weight regain will occur on the back end.
Now sure, we would all enjoy eating doughnuts all day long…
But that too would soon become unenjoyable, just like it did with Homer.
The key to successful weight loss is getting into a process.
The last thing you want is to reach a goal and realise it was all about the process in the beginning.
By focussing on the process, you also focus on the behaviours that will change your life - and get you to your goals.
If those behaviours don’t inspire you, don’t excite you and don’t drive you to take action each and every day then you will never be able to sustain what you are doing.
If you can learn to focus on the process of looking after yourself in this manner, then my friend, you have already won.
Question 9: Are you too stressed?
Stress is very underrated in terms of how it affects your ability to lose weight.
A point beautifully demonstrated by Homer. Again.
Stress will create two behaviors in your life that make a Calorie Deficit very hard to stick to.
The first is that it will disrupt sleep - now I covered that in Question 2, however, you cannot be reminded enough that you need a better sleep regimen to be able to stay in a Calorie Deficit.
The other role stress plays is its link to emotional eating.
Now firstly we all emotionally eat - please do not think that you are “broken” because you respond to emotions with food. We all do it. The biggest difference here might be the quantity or frequency upon which we do it.
Personally, my emotional eating reveals itself in chugging a beer or two.
For others, it can be hours of eating Haribos or hours upon hours of drinking alcohol - my emotional eating binges last for the duration of the food I am consuming - whereas, for other people, it can last whole evenings, possibly three to four times a week.
Often when it comes to emotional eating, we try to fix the emotions with food - however in truth, the only thing that will fix the emotional eating is learning to process the emotions correctly - and dealing with that head-on.
Stress is proven to cause an increase in caloric intake in someone’s life.
As the study: “Stress-induced obesity and the emotional nervous system [8] concludes:
“Stress also induces secretion of glucocorticoids, which increases motivation for food, and insulin, which promotes food intake and obesity. Pleasurable feeding then reduces activity in the stress–response network, reinforcing the feeding habit. These effects of stressors emphasize the importance of teaching mental reappraisal techniques to restore responses from habitual to thoughtful, thus battling stress-induced obesity”
As you can see there is a need to help reduce your stress in the best way possible.
These are my top recommendations to help you reduce stress:
Get enough sleep regularly. If you need help with that listen to my Sleep Stories here: Three Medatitive Sleep Stories by Adam Berry
Exercise regularly. Exercise has been proven to reduce stress and help you sleep, as well as process your emotions.
Eat more nutritiously - make choices that align with your goals and you will feel like you are achieving as opposed to constantly failing.
Meditate. I don’t mean sit on the floor humming, I mean take time to connect to your breath and actively relax - that’s all meditation is. To get some free meditations from me head here: Centering The Breath: A YouTube Playlist
Question 10: Are your expectations too great?
I’ll let you in on a little secret:
Expectations are the number one reason people fail in fitness.
Forget everything else.
The issue is without a doubt expectation.
Many people start with an expectation that is wholly unrealistic - and usually based on an arbitrary human they have seen on Social Media as opposed to what is realistic for them, in their given circumstances.
And then when these expectations are seldom met, you start to feel like a failure….which inevitably results in giving up.
Let’s say you set up a goal to lose 5kgs. You aim for 0.5kgs a week and expect this to take 10 weeks.
Seems reasonable enough.
But over a 10-week period…you will inevitably have a few nights out….maybe a weekend away with your partner and let’s face it, a few missed Gym sessions.
You decide to weigh yourself weekly (more on why this is not a good idea here) and let’s say you only lose 200g one week….you have fallen behind your expectations, and go into “catch up mode”
The more this happens, the more drastic the behaviours come for you to get back on track.
The more drastic the behaviour the more unsustainable the whole thing becomes.
The only expectation you should have when it comes to your Fitness Journey is to simply try your best, do your damnedest, and get your strongest.
These are goals within your control, and they will result in your success becoming inevitable.
Question 11: Are you comparing yourself to others?
Ever heard the phrase “comparison is the thief of joy”?
Well, it’s true. By trying to live up to what someone else has achieved will only result in you not enjoying what it is you are doing.
You aren’t them. You don’t live their life. You don’t have the same abilities, genetics, finances, health, and support they have.
You are simply yourself.
You are simply only ever in competition with yourself. When you can try to just be better than you were yesterday you will build momentum, and momentum can be very very powerful.
But if you compare yourself to others, your momentum will stop immediately because you will only ever compare yourself to someone who is doing better than you - because that is all you will see.
The brain finds what we focus on. If you only want to focus on people who are thinner than you, lighter than you or more confident than you….then that is all you will ever see.
Nay.
That is all you will ever compare yourself to. When in actuality you have done better today than you did yesterday.
This is the last question in this Article. But I want to truly leave you with one thought.
One thought that will be the biggest game-changer you can imagine - an attitude that if you can adopt will allow you to stay focussed on what you are trying to accomplish and will allow the results you crave so much to come.
And it is this:
Adopt this singular thought - and your confidence will soar.
If we all just realized that nothing compares to ourselves…we will all become superheroes.
And being a superhero for yourself is what you should want to become.
Did You Find This Useful?
Thank you so much for reading my article - I really hope you found it helpful.
As I mentioned earlier in the article, I would love to work with you if you need help with any of the above.
If you would like to apply to work with me then just click here:
Thank you so much for being here.
Speak to you again soon.
Coach Adam
References:
Walker, M. P., & van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. Psychological bulletin, 135(5), 731–748.https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570
Udo T, Grilo CM, Brownell KD, Weinberger AH, Dileone RJ, McKee SA. Modeling the effects of positive and negative mood on the ability to resist eating in obese and non-obese individuals. Eat Behav. 2013;14(1):40-46. doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2012.10.010
Johannsen DL, Knuth ND, Huizenga R, Rood JC, Ravussin E, Hall KD. Metabolic slowing with massive weight loss despite preservation of fat-free mass. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2012 Jul;97(7):2489-96. doi: 10.1210/jc.2012-1444. Epub 2012 Apr 24. Erratum in: J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2016 May;101(5):2266. PMID: 22535969; PMCID: PMC3387402.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment
Zinchenko, Anastasia & Henselmans, Menno. (2016). Metabolic Damage: do Negative Metabolic Adaptations During Underfeeding Persist After Refeeding in Non-Obese Populations?. Medical Research Archives. 4. 10.18103/mra.v4i8.908.
Ingels JS, Misra R, Stewart J, Lucke-Wold B, Shawley-Brzoska S. The Effect of Adherence to Dietary Tracking on Weight Loss: Using HLM to Model Weight Loss over Time. J Diabetes Res. 2017;2017:6951495. doi: 10.1155/2017/6951495. Epub 2017 Aug 9. PMID: 28852651; PMCID: PMC5568610.
Shcherbina A, Mattsson CM, Waggott D, Salisbury H, Christle JW, Hastie T, Wheeler MT, Ashley EA. Accuracy in Wrist-Worn, Sensor-Based Measurements of Heart Rate and Energy Expenditure in a Diverse Cohort. Journal of Personalized Medicine. 2017; 7(2):3. https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm7020003
Mary F. Dallman, Stress-induced obesity and the emotional nervous system, Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 21, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 159-165, ISSN 1043-2760, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tem.2009.10.004
6 Strategies To Help Stop Late Night Eating and Food Cravings
We have all been there.
it’s dark outside, it’s been a stressful day, and you’re lying in bed listening to one thing.
The rumble in your tum tum.
And as you pay more attention to it, the louder it gets. You then get up and head towards the light.
Like a person possessed. Your brain is screaming: “NO”. But your legs are just walking slowly but surely down the stairs, and towards the light.
You almost try to convince yourself that you will choose something “good” as with each step you justify your legs moving you towards the light.
You get there.
Your arm is on auto-pilot.
The hum is almost soothing, and the light is not too bright….and not too dark. It’s as mesmerising as a flame to a moth.
And before you made a single conscious decision you have already eaten the Milkybar Yoghurt that was just calling your name less than 20 seconds ago.
And as your scrape your tongue on the bottom of the plastic tub, making sure that you do not want to waste a single drop of that Milklybar goodness…the guilt, fear, and worry start to set in:
“Oh my god I’ve totally screwed up”
“Why am I a total failure?”
“I have no self-control”
“I’m never going to conquer this”
“Why am I such a slob?”
“What is wrong with me?”
And the blame game with the self sets in, and then the whole process is repeated.
So here are my top 6 Strategies to help you stop late-night eating and food cravings!
Briefly, before I begin I want to address the issue of “Does Late Night Snacking Lead To Weight Gain?”.
No. It doesn’t from a purely scientific and objective point of view.
The Calories in a Banana do not change between 18:58 and 19:02 on a Wednesday night.
Calories are Calories are Calories.
As this Instagram Post on my Page, points out:
But from a Human Perspective…ask yourself what kind of foods are you eating late at night? I’m pretty sure it’s not Apples and Oranges.
As this Instagram Post explains:
When Calories are controlled, timings of food make no difference to your overall success or not in Weight Loss.
There are arguments to be made for how eating later at night might affect your circadian rhythm, stress resistance and Gut Health. But this doesn’t change the caloric make up of the food and how your body processes the energy from food at night as opposed to during the day, it just influences your ability to stick to a Calorie Deficit over time.
However, late at night, staring into the fridge, you are less likely to be making decisions that are congruent to your Calorie Window and therefore congruent to your goals.
So bear that in mind. Please.
Table of Contents for: “6 Strategies To Help Stop Late Night Eating and Food Cravings”
Eat More Calories
Eat more protein
Eat more Fibre and Drink More Water
Get More Sleep
Lower Stress and Anxiety and Boredom
Stop restricting yourself to lose weight
Eat More Calories
Yup. I said it. You need to eat more.
That might be a little too much….but the image will stick in your head for sure!
According to a paper called The Biology of Binge Eating, 2010, Food Deprivation is a key indicator of Binge Eating Disorder.
The 2010 paper wanted “to examine the literature on binge eating to gain a better understanding of its biological foundations and their role in the eating disorders” [1]
And in the section relating to Food Deprivation it concluded:
“Rats maintained on a restricted feeding schedule, during which they receive 66% of the amount of food that free eating rats consume, increase their caloric intake by 42% compared with sated rats when allowed ad lib access to food. Increased consumption is evident within 2 hours of the return of the food and persists for up to 4 hours (Hagan et al., 2003). This increased consumption over a discrete period of time mirrors behaviors seen in humans who binge eat.” [1]
Ergo, just a 44% reduction in your calories, can lead to a 42% increase in caloric intake.
Don’t worry, I’m not about to renege on my stance of a Calorie Deficit being required to lose weight, but I am going to hammer home the point, your Calorie Deficit must be built on certain foundations to make sure that you can adhere to it in the long term, and not feel overly restricted, leading to a Binge Episode further down the track.
These principles are outlined by my Five Awesome Rules For Fat Loss Life:
And many of these will re-occur in this article. But the most important one is to make sure your Deficit is not too aggressive.
It is far far better to have slow sustainable progress that gives you flexibility and doesn’t lead you on a path to undercutting your psychological progress by falling into a trap of Binge Eating at night than to get aggressive results that you know are not sustainable.
Your Calorie Deficit should at a minimum be set to your Basal Metabolic Rate, and at a maximum at your Goal Bodyweight in LBS multiplied by 12.
To make sure you get that in place - download my Free Calorie Calculator right here.
Yes, by eating more, your weight loss will happen at a reduced rate. But this reduced rate will also allow for:
The flexibility you need as a human being who has emotions.
You to build muscle and improve your Basal Metabolic Rate whilst still in deficit
Greater adherence to actually being in a Calorie Deficit
Late-night snacking so very often comes from a place of restriction throughout the day - and this wouldn’t be so bad if, at night you ate foods congruent to your goals. However quite often late at night…you aren’t snacking on Apples and Broccolli. Due to the restriction throughout the day, you get cravings for foods that are a lot more palatable - and often a lot higher in calories.
This is due to a number of factors, but one obvious one is, come to the end of the day, you are out of energy - and therefore convenience becomes king. Convenient foods are far higher in calories - and far tastier.
Which then puts you into a cycle of craving said foods more the following day…and so it continues.
This study found when they took 20 weight-stable adults and split them into two groups. One group was given an ultra-processed diet and the other an unprocessed diet for 2 weeks. Subjects were told to consume as much or as little as desired. Rather unsurprisingly, the Group that was given the Ultra Processed DIet consumed on average 508kcal/day more with increased consumption of carbohydrates and fat, but not Protein. [2]
This brings me nicely to my next Strategy for you:
2. Eat more Protein
In terms of quelling hunger and regulating appetite, Protein has two main roles.
It makes you feel fuller for longer
It lowers your desire to eat late at night
In this study from 2011, the researchers took 27 overweight or obese men, split them into two groups. Group One was given a Higher Protein (HP) Diet at 25% of energy as Protein, and Group 2 was given a Normal Protein (NP) Diet at 14% of energy as Protein.
The study concluded the following:
“When compared to NP, the HP group experienced lower late-night desire to eat and preoccupation with thoughts of food”
and,
“Collectively, this data supports the consumption of HP intake, but not greater eating frequency, for improved appetite control and satiety in overweight/obese men during energy restriction-induced weight loss” [3]
I often feel that when we discuss eating more protein, you think it has to be the dominant component of your diet. This isn’t true. As you can see from the study above Protein consumption was still only a quarter of dietary intake and garnered great results for halting late-night snacking.
To figure out your Protein Intake I would recommend you download my Calorie and Macro Calculator here: Free Macro Calculator
However, if you want to know the numbers without doing that they are as follows:
Eat 0.8g-1.1g of Protein each day per LB of Lean Body Mass.
However those numbers can be quite hard to achieve, and thus if you start by aiming for just 100g a day if you eat meat, and 80g a day if you don’t then you should be in a pretty good place.
If you would like some more help with your diet and your training then get my Ultimate Guide to your Diet when Working Out:
3. Eat more Fibre and Drink More Water
If you have read a number of my Blogs you will know that I discuss this a lot.
And the prevalence of it is extremely important. Not just if you are wanting to lose weight, but to also curb those late-night snacks.
In terms of Fibre, you want to be keeping this as a key feature of your diet - think of it as the “other Macro-Nutrient”.
Research in Fibre is ever-evolving, and I have it on good authority that what we thought we knew about Fibre may well develop deeper very soon.
Fibre has the ability to do two things that will help curb your hunger:
High Fibre intake stretches the stomach and slows its emptying rate - therefore making you feel fuller for longer
Fibre also ferments in the Bowel, which is thought to increase feelings of fullness as it releases short-chain fatty acids.
Then if we look at this in the context of your goal to lose weight, being fuller for longer throughout the day is an awesome win for you…and if it is going to help you stop eating high-calorie snacks late at night then that too will help you keep your calories down over time.
Added to everything else…
You will be increasing your Vegetable intake - and no bad can come from that can it?
Now onto Water…
Water is filling, and can very much reduce appetite, especially when consumed before you eat.
This study titled: “Association between water consumption and body weight outcomes: a systematic review”
It found:
“Of 4963 retrieved records, 11 original studies and 2 systematic reviews were included. In participants dieting for weight loss or maintenance, a randomized controlled trial, a nonrandomized controlled trial, and an observational longitudinal study showed that increased water consumption, in addition to a program for weight loss or maintenance, reduced body weight after 3-12 mo compared with such a program alone” [4]
Hunger and thirst are interlinked also. When I am working with a friend who I coach online, and their calorie consumption is where it needs to be, but they are still feeling hungry, I will point them towards their water bottle, and remind them of my Five Awesome Rules For Fat Loss Life or the blog post below.
GET A FREE MONTH OF COACHING WITH ME; JUST CLICK BELOW TO FIND OUT HOW TO APPLY
Back to water…
I will always ask them to aim for 3 liters a day.
And they react like this:
This is a lofty goal.
But I found that setting this goal higher, as it is a behaviour that can be very easily done, means that my clients would be more than likely to hit an amount appropriate for them and their goals.
Thus, lowering their hunger, and therefore their caloric intake.
So, if it’s late at night, and you know that going to the fridge for that snack is an option that isn’t going to make you feel your best, then you should probably think about reaching for the water bottle first.
Establish if you are hungry or thirsty.
And I reckon about 80% of the time, the water will do the trick.
If you have some water, wait 15mins, and still think you are hungry…then consider having some food….but my best advice in this situation would be:
4. Get More Sleep
The Blog Post I published before this one is all about “How Sleep Affects Your Weight”.
But in terms of more sleep leading to less late-night snacking, I think the point is rather obvious. If you are in bed asleep, you’re not in the kitchen eating food.
Then the benefit of being in bed earlier will help reduce your calorie intake the following day. Added to that, improved sleep, helps you regulate your emotional responses the next day, and if emotional eating is a reason for your late-night snacking then a great strategy against that will be getting those extra hours of zzzz’s.
For optimal sleep, you want to plan for about 8 hours of sleep a night. One thing that always perplexes me about the way you manage sleep is this:
You rely on your wake-up time being the marker of your total time sleep.
But your wake-up time is out of your control pretty much. You could be woken up early, which frequently happens, by some traffic, a bird, a child, needing a wee.
Suddenly you have had a bad night’s sleep because you went to bed at 11:00 pm hoping you would get your 7 hours in and suddenly woke up at 5 am.
Plan better.
If you went to bed at 10:00 pm suddenly 5 am isn’t such a bad wake-up time.
Sleep is the foundation that your appetite control is built on. This study found a correlation between lack of sleep in duration and increased Grehlin and lack of sleep in duration and decreased Leptin.
Grehlin is a hormone that is responsible for how hungry you get. Leptin is the hormone responsible for how full you feel.
So yeah. Poor sleep leads to these two hormones very much working against your ability to curb that late-night eating.
Other strategies to improve your sleep are:
Exercise Regularly
Sleep with your Circadian Rhythm
Listen to Sleep Stories (link to my YouTube Sleep Stories)
Listen to Sleep Meditations (link to my YouTube Sleep Meditations)
Stop Drinking Caffeine from 11:00 am
Reduce Alcohol Intake
And Brush Your Teeth…
This is anecdotal evidence, as is in there is ZERO Science to actually back this up, but brushing your teeth has been reported to stop people snacking.
