Earning the Right to Diet: Building a Healthy Relationship with Fatloss

If you hire me as a coach, whether you are new to dieting or have tried 15 diets before hiring me, you have to EARN the right to diet.

We do not just jump straight into a fat-loss phase - Let’s talk about why!

When it comes to fat-loss, it's essential to adopt a sustainable and balanced approach. Unfortunately, many people fall into the trap of yo-yo dieting and restrictive eating, which can lead to a cycle of initial weight loss quickly followed by rebound weight gain.

In this blog post, we'll unpack the things we need to have in place before we enter a fat loss phase, and talk about each one of these is crucial for your success!

First lets talk about some of the negative effects of yo-yo dieting, crash dieting, and restrictive eating.

• Metabolic Adaptation:

When you drastically reduce your calorie intake or follow a highly restrictive diet, your body adapts to this lower energy intake. It enters a state of survival mode, slowing down your metabolic rate to conserve energy. This metabolic adaptation is your body's way of protecting itself during times of food scarcity. However, when you return to regular eating habits or increase your caloric intake, your body may still be in this energy-conserving state, making it easier to regain weight.

• Loss of Muscle Mass:

Restrictive diets often lead to significant WEIGHTLOS but not necessarily fatloss, because a significant portion of that weight loss can come from muscle mass. Losing muscle mass can negatively impact your metabolism because muscles are metabolically active tissues that burn calories. With less muscle mass, your body's energy expenditure decreases, making it easier to gain weight once you resume normal eating habits.

• Psychological and Emotional Factors:

Yo-yo dieting and restrictive eating can create an unhealthy relationship with food. When you deprive yourself of certain foods or follow overly restrictive rules, it can lead to feelings of deprivation, guilt, and a distorted relationship with food. Eventually, these psychological and emotional factors can trigger emotional eating, binge eating, or a rebound into old unhealthy eating patterns. This cycle can contribute to weight regain and make it even more challenging to maintain a healthy weight in the long run.

• Decreased Satiety and more Cravings:

Restrictive diets often eliminate or severely limit certain food groups or macronutrients. This can lead to imbalances in your nutritional intake, resulting in decreased satiety and increased cravings. These cravings can become intense and difficult to resist, potentially leading to overeating or binging on the restricted foods once you reintroduce them. For most people this is in the form of severe carbohydrate restriction, followed by over consumption of processed carbs. The excess consumption of these foods can contribute to weight regain and the continuation of the yo-yo dieting cycle.

When we work together, earning the right to diet becomes super important. There are 5 key things we need to have in place to make sure your fat-loss journey is not only successful, but also a positive experience!

#1. You have to prove to me that you can be consistent

Consistency is key, my friend! If you can show me that you can be consistent with your meal timing, total calorie intake and meet your protein targets every day, and maintain that consistency over the weekends then I can trust that you will be able to show that same level of consistency and discipline on a diet. If you cant be consistent with maintenance calories where you feel satiated, you will struggle to be consistent in a deficit.

Together, we will build out a meal plan that makes sense with your schedule and fits your lifestyle, and practice that - by fine tuning the plan it will make your diet phase so much easier!

#2. Get Good at Tracking Your Food:

If you can’t be honest about your food choices, or don't care to take the time to track your food you’re not ready for a fatloss phase. I’m not going to throw you into something you're not proficient at or you will feel like you're failing and that is not conducive to success. Tracking your food will make fatloss infinitely easier, and more precise. As a coach I need to know how much you’re eating so that I can make adjustments to make sure we aren’t hitting a plateau. I also need to know how much you’re eating to make sure we aren’t creating collateral damage to muscle tissue or hormone balance. We'll start with simple and easy methods, like well tested nutrition blueprints that will help you to easily meet your nutrition targets. Food journals also help you understand your food better, and to have a deeper sense of self awareness around your habits, patterns and natural tendencies.

#3. Make Sure You're Eating Enough:

Before diving into any weight loss plan, we need to make sure you're eating enough. If you come to me eating less than 1500 calories we aren’t starting a diet - we have no where to go! Many women that come to me are severely under-eating and undernourished. Often times its important to do a maintenance phase or a reverse diet before even considering a fatloss phase. If you’re under-eating and try to start a diet you will feel like you’re failing and that isn’t conducive or

#4 Coaching Relationship

Understanding your unique metabolism and body takes time and data collection. I am here to help you long term so you can keep the weight off forever! We'll track your progress, see how your body responds to training, carbs and stress, and keep an eye on changes in body composition. We also take the time to observe how your energy levels, mood and weight fluctuate with your cycle.

#5 Relationship with food:

Food is not the enemy. I need to know that you can view food as fuel, and to value food for its various properties. No more using food as a reward system, needing cheat days or feeling like you need to earn your calories through exercise. Your body needs calories just to stay alive, we do not restrict our food on rest days! Together, we'll build a healthy relationship with food, practicing mindful eating, and incorporate micronutrient dense meals as well as soul food to prevent the crazy food cravings that come along with restrictive diets

Yo-yo dieting and restrictive eating are well known to have detrimental effects on your fatloss efforts. The cycle of weight loss followed by weight regain not only affects your physical well-being but also takes a toll on your mental and emotional health. To achieve sustainable weight loss and maintain a healthy weight, it's crucial to adopt a balanced approach that focuses on nourishing your body, building healthy habits, and cultivating a positive relationship with food. By avoiding restrictive diets and embracing a sustainable lifestyle, you can break free from the yo-yo effect and achieve long-term success on your weight loss journey.

Earning the right to diet is all about learning a healthy approach for fat-loss by ensuring that you are physically, mentally and emotionally prepared for a fatloss phase!