Will a ‘Healthy’ Diet always work.
A healthy diet And an Effective diet, the difference.
Working as a coach I quickly discovered that training people is as easy as 1, 2,3
It wasn’t a problem for me to take a new client, introduce them to weight training, apply progressive overload, make sure they have a good balance of push and pulling movements, correct any abhorrent technique and generally supervise.
I think ANY trainer worth his trackies can do that, although I’m sure some would prove me wrong.
The results are of course, Great.. More muscle, more strength, an increased resistance to injury and ‘niggles’, and of course… that person gaining confidence in themselves from such improvements
This is, however.. Only one side of the coin, would you like to have less Fat on your body? Of course you would, and your average client is no different.
Less fat almost always means having
- Better health
- better appearance
- A more athletic body shape
- More appeal to the opposite sex
- An enhanced sense of wellbeing.
All things that come with dropping flab.
And I’m not finished yet, there is more good news, Losing body fat is as simple as consuming less calories than you are expending. How hard can it be?
Well it would seem, Quite hard. Despite this fact well over 50% of us are overweight or obese, and that brings me to the crux of the article. Eating healthy doesn’t always work for fat loss
I hear it from people all the time, they are doing great with their diet, and it’s all really healthy meal’s going in. That’s fantastic, but what exactly is a ‘healthy meal’?
To me, if your goal is to lose fat, A healthy meal is one that allows you to move closer to that goal while still containing an abundance of Micro nutrients on top of the bare bones protein, fat, carb and finally, calorie content.
Let me show you an example I pulled straight from someone I work with
This particular female was active, training with weights twice a week, had an active job. Her body shape was improving with the training, but the fat was not coming off.
I asked her to write down for me during a session her dinner that night
It was the following
Slow cooked sausage casserole
- 2-3 x Medium sized high quality sausages
- Sauce made from tomatoes, Veg stock, red wine and spices
- Extra veg on the side
- New potatoes – 2 medium each, cooked in coconut oil
A delicious sounding and on the face of it perfectly healthy meal, the meat is good quality and there’s no sugar or processed foods added, plenty of protein in there to boot, definitely ‘healthy’ in most people’s books.
The problem is – She needed to be eating 1900 calories a day to lose weight
When you add up 3 sausages, potatoes, the sauce, the extra veg, the oil everything is cooked in, you’re looking at getting close to 900 calories for this one evening meal, NOT a meal fit for purpose considering it’s nearly half her daily calories
This is exactly why you can eat as healthily as you want but if the food still contains too many calories you will not lose fat or weight, often leading to confusion and frustration which are just 2 or 3 stops away from the biggest sin of all.. Quitting.
The key, as it is too much of life (apparently) is Balance, Swap the sausages for a leaner cut like pork fillet, oven cook the potatoes, steam the veg and you reduce the calorie count while still keeping the food content and quality high (so it fills you up)..This meal now fits nicely into her daily plan
Summing up
- Remember – Eating ‘healthily’ is different to eating for a specific goal, the key is to combine the 2 into a diet that will get you excellent results but will also leave you satisfied.
- Traditional Healthy foods still contain calories, it’s a cliché but yes, too much of anything is bad.
- You can enjoy a rich, varied and tasty diet and still lose weight but you must educate yourself, practice and if need be, Get help from a pro.
Look deeper
Steve.