And it makes sense right?
Have you ever had Orange Juice straight after you brushed your teeth?
The combination of tastes, the effort of going to all that trouble to have to brush your teeth again, or if there is some psychological thing about the act of brushing your teeth priming your mind for sleep as opposed to food…but…whatever works.
Maybe try it next time your legs are walking to the fridge and the brain is saying “NOOOOOOOO”. See if it helps.
5. Lower Your Stress, Anxiety and Boredom
I know that this is easier said than done. But if you can at least practice some behaviors that will help you lower these two things, then you are going to put yourself into a better position when it comes to these food cravings, especially late at night.
Of these 7 strategies, there are 2 that most people will ignore.
Get More Sleep and Lower Stress, Anxiety and Boredom (especially Stress and Boredom)
Personally, I believe them to be the most important two on the list, for the exact same reason - they are mostly overlooked.
We seem to be happy to live in the two states of being Stressed and being Bored quite a lot in this day and age. It's almost a Social Norm for us, to just accept that we will be stressed and that boredom is one of those things.
However, when you accept living this way, as opposed to learning to control it, you pay the consequences for it as well.
And the consequences of chronic stress, and Emotional Eating manifesting itself as Boredom Eating are indeed not fun things to be faced with.
So let me show you the link between these emotions and how that is impacting your Fitness Goals.
Does Stress Lead To Increased Food Intake?
This study [6] called “Stress and Eating Behaviours”
“Repeated bouts of minor daily stressors that keep the stress system in a chronically activated state may alter brain reward/motivation pathways involved in wanting and seeking hyper-palatable foods and induce metabolic changes that promote weight and body fat mass”
The part of this that I find correlates majorly to late-night eating is the term “hyper-palatable foods”. When you are stressed you aren’t eating apples and oranges. You’re eating Apple Pies and Terry’s Chocolate Orange.
Does Anxiety Lead To Increased Food Intake?
This study [7] from 2017 is called “Effects of anxiety on caloric intake and satiety-related brain activation in women and men”.
It took twenty-nine twin pairs (58 individuals) and asked them to fill out a questionnaire about their tendency to be anxious. Participants had to answer questions like:
“I worry too much over something that really doesn’t matter”
“I am content; I am a steady person”
and questions like:
“I am tense; I am worried” and “I feel calm; I feel secure”.
All items are rated on a 4-point scale (e.g., from “Almost Never” to “Almost Always”)
Participants were then given an all-you-can-eat buffet, as a thank you for filling out the questionnaire, and were not told their intake was being recorded.
And those that scored a higher rating of anxious feelings on the questionnaire also ate more food at the buffet (Fig A)
As you can see from the graphs. The Twin that scored higher on the Trait Anxiety Scale also ate more food at the Buffet, independent of BMI (Fig B)
The study concluded the following:
“In conclusion, the current findings suggest that anxiety promotes caloric consumption and consumption of high-fat foods in women. We also provide evidence that anxiety alters brain responses to satiety such that the normal reduction in activation by high-calorie food cues induced by a meal does not occur in highly anxious women, suggesting a disruption in neural circuitry that could promote overeating. Anxiety may be a risk factor for obesity, but we show this risk is likely limited to people with a genetic susceptibility to weight gain”
So this gets more complex than just…you’re anxious so you increase your calories.
It also means that if you are anxious, you might show signs of Leptin Resistance which therefore means you won’t know if you are full or not.
Does Boredom Lead To Increased Food Intake?
I think we all know this to be true colloquially.
However, this study from 2012 [8] by the University of Limerick, proves it to be true.
Researchers wanted to establish whether or not Boredom eating is a distinct construct away from other negative emotions by revising the Emotional Eating Scale.
Results found were: “On the open-ended items, participants more often reported eating in response to boredom than the other emotions”
They also stated: “boredom leads to unhealthy eating, as it helps to distract from the unpleasant boredom experience.”
Added to that, a study in 2016 by the University of Central Lancashire ran a couple of tests to measure this also.
The first test asked 52 people to fill out a questionnaire about their food preferences, then complete a task of copying the same group of letters over and over again. They then filled out the questionnaire again.
The second test was 45 participants and they got to watch either a funny video or a boring video. As they watched bowls of snacks were left out for the participants for them to eat ad libitum.
They found that:
“From the first study showed people were more likely to express a preference for unhealthy foods like crisps, sweets and fast food after completing the boring task.
The results from the second study showed that the participants who had watched the boring video ate significantly more unhealthy food.” [9]
How To Lower Stress, Anxiety, and Boredom
You will start to see a pattern emerging in all of these Strategies and the positive behaviors that will help you stop those late-night food cravings.
Some of these will help all three categories, some of them will only help one emotion, however, all of them will go some way to helping you stop those late-night cravings for food:
Exercise Regularly (again)
Improve Your Sleep (again) by not staying up late mindlessly watching tv and playing video games - get to bed earlier and turn off the electronics
Eat more nutritious food
Meditate
Reduce Caffeine intake
Journal Daily
Communicate your feelings
Manage your to-do list to avoid procrastination
Get focused on what you want from life
Pick Up A Hobby
Pick a few from the list, the ones that excite you the most and have the lowest barrier of entry for you, and see if that helps you with those late-night munchies.
6. Stop Restricting Food
I would say that food avoidance is one of the biggest reasons that people crave food.
Pink Elephant syndrome.
You know, if I’m telling you not think of that big, round, funny-looking Pink Elephant…
You’re going to think of it.
Put into the mix that we have a sensual relationship with food, and if I tell you not to eat something….you are going to crave it more and more.
And the cravings ALWAYS WIN.
Because they rear their head, at night, when you are stressed, anxious, and bored.
Are you starting to see a theme here?
This is also a key construct in why Diets Fail - because many Diets require you to give up foods you enjoy. But the cravings will always win because your willpower is finite - and then the feelings of guilt and failure set in, perpetuating the cycle that has led you to look for a solution in the first place.
This study [10] from 2005, is called “The Effect of Deprivation on Food Cravings” and for one week they took 103 Female Undergraduates and deprived them of Chocolate, Vanilla or not deprivation at all.
The result was:
“Chocolate-deprived restrained eaters consumed more chocolate food than did any other group. Restrained eaters experienced more food cravings than did unrestrained eaters and were more likely to eat the craved food”
But for me the most interesting conclusion was this:
“Moreover, restrained eaters deprived of chocolate spent the least time doing an anagram task before a "taste-rating task" in which they expected that chocolate foods might be available”
So if you are deprived, not only will you actually end up eating more, but you will also rush through life at times where you think the food that you are deprived from is on the other side of the task - and as we know from other studies when you are in a state of stress, you will indeed consume more food.
The final conclusion from this study was the following:
“Converging measures of craving indicate that deprivation causes craving and overeating, but primarily in restrained eaters.”
Which draws a direct correlation between deprivation - and overeating especially in those who are abstaining from certain foods.
Ergo, to conquer those cravings, give yourself permission to eat the foods you enjoy the most.
Remember, if it is within your Calorie Window it won’t halt your progress. Added to that…even if it is outside your Calorie Window, having it might still do less damage to your overall goals than not having it at all.
Remember…CRAVINGS ALWAYS WIN because WILLPOWER IS FINITE.
And by giving yourself permission to eat these foods you will eradicate many negative feelings you attach to “indulging”.
Bottom Line
These strategies are here to help you understand why you might be behaving in a certain way. All 6 might work a treat for you, you might only need one or two of them to find success.
As I have been writing this article, someone has reached out to me on Instagram discussing her past trauma and how that effects her eating, especially late at night. Emotional Eating is a whole other topic, and although some of what I have shared in this article might be helpful to you, if you are dealing with something a lot deeper then I urge you to get the proper help needed for that.
In our conversations, this person explained to me that as part of dealing with the trauma it leads her to eat foods that she is craving, foods that she also knows work against her fitness goals.
But in this instance, working on the trauma and resolving what happened is much more important. If eating choclate after a therpay session helps you cope with the therapy and is a part of the process of your healing, then you have to understand that is going to be better for your long term success as a person, as opposed to your short term success for your fitness goals.
To be hungry is normal.
To have cravings is normal.
To have an appetite is normal.
To have reduced willpower in the evenings is normal.
I don’t want you to have read this article and then thought that because you can’t seem to avoid late-night snacking, even when you implement some of the things in this article you are in some way “broken”.
We all need to stop trying to find ways of erasing our human self, in the pursuit of fitness.
You don’t need appetite suppressants, you don’t need bio hacks and you don’t need to just “have more willpower”.
You more than likely need to have more self-empathy and understanding for your own human condition.
And you probably need to:
Exercise some more to reduce your stress
Get to Bed earlier to help reduce your stress
Stop restricting yourself away from foods you love….to reduce your stress.
Your cravings come from too much stress and drained willpower at the end of the day.
Luckily, that’s far easier worked upon than trying to “fix” what isn’t broken in the first place.
Did You Find This Useful?
Thank you so much for reading my article - I really hope you found it helpful.
I work with clients all over the world in my One on One Coaching Program called The Strong & Confident Program.
My aim with the friends I work with is to give them so much more out of their fitness by focussing them on the process of getting stronger and therefore making them more confident.
Just like with this article - where I like to give as much help to you as I can.
My approach to online training is no different. The whole program is about you - how best can I serve you, and therefore help you in the best way possible.
If you want to find out more about how the Strong & Confident Program works, and get a free month of coaching from me, then please fill out the application form below…and I will get back to you within 48 hours.
Please remember to check your Junk Folder for my reply - or when you submit an application send me an email (prompted in the application confirmation) and then my reply should appear in your Inbox.
I can’t wait to hear from you!
Also, if you would like to keep up to date with me, and get some free fitness goodies from me…just fill in the form below and I will send you a free calorie calculator, my book “27 Ways To Faster Fat Loss”, and two workout manuals to help you get your fitness started…
Thank you so much for reading my work.
Speak again soon,
Coach Adam
References:
Mathes, W. F., Brownley, K. A., Mo, X., & Bulik, C. M. (2009). The biology of binge eating. Appetite, 52(3), 545–553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2009.03.005
Hall KD, Ayuketah A, Brychta R, Cai H, Cassimatis T, Chen KY, Chung ST, Costa E, Courville A, Darcey V, Fletcher LA, Forde CG, Gharib AM, Guo J, Howard R, Joseph PV, McGehee S, Ouwerkerk R, Raisinger K, Rozga I, Stagliano M, Walter M, Walter PJ, Yang S, Zhou M. Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain: An Inpatient Randomized Controlled Trial of Ad Libitum Food Intake. Cell Metab. 2019 Jul 2;30(1):67-77.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2019.05.008. Epub 2019 May 16. Erratum in: Cell Metab. 2019 Jul 2;30(1):226. Erratum in: Cell Metab. 2020 Oct 6;32(4):690. PMID: 31105044; PMCID: PMC7946062.
Leidy HJ, Tang M, Armstrong CL, Martin CB, Campbell WW. The effects of consuming frequent, higher protein meals on appetite and satiety during weight loss in overweight/obese men. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2011 Apr;19(4):818-24. doi: 10.1038/oby.2010.203. Epub 2010 Sep 16. PMID: 20847729; PMCID: PMC4564867.
Muckelbauer R, Sarganas G, Grüneis A, Müller-Nordhorn J. Association between water consumption and body weight outcomes: a systematic review. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Aug;98(2):282-99. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.112.055061. Epub 2013 Jun 26. PMID: 23803882.
Taheri S, Lin L, Austin D, Young T, Mignot E. Short sleep duration is associated with reduced leptin, elevated ghrelin, and increased body mass index. PLoS Med. 2004 Dec;1(3):e62. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0010062. Epub 2004 Dec 7. PMID: 15602591; PMCID: PMC535701.
Yau, Y. H., & Potenza, M. N. (2013). Stress and eating behaviors. Minerva endocrinologica, 38(3), 255–267.
Mestre, Z. L., Melhorn, S. J., Askren, M. K., Tyagi, V., Gatenby, C., Young, L., Mehta, S., Webb, M. F., Grabowski, T. J., & Schur, E. A. (2016). Effects of Anxiety on Caloric Intake and Satiety-Related Brain Activation in Women and Men. Psychosomatic medicine, 78(4), 454–464. https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000000299
Koball AM, Meers MR, Storfer-Isser A, Domoff SE, Musher-Eizenman DR. Eating when bored: revision of the emotional eating scale with a focus on boredom. Health Psychol. 2012 Jul;31(4):521-4. doi: 10.1037/a0025893. Epub 2011 Oct 17. PMID: 22004466.
British Psychological Society (BPS). "Bored people reach for the chips." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 27 April 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160427081756.htm>.
Why Does Sleep Affect Your Weight Loss?
We live in an age where sleep is an aspect of our lives we compromise on more and more.
Sometimes through our own behaviors, we have ALL said “just one more episode” when watching Schitts Creek, despite knowing it would take our sleep from seven hours…to six and a half.
Or…many people struggle with their sleep due to more intricate issues like anxiety and stress. In fact in the UK during the first Lockdown in 2020, Britons suffering from sleep loss due to worrying increased from one in six to one in four, with Key Workers, Mothers, and people from Minority Backgrounds being the worst affected [1].
We know that Mental Health issues are on the rise, outside of the Global Pandemic. In fact, this is the World Health Organizations summary of the state of the Worlds Mental Health as of 2017:
“Mental health conditions are increasing worldwide. Mainly because of demographic changes, there has been a 13% rise in mental health conditions and substance use disorders in the last decade (to 2017). Mental health conditions now cause 1 in 5 years lived with disability. Around 20% of the world’s children and adolescents have a mental health condition, with suicide the second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds. Approximately one in five people in post-conflict settings have a mental health condition.
Mental health conditions can have a substantial effect on all areas of life, such as school or work performance, relationships with family and friends and ability to participate in the community. Two of the most common mental health conditions, depression and anxiety, cost the global economy US$ 1 trillion each year.
Despite these figures, the global median of government health expenditure that goes to mental health is less than 2%.” [2]
From this information, it is fair to conclude that as our Mental Health deteriorates, so too does our sleep.
And this links to increased body weight.
As the study “Sleep and Obesity” from 2011 states:
“According to recent estimates, the worldwide prevalence of obesity has doubled since 1980. This obesity epidemic has been paralleled in modern society by a trend of reduced sleep duration. Poor sleep quality, which is often associated with overall sleep loss, has also become a frequent complaint.”[3].
Please don’t misunderstand me.
Sleep is certainly a major aspect of every human’s life, but it doesn’t dictate whether or not you gain weight - eating too many calories does.
But Sleep, or lack thereof, is oftentimes the reason that you might be consuming more calories.
And that is what we are going to unpick in this article.
I’m going to show you some of the risk factors associated with lack of sleep, how that will then impact your sleep - and crucially a plan of action to help you improve your sleep.
Table of Contents for: Why Does Sleep Affect Your Weight Loss?
The Link between Sleep, Depression and Weight Gain
The link between Sleep, Stress and Weight Gain
The link between Sleep, Hunger Hormones, and Weight Gain
The link between Sleep, Reduced Movement, and Weight Gain
How To Improve Your Sleep
Over the years that I have been working as a Personal Trainer, one thing that very few people seem to have a handle is a good, solid, sleep routine.
And the second I bring it up with them, they get very defensive.
I have heard things like:
“I may go to bed at 2 am but I sleep really well”
“Lack of sleep just doesn’t affect me”
“But I must have “me” time”
And from Matthew Walkers brilliant book “Why We Sleep” he states this:
“People have said to me I’ll sleep when I’m dead. And that is exactly right…because lack of sleep in one’s life means that you will indeed die sooner”
The benefits of sleep sit directly opposite to many of the causes of weight gain and obesity.
We know that factors like depression, stress, poorer health, lack of confidence, lack of creativity, and lack of movement, are all things that can lead to increased body weight in an individual.
And they are all aspects of your life that sleep can improve.
The Link Between Sleep and Mental Health and Weight Gain:
According to the Sleep Foundation:
“It is becoming clear that there is a bidirectional relationship between sleep and mental health [4] in which sleeping problems may be both a cause and consequence of mental health problems.”
Cause and consequence.
The later stage of sleep, known as REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, a stage that you will visit up to 4-6 times as an adult has profound effects on your emotions and health.
The amygdala is part of the brain, that is responsible for your emotional memories. It is responsible for giving emotions meaning and memory. It is also responsible for your responses to your emotions.
All of your emotions.
In a study by Matthew Walker, [5] they took a group of people and split them in two. Both Groups were shown emotional Stimuli, and then one group was allowed to sleep, the other was sleep deprived.
As you can see in the Figure below the sleep deprivation group showed much higher activity in the amygdala:
Concluding that: “Without sleep, however, amygdala-mPFC connectivity was decreased, potentially negating top-down control and resulting in an overactive amygdala.”
But why does Depression or even an Overactive Amygdyla due to lack of sleep equal weight gain?
Have you ever heard the term “emotional eating”?
I think we all know what emotional eating is, although there isn’t an actual medical definition. I would describe it as:
The behaviour of consuming any food, as a direct result of an emotional experience you have had happened to you at any time in your past, or anticipate might happen to you in the future and seeking short-term comfort in this behavior.
In fact, I bet you have used it…I think we all have at one time or another.
Depression in and of itself doesn’t mean you will gain weight but there is a correlation.
About 43% of Adults with Depression are Obese according to the CDC, and those who are diagnosed with depression are more than likely to be overweight.
So you have to ask yourself. What is coming first? Depression, Emotional Eating or Lack of Sleep?
Well, I can’t sit here and tell you to just stop being depressed.
I can’t sit here and tell you to just stop eating emotionally.
But I can ask you to build a better structure around your bedtime, protect your sleep in a much better way…and can then see if that has a positive impact on the other factors at play.
The Link Between Sleep and STRESS and Weight Gain:
Stress impacts hunger in a number of ways. In fact, stress is an emotional term we give to a hormonal response pulsing around our body. This hormone is called Cortisol.
Cortisol can cause havoc in our systems.
When we experience stress, our adrenal glands on top of our Kidneys release insulin into our bloodstream, which means that there is more Glucose in our system.
