There have been a lot of questions swirling around Lake Norman Fitness Specialists the past few weeks about dieting and proper protocols to follow. To most, dieting can seem like an impossible task, and when we hear the word “diet” it usually comes with some sort of negative vibe attached to it. If you change your frame of mind, and your process, it can actually be quite simple and enjoyable. First of all, don’t ever think of it as “dieting.” In fact, let’s throw that word away right now and forget it forever. The truth is that “dieting” doesn’t work. I have many clients who have had horrible results from so called “diets” in the past that were unrealistic and left them in a worse position than they were in before they started. Dieting usually refers to some sort of drastic measure to get you to your end goal quickly. There are many protocols that exclude certain food groups, cutting back your intake to drastically low numbers, or have you spending tons of money on supplements and meal replacements. The truth of the matter is that it doesn’t have to be that complicated. In fact, the less changes you make the better off you will be in the long run. For my clients with body composition goals the solution is quite simple. Track your intake daily, and make small changes every single day to move towards your end goal. Weight loss is all about calories in, and calories out. If you are expending more than you are taking in, you will lose weight.
The number one rule for all of my clients who come to me with body composition goals is to start out with tracking your intake. At this point I don’t care what you are eating. All I am worried about is your overall caloric intake over the course of a typical week. Again, your OVERALL INTAKE is the key. Get yourself a notebook, take notes in your phone, carve it in a stone tablet, I don’t care. Just make sure you come as close as you can to writing down everything that you put in your mouth with the serving size and caloric count. The science is far from perfect and the room for error is pretty darn high, but as long as you are tracking you can identify trends and outliers within a typical week and begin to make small changes.
When your week is all laid out in front of you, then the fun begins. When I look at a client’s journal I begin to circle some of the foods that can be replaced with healthier options. My focus isn’t to eliminate calories completely, but to replace calorically dense foods with healthier, nutrient dense options. When I do this, a funny thing happens. Their overall intake over the course of a day automatically drops. I don’t expect my clients to change everything over night, in fact i encourage them not to. We start with swapping foods here and there until they become the norm, and repeat the cycle until their journal is in line with their goal. I like to see habits formed around small changes, not drastic measures that you will give up on after only a few days.
Let’s be honest. Life is crazy enough without having to treat nutrition like diffusing a bomb, blind folded, with one hand. Try this straight forward approach to making changes and I promise you will begin to see results. Get out that pad and pen and start tracking. Don’t be hard on yourself and don’t swing for the fences when making changes. Small food swaps can make all the difference in the world. Once your intake is in line we can then play around with macro (protein, fat, and carbohydrate) ratios and nutrient timing to take your results to the next level, but until then, your journal will be your best friend.
Josh Soper BS, CSCS
