Part 4
A lazy approach to eating for fat loss can take you a long way, but there is merit in being more meticulous. What follows is a more accurate look at what you should eat for safe and sane fat loss.
1. Algorithm.
Enter your weight into the calculator below.
Calorie ceiling is set by multiplying your body's weight (in pounds) by twelve. This yields an estimate for a conservative calorie deficit. Low enough to facilitate fat loss, high enough to keep you nourished (assuming you eat nourishing foods). You should lose at least one pound per week. If you weigh 180 pounds, your calorie ceiling is 2160 calories.
Proteins are set by multiplying your body's weight (in pounds) by one. Beyond proteins helping with fat loss (because they yield less energetic material than they appear to), they're also essential for muscle growth. If you weigh 180 pounds, your protein intake is 180 grams.
The 🥩 symbol represents 25 grams of proteins, which is around one hockey-puck-sized portion (think: can of tuna) of protein-rich food (lean protein and chubby protein).
If you weigh 180 pounds, you need around 7 🥩:
🥩🥩🥩🥩🥩🥩🥩
Leftover energy is set by subtracting protein calories from the calorie ceiling (without accounting for non-protein energy). If you weigh 180 pounds, your leftover energy intake is around 1000 calories.
I’m not anti-fat or anti-carb. Both are energy. That’s all they are. Neither will prevent fat loss. The only thing that matters is keeping your energy under control, to the point of creating a consistent calorie deficit. They're two pistons. When one is high, the other has to be low. Or both can be equal. (To see an equal distribution of both in grams, check the bottom of the table.)
The ⚡ symbol represents 100 calories of energy in the form of fats, energy carbs, and any “energy” you accumulate from chubby proteins or purgatory proteins as a byproduct of reaching your protein intake.
- fats (100 cals): ⚡
- energy carbs (100 cals): ⚡
- chubby proteins (hockey puck): 🥩⚡
Chubby proteins, at their worst, contain just as much energy as they do proteins, so this symbolization is rather accurate. For every 25 grams of proteins (100 calories), you’ll get around 100 calories of energy.
Purgatory proteins are the ugly duckling. Tough to symbolize. I usually see categorize them as fats or energy carbs instead of proteins. Example: Peanut butter is a fat and so 100 calories of peanut butter becomes ⚡.
If you weigh 180 pounds, you're allowed 10 ⚡:
⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡
Plant carbs set to infinite. Eat as many as you want. The algorithm accounts for a respectable plant-carb intake.
The 🥦 symbol represents plant carbs.
If you weigh 180 pounds, you're allowed infinte 🥦:
♾🥦
2. Transmogrify.
Turning these numbers and symbols into a tangible quantity of real food.
If you weigh 180 pounds, this is your skeleton:
🥩🥩🥩🥩🥩🥩🥩
⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡
♾️🥦
Transforming these symbols into foods and meals isn't an exact science. Your personality and preferences are important.
1. General principles:
First, frequency.
Meal frequency doesn't matter for fat loss. Overall quantity of food consumed within a day matters more than when food is consumed within a day. Eat when you normally eat. Don't make a big fuss about this.
Adjusting meal timing is a huge behavioral modification. If you are a devout breakfast eater, then any kind of plan that eliminates breakfast will be met with considerable resistance. Not worth the hassle.
Second, distribution.
Distribute your overall food intake (especially proteins) somewhat evenly across your meals. This will be better for muscle growth. In general, each meal should have [1] at least one protein-dense food, [2] some plant carbs and/or fruit, and [3] an appropriate portion of energy carbs or fats.
Third, routine.
Eat your meals at the same time daily. Don't deviate from your schedule unless absolutely necessary. Your body will regulate hunger and appetite around your schedule. If you eat breakfast every day at nine o'clock, you'll be hungry (or, at least, you'll want to eat) every day at nine o'clock.
Fourth, planning.
Avoid unplanned feedings. Eat when you're supposed to eat. Don't eat when you aren't supposed to eat. Snacking shouldn't be impulsive. If you like to snack, it should be accounted for ahead of time.
Fifth, boring.