This is fine when you are running from a bear - or a whirlwhind.
But repetitive exposure in the body to Cortisol can and will lead to weight gain - because that glucose needs to be used, or it gets stored in the body…and typically that occurs around the midsection.
A 2015 study [6] found that when people are stressed your metabolism is slower.
In the modern-day, a threat can be a bad news article, an unwanted text, bills to pay, just a scroll on Social Media. We don’t run from bears anymore.
What we do instead is sit at our desk fuming at the situation we are in, or we turn to our fridges in order to cope with the emotional feeling we are experiencing.
How does Sleep reduce Stress?
Having already established that REM sleep helps you reduce the activity in your amygdala each night and in turn helps you with your mental health, it stands to reason that it would also help you with the emotion of stress.
In fact, here is an image from the American Psychological Association [7] that demonstrates the negative effect of stress on people if they get less than 8 hours of sleep a night:
Looking at that list of symptoms of stress, outside the norms of being an emotional eater, many of them link directly to other factors that lead to weight gain.
Lacking interest, motivation, or energy - we know that boredom equals the consumption of food in many people, combined with the lack of motivation and energy leading to a lower metabolism each day.
Skipping Exercise - this will result in fewer calories burned, less muscle on the body and therefore opens up the potential to unwanted weight gain
The Link Between Sleep, Hunger Hormones, and Weight Gain
Your appetite is controlled by two very receptive hormones.
Leptin and Grehlin.
Leptin is the hormone that is responsible for your stomach telling your brain that you are full.
Grehlin is the hormone that is responsible for your stomach telling your brain (hypothalamus) that you are hungry,
In the ideal world we want our brains to be very recpetive to Leptin, and have low levels of Grehlin, leading to lower hunger and increased satiety once we eat.
Think of Grehlin as this:
A little gremlin that is easily influenced and affected by nearly everything that goes on in your body.
Factors that increase Grehlin in your body are:
Weight Extremes, both anorexia and obesity alter Grehlin
Low Muscle Mass
Lack of Protein in your Diet
Yo-Yo Dieting
Eating too few calories for too long a time
and, yup you’ve guessed it:
Lack of Sleep
Added to that there are many factors that cause Leptin levels to decrease, or more, can lead our brains to just not recognize it.
And therefore you may never feel full after eating…even though you technically are, which will result in more calories consumed.
When this is the case you are “Leptin Resistant” and to try and reverse this you should:
Exercise more
Eat less highly processed foods
Increase your Soluble fiber intake (fruits, vegetables, whole grains)
Increase your protein intake
and, yup you’ve guessed it:
Improve your sleep
How are Grehlin and Leptin affected by Sleep?
In 2004, Taheri et al, took 1,024 participants from the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study [8] and tested their blood each morning for Grehlin and Leptin levels.
The study found a correlation between lack of sleep in duration and increased Grehlin and lack of sleep in duration and decreased Leptin.
As shown here:
The link between Sleep, Reduced Movement, and Weight Gain
The Sleep Foundation states: “Losing sleep can result in having less energy for exercise and physical activity” [9]
If I refer you back to the image I shared with you earlier, from the American Psychological Association, there were two symptoms of stress that I bought to your attention in terms of how stress affects your ability to affect your weight.
Lacking interest, motivation, or energy and Skipping Exercise
This all points towards “prescribed movement” and it stands to reason that you are going to be less likely to head to the gym if you are sleep deprived.
No one wants to see this:
But there are other forms of movement that help significantly with your weight loss efforts.
The Daily Step Count.
And let’s face it, those who are tired are less likely to walk, less likely to fidget, and therefore are less likely to burn enough calories in the day to help them with their weight loss efforts. Therefore lack of sleep reduces your metabolism.
How does reduced sleep mean fewer calories burned each day?
When we look at your Metabolism - the name given to the body’s ability to burn calories - we can see it is broken down into four main sections:
The two I want to draw your attention to today are:
NEAT - Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis and EAT - Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.
These two categories are basically the calories you burn through movement. NEAT is your daily movement outside of prescribed activity, and EAT is your prescribed activity.
Therefore, if you aren’t moving, if you aren’t getting to the gym, then you are burning fewer calories each day. NEAT is 15% of your Metabolism and is the reason we Personal Trainers ask you so very often to increase your step count. More steps equal more calories burned which equals an impact on your weight.
Aside from all the other amazing benefits walking can bring you.
Added to this, the more tired you are, the less intensity you will be able to put into your training.
There have been a variety of studies on this.
This study [9] took 10 male athletes, deprived them of sleep for 30 hours, and tested their Sprinting ability - which was indeed reduced significantly.
This study [10] took Runners and Volleyball players and tested their time to exhaustion after being deprived of sleep for one night. It concluded: “We suggest that one-night sleep deprivation may reduce exercise performance by decreasing exercise minute ventilation and time to exhaustion. We also indicate that sleep loss may decrease more the performance of volleyball players than that of runners.”
It would is my belief that Volleyball players tire quicker because the sport would require much more cognitive work combined with physical work. It is a less repetitive movement pattern and therefore you are having to make more decisions relating to the execution of skill as well as your physical fitness.
Looking at these studies, it is fair to conclude that lack of sleep will result in less time being active, less intensity when being active and therefore not helping your overall goal of being able to sustain a healthy weight in the long term.
How To Improve Your Sleep
Now that we have looked into the effects that not having enough sleep can have on you, its probably a good idea to look at how to actually help you to get to sleep so that you can start implementing some better behaviors for your bedtime.
Plan to Get 8 Hours Sleep A Night
All of the studies I have looked into for this article state that the optimal time for sleep is indeed 8 hours. This is because our bodies go through sleep cycles - about 4-6 a night.
NREM sleep or Light Sleep is broken into three stages, and in one cycle to get through all three stages it can take about 45mins.
REM sleep or Deep Sleep can last between 10-60mins. Giving you a total, across 6 cycles, of about 8 hours worth of sleep.
The whole pattern of your sleep is known as your “sleep architecture” and as you can imagine, we all have a different architecture - but bearing these guidelines in mind will certainly help you.
Sleep with the Sun
Have you ever heard of a circadian rhythm? This is your body’s natural timer, that correlates with the sun.
As the US National Institute of General Medical Sciences states:
“Circadian rhythms are physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle. These natural processes respond primarily to light and dark and affect most living things, including animals, plants, and microbes. Chronobiology is the study of circadian rhythms. One example of a light-related circadian rhythm is sleeping at night and being awake during the day.” [11]
Many people put great value on living in harmony with their circadian rhythm and making sure they get up when the sun comes up and go to sleep when the sun comes down - and it makes sense that it is what the human race has done since time began.
So if you are lucky enough to be able to do this…then I strongly recommend it. If you are a Shift Worker or a New Mum, then of course this will be more difficult for you to implement…but at times in your life when you can…make this a priority in the best way possible.
Exercise Regularly
Exercise makes you tired, which makes you sleep in a more restful state. By sleeping in a more restful state you will get much more quality sleep and feel more rested when you wake up again.
Exercise also helps stabilize your mood and decompress your mind which will help you drift off into NREM Sleep.
Listen to a Sleep Story
Why do we read to children before bed? One because it’s good for their development…but also to help them wind down after an exciting day of discovering the world. Yet as adults we simply think that we don’t need to do the same.
We give our brains no space to decompress from whatever we were doing in the evening to hitting the pillow. And then we just toss and turn and get frustrated that we can’t seem to drift off.
Sleep Stories are excellent at two things.
Distracting your mind and taking them on a journey
Helping you meditate before you sleep
I’m awful at keeping up with the habit of meditating - despite the fact I know how good it is for me.
Being able to quieten the mind during the day is something that takes discipline and repetition - and my days lack structure for that to be able to occur.
Therefore I do my meditation as I drift off to sleep - and I kill two birds with one stone.
Might not be optimal. But it’s certainly possible for me - and I do these with Sleep Stories.
I can’t remember how I first discovered them…but I have been listening to them very consistently on the Calm App for nearly 5 years now - and have journeyed in my mind’s eye to some of the most amazing places the world has to offer - and it has benefited my sleep beyond words.
Sleep Stories do take a while to get used to…and they do require an element of patience. For a while I used to fight them so much, I used to find them intrusive and frustrating…but just like meditation the more you practice the better the effect of them.
So if the Sleep Story doesn’t work right away - the issue is not likely to be the story (although we all find different voices soothing and not so soothing). Work through it - the benefits of being able to calm the mind to ensure you drift off peacefully are very much worth it.
If you want to try a Sleep Story…luckily I have recorded a few myself for you to enjoy.
Listen to a Sleep Meditation
These are very similar to Sleep Stories but rather than distract your imagination they are designed to focus you on your breathing, using suggestive language to help you calm your mind and drift away into NREM Sleep.
Meditation is a very powerful tool to help you learn to quieten the mind and help you move away from the stress of your day.
Here is a selection of Sleep Meditations I recorded for my clients.
If the Sleep Stories are too distracting these might help you in a very similar way.
Get Off Your Phone 60mins before Bedtime
Your phone releases Blue Light. In fact, most screens do. And this blue light directly stops your brain from releasing melatonin, which is the hormone required to induce sleep.
It’s great to have this Blue Light during the daytime, as it can be helpful to keep our brains switched on, however it is not helpful before bedtime.
In fact, many screens these days have a “Night Shift” Mode which takes out the blue light and makes your screen look yellow. I have this turned up all day every day on both my iPhone, my MacBook, and my iPad.
It has got to the point where when I look at a phone without this on…I feel like I need sunglasses to look at it. I also make sure my TV Screens have their backlight and Brightness turned down. It takes some getting used to in the beginning. But is so worth it on the other side of a great night’s sleep.
Reduce Caffeine late in the day
Now by late in the day I really mean late in the morning like 11 am.
And by Caffeine I’m not just talking about Coffee. I’m talking about all caffeinated drinks, including Coke Zero and Cups of Tea.
Let me explain why.
The standardized recommendation for caffeine for an adult each day is just 400mg.
Caffeine has a half-life of 5 hours. This means that if you drink a cup of coffee with 300mg of Caffeine in it, like a Starbucks Venti Americano, at 11 am, you still have 150mg of Caffeine in your system at 4 pm. Wind this on further, and at 9 pm you still have 75mg of Caffeine in your system - and at 2 am the next day 37.5mg of Caffeine in your system.
Now I know many people, that believe Caffeine doesn’t affect them. This is certainly not the case. About 10% of the world has the “Caffeine Gene” according to a 2011 study.
If you are still able to consume caffeine and drift off to sleep then that’s great, but the effects of the caffeine will happen in your sleep. The caffeine will affect your ability to get into the crucial deep restorative REM sleep [12].
Reduce Alcohol Intake
Sorry, Homer. This just isn’t true…especially if you struggle with fatigue.
Much like Caffeine, Alcohol also inhibits that all-important restorative REM Sleep.
Although alcohol can induce sleepiness and is a relaxant, you will get into a vicious cycle if you rely on it for sleep, because of how it impacts your ability to have deep REM Sleep.
In Conclusion
Sleep is one of the single most important pillars of a healthy happy life. Away from your body weight, sleep is a critical part of your human behaviour.
Now I am acutely aware that sleep cannot be afforded to us all in a fair manner. My fiancee works in Emergency Services, and she has looked into the negative effect that shift work has on your health. Poor Sleep behaviour isn’t the sole reason that shift workers’ health is negatively affected, but it is certainly one of the largest.
I am also aware that many people struggle to sleep for much deeper psychological reasons pertaining to something from their past.
And of course, as I have mentioned previously, new parents are always going to struggle with their sleep behaviour for obvious reasons.
What I would ask of you is this.
Give yourself a chance. Many people do struggle to sleep, but they also don’t do anything to help the root causes of this either.
I once heard that the bedroom should only be used for two things.
Sleep and Sex.
If you want to make your Weight Loss journey as successful as possible, as sustainable as possible and you want to get the most out of your training, then stop looking for the BCAA supplements, stop looking for the quick fixes, stop looking for the optimal amount of nutrition and for crying out loud….PRIORITISE YOUR SLEEP.
If you get this in place first…I bet everything falls into complete insignificance.
Sleep and Sex.
If you remember one thing from this article.
Remember that.
Did You Find This Useful?
Thank you so much for reading my article - I really hope you found it helpful.
I work with clients all over the world in my One on One Coaching Program called The Strong & Confident Program.
A New Program Designed To Get You Stronger, Healthier & more confident than ever before.
My aim with the friends I work with is to give them so much more out of their fitness by focussing them on the process of getting stronger and therefore making them more confident.
Just like with this article - where I like to give as much help to you as I can
My approach to online training is no different. The whole program is about you - how best can I serve you, and therefore help you in the best way possible.
Just like my client Tim who has nailed the last 5 months.
We actually worked very hard on two things I have referenced in this article with Tim. We increased his Steps (NEAT) and we improved his sleep.
Tim is getting married next year, and he is trying to make sure that he feels his most confident & strong on what will be a truly happy day. Tim has trained with me in person for a number of years until in 2021 he decided to take me up on my offer of working online.
And by making that switch…he really started getting some results. In 5months he has lost nearly 2 stone in weight, and every lift he is doing has improved. This coincided with asking Tim to get more steps in each day…and now he is on an average of 15k a day….and his sleep has improved leaps and bounds.
He still enjoys a beer at the weekend - and we both have a love of well Barista’d coffee.
But he has learned how to still enjoy meals out with his lovely fiancee (soon-to-be wife) as well as keeping on track with his goals of feeling stronger and more confident ready to tie the knot.
It goes without saying how utterly proud of him I am.
But more importantly…he is proud of himself.
And there is no better success than that.
If you want to get a Free Month of Coaching with me then hit the Learn More button below and apply to work with me on the next page.
Thank you so much for being here and reading my work.
Speak again soon,
Coach Adam
References:
the Guardian. 2021. Coronavirus lockdown caused sharp increase of insomnia in UK. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/aug/02/coronavirus-lockdown-increase-insomnia-uk-sleep-mothers> [Accessed 24 May 2021].
Who.int. 2021. Mental health. [online] Available at: <https://www.who.int/health-topics/mental-health#tab=tab_2> [Accessed 24 May 2021].
Beccuti, G., & Pannain, S. (2011). Sleep and obesity. Current opinion in clinical nutrition and metabolic care, 14(4), 402–412. https://doi.org/10.1097/MCO.0b013e3283479109
Scott, A. J., Webb, T. L., & Rowse, G. (2017). Does improving sleep lead to better mental health? A protocol for a meta-analytic review of randomised controlled trials. BMJ open, 7(9), e016873.https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016873
Walker, M. P., & van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. Psychological bulletin, 135(5), 731–748.https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570
Kiecolt-Glaser JK, Habash DL, Fagundes CP, et al. Daily stressors, past depression, and metabolic responses to high-fat meals: a novel path to obesity. Biol Psychiatry. 2015;77(7):653-660. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2014.05.018
https://www.apa.org. 2021. Stress and sleep. [online] Available at: <https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2013/sleep> [Accessed 2 June 2021].
Taheri S, Lin L, Austin D, Young T, Mignot E. Short sleep duration is associated with reduced leptin, elevated ghrelin, and increased body mass index. PLoS Med. 2004 Dec;1(3):e62. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0010062. Epub 2004 Dec 7. PMID: 15602591; PMCID: PMC535701.
Skein M, Duffield R, Edge J, Short MJ, Mündel T. Intermittent-sprint performance and muscle glycogen after 30 h of sleep deprivation. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Jul;43(7):1301-11. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e31820abc5a. PMID: 21200339
Azboy O, Kaygisiz Z. Effects of sleep deprivation on cardiorespiratory functions of the runners and volleyball players during rest and exercise. Acta Physiol Hung. 2009 Mar;96(1):29-36. doi: 10.1556/APhysiol.96.2009.1.3. PMID: 19264040.
Nigms.nih.gov. 2021. Circadian Rhythms. [online] Available at: <https://nigms.nih.gov/education/fact-sheets/Pages/Circadian-Rhythms.aspx> [Accessed 3 June 2021].
Sleepfoundation.org. 2021. Caffeine’s Connection to Sleep Problems | Sleep Foundation. [online] Available at: <https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nutrition/caffeine-and-sleep> [Accessed 3 June 2021].
How To Stay Full In A Calorie Deficit Without Being Hungry
The Calorie Deficit is an incredible tool when it comes to weight loss.
In fact…it’s the only tool.
So if you want to lose weight…you need to understand how to make a calorie deficit as easy as possible for you.
That being said…it isn’t an easy thing to do.
One of the quandaries that dieters are in is how to eat fewer calories overall….and not get stupendously hungry in the process.
And that is the aim of this article. To teach you how to figure out this conundrum - to keep hunger low and intake as high as possible - whilst still being in a Calorie Deficit.
Added to that I am going to share some recipes with you that are from the Recipe Manuals I give to, my clients on the Strong & Confident Program
The recipes are all:
As much food volume for as few calories as possible
Have MyFitness Pal Barcodes for you to track
Tasty as hell
For example…one thing that directly affects your caloric expenditure is indeed your caloric intake.
The simple adage: “Eat Less, Move More” is not only stupid but more and more it’s becoming clearer that you just can’t simplify the energy balance equation to something so base.
Firstly, let me say thank you to you for being here. What I am hoping by the end of this article is that you comprehend more about what a Calorie Deficit looks like in terms of the foods that will make it as easy as possible for you and help reduce your hunger.
Secondly, it would be awesome if we became friends by way of you joining my mailing list.
I will, of course, email you things. Sometimes they will be educational, sometimes they will be inappropriate, and sometimes I might just want to know how you are; either way…it would be delightful to connect with you more.
Just send me a friend request by filling out the form below…
Thirdly, please bear in mind that the body is clever…and it has what we call a “Set Point”. This Set Point in terms of your weight is where your body is happiest, and it’s very hard to change….but it can be changed.
Your body loves to be exactly where it is….and moving it away from that point, whether you want to gain weight or lose weight, the body will fight you.
Fight you every step of the way.
(Side Note: Sir Ian McKellen is actually one of the nicest actors I have ever met)
The body won’t fight you because it hates you, or because you are broken.
