Nutrition can be misconstrued as complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are my five principles to master to simplify how to make food decisions to help you reach your goals.
The first aspect of nutrition to understand is what calories are and how calories in vs out works. Calories are a unit of measurement for energy – you burn them by being alive, you burn more by doing daily activity like brushing your teeth or driving a car, and you burn even more when you do your daily workout. To get an understanding of how many calories you burn in a day, go here: https://kyrawilliamsfitness.com/how-many-calories-do-i-burn-in-a-day/
If you want to lose fat (not tone up – please do not confuse building muscle for losing fat) you need to burn more calories than you consume, plain and simple. Yes, you can get yourself into trouble by burning way too many, but overall, this is the foundation for losing fat and that is why this is the first principle.
Second, you need to look at your meal timing. There’s no right or wrong here – you should eat at times that work best for your schedule and how they make you feel. If you feel awesome fasting for a while every morning, and that works for your schedule, go for it. But if you need to eat 5-6 times a day, recognize that and space out your calories accordingly.
Ultimately you don’t wanna go so long between meals that you end up with intense cravings where you will just eat anything. Space out your calories based on your needs.
The third principle is making sure you are eating real food. I like to say this first because I prefer we be inclusive of food and focus on what makes us feel really good, as opposed to obsessing over what we can’t have.
Eat lots of whole food items such as chicken, fish, steak, almonds, walnuts, oats, rice, berries, apples, avocados, olive oil, etc. Food items that do not have an ingredient list. If most of your daily meal plan consists of these foods, you are setting yourself up for healthy hormones, improved gut health, less cravings, more energy, muscle building and fat loss.
The fourth principle is reducing processed foods, sugar and foods you do not tolerate well. Processed foods and sugar are harder to digest, they are more addicting and do not serve us when our goal is looking and feeling our best. I do not suggest eliminating them entirely – having a few bites of pizza or a cookie here and there is totally fine, but we should try to minimize our consumption of those things.
Then if we know there’s something we just don’t tolerate well, maybe avoid that too. For example, if every time you eat steak it feels like it sits in your stomach like a brick, minimize your consumption. Or if you notice that eating a lot of carbs before bed makes you wake up feeling bloated, then minimize that. Everyone is going to be different here, so pay attention to how you feel and work on it.
The last principle is counting macronutritients.. fat, protein and carbohydrates. We can manipulate your percentages of these things to help you reach your goals, but only after you have mastered the first four. Yes, counting macros can help you, but if you are addicted to sugar and go hours between meals and end up eating a bunch of junk or aren’t eating tons of veggies, then counting macros won’t help you in the long run.
If you need help with this and just want someone to sit down and help you make healthy food decisions to help you reach your goals, let’s work together!
We will come up with a plan together that meets your needs, helps you reach your goals and allows you to feel your best.
Join my 1:1 program and let’s do this together! Go to Commit2Fitcoaching.com to learn more and join.
Your Coach,
Kyra