Eating the same meals every day makes life easier. You'll know what to buy at the supermarket every week. You'll learn how to prepare and cook your meals in a time-efficient matter. Everything becomes more habitual, and thus easier. If you need variety in your diet, I suggest making one meal a misfit meal. In other words, eat the same breakfast daily and the same lunch daily, but vary your dinners every day.
2. Personal particulars:
First, foods.
Identify foods you can afford and can see yourself eating regularly within each core category. Here are my foods:
Proteins: chicken breasts, chicken thighs, ground beef and muscle meats, organ meats (specifically liver and heart), salmon, sardines, eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, kefir, and milk.
Energy carbs: raw honey, fruits, potatoes, and rice.
Plant carbs: cabbage, sauerkraut, carrots, broccoli, onions, Brussels sprouts, and asparagus.
Fats: cheeses, olive oil, butter, and peanut butter.
Your list should look different. My list looks different every year. I wasn't eating liver or sardines a few months ago. I couldn't stomach them. I learned to like them because of their health benefits.
Eat what you can eat.
Second, meals.
Combine the foods from the exercise above into appetizing meals. Of course, “appetizing” is subjective. I eat sardines and sauerkraut for lunch. I don't expect you to do the same. Remember the template:
- Protein-dense food
- Plant carbs and/or fruit
- Sane portion of energy carbs or fats
Be sure to consider the logistics of each meal. For instance, if you don't have time to cook in the morning, don't plan on eating steak and eggs. Or if you eat lunch in a crowded break room, don't plan on eating loud-smelling tuna.
3. Sloppy specifics:
I can't create meals for you, but I can give you an example of what all of this might look like atop three square meals.
Assume a weight of 180 pounds:
🥩🥩🥩🥩🥩🥩🥩
⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡
♾️🥦
Breakfast
Six eggs 🥩🥩⚡⚡
Banana (or other fruit) ⚡
Kefir 🥩⚡
Lunch
Sardines (or chicken breast) 🥩
Apple (or other fruit) ⚡
Carrots (or other plant carb) 🥦
Dinner
Ground beef 🥩🥩⚡⚡
Steamed broccoli (or other plant carb) 🥦
Small bowl of rice (or other energy carb) ⚡
Cottage cheese 🥩🥩⚡⚡
Blueberries ⚡
For variety, you can keep the template intact and change some of the foods. For instance, for dinner:
Salmon 🥩🥩⚡⚡
Steamed broccoli (or other plant carb) 🥦
Baked potato (or other energy carb) ⚡
Cottage cheese 🥩🥩⚡⚡
Blueberries ⚡
There are many ways you can move things around to better suit your personality. For instance, I like eating a bigger dinner. I'd opt for leaner proteins at breakfast (instead of eggs), which would give me more energetic freedom at the dinner table.
In the end, this matters most:
🥩🥩🥩🥩🥩🥩🥩
⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡
♾️🥦
How you put it into play should pander to your preferences and your personality.
3. Extras.
Cauterizing the questions you are bound to have.
TOO DIFFICULT?
You can combine a lazy approach with a meticulous approach.
First, protein and go. Calculate your protein needs. Spread proteins across your meals somewhat evenly. Make proteins the center of your meals. Eat a baseball-sized portion of either plant carbs or fruits with every meal. Eat as many energy carbs and fats as you want until you're satiated. Don't eat until stuffed.
Second, symbol simplicity. Decode your current meals with the symbols established. For instance, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich looks like this:
300 calories of peanut butter
⚡⚡⚡
Two slices of bread
⚡⚡
Jelly
1/2 ⚡
(As you can see, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches aren't a great option for fat loss.) Once your meals are decoded, you'll know how much energy you're consuming. And, chances are, you'll be able to gauge your current fat loss potential based on how many ⚡ there are relative to how many ⚡ you're allowed.
If there's a huge disparity, you can eliminate ⚡ or replace ⚡ with 🥩 and/or 🥦 without making huge changes to your current diet. Of course, there's a chance your current diet deserves to be in a dumpster. You may not be able to tweak your way to six-pack abs.
TOO HUNGRY?
Managing hunger is an individual endeavor. The reasons for hunger are often more psychological than physiological. Here are some things to think about:
First, eat more plant carbs and lean proteins. This is the best way to add bulk to your meals while simultaneously keeping energy low.