Your Metabolism is not broken (unless diagnosed by a Doctor and even then…it can still be affected to work for your Fat Loss in nearly all situations)
Don’t believe me? Read this:
Your body fights you, and everybody’s body fights them because of something called Homeostasis - which is your body being in balance hormonally. It likes who you are. Your body just loves being cosy and warm and loves to snuggle you exactly where you are.
Personally, I have been trying to gain weight for about six months now. My body is comfortable and really happy at 80kgs - it’s where I feel best. I feel strong, I feel happy in my clothes and my belly feels normal.
In February I weighed in at 83.5kg. I remember going to a Birthday Party for a 1-year-old and I felt so out of sorts. My body didn’t feel right, my belly felt bloated and although I was at 83.5kg it felt like I was a lot higher weight than that.
It was an abnormal spike, I weigh myself every day, and I knew it was a spike. But I personally felt very uncomfortable. I was bloated and I felt awful for the whole day.
But if I look at my average weight over the last 90 days it is 82kgs - and I feel exactly the same now as I did at 80kgs.
I don’t feel bloated and uncomfortable. I feel exactly the same. I have changed my Set-Point. My Metabolism, Muscle Mass and Diet have all fallen into line with where I am at the moment.
And this happens both in weight gain and weight loss.
It takes time.
It’s not easy.
And there are ups and downs.
BUT
You can change that set point.
This is why Dieting is hard. This is why you might feel incredibly hungry when you are in a Calorie Deficit.
And this is why I have written this article.
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR: How To Stay Full In A Calorie Deficit Without Being Hungry
You can listen to the audio version of this Blog Post on my Podcast: The Fitness Solution
How Much Food Should You Eat In A Calorie Deficit?
This is a crucial question.
Now I am sure you are reading this because you have an understanding of a Calorie Deficit and you probably know the numbers you are trying to work towards.
However, if that isn’t you…before you read this article please head here:
Now. personally, I get all of my clients to set their Deficit into a Caloric Window.
This window is between their Basal Metabolic Rate (70% of their Metabolism) and Goal Body Weight in LBS x 12.
(Provided they have given me a realistic Goal Body Weight - that’s a WHOLE other topic)
Then I encourage them to EAT MORE FOOD.
Many of them, when they start working with me will go for the lowest number…their BMR, because they believe that will give them their results the quickest.
But what you must always remember is:
“If the methods are unsustainable the results are unsustainable”
Therefore I encourage them wholeheartedly to eat more. Eat more food. Higher Volume food so that being in a deficit is as easy as possible for them.
If you want to learn how to lose weight and keep it off forever, then you need to do this too.
Sacrifice quick results.
For lasting results.
By eating more food than you ever have before.
The ultimate goal for your Calorie Deficit is to eat as much as you can within your numbers - that is the aim.
Not to eat as little to survive.
This comes down to the whole thrive or survive mindset - and like always I want you to be your absolute best….not just cling on for dear life.
What Foods should you eat to help with hunger?
Rather oddly.
Over the last couple of days, I have had a TikTok post go very viral.
All on this topic.
The aim of what you are going to eat should be quite clear to you now….
MORE FOOD!
But the question remains…how do you do that without increasing Calories outside your Window?
Don’t Forget To Follow Me On Instagram:
Protein - The Weight Loss SuperFood
The first place to look is here - under this Macro Nutrient.
I’m sure you are aware that Protein is a very important aspect of your diet.
I think the world is coming around to how advantageous Protein is when dieting. But many people do still underestimate how useful it really can be.
It can also be one of the hardest things to increase to adequate amounts. (about 1.8-2g/kg of Lean Body Mass)
It has only 4kcal/g and has a multitude of other benefits when dieting:
Helps maintain muscle when losing weight (i like to think of this as eating muscle to get muscle).
Keeps you fuller for longer - as it takes longer to digest.
Reduces Appetite and Hunger Levels - as it reduces the hunger hormone Grehlin in your body.
My Favourite Sources of Protein (PRO):
Meat per 100g serving:
Chicken Breast: ~30g Pro / 6g Fat / 0g Cho / 165kcal
Turkey Breast: ~28g Pro / 7g Fat / 0g Cho / 189kcal
Steak: ~26g Pro / 19g Fat / 0g Cho / 276kcal
Kangaroo: ~20g Pro / 1.3g Fat / 0g Cho / 102 kcal
Fish per 100g serving:
Tuna Steak: ~29g Pro / 1.3g Fat / 0g Cho / 132 kcal
Salmon: ~22g Pro / 13g Fat / 0g Cho / 208kcal
Dover Sole: ~18g Pro / 1g Fat / 0g Cho / 89kcal
Halibut: ~22g Pro / 2.5g Fat / 0g Cho / 115kcal
Dairy per 100g serving:
Eggs: ~12g Pro / 11g Fat / 1.1g Cho / 155kcal
Greek Yoghurt: ~10g Pro / 0.4.g Fat / 3.6g Cho / 59kcal
Whole Milk: ~3g Pro / 3.4g Fat / 4.8g Cho / 63kcal
Some people find Milk filling, and others don’t. I quite often when I am trying to lose weight am able to survive all morning on two medium Coffees.
YoPro Plain Yoghurt: ~10.6g / 0.3g Fat / 4.4g Cho / 64kcal
Cottage Cheese: ~11g Pro / 6g Fat / 1.9g Cho / 127kcal
Many of my clients really don’t like Cottage Cheese, so I tell them my strategy. Use it instead of Butter in your Sandwiches and Rolls and you won’t even notice it is in there.
Vegetarian Options per 100g:
Tofu: ~11.9g Pro / 7.5g Fat / 0g Cho / 127kcal
Tempeh: ~12.4g Pro / 5g Fat / 0.5g Cho / 112kcal
Seitan: ~25g Pro / 0.6g Fat / 5.3g Cho / 126kcal
Lentils: ~9g Pro / 0.4g Fat / 20g Cho / 116kcal
Supplementation of Protein per 100g:
Isolate Whey Protein: ~ 84g Pro / 3.9g Fat / 1.22g Cho / 380kcal
Quest Protein Bars ~ 35g Pro / 10g Fat / 7g Cho / 302kcal
My Favourite High Protein Meals:
Carbohydrates - The Demonised Food
Let me take a moment to be abundantly clear here.
Carbohydrates do not make you fat.
Sugar does not make you fat.
Carbs are literally a third of your diet and they are mightily important.
That being said some Carbohydrates have this annoying trifecta effect.
They are so damn tasty.
They are can be very high in calories
You don’t get to eat a lot of food for that calorie amount
And remember we are trying to make sure you feel full after eating - not empty. So your best Carbohydrate options will be the ones that are Lower Calorie, Higher Volume and will fill you up for longer as they contain more Fibre too.
I always advise the friends I coach online to lean into their Carbohydrate intake. If Calories are hard to keep down…then changing up your Carbohydrate source is the most powerful thing you can do.
Carbohydrates have exactly the same energy in them as Protein.
Please read that again.
Protein has 4kcal per gram and Carbohydrate has 4kcal per gram.
Irrespective of if you are eating sugar as your Carbohydrate or a Vegetable.
The issue arises when we eat sugar we normally eat an awful lot of it at once, and it makes us want more….which is why we begin to gain weight when we eat it.
My Favourite Sources of Carbohydrate (CHO):
Vegetables per 100g serving:
Sweet Potato: ~20g of Cho / 1.6g Pro / 0.1g Fat / 86kcal
Potato: ~17g of Cho / 2g Pro / 0.1g Fat / 77kcal
Carrots: ~9.6g of Cho / 0.9g Pro / 0.2g Fat / 41kcal
Broccoli: ~7g of Cho / 2.8g Pro / 0.4g Fat / 34kcal
Tomatoes: ~4g of Cho / 0.9g Pro / 0.2g Fat / 18kcal
Bell Pepper: ~6g of Cho / 1g Pro / 0.3g Fat / 31kcal
Interestingly Potatoes rank as the highest satiating food on the planet….according to the Satiety Index - and you can see the difference between Potato and Sweet Potato is negligible - both have their individual benefits.
My other fun fact about Vegetables is that this rule generally rings true: If it grows under the ground it will be slightly higher in calories than if it grows above the ground.
Fruits per 100g serving:
Strawberries: ~8g of Cho / 0.7g Pro / 0.3g Fat / 32kcal
Blueberries: ~15g of Cho / 0.7g Pro / 0.3g Fat / 57kcal
Blackberries: ~10g of Cho / 1.4g Pro / 0.5g Fat / 43kcal
Banana: ~23g of Cho / 1.1g Pro / 0.3g Fat / 89kcal
Apples: 14g of Cho / 0.3g Pro / 0.2g Fat / 52kcal
Watermelon: 8g of Cho / 0.6g Pro / 0.2g Fat / 30kcal
Fruits are incredibly powerful in filling you out and being able to fuel your workouts. I have a Banana before every strength session I do and start most days with fruit and a protein yogurt. Many fruits are so incredibly low in calories which means you can eat an awful lot of them if you need to cure hunger.
Whole Grains per 100g serving:
Oats: ~12g Cho / 2.4g Pro / 1.4g Fat / 68kcal
Brown Rice: ~23g Cho / 2.3g Pro / 0.9g Fat / 111kcal
White Rice: ~28g of Cho / 2.7g Pro / 0.3g Fat / 130kcal
Bulgur Wheat: ~76g Cho / 12g Pro / 1.3g Fat / 342kcal
Quinoa: ~21g Cho / 4.4g Pro / 1.9g / 120kcal
Cous Cous: ~23g Cho / 3.8g Pro / 0.2g Fat / 112kcal
Beans and Legumes per 100g serving:
Legumes: ~14g Cho / 5g Pro / 0.4 Fat / 81kcal
Tinned Mixed Beans: ~22.8g Cho / 8.7g Pro / 0.5g Fat / 127kcal
My Favourite High Carb/Low-Calorie Meals:
Dietary Fats
As we are here let me know touch on Fats.
Fats in and of themselves might not be the satiating for you. It’s quite a personal thing.
Some foods high in Fats like nuts, also contain Fibre just like many of the carbohydrates foods I have outlined above.
However, Fats carry a whopping 9kcal per gram and so when you start to increase these in your diet…you also increase your Calories.
Fats play an essential role in our health - they help the absorption of the ADEK Vitamins. Fats are also very useful for our cognitive function and helping to regulate our Hormones.
Don’t avoid them. But when focussing on Fat Loss make sure that you use them wisely.
I always like to add a portion of Nuts to my Salads and I usually have an Avocado with Salads and whenever I have Beans on Toast.
It seems to keep me going just fine.
Other Foods That Will Help You:
High Protein Bread per 100g:
My personal favourite is Burgen Soy and Linseed Bread: 15.2g protein/287kcal
Helga’s Soy and Toasted Sesame Bread: 15.8g protein/280kcal
These are both great options - as they rank high in the Fibre department too.
Many people believe that “bread is bad” and actually, come to think of it when I first started as a Personal Trainer nearly 7 years ago….I used to say this too.
But I got educated, and am happy to admit that I am on a journey of growth as much as anyone else.
I love these two loaves of bread because, well, it gives you an opportunity to make a more informed choice that will help you. You are always going to eat the bread…so how do you affect the quality of that bread? Well, I think these two do that just brilliantly.
Zero Calorie or Very Low-Calorie Sparkling Water per 100ml:
Plain and simple Carbonated Water is 0kcal per 100ml.
or
Mount Franklin Lightly Sparkling Raspberry Flavour: 2kcal/100ml
I use Sparkling Water all of the time. I use it late at night to help me avoid going for Beer when I am just sick of drinking water - and it’s really effective, it’s really refreshing and I can’t recommend it enough.
Low-Calorie Pasta Alternatives per 100g:
Slendier Spaghetti: 3.9g Fibre/8kcal
The whole Slendier Range is just simply magnificent. The amount of Volume of food you can eat for such little calories - I wouldn’t be surprised if they put conventional out of business very soon.
My fiancee and I use this whenever we make Spaghetti Bolognaise, and honestly…I notice no difference at all.
Low-Calorie Ice Cream per 100g:
Strawberry Cheesecake Halo Top: 5g protein, 15g carbohydrate/132kcal
My Favourite Desserts:
Other Tips and Tricks to Help with Hunger
Brush Your Teeth
It’s odd how brushing your teeth kills your appetite. But apparently, it’s because removing the small food particles in your mouth it stops them from playing tricks with your brain about how hungry you are.
I think there’s also something nice about it that prepares you for bed and you are aware you don’t want to be eating too close to when you sleep.
Mindful Eating
That rage. That rage you feel when you are hungry….
I know you know it well. Because we all experience it.
And then you eat something….
And the rage seems to still be there.
Oh.
Maybe you weren’t hungry, to begin with, hey? (sorry….Australia is starting to get to me).
Being truly mindful in these situations is really helpful. I do think Mindfulness and the whole chat around it at the moment is just vogue…and it’s not really a term I truly enjoy using. But it does seem to sum this up quite well.
When you feel hungry ask yourself: “Am I actually hungry or just a bit bored?”
Boredom eating is a form of emotional eating combined with stress eating - something which I think we all do in truth.
What is really going on here is your inability to work with and process the emotions you are feeling.
It might not be as cut and dry as “hungry vs bored”. You could be anxious, depressed, upset, feeling lonely, or vulnerable.
When you feel “hungry” it’s really important you begin to ask yourself what is truly going on. Have an important and difficult conversation with yourself and see if there are other emotions at play that you need to process.
Slow The F-Down
I’m terrible at this too. I eat far too quickly - and whenever I do I am always a touch more unsatisfied than when I just take my time.
There is also Science associated with taking your time when you eat.
There’s a hormone in your belly called Leptin - and this Hormone tells your brain when you are full.
But Leptin isn’t quick - it takes 20mins for that signal to be sent, and twenty minutes is more than enough time to absolutely eat many many more calories.
Some key strategies to slow you down would be:
Put your fork down between each mouthful.
Don’t watch TV or Sport when you are eating.
Engage in conversation with your family at the Dinner Table.
Don’t “work on your lunch break”
Try it. See how it feels.
Did You Find This Useful?
Thank you so much for reading my article - I really hope you found it helpful.
I work with clients all over the world in my One on One Coaching Program called The Strong & Confident Program.
A New Program Designed To Get You Stronger, Healthier & more confident than ever before.
My aim with the friends I work with is to give them so much more out of their fitness by focussing them on the process of getting stronger and therefore making them more confident.
Just like with this article - where I like to give as much help to you as I can
My approach to online training is no different. The whole program is about you - how best can I serve you, and therefore help you in the best way possible.
If you have enjoyed this article and want to see if a Free Month of Coaching would suit you then please click on the Learn More Button below:
I also have a couple of other articles that might help you navigate your Calorie Deficit:
Again, I hope you enjoy them.
Speak again soon,
Coach Adam
How Can College Students Stay Fit and Healthy?
Out of the blue…well sort of…I was approached to write an article for Platform which is the Student Paper at Nottingham Trent University.
To say this is an honour for me is an understatement and the position that students find themselves in throughout the UK at the moment due to the Global Pandemic I really hope this will help them right now….but also long into the future.
In this article, I hope to be able to give you a plan, an understanding and a guide that helps students not just at Nottingham Trent University, but throughout the world, to help you figure out to keep fit and healthy and look after yourselves as students, but also for the rest of your lives.
Table of Contents for “How Can College Students Stay Fit and Healthy?”
Who is The Gym Starter?
How To Manage Food on a Budget
How To Workout in a Dorm Room
How Can Exercise Help Your Mental Wellbeing As A Student
Parting Advice for Students
Who Is The Gym Starter?
My real name is Adam, or Coach Adam. I have a congenital heart disease, used to live in London, but now live on the Gold Coast, Australia with my beautiful fiancee.
My University experience was a little different to yours, as I went to a Drama School in London and trained to be an Actor., which meant I hads to 12 hours a day 6 days a week for the best part of three years to get my degree.
I did more hours at University in a day than one of my friends did in a week at Lectures as he was studying a Computer Gaming degree.
So I suppose you’re thinking, how can someone who hasn’t been a typical student, tell me, a student, how to look after myself?
Well I suppose I have lived on tight budgets and eating Beans On Toast for the best part of the last 15 years of my life, as Acting is hardly a lucrative business, and I have spent the best part of my life since graduating working 6 jobs just to get food on my table.
I worked as:
A Personal Trainer
An Actor
A Theatre School Director
A Semi-Professional Referee
A Washer Upper
A Staffing Support Assistant at the ExCel Centre
I know what it is like to be time poor, have deadlines and the pressures of workign every which way and never feeling like you have time to yourself. I also know what it is like to have very little control over your food intake, and to be so exhausted both mentally and physically that the last thing I wanted to do was workout.
And even still I struggle, even though my life has somewhat settled. I now work in an amazing Personal Training Studio here on the Gold Coast, I am still pursuing my Acting and just love helping people figure out this crazy little thing called life.
I became The Gym Starter because I have always loved helping people feel confident about themselves…and I have noticed since the upsurge of Social Media, confidence seems to be a personality trait that is becoming more and more scarce in the world, especially amongst our College Student population.
The constant comparison of what you see on Instagram compared to real life, the constant desire to live up to what you create and the sheer awful information and lies that exist in places like Instagram and TikTok are not helping students enter and exist in reality in such a crucial moment in your lives when you need confidence the most.
Being a student at College is scary. Away from home. Meeting lots and lots of new people. Taking independent responsibility for your study. A lot of time to kill. Being poor financially. Let alone trying to keep fit and healthy as well.
Its terrifying. I remember the imposter syndrome and the constant checking of the bank balance well.
The awkward phone call home asking for another tenner because you had to pay for your grocery deliver this week.
The last thing you need is feeling inadequate about your health and fitness too.
All because of Social Media.
So I’m here to help you. To give you a real perspective on what you should reasonably expect.
And to hopefully take away some of the anxiety you are feeling in terms of your health and fitness as a student…especially in 2021…global pandemic and all.
So take a moment.
Big Deep breath.
In for 10….
Out for 10….
My very first point stands as this: I cannot tell you to get healthy. I am a Personal Trainer, not a Doctor, and am not here to discuss your Health. Health is very different for everyone, and the markers for each person vary greatly.
