The first one is to eat your calories…you’re like ‘no shit Marcus,’ let me explain…you probably don’t drink regular pop and juice, however…

You may be consuming things like protein shakes and smoothies. When your goal is fat loss, we need to create a calorie deficit and so the name of the game is feeling full because the more satiated that you are, the less likely you are to over eat and therefore quote unquote ‘erase’ your calorie deficit!

Liquid calories even from things like protein shakes and smoothies are not nearly as filling as calories from whole foods, for example…

A lot of folks have liquid nutrition for breakfast so a pretty standard smoothie would be something like protein powder, a banana, almond milk, peanut butter and maybe some chia seeds or something…a smoothie like this will EASILY clock in at around 600 – 700 calories, potentially more depending on how generous your serving of peanut butter is.

If we take that 600 – 700 calories and have it via whole food it’s going to be a lot more filling despite having the same caloric value, for example…

Instead we could have 4-5 whole eggs cooked in a little bit butter with a chopped up banana and a cup or 2 of mixed berries with some coconut milk drizzled over it. Same number of calories, but a very different level of satiation!

The process of chewing even plays a role in how full that we feel, for example…what is going to fill you up more?

Chewing a steak or drinking protein powder?

Sipping a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice or actually chomping down on those oranges in their whole food form?

Eating as opposed to drinking your nutrition is such a simple and effective way to feel more satiated without even changing the number of calories that you’re eating, in fact many folks often even spontaneously eat fewer calories when they gravitate towards more whole foods.

If you do just want to drink something with flavour at some point throughout the day, you can squeeze lemon or lime into your still or sparkling water or there are all sorts of different 0 calorie sparkling water options these days…I’ve been drinking the Spindrift ones as well as the Kirkland ones a lot recently. I also love Zevia which is a calorie-free stevia based pop…the cream soda flavour is my fav!

So, favour nutrition in its whole food form and you are going to find it much easier to maintain a calorie deficit and therefore, much easier to lose fat! Does it take a little bit more time to cook some whole food instead of toss things in a blender, yes…but it’s an investment in your health.

Also, if you feel more full for longer because you’re eating whole food, you’re most likely not going to feel the need to take snack breaks constantly and so it might even save ya time big picture!

The second one is to prioritize protein…

I feel like the importance of protein has officially gone mainstream now, which is awesome! Fun fact, protein originates from the Greek word proteios which translates to ‘primary’ or ‘of first rank’ or ‘of utmost importance.’

We want protein to be the base or the foundation of all of our meals because we are literally made of it. Meat, fish, seafood, eggs and dairy (if you tolerate it) are all awesome sources of high quality protein. As far as amounts go…

1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight or 1 gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight is an amazing place to start. If you’re thinking, I have no clue how much that is…

For women you can think about getting a generous fist sized portion of protein every time that you eat and if you’re a man, make it closer to 2 generous fist sized portions. Also, if you want to eat more than 1 or 2 fist sized portions, that’s totally cool too!

Some of my clients like to eat more protein because they just really like it, they find it super satisfying and so we scale it up!

Oh and if you’re worried about protein causing kidney damage, McMaster University did a meta-analysis of more than 2 dozen studies and found no evidence to support the claim that high protein diets cause kidney damage in healthy adults.

What about plant-based protein options? There are a couple of tricky things about getting your protein from plant-based sources…

Plant protein does not contain all of the essential amino acids and so they’re not considered ‘complete’ like animal sources are and so you need to combine them in order to make a complete protein.

Such a combo is rice and beans however, rice and beans also contain a lot of carbohydrates and so when fat loss is your goal, this can potentially be an issue because sure you’re getting protein from the combo of rice and beans, but you’re also getting a bunch of carbs being that rice and beans are both high in carbohydrates!

To be fair, fattier protein sources like salmon don’t contain carbs, but they do contain a fair bit of fat and so that’s something to be aware of as well from a caloric standpoint. Having said that, quite a few folks find that higher carb meals tend to stimulate their appetite and so if you’re favouring plant sources of protein that’s something to consider…and so is digestion…

I dunno about you, but beans just don’t make me feel great, especially in the quantities that I’d need to eat in order to hit my protein quota…I get super bloated and weighed down after eating beans and a lot of my clients tend to respond the same way!

Number three is to eat larger meals…

Wait what!? I thought we needed to be in a calorie deficit in order to lose fat…we do, however…

We want to make our meals hearty enough so that we feel satiated between them and therefore we’re less likely to snack! Reason being, snack foods by definition are convenience foods and convenience foods are almost always higher in calories, lower in protein and less filling, for example…

A lot of folks snack on things like hummus and crackers…low protein and a lot more calorie dense than most folks think! Just take a look at how many calories are actually in your hummus and crackers…it’s not nothin’ and typically people are eating way more of it than they think that they are, eyeballing is pretty shaky form of measurement!

Crackers and cheese is another one, cheese is a really nutritious food but man is it ever easy to overdo! The same dealio goes for nuts, a single cup of nuts has about 700 – 800 calories…they are insanely calorie dense and not to mention very high in oxalates, but that’s a discussion for another day!

If ya just really like to snack, I would recommend opting for things like beef jerky, whole fruit, veggies dipped in salsa or some plain Greek yogurt with berries for example.

As a general rule, quote unquote ‘snackers’ tend to be heavier than folks that focus on meals because again most snacks tend to be low protein, high in calories and not filling in the slightest and therefore snackers just tend to eat more in total. Also, the more times that you eat throughout the day, the more likely you are to consume more food, for example…

Chances are that someone that checks their phone 10x per day is going to be on their phone for more total time than someone that checks their phone 5x per day, it’s just a numbers game!

Okay, I’m going to sum up this entire article in one takeaway sentence for ya…

Eat your calories, preferably in single ingredient whole food form with an emphasis on protein and sit down meals as opposed to quick grab and go snacks!