Oh man. You guys are sooooo going to hate me. That’s an awfully big claim in the title right? And, if you’re like most people, you probably want to hear something profound like: “I found this diet where all you do is stop eating after 7 pm and you’ll lose weight.” Or “I lost 100 pound on the all you can eat ice cream diet!” Well, that is not how it’s done. Instead, we are going to go old school, with some new school spin on it. But, you will find out that you can lose weight without being hungry, and you will be able to sustain it.
That stuff they taught us in school all of those years ago, that’s pretty much it. Oh we’ll put a twist on it somewhat, but the fact is, “Eat your vegetables and exercise.” is a pretty damn good place to start. But that’s not life, and all vegetables and no beer makes Joe a dull boy!
Let’s start with the losing weight without being hungry part. There is this great book by Matt Fitzgerald called “The New Rules of Marathon and Half-Marathon Nutrition”. If you are a runner, this is GOLD! If you want to lose weight, ignore the running stuff and just read the nutrition stuff and this is GOLD! It’s a great book. Mark discusses a concept called calorie density, and explains that our hunger is driven by a several factors. Things like calorie intake, metabolism/calorie burn, blood sugar, and VOLUME. How much we eat matters. Obviously if you eat more you will probably be fuller, longer. Told you this wasn’t rocket science. So as an example, it takes 10 ounces of potatoes to provide 240 calories and it takes ONLY 2 ounces of a doughnut to provide the same 240 calories. Which one will curb your hunger longer?
I am not a nutritionist, so I will only briefly touch on this, but processed foods and refined sugars have a very different impact on our body then natural foods. So how your body processes a doughnut compared to an apple is very different. So do not fall in to the trap of “Well, fruits have sugars in them. So what’s the difference?” Fructose doesn’t cause the same type of sugar spike and crash that refined sugar does and therefore your appetite and energy levels will be better moderated with the apple. I try not to get cute with this stuff, simple is better. Doughnut BAD, apple GOOD.
Using the concept of calorie density then, if you were going to have a snack at night and you were targeting 240 calories, you could choose between 2 ounces of a doughnut or 3 medium sized apples. For someone who is hungry, the choice is obvious. AND, there is no nutritional value with the doughnut. There are no vitamins or nutrients, where as the apple is packed with fiber, vitamins, and nutrients. Finally, who the heck eats 2 ounces of a doughnut? You will eat… the… whole… thing, all 800 calories of it, and you’ll be hungry 30 minutes later!
You’re probably thinking “Duh Joe! That’s all great stuff that I knew anyway, but what can I do practically with it so I start to make REAL changes in my day to day life?” That my friend is a great question, so let’s tackle that next! I’m going to layout a very simple way that Mark looks at ensuring that he get’s the right mix of foods in to his body, and then I am going to discuss how I made some changes to my mentality that have driven a sustainable lifestyle change. And that is the real secret sauce. But first, I need to go get my long run in! No; really. Go check Strava (I’m: Joe Randene). It’s “Sunday Runday” so I have to go get mine!… Ok, that’s done! (2 hours later.)
Remember that stupid nutrition pyramid in high school? What Mark does is kind of like that. He calls it “The Diet Quality Continuum”. Here is how he classifies each category of food, in order of decreasing quality:
- Vegetables (including legumes)
- Fruits
- Nuts and seeds
- Fish and lean meats
- Whole grains
- Dairy products
- Refined grains
- Fatty Meats
- Sweets
- Fried foods
The first six are considered high quality and the last four are low quality. If you follow this simple rule and add a little exercise to your routine you will be well on your way to losing weight in a sustainable way without being hungry. Ready, this is earth shattering stuff. Mark’s rule is this: “Eat vegetables more often than fruits, fruits more often than nuts and seeds, fish and lean meats more often the whole grains, etc.” If you do this and stick mostly to the top six, you will lose weight and not be hungry. Why? Calorie density and no processed foods. Let’s say you burn 2000 calories per day (you need to exercise some to do this), and you want to eat only 1500 so that you create a deficit and start to lose weight. You can eat allot more volume of the first six categories to fill yourself up, and then you can the bottom four. Your typical value meal from a burger joint with a coke can easily exceed 2000 calories. Ouch! Also, with no processed foods and refined sugars, your body processes these first six categories without creating the sugar spikes and the ensuing cravings.
I’m going to give you two practical methods to use this information to lose weight. One we’ll call kind of high tech, and the other you just need paper and a scale. For people who like some technology and apps in their life, this is what I do. I have a Fitbit that tracks how many calories that I burn everyday and on the app, I can log all of the food that I eat. The app is cool because it has a library of foods and their caloric composition by weight. Now, I am NOT that person who whips out a food scale, I don’t want or need to be that accurate, so I just guess. Close enough is good enough for me. The app also will tell you for most brands of food at the grocery store and most restaurants what the calories are, it really is pretty cool. So now I know how many calories I’m burning and how many I’m putting in. I set the goal for a 500 calorie deficit so I have some wiggle room, and I am in maintain mode! Want to lose some weight change the deficit goal. Dead easy.
For those of you who are not inclined to use technology for everything, here is the piece of paper and a scale method. Log everything that you eat each day and try to stay to the top six categories, and weigh yourself once per week. Here is an example of my day whether I am using the app or a piece of paper:
Breakfast: 3 bananas, 1 cup yogurt
Mid morning snack: 1 cup nuts and dried fruit
Lunch: Big bowl of mixed salad with one can of tuna
Mid afternoon snack: 5 dates
Dinner: 1 chicken breast, 1 cup brown rice, 2 cups vegetables
Snack: 1 apple, 2 pears
If you are still gaining weight or maintaining it each week, simply start to cut back on the portions or increase your physical activity. Remember, you have two levers to pull! And because you are measuring your food, you can simply cut back. Instead of 3 bananas, eat 2, instead of 1 cup of nuts and dried fruit, go to a half. You get the idea.
Here’s the secret sauce (low calorie of course). For me, having races that I was signed up for and I had to train for, changed completely the way that I looked at food. I now had to fuel my runs and avoid cramping and joint pain. I needed things like magnesium and potassium that you won’t get from cheese burgers and chips. I knew that for me to do the things that I wanted to do, I had to eat the foods that would get me there. You need to find your reason. What is going to make you eat and become healthier?
If you need some time to find your reason, I’ll share something that retired U.S. Navy SEAL Jocko Willink said. This guy is a 100% certified BADASS. “It’s possible to immediately be tougher starting with your next decision. Having trouble saying “no” to dessert? Be tougher. Make that your starting decision. Feeling winded? Take the stairs anyway. Ditto. It doesn’t matter how small or big you start. If you want to be tougher, be tougher.” http://jockopodcast2.com/
Something else interesting happened along the way, I had forgotten how good fresh strawberries tasted, and that sweet potatoes with just a little cinnamon and no butter are delicious! I found new treats. Freeze banana slices and then blend them in to ice cream, amazing on a summer day.
Last but not least, be kind to yourself and reward yourself. After a race, I am off the bandwagon for a couple of days at least. Pizza, yep! Beer, oh yeah! I just don’t let a cheat day here or there turn in to a cheat week or month. I always have the next race that I sign up for, to keep that momentum going. You will slip up, and that’s ok, just put your head down and get back to it! Good luck and please share with me any of your success stories as I am sure they will inspire me and the rest of the readers as we continue on this journey!
Questions, comments, feedback? Please leave them in the comments box and we can have a discussion!