What I can say is that movement, eating certain foods, and using my advice to look after yourself might indeed make you feel a lot better about yourself. There is a correlation between what I discuss and how that might improve health in certain people, but it is no guarantee.
What I can guarantee is I will make you feel a lot better about how you are living your life, how you are using your body and your energy levels in general, as well as your improved mood. If you deem that as being healthier…that’s up to you. Not me.
How To Manage Food On A Budget
This isn’t an easy topic, as we all have very different budgets to live in with our food.
And I would suggest you are doing a pretty good job at this point if you are still alive.
There is a common thread in society that eating “healthy” is more expensive, and this is true [1].
But that doesn’t mean that you can’t do things to help yourself in this department.
Here are my top 5 tips for eating on a budget:
Buy Frozen Fruits and Vegetables - especially Vegetables. Too many times in my life have I gone to the fridge to find the Courgette I forgot about and now it is rotten to the core. You don’t need to worry about whether they have enough a nutrient profile or not, it’s a daft argument that shouldn’t exist because it creates a needless barrier to entry. Eating any Vegetables will help you, frozen or otherwise. But Frozen Vegetables are often easier to weigh out if you need to measure your food, They are really simple to cook…just put them in a Wok, and away you go…and they taste just lovely. The other huge advantage to these is that they are bulky foods. They will fill you up for longer than a Dominos Pizza meaning you will spend less money overall on food.
Side Note: If you are a “fussy” eater, or simply “don’t eat vegetables” then it’s a hard truth, but you need to start working on that. To simply say you don’t eat vegetables is absurd because all Vegetables have different tastes and different textures. Taste Buds regenerate over time, and the more you expose yourself slowly to something you dislike the more you will develop a taste for it. Just like when you didn’t like the taste of beer and coffee when you were younger…now it seems to be rather lovely. Stop being lazy with Vegetables. It might be that you were indulged too much in your childhood, and now you are now paying the cost of that as an adult. An adult that doesn’t eat any Vegetables is simply ignorant (unless they suffer from very particular digestive issues).
2. Plan Your Meals Weekly, and budget for them - spend some time sitting down creating a two-week meal plan for yourself. That way you can easily budget for what you ate going to eat as well. A big problem with finance in terms of food is the desire to always be eating something different. Many of my friends who I work with online are advised to eat the same foods time and time again for a number of reasons. They know the nutritional profile of the food (Calories, Protein, Carbohydrate and Fat content) as well as the fact it is financially better for them. When you have a plan and stick to it, it will help you so much to manage your money. You don’t need as much variety in the foods you eat as you think you do. We all eat on average the same 8 or 9 meals, especially when we are cooking from home.
3. Eat out Less Often - sounds so simple right? But I am aware of how hard this is to do in reality. The Costa Coffee isn’t so much of an issue… its the Muffin and Toasted Sandwich that comes from the trip too, before you know it, a Mocha Chocca Skinny Vanilla Three Shot Latte (or whatever the kids are drinking these days) plus a Muffin and a Tuna Toastie has cost you £15. Added to that…its’s cost in terms of how much it will fill you up as well, combined with the number of calories you are consuming all in one go. It’s just not that wise. If you are going for a coffee…which I am a huge fan of…then make sure it is just a Coffee you order.
4. Buy In Bulk - especially your Carbohydrates. Buy big packs of Rice and Pasta. They will last forever and are so much cheaper than buying the Microwave packs that Uncle Ben makes. In the food industry, there is always a higher cost associated with convenience.
5. Spend Time Cooking - if you don’t know how to cook…learn. It really doesn’t have to be that complex. Every day for lunch when I was at Drama School I used to cook fried eggs and beans on toast. It was better for me than eating at Subway, it was cheaper for me than eating at Subway and it had a much better nutrient profile than eating at Subway. And it took about the same amount of time as going to Subway. We live in a world where cooking is really intimidating. For many years I was great at executing a gourmet meal, but when it came to just cooking everyday food that wasn’t Instagram worthy, because it was just normal food, I didn’t know what to do. What you see on the Internet isn’t the real world. There is nothing wrong with a few sausages, some mashed potato, and some frozen veggies on a plate…you just don’t think there is because it doesn’t look good enough for yout IG Story.
How To Workout In A Dorm Room
Right now, during a Global Pandemic and everlasting lockdowns, I’m not sure you need my advice on how to workout in a Dorm Room.
There are certain times in a person’s life where working out just isn’t feasible, and putting yourself under more and more pressure to live up to an outcome that you don’t need to live up to will have a wider negative effect on you.
I’d never force someone to work out if they are grieving.
Or are stressed to the eyeballs with work and worry about a loved one.
There are times when it is ok to say - actually - I just am not going to work out, and that’s ok.
I have recently moved to Australia and had to do a Two Week Quarantine in a single Hotel Room. I had the intention to workout. I had my TRX with me. But I didn’t work out as much as I hoped to, and there is nothing wrong with that. The room and my personal circumstances didn’t provide me with the energy I needed to workout.
And I’m fine with that.
And if that is you…you should be fine with that too.
I would also love for you to reconsider what you think a workout should be. You probably do not have a Leg Press Machine in your Dorm Room, so it’s just daft to have the same expectations of a workout, that you would have if you had access to a Gym Floor.
Meditation can be a workout.
Yoga can be a workout.
10 Push Ups can be a workout.
A walk can be a workout.
What I am trying to say is that it doesn’t all have to be Deadlifts and Dumbells - you need to have greater empathy for yourself and what you can achieve.
And this isn’t just true when you are in the midst of a Global Pandemic. This is true when you are up to your eyeballs in Dissertations and Essays. This is true when you are working, studying, and living on top of trying to keep fit.
Sometimes in life, it’s more important to take 4 or 5 steps back…so that you can then take another 10 forward further down the track.
Managing your stress is indeed a workout.
But if you are the type of person who is chomping at the bit to do something physical besides what I have laid out above then my top recommendation to you is the following.
Get a Suspension Trainer. Not a TRX - they are far too expensive for what they are…and you don’t have the funds.
$25 (about £14.99) on Amazon.com.au you can get a Suspension Trainer or at Decathlon its the same price.
The Suspension Trainer was designed by a Navy Seal who wanted to be able to work out in any environment he found himself in. Especially small spaces.
And they are just blooming wonderful.
Then you can do these workouts:
Please feel free to amend the workouts as you see fit to your ability level.
I always write online programs to an RPE Scale to gauge intensity as opposed to dictating how much weight, as I have never met you, and then Reps and Sets as we all are slightly different in this regard. . If you want to increase your decrease your intensity then change the Reps or timings as you see fit.
For more information on the RPE Scale head to this article: How To Plan and Design A Home Workout - The Ultimate Guide
If you can’t get a Suspension Trainer then you can get my free book: The Beginners Bodyweight Workout Guide
The book has 56 Workouts you can do…all bodyweight based…all just 10mins a day too!
How Does Exercise Help Your Mental Health?
Every Personal Trainer in the world will sit here and advocate the benefits of exercise for your mental health.
They will then also try and sell you detox teas, show you very thin bodies as the ideal or simply tell you to “Eat Less, Move More”
Which completely undoes the benefit to your mental health.
Movement in and of itself will make you feel better about who you are, but when you start aligning that behaviour with behaviours of weight loss for acceptance amongst your peers, or to try and get a six-pack or even so that you can get laid…
A problem begins to occur.
Suddenly your movement is no longer beneficial for your mental health, suddenly it is a punishment for it.
So to gain the advantages for your Mental Wellbeing in association with fitness and movement you must make sure that you are focussing on your movement for reasons beyond superficiality.
There are many, many, many outcomes in fitness that will not lead to improved Mental Health and can send you into much poorer places with that.
And these nearly always come down to a number of factors:
Desperation: “I must lose weight in 3 months”
Pressure: “I must weight 3 stone less to feel normal”
Self Acceptance: “He will never like me if I’m not skinny”
Self Worth: “I can’t look at myself until I weight X amount”
When you are engaging in physical activity to try and “fix” something akin to what I have laid out above…you will experience much poorer mental health as a result.
Because what you desire will never come quick enough.
Fitness is a stubborn thing, that takes discipline, hard work and consistency. So much so I don’t feel like I have ever truly mastered anything in my fitness because I always fall down on these pillars.
But I am also not under any pressure to achieve any of the outcomes above.
The reason movement helps your mental health is quite well known at this point:
Can improve your confidence
Can improve cognitive function
Can send you into a productive state
Can give you a sense of achievement
Can teach you discipline
Can help change your outlook on life
But what I really think is true about how Movement and Fitness can aid your mental health is that it makes you creative.
I have written a 2000-word article on the topic for you, and that makes me feel amazing.
Makes me feel creative. When you shape and craft a workout and then execute it, it gives you a creative outlet that all humans need.
And the best bit?
There really isn’t a high barrier of entry. You don’t have to be able to be a musician or a painter.
You don’t have to be a singer or a wordsmith.
You just have to be a human.
And guess what…you are one.
So you can already be extremely creative with your movement and your body, enjoy the benefits of movement for your confidence, for your cognitive function and for your productivity…
And then your mental health will improve.
Get into Fitness to be creative.
For as long as that is the beating drum of why you are doing what you are doing…
Especially during a pandemic…
Then you will fly my friend.
What’s Next?
Across this website, I have other Articles all about managing your physical and nutritional health:
Added to that it would be AMAZING if you joined my free Facebook Group.
It is called Straightforward Fat Loss.
I do one Live Training a week in there based on topics which are designed to make your Fat Loss Journey as straightforward as possible.
It would be so wonderful to see you in there…to join just click on the button below and you will by transported at the speed of light to a grateful and welcoming bunch of people who really do just want to help everyone as much as they can.
Thank you so much for reading my article. I hope it has helped you…
Speak again soon,
Coach Adam
References:
Jones NRV, Conklin AI, Suhrcke M, Monsivais P (2014) The Growing Price Gap between More and Less Healthy Foods: Analysis of a Novel Longitudinal UK Dataset. PLoS ONE 9(10): e109343. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0109343
How To Keep Your New Years Resolutions - 5 Ways To Never Fail Again
The studies are clear.
80% of people can’t stick to their New Years Resolutions, and it's perplexing because it's something society keeps going back to year after year…and we keep getting the same results.
Failure.
What was it Einstein said?
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
A study by Bupa and ComRes in the UK asked 2,014 adults about their New Years Resolutions in November 2015.
Topics relating to improving health accounted for the top three resolutions. And of that group of people, 66% said it lasted one month or less. 12% of people said they managed to keep a resolution. [1]
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR “HOW TO KEEP YOUR NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS - 5 WAYS TO NEVER FAIL AGAIN
How To Keep Your New Years Resolutions — 5 Ways To Never Fail Again
1. Don’t Set A New Years Resolution
It's too simple, right? But if you don’t set one you can’t fail at it. Now I am not saying don’t implement change. Of course, I want you to become the best version of you that you possibly can be. But how many times in your life have you had a New Years Resolution and failed at it.
Then you do it again next year.
And fail again.
Your story, in fact, everyone’s story relating to New Years Resolutions is one of failure, and therefore when you set one, you will be looking through the lens of failure. Not success.
If I told you to not think of a huge pink elephant…
Then if I showed you a picture of the huge pink elephant…and still asked you not to think about it…
2. Get a Stress Ball
Any habit change is a test of Willpower, and Stress Balls have been proven to improve willpower. Participants were told they had to drink a “Vinegar Health Tonic” and those who were on tiptoes, clenching their calves drank more of said tonic. Another group as they were flexing their Biceps said they would be far less likely to break their diet.
According to the researchers “Steely Muscles led to a Steely resolve” however…you have to want the outcome.
Researchers also found that those who drank more of the tonic also viewed fitness as a virtue.
So for this to work, you must want what your New Years Resolution is working towards…and I don’t mean…“Yeah, it’d be nice”. You have to literally be resolved against it…and that means accepting a period of willful suffering whilst you allow yourself to change.
How To Keep Your New Years Resolutions — 5 Ways To Never Fail Again
3. The Two Minute Rule
Resolutions tend to focus on the long term result. Not the process, and building your process is more important than the long term result.
Think of giving yourself a 2-minute rule as explained by James Clear in his book Atomic Habits.
Because in truth the action doesn’t succeed or fail when you are doing it. It succeeds or fails just before. Therefore you need to lower your point of entry in order to make it something you do. If you got to the gym. Did two minutes and realized it wasn’t your day…then you can leave.
The act of getting there, being there and experiencing it will strengthen your ability to do it again. And doing it, again and again, will make it stick and grow.
Eventually, if you give yourself enough opportunity to grow you will succeed.
4. Focus on the Process
New Years Resolutions traditionally focus on the end result.
Lose 2 stone
Eat Clean (yawn!)
Travel more
Get Healthy
This list is all result focussed. How are you going to achieve these things?
How do you Lose 2 stone? Maybe start with 1lb and repeat that process over and over.
Eat Clean, although I can’t stand the premise, in truth is add more vegetables to your dinner each day.
Travel More…in order to do that…you should probably save more and plan your vacations from work for the year.
Get Healthy…becomes…go for more walks and build the habits of a healthy person.
Once you get yourself working on the process the result will take care of itself, and you will find building up slowly far more sustainable than going all out on Jan 01st.
Remember: It’s not
“What you want to achieve”
It’s: “How are you going to do it?”
How To Keep Your New Years Resolutions — 5 Ways To Never Fail Again
5. Realize its a new YEAR resolution
Why the rush? Why does everyone want to do their resolution on Jan 01st? And hit their goal by February 01st.
A year is 12 months. You have that long to achieve your New Year Resolution. When clients ask me about them I give them this strategy.
Pick one resolution and get that mastered. Then move onto the next one. And then the next one come September or October. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. If by the end of year you have only mastered two of your new years resolutions…that's a lot better than failing by February 01st on all five.
What’s Next?
I have plenty more articles about Mindset for Fitness throughout my Website.
Here is a selection I think would make great further reading for you:
You are also invited to get a bundle of Fat Loss Goodies from me including:
Get yourself a free month of workouts (Home and Gym-based options)
Get yourself a free copy of my e-book ”27 Ways To Faster Fast Loss”
Get yourself a free customized Calorie Calculator
Straight to your Inbox
All you have to do is put your email address in below:
References:
Comresglobal.com. 2020. BUPA New Year Resolution Survey « Savanta Comres. [online] Available at: <https://comresglobal.com/polls/bupa-new-year-resolution-survey/> [Accessed 26 July 2020].
Is A Calorie Deficit All That Matters For Weight Loss? | The Truth of Energy Balance
Without a doubt, I am known as a Calorie Deficit advocate, and I am proud to be one.
I am a believer in the fact that to either gain weight or lose weight you need to understand the principle of Calories In vs Calories Out.
Science is irrefutable on the topic. [1,2]
But what goes into the make up of Calories In vs Calories Out needs far more context.
There are many people out there that simply think “Calories In vs Calories Out” is causing the problem in terms of Weight Gain and Obesity.
The Health At Every Size (HAES) movement, the Body Positive Movement which are both movements I support, would argue against the constant bombardment of the rhetoric of losing weight equals results and that you can’t be healthy unless you are thin, and the problems that are perpetuating in our society, and they aren’t wrong.
Problems that are leading so many people into very dark places with regards to the relationship with the self. And that is simply not good enough.
But they also think that anyone who utters the words “calorie deficit” is a proponent of everything they stand against — and that the two cannot co-exist.
There are many people who think that if you are overweight, you are simply lazy and lack willpower, an opinion that should be abhorrent to anyone who hears it and comes from a place of complete ignorance for what “The Truth Of Energy Balance” really is, combined with a complete lack of empathy for peoples humanity.
Because: “Science innit.”
And here I am.
Someone who loves helping people; someone who is on the side of both people being positive about themselves, and allowing them to work on Goals that they want to achieve. Someone who believes in the Science and a Personal Trainer that feels he is being crushed from both sides. Someone who wants to very much empower people to take responsibility for their health, whilst disarming those who simply place blame on people having never walked a day in their shoes.
Some people think that my approach to educating people on a Calorie Deficit isn’t right or fair for people's mental health and physical wellbeing.
Science says that a Calorie Deficit is required for weight loss.
Science also says that looking at why people eat excess calories is equally important in being able to help people with their weight.
The fitness industry is divided between these two…and I believe in both.
There is a bridge to be built — and if you can understand this bridge when it comes to Energy Balance you too will begin to understand why you may have struggled in the past so much for your fitness success, or why others struggle with it too. I’m not saying that you don’t have to take responsibility for your health, of course, you do.
But when you start looking at the context of what goes into Calories In and Calories Out you can start to work with your environment to help create that change and achieve your goals.
Table of Contents for: Is A Calorie Deficit All That Matters To Lose Weight? The Truth of Energy Balance”
You can also watch a summary of this Blog Post right here:
Is A Calorie Deficit All That Matters For Weight Loss?
The Truth of Energy Balance
What Is The Truth Behind Energy Balance?
There is the science which I touched on above.
The simple fact that Calories are units of measure of energy in food.
In the same way, a Mile is a unit of measure for distance. A calorie is a unit of measure for energy, and if we consume more energy than our body needs it will be stored somewhere.
In the same way that if you travel four miles down the road, you are indeed four miles further on from your starting point.
To adjust this storage of energy your body can indeed work these calories away and if you do this often enough and in enough quantity, you will then reduce the mass of your body.
Hence the energy balance equation of:
Calories In vs Calories Out
Or
“Eat Less, Move More” a phrase that is dogged and plagued with ignorance.
For more information on why Eat Less, Move More is an unhelpful term head here: https://www.thegymstarter.com/blog/2020/7/28/why-eat-less-move-more-is-causing-the-problem-not-curing-it
The energy balance equation is very simple and straightforward, and like with all things simple and straightforward it is going to be fraught with problems.
And this is the truth behind Energy Balance.
Is A Calorie Deficit All That Matters For Weight Loss?
The Truth of Energy Balance
Calories In is not simply “how much you eat”
To view it thus is to oversimplify your human condition.
And Science supports us here too.
The factors that lend themselves to Calories In are the following:
Personal Economic Factors, Social Factors, Community Factors, Genetic Factors, Medical Factors, and Emotional Factors.
