What and How Much to Eat to Lose Over 50 lbs

Overweighted Episode 13 Transcript

Malaika Burley: So last week, we started our series on how to lose weight in 90 days and keep it off. And we created a starting point for you to really know where you are in your weight loss journey and to know exactly where you’re starting from and then where you want to go. This week, we’re gonna dive into what and how much to eat as we continue this series on how to lose weight in 90 days and keep it up.

And I just want to give you a little bit of a disclaimer, I don’t believe in cutting out foods or cutting out food groups. So you won’t hear me talk about restricting foods, unless it’s something that a medical professional or your doctor told you that you need to do for health reasons. Or if you’re allergic to a particular food, then obviously you don’t want to eat that. But I’ve lost over 60 pounds at this point without cutting out any food groups or trying to restrict any foods in particular. So that’s the way that I teach and I coach my clients to lose weight as well. Like I said, if there’s medical reasons, that’s something different. But we’re going to talk about how much and what to eat for part two in this series.

And before I do that, make sure to grab my freebie, the five keys to simple successful and sustainable weight loss. Those five keys are really important for losing the weight and keeping it off long term, this series is going to give you the steps and help you to know what to do and how to do it. But the five keys are really going to help with the why behind losing the weight and keeping it off. So you want to make sure you get that freebie, it’s a video that you can watch. And then there’s even like a little bonus at the end for you of some trackers. So go to malaikaburley.com/5keys. But you want to make sure you have that because it’s just gonna help solidify everything that I’m talking about in this series.

Why We’re Focusing on Nutrition

All right, what and how much to eat. So if you remember last week in the series, I said to write down the top three things that you may want to work on first, or that may have the biggest impact in you reaching your weight loss goals. And typically, what I would do for coaching clients at that point is have them pick one, and then that would be the first thing that we work on. Well, since I can’t do that for you here, you can still pick one and focus on that one thing. But since I don’t know, in particular at what you’re picking, what I’m going to suggest is that it’d be something around food or nutrition, because that is going to make the biggest impact in your weight loss and reaching that goal that you want to reach for yourself. So whether it’s learning to eat healthier foods, or it could be that you’re learning more about portion control and what to eat. So that’s why for part two, we’re going to dive into nutrition and talking about what and how much to eat. Because I believe that’s going to have the biggest impact on your weight loss goal.

Pick a Method You’ll Do Long Term

So I’m going to give you three methods to determine what and how much you should eat. And you can decide which one of these would work best for you based on maybe the amount of time that you have what you may like to do or not like to do. And so that’s why I’m going to give you three different methods so that you can figure out which one of these would work best for you long term. Because one of the things that I always suggest is don’t do anything now while you’re trying to lose weight that you’re not willing to do long term. So for instance, with me and cutting out food groups, that’s why I don’t like to do that. Because if I’m not willing to cut off that food group, basically for the rest of my life, then I’m not going to do it. Now I’m gonna learn how to work with eating that particular food group, maybe working on portion control for that food group, but just learning to work it into my life and still be able to have it because long term I know I’m not going to want to cut that thing out permanently. So it’s the same with these three methods that I’m getting ready to tell you about. Pick the one that you’re willing to do long term and that will fit best within your lifestyle.

Method 1: How to Calculate Your Calorie Range

Okay, so the first method and this one is going to be the most time consuming of all of them is counting calories. And there will be an episode that I do after this series, where I’m really going to deep dive into counting calories and the inaccuracy of counting calories. But why I choose to count calories, because that’s what I do on my weight loss journey. So even with the inaccuracies, I still do it, and just keep that as a factor into what I’m eating and what I’m doing to lose weight. But this first method of counting calories is going to be the most time consuming. But the reason I like it is because weight loss, especially if you’re listening to this podcast, you probably have a significant amount of weight to lose. And so at this point, it’s really just boiling down to calories in versus calories out, because we get energy from the food that we eat. And calories is the way that that energy in that food is measured. And so if we have too many calories in and not enough out, that energy is basically stored in our body as fat. But if we’re able to have more calories out, maybe we’re burning off calories or using up more energy, and then we have less calories coming in than what’s going out, then that’s when we’re able to lose the weight that we want to lose. And that’s just a really basic explanation of that. It’s pretty more, it’s more detailed than what I just explained. But that’s why I like counting calories and focusing on calories in versus calories out. So if you want to, you can log your calories and measure and track everything that you’re eating through this particular method of calorie counting. And I am going to tell you exactly how to figure out how much calories you should be eating. But again, if this isn’t necessarily something you want to do long term, then I wouldn’t do this. I like to do it. Because I love numbers. I love crunching numbers, it kind of makes it like a game for me. But I also don’t obsess over the calories and the measuring and the weighing of everything. Like I said, I will get into that in more detail in another episode. So stay tuned for that.

But calorie counting is a great way to get started on your weight loss journey. It’s pretty simple and straightforward. There are a lot of apps out there that you can use to track your food. And you can scan the barcodes it’ll put the portion sizes and the calories in there for you as well as track macros if you want to do that. And also, if you go out to eat, a lot of the foods that you’re eating out will be in the apps as well. And so that can help you track the calories when you’re eating out. And when you set up those calorie tracking apps, they tend to let you know what calorie range you should be eating. And so you would put in your weight you put in the goal of where you want to be, and about how much weight you want to lose and you put in your activity as well. And then it’ll usually give you a calorie range. But if you don’t want to track calories and one of the apps or maybe you don’t like the number that is giving you I want to give you another method, it’s really simple.

