Foods For Fat Loss

Have you ever read a magazine article or watched some daytime TV show where they talk about what foods to eat for fat loss?

Then using those foods to “ignite” your “broken” metabolism and turn into a fat burning machine!

Things like:

• Green tea
• Dairy products
• Mocha protein shakes
• Pistachios
• White bean extract
•  Pickled peppers
• Korean hot sauce
• Sardines
• Dark chocolate

Metabolism is confusing and I want you to know that yours is not broken. If you are alive, It’s working.

There’s truth to some of these claims about fat burning foods, but also some deceitfulness. If you push things down the line, some of the foods you might hear claimed to boost your metabolism, do technically use more calories to process. 

Things like protein will take more energy to break down (increase the amount of calories used to process that food) thus boosting your metabolism. It isn’t something to neglect but that by itself will not turn you into a fat burning machine.  

A greater effect of protein will be allowing you to gain more muscle on your body from your workout plan. Now that is a big positive that doesn’t directly “burn” all your body fat (It does burn some calories) but has a big impact on your body overall.

So what are fat burning foods?

Unfortunately, away from the small metabolic effect of protein, there are no such things as fat burning foods. 

The way you burn fat is by energy balance. In particular to this case, being in a calorie deficit. 

If you want to burn fat, you need to eat less food than you are currently utilizing.

That is it. So, you don’t need to force down hot peppers or apple cider vinegar every day, you just need to balance the energy that is going in and out of your body.

What actually matters for fat loss?

1. Eating in a calorie deficit 
2. Eating the right macronutrient breakdown
3. Weight training consistently
4. Daily activity 

1. Calorie Deficit

When it comes to eating in a calorie deficit, it’s good to have a general idea how much you are/should be eating right now. 

There are a million and one calculators out there to give you precise numbers but I like to use these two methods together to figure out how many calories to eat. 

First: Find out how many calories you are eating each week. Take 7-14 days of precise food tracking to see where things fall. Each day will be slightly different so you can take the average of each day or use the total amount of calories across the entire week. 

With this you are also going to be tracking your weight. Across that 7-14 day span did you lose weight, maintain your weight, or gain weight? 

This piece matters a lot because it will let us know if you are currently eating more, less, or about the right amount for your goals.

Second: Use this calculation to have a general idea how much you should eat if you are looking to lose fat.

Your goal weight x 12 = calories 

So let’s say you track your food for 14 days and on average you are eating 2,300 calories per day. You are currently weighing 190 pounds and want to get down to 170 pounds. 

170 x 12 = 2,040 calories

With this equation it says you should be eating around 2,000 calories per day to get to your goal. The difference between these two numbers is not too much but still a significant 300 calories per day. Now, if you are currently losing weight at your 2,300 calories per day, then there is no need to drop down to the 2,040 just because the equation says so. 

On the other hand, if you are maintaining or gaining weight at 2,300 calories, it would be time to drop closer to that 2,000 calorie mark.

I like to use the equation as a mediator. Figure out where your calories are now and compare that to the equation number. You can lean closer to that number, go right in the middle, or lean toward your current intake, anything works!

1. Macronutrient Breakdown

Your macronutrients are what make up the calories you eat→ Proteins, Fats, and Carbs.

Calories matter the most when it comes to fat loss but your macronutrients follow closely behind. All else equal, if you ate in a calorie deficit, no matter if it consisted of pizza or chicken, you would lose weight.

Most people I work with want more than just the scale to move (look better, feel better, move better) so the pizza diet is not usually what we lean towards.

The macronutrient you want to have your eye on the most will be protein. 

Most people should have about .8-1 gram of protein per pound of your GOAL weight. 

For the example above:

.9 x 170 = 153 grams of protein

We need enough protein to help us build/maintain muscle from our weight training. Protein will also keep our nutrients high and our hunger at ease during this process!

When it comes to carbs and fats, you can fill in the rest of your calories with any ratio that fits what feels best. Some people will be more carb heavy or fat heavy but either way works as long as you are not neglecting either of those nutrients. 

1. Weight Training

You should be training with weights 2-5 times per week. If you haven’t yet, go read my article on How To Make Your Workouts More Effective.

These workouts should be somewhere between 45 and 60 minutes where you are pushing yourself. Getting stronger, moving better, and feeling really damn good in the process. If you are training 2-3 days per week, you can do full body style workouts where you are making sure your entire body is being used every time you walk into the gym.

If you are going to workout 4+ times per week this is where things can get a little more creative with your breakdown. 

Go read my article on Everything You Need To Know To Make Your Own Workouts to give you a better idea how to plan these sessions and some templates to help along the way. 

1. Daily Movement

It’s not all about how much we put into our body, but also how much we are putting out.