Personal Economic Factors
When the UK Government launched its new “Tackling Obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives” plan there were many people on the telly box stating that:
“It's not more expensive to eat healthily”
Which is a falsehood.
In 2014 the University of East Anglia and the University of Cambridge teamed up with The British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research, and the Wellcome Trust and produced a paper which looked at the growing price gap between healthy and unhealthy foods in the UK.
They concluded:
“Since 2002, more healthy foods and beverages have been consistently more expensive than less healthy ones, with a growing gap between them. This trend is likely to make healthier diets less affordable over time, which may have implications for individual food security and population health, and it may exacerbate social inequalities in health.” [3]
and the results found:
“In 2012 the average price of more healthy foods was about three times higher — £7.49 for 1,000kcal compared to £2.50 for 1,000kcal of less healthy foods” [4]
There are limitations to this study, namely that foods were judged per 1000kcal, and healthier foods are generally less calorie-dense.
Aside from this, I am writing this article at the end of 2020, which has been a year of great economic unrest and at a time where the poverty gap in most western societies is widening also.
I’ve said this before and I will say it again;
“When someone doesn’t know where their next meal is coming from, they aren’t going to worry about the quality of that meal…they are just going to be thankful they got to eat today”
Is A Calorie Deficit All That Matters For Weight Loss?
The Truth of Energy Balance
Social Factors
This works both ways.
Having a very active social life can lead to a lack of control over your diet. I think we all find it hard to understand our calorie intake when we are eating out more and enjoying ourselves socially.
But the solution to that is simple in that you can choose to not go out as a way of balancing your caloric intake and the effect it might be having on your physical health.
There is however a flip side.
What if you don’t have the choice, to begin with? What if you never have the option to meet friends and go for dinner? What if you can’t afford dinner out? What if you don’t drive and don’t like getting public transport places? What if you have to stay home to look after the children? What if you are in a controlling domestic relationship and it's just not an option to enjoy yourself in that way because the consequences are too great?
Boredom is a key indicator as a cause of Obesity.
California State University (Edward E. Abramson et al, 1977) conducted a study where they took a group of Obese Individuals and people who are rated as “Normal” on the BMI scale. They were fed until satiated, then asked to complete an interesting and boring task…whilst the food was readily available to them. The results were:
“That the obese consumed significantly more food than normals, and that boredom markedly increases food consumption for both obese and normals” [5]
And then in 2012 another study titled: “Eating when bored: revision of the emotional eating scale with a focus on boredom” concluded the following:
“These results suggest that boredom is an important construct and that it should be considered a separate dimension of emotional eating” [6]
Is A Calorie Deficit All That Matters For Weight Loss?
The Truth of Energy Balance
Community Factors
In the UK 10.2million or about 1/6th of the population live in a Food Desert.
Defined as the following: “Areas which are poorly served by food stores”
A report by the Social Marker Foundation, funded by Kellogs (make of that what you will), looked at “What are the barriers to eating healthily in the UK?” [7] and it found the following:
For those living in poverty, 15% of all household expenditure is spent on food, compared to 10% of those not living in poverty.
Just under a fifth (17%) of households surveyed as part of this research said groceries put a strain on their finances. For individuals with a household income of £10,000 or less, about two fifths (39%) said groceries were a strain on finances, as did about a quarter (23%) of those with a household income of between £10,000 and £20,000.
Some survey respondents stated that high and unaffordable food prices have led to a range of behavioral responses. Across all households one in ten (10%) said that they had cut back on their own level of food consumption so that others in their family (such as children) can eat. This figure stands at 14% among households with an income of less than £10,000.
A quarter of individuals (25%) said that they felt that healthy and nutritious food was unaffordable in the UK.
Access to food may be a barrier for individuals living in “food deserts” — areas that are poorly served by food stores. In these areas, individuals without a car or with disabilities that hinder mobility may find it difficult to easily access a wide range of healthy, affordable food products
These are just a few of their findings.
The truth of the barriers to eating healthily in the UK is simply terrifying, and I would encourage you to read the rest of the study here.
But Community means a lot more than just your location and access to food.
What about your education? The availability of work? The availability of being able to attend a Gym?
A study in Seoul, South Korea found the following:
“Lower socioeconomic status increases obesity. This is due to the intake of high-calorie and low-nutrition foods or environments that limit time and access to regular physical activities”
and a 2008 study, Frank et al, which was looking at “Walkability in neighborhoods” found the following:
“Male residents of more walkable neighborhoods were less likely to be obese or overweight”
and
“walking was consistently higher for all groups in the more walkable neighborhoods” [8]
Now imagine that for a second; you are more likely to be Obese simply because you don’t feel safe walking in your neighborhood, or your neighborhood isn’t accessible for walking for whatever reason.
This is before we even begin to look at things like education availability, public transport options, healthcare options, and public funding for areas to help with many of these factors.
Quite simply, where you are born and raised, through no fault of your own, could have a huge impact on your susceptibility to Obesity.
Is A Calorie Deficit All That Matters For Weight Loss?
The Truth of Energy Balance
Genetic Factors
As it stands, you cannot be genetically obese.
Your risk factors towards obesity increase as you age if you have a high-risk variant of a gene called FTO. [9]
This gene exists in everyone, and there are some people in the population who have a high-risk version of the gene and the gene controls your impulsivity, and if you are a carrier of the high-risk version of FTO you might find high-fat food more enjoyable [9].
However, studies have also found that those with this variant of the FTO respond just as well to weight loss treatment as anyone else.
BUT (and its a big but) — carriers of this gene are more likely to store body fat because
“people with two copies of the variant weigh on average 3kg more and are 1.7 times more likely to be obese” [10]
So what does all this mean? Well, firstly it means that for some people, it just is harder to lose weight because the clock keeps ticking, and they are starting from a different place genetically.
But it doesn’t mean that you can’t necessarily take charge of your health and fitness — but aligning your goals to what the scale says might be a foolish way to go about it.
Of the people my cited research included just 20% of them had two copies of the FTO Gene, and 48% carried one copy. Therefore the likelihood of your genetic makeup affecting your bodyweight is the last place to look if you aren’t getting the results you desire.
It does however show that some people need more nuance in their understanding of why controlling calories in is so hard.
Is A Calorie Deficit All That Matters For Weight Loss?
The Truth of Energy Balance
Hormonal Issues
Then again, there are many other metabolic conditions that might affect your ability to sustain a calorie deficit and therefore lose weight.
Conditions such as PCOS, Thyroid Issues, Hashimoto’s Disease, and Diabetes to name a few.
Again, these conditions are not a life sentence to forever gaining weight, but they do blur the lines for you.
In all the research I have done on Hypothyroidism in relation to weight loss I have found this conclusion:
“In general, 5–10 pounds of body weight may be attributable to the thyroid, depending on the severity of the hypothyroidism. Finally, if weight gain is the only symptom of hypothyroidism that is present, it is less likely that the weight gain is solely due to the thyroid.” [11]
I have personally helped many people with PCOS lose and sustain weight loss, but it certainly requires a different skillset from the client. In relation to Hashimotos, I have never personally worked with someone who has this, however, I am aware of many success stories in this field, as well as those who have Diabetes.
Hormonal issues ontop of everything else might make your weight loss journey a little slower and it might make it a little harder. But it by no means that it is not possible for you.
Is A Calorie Deficit All That Matters For Weight Loss?
The Truth of Energy Balance
Medical Factors and Weight Stigmatisation in Society at Large
The sheer amount of medical conditions that might affect someone’s ability to stay in a Calorie Deficit is almost never-ending.
This also feeds into the other aspect of the energy balance equation which is Calories Out.
For example, someone who has Arthritis is far less likely to be able to engage in physical activity.
But the bigger issue in the field of Medical Factors is the constant Weight Stigmatisation that those with larger body mass face whenever they are seeing their Doctors.
The first two minutes of this TedTalk demonstrates this very powerfully.
Added to that in a 2015 study looked directly at this and they have stated the following:
“There is considerable evidence that such attitudes influence person-perceptions, judgment, interpersonal behavior, and decision-making. These attitudes may impact the care they provide. Experiences of or expectations for poor treatment may cause stress and avoidance of care, mistrust of doctors, and poor adherence among patients with obesity. Stigma can reduce the quality of care for patients with obesity despite the best intentions of healthcare providers to provide high-quality care.” [12]
The title of the study is: “Impact of weight bias and stigma on quality of care and outcomes for patients with obesity” [12]
In my opinion, that shouldn’t even have to exist as a study, but alas it does — I suppose Doctors are just human too.
You see this has an impact on the “Calories In” side of the equation because we know that when people are subjected to Weight Stigmatisation it leads to an increase in caloric consumption.
As the following Obesity Research Journal study found in 2011:
Overweight women who watched the stigmatizing video ate more than three times as many kilocalories as overweight women who watched the neutral video (302.82 vs. 89.00 kcal), and significantly more calories than the normal-weight individuals who watched either the stigmatizing or the neutral video
and
These findings suggest that among overweight women, exposure to weight stigmatizing material may lead to increased caloric consumption [16]
Weight sitgmatization happens everywhere. This particular study showed participants a video — and that was a contorlled environment. But it’s a lot harder to control this in the big wide world when you have no say in what you see on Billboards, TV ads, the Media Headlines, Social Media, and the sheer ignorant opinion of others who haven’t read an article like this and really looked at the Science beyond “Calories In vs Calories Out”.
That is a lot of exposure.
In a 2018 opinion article published on the BioMed Editorial Website, they looked at “How and why weight stigma drives the obesity ‘epidemic’ and harms health”
Researchers concluded the following:
“Weight stigma is likely to drive weight gain and poor health and thus should be eradicated. This effort can begin by training compassionate and knowledgeable healthcare providers who will deliver better care and ultimately lessen the negative effects of weight stigma.” [13]
Is A Calorie Deficit All That Matters For Weight Loss?
The Truth of Energy Balance
Emotional Factors and Disordered Eating
The direct link between Emotional Eating and weight gain is incredibly clear to see. The constant feed in our society of the binge and restrict cycle makes up the majority of my work and the sheer majority of my colleagues work in the Fitness Industry.
This is due to a problem that the Fitness Industry created for itself, in helping the media prioritize the “thin ideal” as a marker of health and we are now walking headfirst into issues such as Obesity as well as many Eating Disorders like Bulimia, Anorexia, and Binge Eating Disorders.
Combined with all of the factors that surround emotional eating and disordered eating you must also look at the past trauma of people who are obese.
For instance, some people use weight gain as a way of making themselves invisible and undesirable to the opposite sex as Justin Faden et al (2012) found that:
73% of patients undergoing psychiatric hospitalization following gastric bypass have a history of sexual abuse. [14]
Then let's look at Mental well-being in relation to Obesity.
A meta-analysis published in 2008 in the Journal of Health Psychology found that:
“Combining data from 16 studies the results confirmed that, after controlling for potential confounding variables, depressed compared to nondepressed people were at significantly higher risk for developing obesity. The risk among depressed people for later obesity was particularly high for adolescent females.” [15]
Which will then lead us to Social Media usage and the effect that can have on Calories In.
The International Journal of Eating Disorders published a study in 2019 and found that:
“A clear pattern of association was found between Social Media usage and Disordered Eating cognitions and behaviors with this exploratory study confirming that these relationships occur at younger‐age than previously investigated.[16]”
Is A Calorie Deficit All That Matters For Weight Loss?
The Truth of Energy Balance
The conclusion to “Calories In”
I think thus far this article has made it very, very clear that the depth to Calories In is so deep and so great that simply understanding the Energy Balance Equation as “In vs Out” just isn’t enough.
And the terrifying part? I have picked just a few examples. The world is littered with many other aspects of what makes Calories In so complex too. This isn’t the whole picture of the equation. It is merely a snapshot that I can comprehend.
Yes, Calories In will need to be reduced for a successful weight loss journey, but when you view the spider web of what really goes into Calories In you begin to see that there is a whole world of social science and physical science that needs to be understood as well.
This understanding leads to one thing: empathy.
Empathy for the person you are working with and therefore building a bridge to the Calories In, side of the energy balance equation.
Is A Calorie Deficit All That Matters For Weight Loss?
The Truth of Energy Balance
Calories Out is not simply “how much you burn”
On the other side of the Energy Balance equation, you have Calories Out.
And this is just as complex as Calories In.
The Factors that lead to Calories Out are the following:
Weight Sitgmatisaiton, Fat Phobic Attitudes, A Lack of Self Confidence, Inaccessible Gyms and Arresting Environments, Repeated Failure.
The age-old proverb of “you can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” is the overriding theme here.
I have already explored the relationship between poverty and obesity in this article, so let us assume that said person has the finances to join a gym in the first place.
They have the “motivation” to be at the gym and they are there primarily to try and get their weight down and to help with their Obesity.
What kind of experience do you think this person will have? How many other people do you think they will see in the Gym that they can relate to?
Plus the mirrors. Wicklund and Duval in 1971, put together a study upon which they found:
Viewing oneself via mirrors has been shown to increase levels of objective SA (situational awarenss) via self-evaluation, leading to increased awareness of the discrepancy between an individual’s current self and his or her “ideal” self [17]
The mirrors literally stop people from being motivated to workout.
Then there are the machines. I personally find some of the seats uncomfortable on these machines, and I am 6ft 4in and weigh 80kgs.
Then the marketing of the Gym. Everywhere you look there is a poster of a very fit person telling you to simply “get in shape in 12 weeks”.
Like it is that easy.
Add to that the attitudes of people within the Gym. The personal trainer someone might talk to about their goals, and then the very basic nutrition plan you receive that has no preference for food you actually like. Combined with the fact that if you want some more education and someone to show you the ropes, well, that's going to cost you extra on top of your membership.
In researching this article I came across the following study: “Obese persons’ physical activity experiences and motivations across weight changes: a qualitative exploratory study” [18]
This study has stories from people who are obese and have tried to exercise to help with their weight loss.
“I’d been on [another trip] maybe 15 years ago where the hiking club actually left me on a mountain because I couldn’t keep up, and [they] said you can sit here and wait for us to come down and get you, or you can go down by yourself. But you’re not coming with us; we’re not waiting for you anymore.” [18]
This is an actual person who was left on the side of a mountain by a Hiking Group.
Just let that sink in a little bit.
If that was you…how would you feel?
I’m not sure if you have ever seen me lift weights and the faces I pull…but it's not exactly attractive. This is the closest GIF I could find:
Now imagine you are someone who is already extremely self-conscious.
“… It’s kind of intimidating … you’re doing something that’s making your body move in all sorts of ways that is not attractive, and you feel like everyone’s going to see this.” [18]
This is a barrier to “Calories Out” that is very real and very true.
In this study they concluded the following:
“Finding an environment in which participants felt safe and encouraged to be active was extremely important, and instances of such inclusion had major ramifications on social wellbeing” [18]
But I personally think this sums it up the most:
“While participants had pleasure-related reasons for engaging in physical activity, this enjoyment could be overshadowed by the grip of caloric fear or dread of a demobilized future; a need for performative achievement or a thinner body; or the need to be a conspicuous exception to potentially stigmatizing anti-obesity messaging. Focusing on their health and fitness achievements and behaviors may have helped participants cope with their sizes in a stigmatizing climate. However, participants could still be overwhelmed by pressures to always be healthier or more active, and many participants had histories of disordered eating and activity practices.” [18]
Is A Calorie Deficit All That Matters For Weight Loss?
The Truth of Energy Balance
The Conclusion to “Calories Out”
Simply saying “exercise more” is base and unfair to say to humans who have panic attacks when they walk into a gym because of how arresting that environment is.
Telling them to just go for a run, when they already feel very self-aware isn’t helpful either — aside from the fact that running is an extremely hard form of exercise on your joints.
And added to that…listen to this story from Latoya Shauntay Snell who was heckled at mile 22 of a marathon by a man on the sidelines who shouted:
“It's going to take your fat ass forever”
Even people who aren’t struggling with their weight find it incredibly hard to find the motivation to workout and exercise. To simply reduce someone who is struggling as someone who is “just too lazy” is being a complete hypocrite towards your own struggles with being able to maintain a level of physical activity.
Just Do It; Just Don’t Cut It
In Conclusion
Quite simply…you can lose weight without exercise, and if you find exercise extremely triggering there are things you can do to still achieve weight loss goals without exercise.
That being said…I advise against losing weight without exercise.
I also advise against making weight loss the sole reason you want to exercise.
Caloric Control is required when it comes to your Diet in order to control your weight, but giving yourself more understanding and empathy for the context of what that truly means can actually give you a release from the constant wheel house of failure you seem to find yourself on.
What is most interesting in the study “Obese persons’ physical activity experiences and motivations across weight changes: a qualitative exploratory study” is that they identify two other reasons these people want to exercise:
Maintenance of functioning and mobility;
Pleasure derived from activity.
A Calorie Deficit clearly isn’t all that matters when it comes to exercise. The preservation of the self and finding movement as a means of enjoyment can mean so much to a person, far above and beyond what a weight loss success will give them.
The more I look, the more data I find that suggests that learning to fall in love with the movement of your body will make you so much happier than just worrying about losing weight.
“Stop foccusing on Re-duction of the body and start focussing on Pro-duction”
And finally;
These findings imply that to encourage physical activity among individuals with diverse weight histories and attitudes, physical activity messaging and programming may benefit from moving beyond a weight loss focus. Many participants in the present study found physical activity rewarding in itself. Disappointment in weight loss aims could be a disincentive to physical activity. Furthermore, physical activity messaging should feature a variety of bodies and abilities, as should activity venues and classes…An inclusive model of physical activity for people of all sizes would focus on enjoyment, pleasurable accomplishment, and social belonging emergent during physical activity, rather than focusing on possibly unachievable or ultimately exclusionary endpoints.
Personally I quite like that.
An inclusive model of physical activity.
If you put that at the heart of what you do clearly a calorie deficit is unequivocally not “all that matters”.
What’s Next?
I have plenty more articles about weight loss for females throughout this website.
