The Question I always get asked if I can write someone a new nutrition plan for weight loss, everyone I encounter seems to be looking for a brand new diet. The thing is I don’t know what they like, what they don’t like, when they eat, what their nutrition plan is like now and nor am I qualified to tell people what they should be eating and when. Not many personal trainers are.
To be qualified to be able to do that we would have to spend 4 years at university studying to be a dietician. Only then can we give you a plan and tell you to eat this.
If you are looking for fat loss it’s probably not the best idea to get a stranger to tell you what to eat, no one knows what you like better than you do.
But in this blog I am going to give you the best tips possible in order to create your own.
Firstly you may not even need to change you diet just yet.
If you are someone who is inactive you can achieve fat loss simply by increasing your output by going to the gym. Diets are habitual and deeply ingrained into us and can be hard to change, if building a fitness routine is less daunting start here first before adjusting your diet.
Once you’ve established a good solid gym routine it’s time to work on adjusting your diet. What I suggest doing first is keeping a food diary of what it is you consume. If it’s not too much go straight into tracking your calories on an app like My Fitness Pal, if it's too much a diary will do fine. By keeping a daily food diary you will start to notice your eating habits, take time to analyse where you could cut calories back to help with fat loss. Lets say you notice at 7pm every night you reach to the cupboard to eat 1/2 a pack of biscuits. Your first thing to do is cut that down to 1/4, yes only cut it down don’t cut it out just yet, this will make it easier to stick to.
After staying on top of your food diary for sometime you will slowly start to improve your diet by cutting back your over eating. This may not feel like much of an improvement or feel like a healthier diet. But if you are losing body fat this in it’s self is healthy enough to begin with.
After making these small adjustments for sometime and you feel ready to improve your diet further (or you’ve hit a plateau) it’s now time to focus on calorie counting.
You don’t want to be keeping a diary for life nor do you want to be scanning food barcodes for ever but this is the best way to learn. Im not going to lie tracking calories everyday can be a bit of a pain, but ask yourself is 6-12 months of tracking worth staying leaner and confident for the rest of my life? The answer should be yes.
After tracking calories for some period of time you become better at intuitive eating (eyeing up food and roughly knowing the calories). I spent a good 9-12 month tracking everything I ate, I no longer have to do this unless I eat new foods or change my goals.
So find out the calories you need to achieve fat loss then start tracking and stay around that number of calories, if fat loss happens great keep it there, if not bring them lower.
Okay now the basics of fat loss are done it’s time to get a more balanced and healthy diet.
First let’s talk about protein, protein is needed by the body for growth & repair. It develops your hair, nails, cells, skin and muscle. An inadequate supply of protein can lead to problems with all the above, so getting enough is vital. Protein is also very high in satiety, meaning it helps you feel more full, this really helps when trying to lose weight. You need to aim for a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, if you weigh 130lbs aim for 130g of protein. This will be near enough impossible for most people to start withso slowly build your way up to it.
Next we need fibre, vitamins & minerals luckily the two pretty much go hand in hand, most foods high in fibre contain a good amount of vitamins and minerals to. Most peoples diets lack in enough protein and these 3, so you need to ensure you start getting enough. Try eating a rainbow a week, yellow peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, orange peepers, red peppers, the more colours the better range of nutrients. If it grows from the ground it’s probably good for you and is packed with nutrients and vitamins.
To be on the safe side I recommend also taking a multivitamins tablet daily to ensure you are getting enough.
The main vitamin deficiency’s across the world are the following:
Iron, a lack of can hinder production of red blood cells which compromises nutrients transportation and the oxygen passage to cells. Sources, dark green leafy vegetables, beans and lentils & cashews.
Vitamin A, a deficiency can damage your eye health and reproductive system. Sources, oily fish, liver, cheese & eggs.
Vitamin B-1 (Thiamine), plays a vital role in role in substrate metabolism and nervous system. Sources, beef, oats, oranges, nuts.
Vitamin B-9 (Folate), it helps create red blood cells and DNA, it has a large role in the brain and nervous development system, particularly in children. Sources, asparagus, eggs, leafy greens, citrus fruits.
Vitamin D, deficiency is now recognised as a pandemic, its estimated that over a billion people worldwide are deficient. Vitamin D helps the body regulate the amount of calcium to assist the on the development of bones and teeth. Sources, oily fish, egg yolk, beef liver, sun.
How many carbs and fats should you be eating? It doesn’t really matter, if your prefer carbs eat more carbs if you prefer fats eat more fats. Just be sure you get healthy sources of both.
Be sure not to ban any foods, this leads to excessive bingeing and diet failure. Just have them less often than you currently do.
And that’s how you plan your diet to suit you.
If any of this sounds complicated or you are unsure of anything then why not sign up to a weeks free trial with me at The Lemon Frog Fitness Company.
No commitment or sign up needed just come try it out and see if it’s for you.
Email me at louis@lemonfrogfitness.org to book your free weeks slot.
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Thanks for reading :)