Second, make better meals. Many things influence how we feel about what we eat. Think about tastes: sweet, salt, sour, bitter, and umami. There are also textures: watery, firm, crunchy, creams, and chewy. If you don't feel satisfied after your meals, add different tastes and textures to your meals.
Third, schedule hunger. Hunger is difficult to deal with when you're bored and have nothing else to think about. This is why I like intermittent fasting. I don't eat breakfast. I eat my first meal at noon. I get hungry throughout the morning, sure, but I'm busy working. It doesn't bother me. I don't get hungry in the afternoon or evening because that's when I eat most of my food.
You don't have to practice intermittent fast, but you can try to “schedule” hunger so that if (when) it happens, you're better able to surf the sensation. For instance, if you struggle with late-night snacking, make your earlier meals somewhat smaller so you can eat a bigger dinner. The opposite can work, too. Sometimes eating more food earlier in the day can make you less hungry at night. As mentioned, this topic isn't easy to tackle because it's so personal.
TOO BLAND?
You don't have to eat dirt. Beyond experimenting with tastes and textures, use spices, herbs, and condiments to add flavor to your meals. Some condiments, like mustard and hot sauce, have minimal calories which makes them a useful tool. Other condiments, like salad dressings, are chock full of sugar and oils. This energy must be accounted for.
RESTAURANT FOOD?
Restaurant food is a wildcard. In general, I recommend avoiding restaurant food because you never know how it's prepared. You don't know if the potatoes you're eating were cooked in one tablespoon of butter or ten tablespoons of butter. (Odds say ten. In Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain wrote, “If you eat at any good restaurant, assume you've eaten a stick of butter.”)
Even when restaurants have nutrition facts for their food they can't be trusted. One of my coaching clients used to eat Chipotle every day. He assumed the bowls he ordered matched the calorie and macronutrient information on the website. After he struggled to lose weight, I told him to get a food scale and weigh the bowls he was eating. They weighed 1.5-2x more than the website said they should, meaning he was tossing back way more calories than he thought he was.
If you want certainty, cook your own food.
PURE PLEASURE?
As mentioned, 80% of your intake should consist of fresh(er) foods from Mother Nature. The remaining 20% can creep into the ultra-processed world in a way that best suits your personality. There are two ways to walk this line.
First, give yourself a small “pure-pleasure” allowance every day. For fat loss, my 205-pound self should eat 2500 calories, which means I have 200ish calories of pure-pleasure allowance, to eat something every day that’s less about nourishment and more about enjoyment. In other words, I can use two of my lightning bolts ⚡⚡ on Moose Tracks ice cream (or whatever).
Second, use your 20% one day of the week. This is known as a cheat day. You stay rock-solid for six days, eating 100% nourishing foods. On the seventh day, however, you let loose and eat whatever trash you want (doing your best to respect your calorie ceiling).
I used to be a cheat-day deviant. I used to eat until I couldn't hear myself think. Not so much anymore. Cheat days were a big reason I developed an eating disorder (under control now). Story for another day. Many people love cheat days. I'm not here to judge.
NOT WORKING?
If you're three weeks into the challenge and you haven't lost weight, you need to make some changes to your diet. Diet drives fat loss. The culprit for lackluster progress is usually overeating: Your energy intake is higher than it should be.
Sometimes the blame for this is covert and curious, but let’s start with the overt and obvious enemy: inconsistency. Have you been doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing? Or are you eating a little more than you’re supposed to on the weekends? Having a few glasses of wine here and there with dinner?
If you can look at yourself in the mirror and honestly claim consistency, the next concern is accuracy. Are your servings and portions the size you think they are? Are you really only eating 200 calories of peanut butter with your banana?
In order to answer these questions, you have to forego the lazy approach and get meticulous. You have to start measuring what you eat, to ensure you're eating what you think you're eating. Chances are, there will be a disparity.
If you refuse to track your intake more meticulously, you have two options. First, simply trust you’re eating too much and eat less. This will may not be the best idea, as you may end up eating too few calories, which can trigger some undesirable metabolic adaptations. Second, eat reality. If you refuse to follow the recipe as closely as possible and you don’t measure meticulously, you can’t be surprised when your inexperienced eyeballing fails.