You Know You: Eating to Lose Weight
by Charlotte Siems
No matter how you eat to lose weight, calories matter.
Even if you’re eating “healthy,” if you consume too many calories, too large portions, too many bites, you won’t lose or maintain weight.
It’s rather self-defeating to have the mentality that you can eat as much as you want and stuff yourself to the gills because the food is “healthy.”
Once you eat that skinless chicken breast, the calories are going to go somewhere, the same as if you eat sour cream and onion potato chips. Your thighs don’t care WHY you ate either one. They just know that you ate food, and if you eat beyond what your body needs for maintenance, they’re going to turn it into fat.
Dealing with the “why” is often the key to weight loss. That was probably the most important turning point for me in my 100-pound weight loss. I was throwing food into an emotional hole that it could never fill, eating way beyond fullness and what my body needed for maintenance.
In addition, it’s great to lose four pounds the first week of a new diet—but can you sustain that way of eating? What about six months or two years down the road? What happens when you attend your niece’s wedding or meet friends for dinner at your favorite Mexican restaurant?
The bottom line with any way of eating is that you know you. If it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t matter if it works for a thousand other people.
What worked for me? First, I started with exercise, not a diet. T-Tapp quickly improved my energy levels and health, while motivating me with inch loss. Eventually I was emotionally ready to address my eating habits.
When I was ready to eat differently, I instinctively knew I wouldn’t stick to a diet “plan.” I had tried it before, and I just didn’t have the money or energy to count points, buy special foods, go hungry or forbid certain foods.
It helped to cut to the chase and tell myself the truth about my eating. I was eating too much, too many calories, plain and simple, for the wrong reasons. Addressing the “why” made it almost easy to lose weight. Almost.
Focusing on food—what kind, what I couldn’t have, what was good for me, what I “should” eat, what time I ate, how many times I ate—was NOT the answer for me. Rather, it was a healthy lack of focus on food that helped me.
So rather than count calories, I ate less. Last time I checked, less food equals less calories, less fat, less salt, less chemicals, less whatever. After getting used to smaller portions, that seemed normal and reasonable and plenty.
Being full was the signal to stop eating, whether or not there was food left on the plate. That’s how naturally thin people eat.
This is what worked (and still works) for me. I know me, you know you.
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