How to Include the Foods You Like in Your Diet
Episode #4 of the course Fat loss for fitness enthusiasts by Theo Brenner-Roach
One thing that all fat loss “diets” have in common is that they put you in a calorie deficit.
The debate rages over what’s best for weight loss. Is it keto, counting macros, high carb, low carb, or paleo?
Or should you just close your eyes and pick food at random?
To a degree, it doesn’t matter; a calorie deficit is what will make you lose weight, and whichever diet allows you to stick to this consistently is going to be the best for you.
That being said, the quality of your food does matter. Yes, you can lose weight eating only junk food, BUT it will play havoc with your body. Although you’ll lose weight, you’ll be unhealthy.
The bottom line is, you need to eat a wide variety of different foods to get the necessary macronutrients, micronutrients, and vitamins your body needs to function optimally.
HOWEVER, you can do this and still include the foods you like!
How to Include the Foods You Like in Your Diet without Binging
Haven’t you ever noticed how when you can’t have something, you want it even more?
It’s inevitable that if you restrict food items from your diet, there will come a point where you can’t stop yourself.
So, how do you make room for these foods in your diet?
Fortunately, it’s pretty simple as long as you know your daily calorie allowance and macronutrient breakdown.
All you need to do is allocate a little space in your diet for the foods you like.
For example:
A 170 lb (77 kg) man trying to lose weight would eat around 2,000 calories a day with the following macronutrient breakdown:
• protein = 170 g / 680 kcals
• fat = 66g / 600 kcals
• carbs = 180g / 720 kcals
Let’s say his favorite ice cream is Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough. Two scoops of this ice cream have the following nutritional breakdown:
• calories = 280 kcals
• protein = 4 g
• fat = 15 g
• carbs = 32 g
So, when planning his food for the day or the week, he would minus these calories from his total on the days he knew he was going to have ice cream.
What about a Bigger Meal?
Maybe you’re meeting for a friend’s birthday, and they love pizza or you want to have a burger. As these foods can easily take up 600-1,200 calories in your diet or more, depending where you get them from, we need to be strategic.
Let’s look at how you’d include this in your diet.
The solution is to employ intermittent fasting (IF). IF is an eating protocol that sees you stick to a particular eating schedule that allows you to fast for part of the day.
The most common is probably the 16:8 fast, where you fast for 16 hours and eat all your calories within an 8-hour window.
If you’re going to be eating your pizza or burger and chips for dinner, then you would skip breakfast and fast throughout the morning.
Then at lunchtime, you would eat a high-protein meal with lots of vegetables and some fruit. This will serve to help you meet your protein goals and keep you satiated.
(Our imaginary guy from before would allocate 300-500 kcals to this meal.)
Mid-afternoon, you would have a high-protein snack; something like an omelette with a mix of eggs and egg whites, spinach, onion, and some cheese can work well.
(Our imaginary guy from before would allocate 200-400 kcals to this meal.)
By the time dinner rolls around, you’ll still have 1,200-plus calories available to eat your pizza or burger without worrying about going over your calories or missing your macronutrient goals.
Win-win. Big smile.
Summing Up
Your diet doesn’t have to be a boring, difficult uphill battle where you have to actively stop yourself from enjoying the foods you want.
Instead, you can include the foods you love, which will help prevent binge eating and going off track.
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