Over the years I have done a number of different diets to loose weight – Weight Watchers, Atkins, low-carb, Trim Healthy Mama, Whole 30, Carb Cycling and so on.  I would have some success on them and then get burned out on the limited plan or the amount of planning it took to stay on plan.  I typically stayed with well known diets and didn’t dive down the extreme programs.

I’m not saying these well known programs aren’t good, they served a purpose for me and taught me a number of things.  There are so many diets out there and a number of them are so restrictive.  The problem I see with the super restrictive diets is that you are narrowed down to a strict list of food and when you “fail” and eat something that is not on plan you feel terrible because you didn’t have enough will power to stay on plan.  In reality you probably not eating enough to begin with and your “failure” was your body screaming for food.  You now feel like a failure and feel worse than you did before you started the diet.  Now you go eat all the things you weren’t suppose to eat and gain weight.  Do you know this cycle?  I’ve done it too but not in recent years.

I read this article the other day and it resonated with me because this is what I do now!!!

Just a warning on the language it’s definitely adult only

http://physiqonomics.com/fat-loss/

For a child friendly version go here – http://physiqonomics.com/the-best-fat-loss-article-child-friendly-version/

It’s a long article but I love it!!  Yes I know I tell you that I love stuff all the time.  But believe me, I wouldn’t steer you wrong!! You can follow them on Facebook and Instagram

So for me, this matches up with what I’m currently doing – eating plenty of calories and having good food all the time.  That does not mean that I am eating high fat and high calorie junk.  This means that I am eating good for me food, good tasting food and splurging when I want a treat and making sure to log it and make sure it fits into my day.

I had the pleasure of participating in Ben Coomber’s Fat Loss For Life – 8 week program during the summer.

You can check out his website – http://bencoomber.com/  there is a lot a good stuff, some free downloads, links to his podcasts and his supplements.

So in my 8 week program, Ben had us use a formula (similar to the one in the article) to calculate what our calorie needs were.  Not my resting metabolic rate (I talked about that in this blog post), but my overall calorie needs based on my gender and activity levels.  This calculating put me at 2500 calories, yes you read that right.  Ben very much talks about eating more food, not less in the goal to burning fat and loosing weight.  After 2 weeks of not loosing weight but loosing inches, I chatted with Ben and we reduced my calories to 2200 to create a little more calorie deficit.  I’m still loosing inches, scale isn’t moving, but this process is helping to ramp up my metabolism and keep the fire burning which will result in loosing fat and keeping or gaining muscle.

So the moral to this story is, eat more food (based on science not just massive amounts of calories), eat good for you food that tastes good, do not overly restrict your food, and enjoy eating.  Now here is a disclaimer on restricting your food – if you have a medical reason to not eat an entire food group – gluten, dairy, etc. then please take it out of your diet.  I can not eat wheat, it tears me up so I avoid it.  I also have some trouble with milk and certain dairy, so I’m not going to eat that either.  If too much sugar causes you to eat an entire package of oreos, then back up and take out the processed sugar and eat lots of fresh fruit.

Will power is over rated and you will beat yourself up for thinking you don’t have it.  How about you plan out your food for the week making sure you have good protein, lots of fruits and veggies, good fats and make it appeal to you.  And if you want to have a little bit of good quality gelato or dark chocolate then eat it and keep yourself happy.