Here is a selection I think would make great further reading for you:
You are also invited to get a bundle of Fat Loss Goodies from me including:
Get yourself a free month of workouts (Home and Gym-based options)
Get yourself a free copy of my e-book ”27 Ways To Faster Fast Loss”
Get yourself a free customized Calorie Calculator
Straight to your Inbox
All you have to do is put your email address in below:
References:
Hall, K. D., Heymsfield, S. B., Kemnitz, J. W., Klein, S., Schoeller, D. A., & Speakman, J. R. (2012). Energy balance and its components: implications for body weight regulation. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 95(4), 989–994. https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.112.036350
Fleming, J.A., Kris-Etherton, P.M. Macronutrient Content of the Diet: What Do We Know About Energy Balance and Weight Maintenance?. Curr Obes Rep 5, 208–213 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13679-016-0209-8
Jones NRV, Conklin AI, Suhrcke M, Monsivais P (2014) The Growing Price Gap between More and Less Healthy Foods: Analysis of a Novel Longitudinal UK Dataset. PLoS ONE 9(10): e109343. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0109343
nhs.uk. 2020. ‘Healthy Foods Expensive’ Claim Is Unrealistic. [online] Available at: <https://www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/healthy-foods-expensive-claim-is-unrealistic/> [Accessed 22 November 2020].
Abramson, Edwaed E., Stinson Shawn G., (1977).
Boredom and eating in obese and non-obese individuals,
Addictive Behaviors, Volume 2, Issue 4, 1977, Pages 181–185 https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4603(77)90015-6.Moynihan AB, van Tilburg WA, Igou ER, Wisman A, Donnelly AE, Mulcaire JB. Eaten up by boredom: consuming food to escape awareness of the bored self. Front Psychol. 2015;6:369. Published 2015 Apr 1. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00369
Social Market Foundation. 2020. What Are The Barriers To Eating Healthily In The UK? — Social Market Foundation. [online] Available at: <https://www.smf.co.uk/publications/barriers-eating-healthily-uk/> [Accessed 23 November 2020].
Frank LD, Kerr J, Sallis JF, Miles R, Chapman J. A hierarchy of sociodemographic and environmental correlates of walking and obesity. Prev Med. 2008 Aug;47(2):172–8. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2008.04.004. Epub 2008 Apr 22. PMID: 18565576.
nhs.uk. 2020. FTO ‘Fat Gene’ May Make People More Impulsive. [online] Available at: <https://www.nhs.uk/news/genetics-and-stem-cells/fto-fat-gene-may-make-people-more-impulsive/> [Accessed 23 November 2020].
nhs.uk. 2020. People With ‘Obesity Gene’ Can Still Lose Weight. [online] Available at: <https://www.nhs.uk/news/obesity/people-with-obesity-gene-can-still-lose-weight/> [Accessed 23 November 2020].
British Thyroid Foundation. 2020. Thyroid And Weight — The Science. [online] Available at: <https://www.btf-thyroid.org/thyroid-and-weight-the-science> [Accessed 25 June 2020].
Phelan SM, Burgess DJ, Yeazel MW, Hellerstedt WL, Griffin JM, van Ryn M. Impact of weight bias and stigma on quality of care and outcomes for patients with obesity. Obes Rev. 2015;16(4):319–326. doi:10.1111/obr.12266
Tomiyama, A., Carr, D., Granberg, E. et al. How and why weight stigma drives the obesity ‘epidemic’ and harms health. BMC Med 16, 123 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-018-1116-5
Faden, J., Leonard, D., O’Reardon, J., & Hanson, R. (2013). Obesity as a defense mechanism. International journal of surgery case reports, 4(1), 127–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijscr.2012.10.011
Blaine B. Does depression cause obesity?: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies of depression and weight control. J Health Psychol. 2008 Nov;13(8):1190–7. doi: 10.1177/1359105308095977. PMID: 18987092.
Schvey NA, Puhl RM, Brownell KD. The impact of weight stigma on caloric consumption. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2011 Oct;19(10):1957–62. doi: 10.1038/oby.2011.204. Epub 2011 Jul 14. PMID: 21760636.
Wicklund, RA, Duval, S (1971) Opinion change and performance facilitation as a result of objective self-awareness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 7: 319–342. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2055102915598088#bibr54-2055102915598088
Bombak AE. Obese persons’ physical activity experiences and motivations across weight changes: a qualitative exploratory study. BMC Public Health. 2015;15:1129. Published 2015 Nov 14. doi:10.1186/s12889–015–2456–0
Is Online Personal Training Effective To Lose Weight?
In this article I am going to lay out for you a true vision of what working with an Online One-To-One Personal Trainer is and what you should expect from the experience. Especially with beginners to fitness, there is a worry that they just won’t be motivated enough or disciplined enough to do it for themselves, and this often comes from a lifetime of trying and failing.
By the end of this post, you will have a true vision of what working with myself online looks like, what you can expect, and whether having me as your coach feels like a good idea for you. You will see what Online Coaching is, and then by the end of it, you will have a much much better idea of whether or not it is a good idea for you to do.
You will be able to make that call on whether this will just be another thing to add to your list of “tried and failed” or whether you can see how the constant communication and continuing updates really will work for you to get the results you want for yourself.
Whenever I get into a conversation with someone regarding Online Coaching, the conversation normally goes one of two ways:
Ghosted like the Tinder mess I truly am
Someone saying “but I need to see someone in person to get fit”
I have had success time and time again with people from all walks of life, people who have lifted barbells their whole life, or people who have no idea what a Squat is before they talk to me.
The heartbeat of what I do is to make Fitness as accessible to everyone as I possibly can In fact Fitness should be accessible to everyone. Online Coaching isn’t only for the highly motivated and highly skilled amongst us. It’s in truth, a test of how empowered you can become by learning and educating yourself on how your body works.
I don’t care if you do or do not know how to Squat, this isn’t a space for elitism. It’s a space for truth, honesty, and progress…and they are traits that we all have within us.
Just like my friend Liz.
Liz is nothing short of just astounding. She saw me talk at an event on Mental Health, and she then followed me on Instagram and that led to her working with me. We have never ever met in person, but she is the epitome of consistency when it comes to online training.
In our initial call with each other, she was so nervous and worried about where she currently was but was equally excited about seeing some change. We spoke for 90 minutes and I learned all about her family, her son Thomas (who is super cute and always says hello on our Coaching Calls), her job as a Cover Supervisor in a local school, and everything in between.
She is so consistent in her communication, and that is where her success truly lies. She has put in the hard work and dealt with some pretty huge stressors in the 18 months we have worked together, but despite all of that she has managed to lose and sustain 2 stone weight loss.
Here is Liz. The first work in process picture is from 02nd September 2019 and the second one was the 11th June 2020.
Every time I look back on this photo I just think “wow”. The hard work and effort she has put in really has paid off, and I am so incredibly proud of her.
Today I am going to address everything you need to know about Online Fitness Coaching, and whether or not it is a good idea for you to engage in.
Liz had never done any form of prescribed training or exercise before she met me, and look at what she has achieved.
You might think you can’t ever see yourself being consistent without seeing someone for 0.6% (1 hour) of your week, you might think that Liz had something you don’t, and you might think you have tried Apps and Workouts Online before and never done more than one or two, and therefore you think that this kind of coaching just isn’t right for you.
I get it.
But have a read. Find out what it truly looks like, then make up your mind.
Try not judge the “Online One-To-One Coaching” Book by its cover.
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR Is Online Personal Training Effective To Lose Weight?
Is Online Personal Training Effective To Lose Weight?
The Pros and Cons of Online Personal Training
Like all good summaries, a Pros and Cons list has a place because let’s face it…nothing is perfect.
The Pros of Online Personal Training
You can work with any trainer you want in order to achieve your goals
Its like putting on your favourite album by your favourite artist. It literally doesn’t matter where they are in the world, you can always listen to what they have created. How often have you found something online that you really resonate with, really love and trust and not be able to actually do it, because the person or thing is only available in Australia or Peru? Online Personal Training literally means if you find a coach that you love following on Social Media, you can work with them no matter what.
Your Program is fully designed for you so that you know you are getting the one on one attention you are paying for
You might think that by seeing someone in person you are getting more personal experience. Well quite often with in-person coaching, the trainers are so exhausted and worn down from the back to back nature of their work that they will roll out the same workout for client after client and make a lot of what they do up as they go. Online Personal Training, sorry, very good online trainers will create your workout programme for you and exactly what you want and need to achieve your own personal goals
More contact with your trainer so that you stay on track and motivated a lot more
The very nature of Online Personal Training means you get more contact with your trainer. With my clients I will email them daily, they get access to coaching calls, they get access to Q and As, they get access to my online platform, and they know they can ask me anything at any time in any way shape or form and will get a response from me within 24-48 hours. If a friend I work with online doesn’t get more contact with me than any other in-person trainer they have had, then I am not doing my job correctly.
More Workouts so that you achieve the goals you are after in a more productive way
In-person training is expensive and the more you want to workout, the more expensive it will get. Trainers will nearly always let you have your session with them, but if you wanted a programme to compliment that, that you can do on your own, I know many trainers charging extra on top for this. The reason you pay a trainer is for a result. Not for a certain number of workouts. Online Personal Training completely avoids this issue as the coach is always there for you to get the result. Not there to charge you for their time as you are taking them away from other potential clients.
No Upfront Cost so that if something unforeseen happens you still have financial flexibility
So you decide you want a personal trainer. You try to find one, you might get a “free taster session” and then without really knowing if you are going to get along well with your trainer, for 10 workouts you have to find quite a large amount of capital. You might need anywhere between £350 and £500 non-refundable. How do you know what the next 10-12 weeks are going to look like? That’s a lot of money to just part with on a human you just met and are now locked in to spend time with for the next three months of your life. Online Personal Training with me is fluid, flexible and without any upfront costs. You don’t have to part with £2000 for a 12-week programme or worry about what will happen if your child care fails you and you can’t meet me at the gym. I’m here to make this as sustainable as is humanly possible for you as that is what is going to give you the best weight loss results - the ability to give yourself time.
It’s More Affordable so that you can have more money for a Gym Membership or to spend on your family
Online Personal Training is more affordable for you than in-person training because I don’t have to pay a Gym to use their space. You aren’t paying me for the hour. You are paying me for results, and you get those results through a system that is personalised for you. You aren’t just paying me for 10 workouts, you are putting me on a retainer for your fitness and I will do everything within my power and what we have agreed to in order to get you those results.
You Will Get Results so you know your hard work and financial outlay isn’t wasted
There is no doubt about it, online personal training is as effective as in-person training when it comes to results. If you are a person who is willing to work hard, communicate with your trainer and be honest and open…you will get results. You do not need to see someone in person to lose weight because to lose weight all you need is a Caloric Deficit and therefore being able to communicate with a coach and ask questions and learn and educate yourself on what you need to do to get into a calorie deficit then you will get incredible results.
The Cons of Online Personal Training
You Will Be At The Gym Without Your Personal Trainer
There is no way around this. If you are in the UK, and I am in Australia - I can’t physically train you for that workout. However what I can do is review video footage of your form, advise you based on your feedback which you can give me daily and send you video “How To’s” on every exercise you will ever need in the Gym. Of course, there are people out there who just need that person next to them and if that is truly you, then start with an In Person Coach, and then to save money move to an Online Coach
Often Times Your Workouts Are “Custom Made”
As in they aren’t. They are sold to you as a Custom Plan, but they aren’t really. They are rolled out on an App and have been to hundreds of people before you. I have a guarantee that your workout is 100% designed for you when you work with myself online, but that is only possible when you fill out an initial form detailing for me the information I need. If you haven’t gone through that process with an Online Trainer, chances are, your workout is exactly the same as Bills who is 68 and a powerlifter.
You Might Need To Video Yourself From Time To Time
Correct Form is useful in the Gym environment. It can protect from injury and it can also allow you to reach your goals more efficiently as activating the correct set of muscles for an exercise will make it more effective. But correct form doesn’t just happen. It’s not something that being with someone in person can just create all of a sudden. Its to be coached worked upon and takes a long time to create. The “quick fixes” that can occur in form from a first glance can be nearly always seen on a video as well as being in person. So to check a few things over, grab a camera, and video yourself in an environment you feel comfortable in. You then have to email that to your trainer, and they will analyse what they see and give you corrections on what they see.
You have to trust yourself
I personally don’t think this is a con. But I bet you do. You probably think that Online Training leaves you on your own. That you have to do it all yourself, and you just can’t trust yourself to do that. I personally think that learning and nurturing your ability to trust yourself, going on a process of self-development with this as one of your goals is a very inspiring and positive thing to do, and I have no doubt you are capable of doing it.
Is Online Personal Training Effective To Lose Weight?
What is the Process of Online Personal Coaching?
This is what a month of Online Personal Training looks like. I personally would like to think this is how it works for all online training, but alas that just isn’t the case as there are lots and lots of “quick buck” and “plug and play” trainers out there.
So this is what you can expect if you work with me because that is the only process I truly know.
Your Initial Application
At some point, you will need to state your intention to me that you are considering hiring me as your coach.
On my Online Coaching Page I have a section at the bottom where you can send in an email to me with a few questions that you have answered so that I can get to know you.
There is also one at the bottom of this page right here
I ask the usual about Height, Weight, and Age, etc….then I also ask you two things:
What are your fitness goals?
What are you struggling with most right now?
Once you fill that out I will then respond to you within 48 hours and let you know if I think that I might be able to help you.
In that email, I will send you a link to book a video chat with me.
Your First Call
In my life, I have done these very “salesy” calls. I’ve literally sat there with a script in front of me, and tried to negotiate my way through a conversation in order to literally “make a sale”.
What is really interesting is that I personally didn’t find it very successful, and that was because I hated doing them, and I have always hated selling.
Therefore on your “Initial Call” now we just chat. Clearly, you want to learn more about Coaching and this is your opportunity to find out more about who I am, how I work and what I would expect from you. But more importantly, it’s my opportunity to find out all about you, because the more I get to know about you, the more empathy and understanding I can use when creating your program and when coaching you.
If you listen to my Podcast “The Fitness Solution” you will come across a few episodes with members of The Fitness Collective (my group coaching program) where we just chat about who they are and what they need help with. Your initial call with me will be very much like one of those podcasts.
So what I am really trying to say is make sure you bring a cup of tea and get ready for a good ol’ fashioned chin wag.
Let us now assume I thought we were a good fit for this relationship I will then send you:
Your “New Client Questionnaire”:
This is probably the most in depth fitness questionaire you have ever seen, and your answers on this will form the structure to how I write your programs and what goals you will set for yourself.
It is designed to give you a vision of what you want to achieve in the context of actually working with me, as well as giving me a vision of what you will be able to do and how you will do it.
It covers things like:
Your Fitness history
Your Nutrition history
Your current lifestyle factors like sleep and energy levels
Your Social life
What equipment you have at your disposal
What your long and short term goals are
Once I recieve this you then get:
Your Program:
Exercise/Training:
Every month you will get a new training program from me, it might be very similar to the month before, it might be completley different as you change and adapt.
How I build your program is completley up to you based compleltey on a couple of factors:
Your Goals and the amount of work that will be required to achieve them
How much work you feel you can be adherent to in order to remain consistent and enjoy the work set for you.
Like with all things, the key word here is balance.
You must always balance what you want with what you can achieve.
Then you must react to what life is throwing at you, and how you are feeling, and how that will affect your training over a certain period.
You may go through times in your life where three workouts a week is totally achievable - two at the Gym and one at home. But then all of a sudden you have a busier work schedule next month, combined with Christmas and a few family birthdays…and you need to drop to two workouts a week.
All you have to do is to tell me.
Tell me what you are expecting and what you think is achievable and we can amend your plan to allow for that.
I will of course send you any video tutorials you need and any advice you would like along the way in terms of your exercise. In The Fitness Collective, there is an Exercise Video Library which you will have access too and I am constantly updating that and adding new content to it for you.
Nutrition:
First of all I want to tell you that I will not give you a Meal Plan, I will not tell you when to eat or what to eat directly. You might think right now that you need a lot of guidance in this department, but restrictive Meal Plans especially in the Weight Loss field traditionally have very low success.
Remember this Chinese proverb:
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life”
I will teach you how to fish.
You will get guidelines and parameters on what you should be doing with your Diet.
All of my clients also get access to The Fitness Collective and in there I have over 250 recipes that are all Calorie counted, Macro Counted and are really tasty to help give you some fresh ideas on your Diet.
Your Diet will be checked in with every month as well, and we will spend a lot of our time strategising and getting this working for you in the best way possible for your goals.
REGULAR CONTACT WITH ME
The rule of more applies here. More contact. More help. More communication so that you do not feel alone in this journey. Many In-Person Trainers will only communicate with you during the time you pay them for, i.e your 1 hour a week, and maybe you get access to their Facebook Group…
But I don’t trade time for money.
I trade results for money.
Part of getting great results is effective communication. It doesn’t matter what team environment you are in whether that be a sporting team or a business team you must have effective communication.
And have no doubt.
We are a team.
Therefore to encourage results we will communicate in this manner:
Daily Email Communication: so that you don’t feel lonely on this journey, and I will respond to every email you send me within 48 hours.
Weekly Review Forms: so that we can have all of your data and track your progress regularly so the results you are getting are clear to see over time
Weekly Q and As and Group Training Calls: each week in The Fitness Collective I hold group Q and As and group Coaching Calls so that you can keep on track and stay super focussed.
Monthly Review Forms: Once a month you will receive a more in-depth review form to fill out so that we can get a wider look at your progress and see what changes need to be made for the upcoming month.
Monthly Video Calls: you also get Monthly Video calls with me to review, chat and figure out anything and everything you need to make sure that you head into the next month ready and raring to go.
The Fitness Collective: added to all of that as one of my one-to-one clients you get bonus access to The Fitness Collective which is basically the fitness equivalent of the inside of Gringotts Bank.
That’s about it. That is everything you should get from your Online Personal Trainer.
Is Online Personal Training Effective To Lose Weight?
How Online Personal Training Can Be Effective To Help You To Lose Weight
I cannot guarantee you results, and anyone that says they can are lying.
The only person that can guarantee you a result in your Weight Loss Journey is yourself.
What an Online Personal Trainer or Coach can and should do is facilitate your ability to believe in yourself.
