When it comes to fat loss, there are many different ways to lose fat. When it comes to fat loss, there are 1 hundred million different diets designed to lose fat and don’t get me started on those stupid detoxes that claim to be 'life changing'.
Simplicity always wins when it comes to nutrition for fat loss, muscle gain, or even maintaining your current physique.
Firstly, tracking calories is what I recommend all my clients do because it ensures that they have some form of control with their portion sizes and food choices. This is what most people DON’T have so the best way to ensure my clients control their food is by giving them a meal plan that covers their daily calories and macronutrients, or by ensuring that they track their own food and have to stick to an 80/20 or even 90/10 rule.
What is this rule?
80/20 explains that out of a 100% day, the individual has to stick to eating 80% of their daily calories from whole foods, leaving the remaining 20% of their daily caloric intake open to choosing whatever foods they like.
I usually recommend the 90/10 rule (same as 80/20 but which 90% whole food and 10% your preference) as the majority of people I come across are after fat loss goals and want them sooner rather then later. The more you stick to healthier eating and correct portions of foods, the faster you will achieve your goal.
Let’s be real, it takes a very disciplined person to not indulge at all. Unless you’re in competition, you need to be at a certain weight class, or you need to look a certain way, the 90/10 rule, in my opinion, is such a good tool to use to ensure that you can enjoy those higher calorie foods but not go too off track and end up overeating on the wrong things. It's the overconsumption of calories from high carb/low density foods that causes unwanted fat gain as they tend to put us in a calorie surplus. When this consistently happens overtime (which is does with most people),, that unwanted fat gain occurs.
An example of how this would work is given below.
Say that your daily calorie goal is 2000 calories and you give yourself 20% of that 2000 as an indulgence meal. That means that 400 calories is open for you to eat whatever you want. Once you’ve hit that 400 calories, you CANNOT indulge further and you must stick to those healthier wholefood options that are on your plan. Look up how many calories are in your favourite donut or ice cream or burger and go from there.
This is a great tip to help you over the silly season.