Your daily movement and overall activity has a big impact on the calories used throughout the day and the week. Your body burns calories in more ways than one, so your goal is to not try and burn off everything you eat. Rather, your daily movement is to stay active, increase your metabolism, and help aid in digestion.

Away from just the calorie burn and the fat loss benefits, higher step counts have been linked to lower all cause mortality. 

Try to get out for a walk every single day. 

OR

Aim for 7,500-10,000 steps every single day.

No fat burning foods, this sucks???

Sorry, you can’t just eat certain foods and burn fat (although that would be nice wouldn’t it?). With that, if you are looking to lose fat, your food choices matter.

To go back to what I said earlier, you can lose weight eating just about any foods as long as you are in a calorie deficit. 

BUT, you are going to have a much easier (and healthier) time if you focus on high quality foods vs. eating junk.

Volume

For one, junk foods are very dense with energy, meaning a small amount of junk food will carry a crap load of calories. Think of something like a zebra cake (my personal favorite), a package with two cakes will be 330 calories. 

  I don’t know about you but that is about a fraction of how many I could eat in 1 sitting.

For just about the same amount of calories you could have 3 good sized apples. OR about 4 eggs. OR a pound and a half of Brussels sprouts. You get the point right?

The higher quality of foods you decide to eat, the more of those foods you will be able to eat compared to the junk. 

So, the volume of food you are able to eat is #1. 

Nutrients 

Moving onto #2. The nutrient difference in these foods. If your goal is to lose fat, you are going to be in a calorie deficit- I hope I’ve driven that point home enough. 

Just from eating less food overall, your body is already down on its normal nutrients. With all else equal——> Less food = less nutrients 

When we eat these cleaner foods we are ramping up the amount of overall nutrients our body needs. Filling the gaps as we lower the overall amount of food eaten.

Not everything revolves around losing fat. Losing fat at the expense of your overall health is not the goal. You not only want to lose fat BUT ALSO feel and perform the best you possibly can. 

Your nutrient levels will be a part of that list.

Muscle Sparing

The final point I want to make in the quality of foods you decide to eat is in relation to your muscle. You work hard to build muscle on your body (to give your body shape) and now you are working even harder to lose fat to be able to show the muscle you have.

In the process, the higher quality foods as well as the consistently high amount of protein you are eating will help maintain as much muscle as possible. Instead of losing fat and muscle along the way, the goal is to lose as much FAT as possible while sparing as much MUSCLE as possible.

It will be a very tough task to try and build muscle while losing fat, but that is not to say It cannot be done. Especially for someone who is new to this whole thing. But you work hard to gain that muscle, you should work even harder to KEEP as much of It as possible.

Still no fat burning foods?

I can’t just end this article without at least discussing some types of foods you can eat when trying to lose fat. 

Even though there are no such things as “fat burning foods” these types of foods are things that become consistent in most successful fat loss journeys. Not because they directly burn fat but because they follow along with everything we just discussed above.

• Lean meats
  • Ground beef
  • Steak
  • Ground chicken
  • Chicken breast
  • Lamb
  • Pork 
  • Ground turkey
• Seafood
  • Tuna
  • Salmon
  • Shrimp
  • Halibut
  • Swordfish 
• Lean dairy
  • Cottage cheese
  • Greek yogurt
  • Whey protein
• Whole grains
  • Breads
  • Pastas
  • Oatmeal
  • Rice
  • Quinoa 
• Fruits
  • Berries
  • Apples
  • Bananas
  • Grapes
  • Melons
  • Mango
  • Citrus
• Vegetables
  • Lettuce
  • Kale
  • Spinach
  • Broccoli
  • Brussels sprouts
  • Carrots
  • Asparagus
  • Green beans
  • Green peas
  • Peppers
  • Sweet potatoes
• Nut butters
  • Almond butter
  • Peanut butter
  • Walnut butter
  • Cashew butter
• Nuts
  • Pistachios 
  • Peanuts
  • Almonds
  • Cashews
  • Walnuts
• Avocados
• Olive/canola oils
• Eggs

This list could go on, and on, and on. But examine this list for me for a few minutes. Try and find some similarities between most of these foods. I’ll sit here patiently.

The biggest comparison that can be made–> most of this list are Whole Natural Foods. There are no ingredient lists attached to these foods. An apple is an apple. Eggs are eggs.

I’m not saying that processed foods are the devil, but when I lay out the foods that I use with my fat loss clients, the same ones are used over and over again. 

Food should have quality.

Food should fuel your day.

Food should help you lose fat (if that’s what you want)

Read that last sentence.

HELP you lose fat. Food does not lose fat in and of itself. 

  You have to make the change. 

  You have to create the calorie deficit. 

  You have to eat nutrient dense food.

  You have to eat enough protein.

  You have to create an environment for you body to lose fat.

In good health,

Jeff