Clients always ask me: " If I eat ___________ for lunch, is that good?" or they tell me, "Yesterday I ate _______ for breakfast, _______ for lunch, and __________ for dinner, was that a good day?"
It's hard to say. I prefer to look at entire days. Or entire weeks. Or a month at a time. How does it all fit together?
First thing you need to know about food:
Look at the long term averages of how many calories you are eating.
All of my clients log their food online. I don't care if you log it with your Bodybugg, you log it at Fit Day, Spark People, Calorie King, or E-Diets. But logging it online gives us a very different view of your food intake than logging it on paper.
Logging your food online will tell us what your average is.
My favorite thing to look at in someone's food log is their 30 day average for calories.
After that I look at their 30 day average for protein.
Looking at averages changes a lot of the discussion. It makes it much easier to discuss "free meals". It makes it much easier to deal with weekend eating vs. weekday eating. It changes the way we might look at a "bad" day.
It totally cuts off conversations like "I ate really good stuff three days in a row, why aren't I at my goal yet?"
You've got to think more long term than that.
This also takes some of the worry out of Thanksgiving – it's only one day. It will effect your average, but it's also only one day in your average.
How does your food intake look over time? If you are eating perfectly six days per week, how does 2000 calories of alcohol on saturday night effect your average? How does a 400 calorie brownie effect your average?
I'm not your dad. I'm not going to tell you it's bad to eat that brownie. Or that you shouldn't go drinking this weekend. You can look at your monthly averages and make your own decisions.
The numbers will set you free. There's no good or bad. You can take some of the emotion out of it.
It's like balancing your checkbook.
If your average is lower, your scale weight will be lower. Period.
You can work on lowering your average over time, by making smarter choices every day. Let your food log teach you which foods work for your goals and which foods don't.
Second Thing You Need To Know About Food:
Look at the quality of food you are eating.
You want to eat the highest quality food you can find.
Ask yourself – If you were a caveman or cavewoman, could you hunt or gather it?
What do you do after a successful cavegirl day of hunting buffalo, gathering fruit, and logging your calories on fitday.com? You lounge on a tree in your leopard print bikini, of course.
You couldn't hunt or gather: Twinkies, Ding Dongs, or doughnuts.
You could hunt: Buffalo, beef, chicken, turkey, pork, or fish.
You could gather fruit, veggies, and nuts.
Notice that everyone shopping at Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and the local farmer's market, looks lean and hot? I rest my case.
The fastest way to supercharge your results is to eat better food.
Your scale weight (muscle weigt + fat weight)has everything to do with total calories. The other side of the coin is that your leanness (the comparison of how much of that weight is muscle vs. how much of that weight is fat) has everything to do with quality of food and quality of workouts.
Grid your entire week's meals on a piece of paper. Note how many of the meals you eat get the cavegirl stamp of approval.
If 50% or more of your meals come from lean proteins, fruits and veggies, you're way ahead of most people working out.
If 90% of your meals come from lean proteins, fruits and veggies, then you can totally pull off wearing a leopard print bikini.
By Josh Hillis
Author of How To Lose The Stubborn Seven Pounds
Josh is one of the five fat loss experts in The Ultimate Fat Loss Answers
Josh is a fat loss expert, a kettlebell instructor and personal trainer in Denver, Colorado. Josh helps fit women lose stubborn fat.
Josh is a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT) and Performance Enhancement Specialist (NASM-PES), and currently studying the Corective Exercise Specialist (NASM-CES) course.
© Joshua Hillis 2007
I’ve seen PLENTY of people at Whole Foods and my farmers market who are NOT “lean and hot”.
Oh for sure. But contrast that, percentage wise, with people shopping everwhere else. Or eating at Taco Bell.
But it brings up a great point – can you over eat good food?
Yes, you can totally over eat good, clean, whole food.
Worse still is the super high calorie, low volume foods masquerading as health food. There 500 calorie specialty “healthy” juices. Is a gluten free, cane sugar sweetened chocolate chip cookie going to make a person any less fat than a normal cookie?
There are tons of bad choices at these stores that are made to look like good choices.
Lots of these foods play tricks with portion sizes – beware the two serving 8 oz bottles. It’s an easy way to hide half the calories from unsuspecting consumers.
This is where you defer to the FIRST thing you need to know about food –
Look at your CALORIES.
They’ve added 50 calories (all from sugar) to WATER, and that’s called healthy, because it has added vitamin C.
There’s an epidemic of fake healthy food.
And some people just eat too much good food. For example, they eat all veggies, fruit and whole grains, but they don’t have enough protein or fat in their diet to ever feel full, so they over eat.
There are tons of ways to screw it up.
Going way over on your calories with food that looks healthy is still going over on calories.
That’s why both of the rules have to go together – eat good food, and keep the calories on track.
Thanks for bringing up that awesome point.
Josh, great site. I’m currently heading my units training program here in San Diego, and the information I get from your site and various others really helps me and my Marines as well.
Thanks David! That’s awesome to hear!
Thanks Josh! I needed that. 90% all the way!
Great Carrie!
I like your blog by the way!
And Kendra is totally stoked that her after picture inspires you!
great site. You have lots of useful information.
I do have question about getting a flat stomach.
I do cardio about 4-5 times a week between 45-1 hour.
i still have a pouchy stomach.
I drink tons of water (no pop and maybe wine once a week)
any idea’s?
Long slow cardio is not the answer.
You need to add in resistance training and do your cardio faster. Think alternating sprints and rests.
The goal, from a workout standpoint, is intensity. Intensity and duration are opposites. Meaning that the longer your workout is, the less intense it will be.
You want short, fast, hard workouts.
Also, keep a food log. If you don’t know how many calories you are consuming, you aren’t in the game.
Josh,
On the topic of calories in/out, do you believe in ‘starvation mode’, or the idea that eating at a defecit for long periods can stall your metabolism? i am trying to cut (about a month/two seriously now) on 1500/day – i am 5’6, 125lb – but am worried that as soon as i try to maintain, i will gain weight! what do you think?
Thanks!