What I will guarantee for you is that you will have all of the knowledge, facts, educational resources, and communication you need to become a success. You will always be treated with empathy and understanding and I will always hold up my end of everything I say.
We will almost definitely become friends, and we will celebrate all of your wins together. I will be there for you when the going gets tough…because it will get tough at some point…and no matter what happens you will get something out of this relationship.
To lose weight, you don’t need drastic measures and extreme diets.
You don’t need to be punished in the Gym each and every day.
You don’t need hours and hours of Cardio.
What do you need to lose weight?
You do need a modest Caloric Deficit so that you are behaving in a way that will lead to your desired outcome.
You do need someone to talk to so that when things get hard you can get some objectivity in your life.
You need to make learning and understanding yourself in this manner as enjoyable as possible.
You need someone to help you to keep you motivated and inspired to keep going even when you don’t want to and everything is telling you to give up.
You need regular communication and methods to keep track of what you are achieving so that you don’t lose focus and forget how far you have come.
And the bottom line?
You need to make it as sustainable as possible so that you can be consistent and do it for as long as you need to do it to get your result.
Weight Loss is a slow process.
And it is my job to make all of that happen for you.
To make it enjoyable because enjoyment leads to adherence, which leads to action, which leads to results, which leads to motivation.
For as long as you can enjoy the process of understanding and going through a Weight Loss Coaching Program then you will be successful.
And that means enjoying making progress, enjoying time off, enjoying building a relationship with a Coach, and everything in between.
Is Online Personal Training Right For Someone Like You?
This is hard for me to advise on a Blog post.
But what would I say is this…
If you have got to this point of the Blog and if what I have laid out has got you thinking about the possibilities that could come from working on your goals in this way, then yes. It is right for you.
If you can see yourself with a plan in your hands, a coach by your side, and open to the idea of not losing weight fast but losing weight effectively so that you can keep it off…then yes, I personally think this could be right for you.
Words are very powerful.
And they have the ability to help you visualize what you want.
If you can see yourself doing anything I have said in this post, then chances are you will do very well working with me.
One of the big resistances I get from people who are thinking about Online Training is that they aren’t going to be motivated enough to go to the gym themselves.
Which I understand.
But it is also a huge misunderstanding of how motivation works.
This is how motivation works:
You don’t need to be motivated to get the results you want.
You just need to keep going and keep taking action.
The more action you take, the more motivated you will become.
As an Online Personal Training Client all I would ask for from you is the following:
Try your best even if your best is still not getting you the results you want
Be honest even if it is hard and scary, worried, and disappointed with what the truth is.
Engage in the process talk to your coach, try things out, trust the process, understand that you learn through failure as well as success.
Do what is asked of you if you are asked to track your weight, then track it. If you are asked to fill out a form then do it. Don’t give into excused but be inspired by taking action.
Be coachable, allow yourself to be pushed, and take on feedback both positive and negative.
Ask questions both of your Coach and of yourself…and allow the answers to surprise and educate you.
Always be learning, being a student of what you are investing time and energy into is a very important part of the process. Through education comes inspiration.
If you are willing to do those things that I have listed, then I believe that Online Personal Training is right for someone like you.
You shouldn’t expect perfection from yourself.
In fact, I openly discourage it.
Because you are human, and understanding and engaging in your humanity will bring you success as opposed to treating yourself like a robot.
Be human.
Be perfectly imperfect.
And Online Personal Training will be very good for you.
What’s Next?
Well if after reading this blog post, you feel fired up, inspired and you want to chat with me about whether I think we could work together then you can start the process right now by filling out this Application Form:
The Best Meal Plan For Female Weight Loss
Welcome! I’m Adam and today I am going to give you the best meal plan for female weight loss.
In all honesty, I was really surprised when researching this article that Females are looking for Meal Plans just for “female weight loss”.
Ladies, what's so bad about the way men eat?
If you happen to be Male and have come across this article, then you are more than welcome here too. The Meal Plan that I will outline will 100% work for you, regardless of your sex.
There is nothing in this article that can’t be utilised by a man, to get just as incredible results in your Weight Loss Journey.
My friends…you are all welcome!
I promise you, at the end of this article, everything will be really clear, you will have a plan and be inspired with the knowledge you need to conquer your female weight loss conundrum.
In this article, I will give you the best meal plan for female weight loss and solve all of your problems and you are going to build your “healthy” meal plan in a really simple step-by-step way.
But before we get started I would like to invite you to become my friend by getting on my list.
I’ll email you things. Sometimes they will be educational, sometimes they will be inappropriate, and sometimes I might just want to know how the hell you are; either way…it means we can be friends.
Oh, and I will also send you some free fitness goodies too, like a free calorie calculator, a month of in-home and Gym Workouts and much more…but only when you send me your friend request:
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR “THE BEST MEAL PLAN FOR FEMALE WEIGHT LOSS”
Step 1: Calories For Female Weight Loss
Step 2: Foods You Can and Can’t Eat in your Meal Plan
Let me show you why and how I know this Meal Plan will work for you.
This is me. The photo on the left is from 2017 and the one on the right is from 2020:
As you can see…what I eat keeps me pretty lean. In fact, the heaviest I have ever been was 82kgs and the lightest 78kgs. My body doesn’t change much, because I follow the exact meal plan that you will follow come the end of this article.
But wait…
I’m a Man. And I’m writing about Female Weight Loss…
So let me show you my friend Jennifer. Or Jenny as her friends call her.
Jenny is a wonderful human. I’ve known her a long time from when she used to work out 5–6 times a week where I used to work. She works in TV and Film which is of great interest to me, because of my background in acting, and on top of all of that, she trusted me to coach her daughter too.
Jenny joined my Strong and Confident Program. She had previously tried all kinds of diets. She splashed money on Ketones, on Slimming World and she still struggled to make it “stick”. She has put in so much hard work over the last three months.
But what I am most proud of with her is that she has just kept working. Ticking off the days, and understanding the nature of what and when to eat.
Well, this is Jenny from the 20th March 2020 to the 28th May 2020:
How amazing is that?
Or there is Aisling. Aisling is a little pocket rocket. She is small in stature but huge in personality and so full of life. She is so much fun to train and always gives as much as she can.
But she also loves to party, drink and socialize. She can drink more Ciders than I can even count on a night out. She too fell foul to the Diet Business of Slimming World, but she too has put in the hard work and learned how to create balance in her meal plan for her own success.
These two ladies…and if you go right here you will see female after female conquering their weight loss following my meal plans. I’m not here to WOW you.
All I am trying to do is keep you interested enough to find out what all of my friends who work with me online can and have achieved so that you can believe it is possible for you as well.
Because you are about to learn what the best meal plan for female weight loss really is.
Step 1: Calories For Female Weight Loss
Every meal plan should start with knowing your calorie targets. So the first part is setting you up with what is known as a “Calorie Deficit Meal Plan” or a “Calorie Deficit Diet Plan”.
You could have the tastiest meals, with the best macronutrient split there ever was.
But if your Energy Balance isn’t tilted towards a Calorie Deficit, then you will not create weight loss.
800 calories a day? 1000 calories a day? 1200 calories a day?
Is probably what you are thinking…but I need you to forget about these arbitrary numbers.
Women of the World:
To what I am about to say.
Everybody's calorie needs are different.
Lumping you on some number that is quite honestly just plucked out of thin air isn’t going to help for two reasons:
It could be too few calories leading to over restriction, then failure to adhere, then you eventually giving up on your diet altogether
It could be too many calories, you aren’t in a Calorie Deficit for weight loss and you end up getting no results, which then means you give up because it isn’t working.
How Many Calories Do You Really Need?
Personally, I use the principle of a Calorie Window which I outline in this YouTube Video:
You have an upper guideline and a lower limit. Your upper guideline will be:
“Goal Bodyweight in LBS x 12”
Your lower limit will be aligned to what is known as your Basal Metabolic Rate which you can find out by heading here and downloading my Free Calorie Calculator (many other calculators are available on the Internet too).
Now…this is the important part.
All you have to do is get your calories between these two numbers each and every day. There is an upper guideline because you can go over it from time to time — that’s perfectly understandable.
There is a lower limit because your Calories each day should never EVER drop below your BMR in fact, I would prefer you never tried to just get to this number at all.
And your goal for your meal plan is this:
Eat as much food as you can eat to get as close to the upper guideline as possible..and you will still lose weight.
If you are now saying this to me, I totally understand why:
You will design your meal plans calories to a window because there will be times that sticking to your calories will be just too damn difficult. Times of high socializing for example, or Christmas as another. But I don’t want you to miss out on spending time with your friends and being social.
Coz not being able to do that in the name of dieting will suck.
The closer to your lower limit you get…the harder it will become to do.
And the words “hard” and “diet” never go well together.
Step 2: Foods You Can and Can’t Eat In Your Meal Plan
There are lots of examples of people losing weight by eating all kinds of stuff.
In fact, one of my coaches and friends Jordan Syatt lost weight by eating a Big Mac every day.
He lost 7lbs.
Eating a Big Mac every day.
In your life. I bet there are examples of people you know that have been able to lose weight seemingly eating “whatever the hell they want”.
There are other examples of people eating nothing but McDonald's creating weight loss (this is not what Jordan did by the way).
Is it a good idea? To only eat McDonald's?
Well, I’m not sitting here telling you to go and eat McDonald’s as the staple of your Meal Plan for Weight Loss.
What I am saying is that you need a balance.
The McDonald’s examples are one end of the extremity. The other is trying to “give up sugar”, “eat clean” or “give up carbs”.
Neither option gives you balance.
You want to thrive, not feel deprived. The answer to this lies in the balance.
Therefore your Weight Loss Meal Plan for Females will not list any foods as:
Off Limits
Good
Bad
Instead, every time you sit down to eat, ask yourself this one question:
“Will this food nourish me right now?”
Answering this will always drive you to balance.
Because nourishment means one thing: “The food necessary for growth, health, and good condition” [1]
This means that having a Pizza when you are craving a Pizza and you can’t do anything but think about Pizza…is nourishing you because it is causing you to mentally have a “good condition” and you are looking after your short-term and long-term mental “health”.
Of course, if all you do is eat Fast Food you are going to be neglecting a huge part of your growth, health, and good condition. But we are talking about balance here.
Will this nourish me? This will very often be answered with foods that are more congruent to your goals than against your goals. Foods that are full of nutrients and conform to what you probably think your Weight Loss Meal Plan should consist of.
But it does also mean, sometimes, you are going to need a Glass of Wine and a few crisps.
And that is perfectly ok.
As long as you balance it into your Calorie Deficit as outlined above.
So basically, within reason, there are no foods that are off-limits.
But there are foods that you should put well within your limits, and build your Meal Plan around as much as possible.
Protein — The Weight Loss Super Food
It’s no more a Super Food than anything else. But second to calories, it really is very important in your Meal Plan.
Protein is the most filling of foods you will eat.
Of all of the macronutrients, it will take the longest time to be digested by the body. Which means it keeps you fuller for longer. Which in turn will help you lose weight by bringing down how much you eat.
Protein will also complement your physical training really well. It will help your recovery from strength training and help you build and maintain muscle.
Protein will help your metabolism to burn calories as it has a very high Thermic Effect of Food (TEF).
Sources of Protein
Here is a good list to get started with and some of my favourite options [2]:
Meat per 100g serving (% of protein per kcal):
Chicken Breast: ~30g of protein/165kcal (18%)
Turkey Breast: ~28g of protein/189kcal (14%)
Steak: ~26g of protein/276kcal (9%)
Kangaroo: ~26g or protein/147.5kcal (17%)
Fish per 100g (% of protein per kcal):
Tuna Steak: ~29g of protein/129kcal (22%)
Salmon: ~22g of protein/210kcal (10%)
Dover Sole: ~15g of protein/87kcal (17%)
Halibut: ~~22g of protein/109kcal (20%)
Dairy per 100g (% of protein per kcal):
Eggs: ~12g of protein/144kcal (8%)
Greek Yoghurt: ~10g of protein/58kcal (17%)
Feta Cheese: ~10g of protein/96kcal (10%)
Whole Milk: ~3g of protein/61kcal (4%)
Vegetarian Options per 100g (% of protein per kcal):
Tofu: ~10g of protein/83kcal (12%)
Tempeh: ~20g of protein/194kcal (10%)
Seitan: ~25g of protein/127kcal (19%)
Lentils: ~9g of protein/112kcal (8%)
Fruits and Vegetables
These should be high up in your meal plan. Simply because they are very economic in their calories.
You can eat a lot of food…for not a lot of calories.
With both fruits and vegetables.
Do you remember when I said, you need to:
“Eat as much food as you can eat to get as close to the upper guideline as possible”
Fruits and Vegetables will be one of your biggest weapons in being able to achieve that goal.
Leafy Greens like, Spinach, Chard, Lettuce, Kale, and Romaine Hearts will all become some of your best friends.
Fruits like Berries (all varieties), Apples, Oranges, Watermelon, Peaches, and Pineapple.
I am only listing suggestions here. Filling your Weight Loss Meal Plan with any kinds of fruits and vegetables is going to serve you very well indeed due to the high fibre content they will keep you fuller for longer, helping you to avoid snacking elsewhere in your diet.
Water and other Zero Calorie Drinks
I love water. Sparkling, Still, it doesn’t matter and you need to learn to love drinking water too.
I advise most people to aim for three litres of water a day.
This is literally just their water intake. Try not to include teas, coffee, juice, and anything else you might drink in this total.
Filling up on calorie-free liquid is again going to help do a number of things.
Being well hydrated you will gain energy.
It fills your stomach up and will help reduce cravings.
Step 3: Weight Loss Meal Plan Timing
Do you know what time I eat my lunch each day?
I’m sure you don’t because it is impossible to say. All you have done is read my article, you have never met me, you don’t know my schedule, you don’t know my caloric needs or the goals for my physique.
And because you don’t know that about me, I clearly don’t know that about you.
Therefore anyone who is giving you a Weight Loss Meal Plan based on when to eat your food is not understanding who you are as a human.
You have a family. You may be on a date. You might be eating a friend’s house. You could be working a different shift pattern
There are so many variables that go into when you actually eat. It would be extremely foolish of me, your online coach, to sit here and tell you when to eat your foods.
All you need to remember is this: Eat foods that nourish you at that moment in time and fits into your lifestyle and your caloric allowances.
That’s it. It really truly is that simple.
This way you will feel less stressed, you will be in your own rhythm and will make your meal plan for weight loss work in the best way possible for you.
And that is what it is all about.
I would like to end on one last note about structure. The timing of your food doesn’t matter that much, but the structure with which you eat really does. If you can make sure you are eating breakfast, lunch and dinner each and every day this will really help you with your weight loss.
And if you want to take that one step further, a new study [3] has just been published by the University of Aberdeen which showed that eating a bigger breakfast compared to dinner each day actually reduced cravings and hunger throughout the day, and participants lost weight as their calories were controlled into a deficit.
With all of my clients on the Strong & Confident Program to work on their structured eating as much as possible - and not only do they lose weight, but they also improve their relationships with food as well.
Conclusion
That is it. That is your step-by-step guide to creating The Best Meal Plan for Female Weight Loss.
Step 1: Set Your Calories For Weight Loss
Step 2: Chose foods that ask the question “Will this Nourish Me?”
Step 3: Fit it into your lifestyle with structure in place.
Step 4: Execute the plan
You see, a lot of people would love for me to write a whole bunch of recipes, a whole bunch of macro-calculated foods and tell you when to eat them.
But Meal Plans like this very very very rarely work.
Especially when your goal is to lose weight.
If I sat here and was told you when and what to eat.
You would feel a lot more short-changed and less motivated to actually follow that plan.
Instead, I am telling you how and why you need to find the foods that will work best for you, in your life, with your personal balance within the guidelines of a Calorie Deficit.
That is it.
You can eat doughnuts.
If it fits into your calories.
You can drink Cocktails
If it fits into your calories.
You can eat Pizza
If it fits into your calories.
In fact, even if it pushes you over your calories, and you are having these foods in balance with your goals…then you can eat doughnuts, drink cocktails, and have pizza whenever you feel like it is answering this one question:
“Will it nourish me?”
The more you find ways of fitting in your favorite foods, and being able to live a life congruent to your goals, the more consistent you will be, the more regular your results will become, and the more nourished you will feel.
What’s Next?
Well, I am an Online Coach who has helped thousands of people work through the challenges in this article.
And it would be my pleasure to help you too.
My program is personal one-to-one online training called the Strong & Confident Program.
If you have ever wanted to achieve the following:
✅ Escape the constant dread of dieting?
✅ Release the guilt you attach to eating certain types of food?
✅ Learn to stop worrying about “the pesky last few pounds” and focus on all your body can do?
✅ Become truly happy with what your body is and what is capable of?
✅ Enjoy the feeling of being stronger and fitter as opposed to trying to reduce your size all the time?
✅ Achieve all of this and still lose body fat at the same time without huge restrictions and slavery to a fitness regime?
✅ Do it all on your own schedule, in your own way, with a program specifically designed for you?
Then please click on the button below and fill out an application form to start working with me.
Thank you so much for reading my work, and good luck with your weight loss journey!
I cannot wait to see how you go!
Coach Adam
References for the article: The Best Meal Plan for Female Weight Loss
1. Google.com. 2020. Dictionary — Google Search. [online] Available at: <https://www.google.com/search?q=Dictionary&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONQesSoyi3w8sc9YSmZSWtOXmMU4-LzL0jNc8lMLsnMz0ssqrRiUWJKzeNZxMqFEAMA7_QXqzcAAAA&zx=1600528087652#dobs=nourishment> [Accessed 19 September 2020].
2. Nutritionix.com. 2020. {{Metatags.Title || ‘Nutritionix’}}. [online] Available at: <https://www.nutritionix.com/> [Accessed 19 September 2020].
3. Leonie C. Ruddick-Collins, Peter J. Morgan, Claire L. Fyfe, Joao A.N. Filipe, Graham W. Horgan, Klaas R. Westerterp, Jonathan D. Johnston, Alexandra M. Johnstone, Timing of daily calorie loading affects appetite and hunger responses without changes in energy metabolism in healthy subjects with obesity, Cell Metabolism, 2022.