“Dude, I ate 1000 calories of peanut M&M’s…as a snack”.
This is what Dave said to me on our nutrition coaching call yesterday.
He continued, “I knew I was mindlessly eating throughout the day, but I’m shocked by how many extra calories I’ve been consuming in addition to my regular meals.”
Dave’s comment is not an uncommon one as virtually everyone that has weight to lose finds themselves (consciously or unconsciously) overconsuming calories.
The great thing about Dave’s situation is that he now has so much more clarity on why he’s having a hard time losing weight and a myriad of strategies we discussed he can immediately employ to get the needle moving, like:
- Just eat 1/2 the amount of peanut m&m’s (why eliminate them, they’re delicious)
- Switch to a small handful of almonds instead
- Stop snacking just because you’re bored at your job and go for a walk instead
- Eat a more satisfying meal prior
- Start drinking more water
- Etc.
In my experience, it’s a heck of a lot easier helping people identify the low-hanging fruit in their diet that’s holding them back than trying to do something more extreme and unnecessarily restrictive.
This was such a powerful ‘ah-ha’ for Dave that I figured I’d share some of the most commonly, but often overlooked contributors to weight gain with you.
Snacking in between meals
Research is clear that the more times we eat, the more calories we consume. Instead, it’s best for most of us to stick to 3-4 meals per day, without snacking in between to effectively manage our total calorie intake.
If you find that you’re the type of person to snack frequently, then it could be helpful to identify if you’re actually even hungry, or, are you bored, tired, stressed, anxious, etc. The odds are pretty good it’s not hunger, but if it is, it’s a good sign you probably didn’t eat enough of the right things at your previous meal. Try filling up with a little more protein.
Bites, sips, and tastes
Last night I couldn’t help but take down the remnants of my kid’s chicken tenders and fries. The day before, it was a bite of their ice cream and brownie. And yeah, I’m a regular parent who feeds my kids too much crap and usually ends up eating half of it. Don’t be all judgy!
If you’re a parent, or your parents indoctrinated you into the ‘clean your plate’ club, you know the pain of allowing food to go to waste.
But, calories don’t discriminate, and these bites add up in a big way.
Often, having clients take a day or two and keep track of how many little (or big) bites, sips, and tastes can be extremely eye-opening. Or, just ask your significant other what they’ve observed…but don’t get mad at them when they tell you the truth 😉
Putting some boundaries on these little calorie bombs can end up saving you big time over a given week.
Alcohol
For 99% of people, anything more than 2-3 alcoholic beverages per week will disrupt your fat loss goals. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but the truth.
Sure, alcohol has a lot of calories that add up, but what really is the kick in the junk is the lowered inhibitions that cause overeating later…
The bread basket, nachos, or ordering up another cocktail gets a lot easier to justify after the first drink.
And, the repercussions of alcohol on your sleep set the cascade for a whole myriad of blood sugar-related issues that can perpetuate our desire to snack and eat in between meals, so, it’s a vicious cycle.
If you’ve been struggling to lose weight, it might be worth considering taking a hard look at your daily eating behaviors.
Sometimes the easiest solutions can really be the simplest.
That’s not to downplay your weight loss struggles, but rather, to highlight that often, it can feel so hard because 1) we try and make it too hard with overt restriction and 2) we don’t commit to a long-enough timeline. It always takes longer than we think.
For Dave, cutting his peanut M&M snacks in half would save him over 500 calories per day. Couple that with a few fewer drinks per week and a little more discipline about not eating his kid’s chicken nuggets, and we’ll see that scale moving in no time.
Hopefully, these tips can get you thinking differently about what low-hanging fruit you may be missing that’s holding you back.
And if you need any help, just shoot me a message….I got you.
Your Coach,
Ben