How to Use TDEE Calculator to Get Calorie Range

So you’re gonna go to tdeecalculator.net. And that stands for total daily energy expenditure is what TDEE stands for. So your total daily energy expenditure is basically the calories that your body is just naturally going to burn throughout the day with whatever activity you may be doing throughout the day. And so by getting this number, you can then subtract some calories from that number to lose weight. And I’m going to explain this a little bit more.

So this is a great tool to use, it’s free, you just plug it into the browser on the internet. And then I will also put the link to this in the description in the show notes. But when you go to tdeecalculator.net, you’re going to put in your gender, your age, your weight, your height, and your activity level, and then your body fat percentage. So if you have a scale that tells you your body fat percentage, you can go ahead and use that that particular measure is optional, you don’t have to put in your body fat percentage, but if you do, then it’s just going to help the calculation be more accurate.

But also I want to note that on the activity level, what tends to happen with us when we’re trying to lose weight is that we will under estimate or under report how much we’re eating and over report our activity level. So just really be conscious of that when you’re looking at the activity and you’re putting this then just be really mindful of okay, what does my activity level really look like? And put that in because that’s going to affect the number of calories that it’s telling you. So I like to put in from activity sedentary or off First job because for the most part, I’m sitting at my computer for most of the day. But the other option would be light exercise one to two days a week. And there are other options for more exercise as well. But if you’re just starting your weight loss journey and just starting to really get movement in, you’re probably going to be more on the sedentary or light exercise option.

And so after you put that in, you’re going to hit Calculate, and then it’s going to give you your maintenance calories. So I plugged in my numbers here and what they are as of today, and it’s telling me my maintenance calories are 2196 calories. And that’s just for me to stay at the weight that I’m at, and doing the activity level that I’m currently doing. Now, if you scroll down, once you get that number, it’s also going to tell you your BMI if you want to know that, but once you get your number, scroll down and then under macronutrients, you’ll see that there’s three headings, there’s maintenance, cutting, and bulking. So maintenance would be to stay right where you are cutting would be to lose weight. And then bulking would be for those of you that need to gain weight. So you’re listening to this podcast, so you probably need to lose. So we’re going to click cutting. And then for cutting calories, what it’s going to then do is tell you how many calories you should eat per day in order to lose weight. And so what it does is basically do a 500 calorie per day deficit. So for me, my calories would be about 1696 calories per day. And if you remember, my maintenance was 2196. So that’s a 500 calorie per day deficit. And over the course of a week, if I keep that deficit every every single day throughout the week, then that would be 3500 calories. So that is a great way to get your calorie range to know basically what you should be eating to maintain the weight that you currently have. And also what your calories should be for losing weight and 500 calorie a day deficit is a pretty good rate of weight loss for most of us. Alright, so that’s method one, counting your calories. And so again, you can either do that through some calorie tracking app, or if you just want to keep a food log and calculate it using that website that we just went through. Either way would work for you do what’s best for you.

Method 2: Using Hand Portions

So the second method for those of you who probably don’t like numbers, or you just don’t want the hassle of really having to write down and track every single thing you eat. The second method is using hand portions. And this is going to help a lot with portion control. And it’s nice because you don’t have to weigh and measure everything, you’re just using your hand to estimate the portion size.

So the numbers that I’m going to give you are for women in general that have minimal activity that want to lose weight and want to have a balanced meal plan. If you tend to have a higher activity level, or maybe you like to eat high carb or you’re doing keto, or whatever it is that you’re doing for your weight loss plan, then you can get with me and do some coaching and then I can give you some personalized recommendations. But again, this is just for a balanced meal for women that are doing minimal activity and that want to lose weight. Okay, so if you look at your hand, the palm of your hand, that’s going to be about one serving of protein. So three to four ounces of cooked me a serving of tofu, maybe a cup of Greek yogurt, or two eggs, that would be about the equivalent, that palm of your hand, okay, so the palm of your hand, not including fingers, that’s going to be a serving of protein. So your fist if you make a fist, that’s going to be about one serving of vegetables. That would be about one cup of a non starchy vegetable. If you cup your hand, like you’re going to hold something or maybe somebody’s giving you something you need to hold in your hand. So cup your hand, one hand full, is going to be an equivalent of a portion of carbs. So this is gonna be about half to two thirds cup of cooked grains or lagoons, or maybe about the size of a medium fruit. So one cupped handful is a serving of carbs. And then the last thing for your fats, give me a thumbs up that size of your thumb that’s going to be your serving of fat. And so that’s going to be about a tablespoon of oils. nuts, seeds, not by Under cheese about the size of your thumb, that’s going to be equivalent to one serving. And so again, if you’re a woman with minimal activity, so maybe you don’t have any real exercise throughout your week, you’re probably getting less than about 6000 steps a day. And if you’re eating a three meals a day, then what you want to do is have two poems of protein, and this is per meal. So per meal, you want to have two poems of protein. Okay, you want to have two fists of veggies, one cupped hand of carbs, and one thumb of fats. And again, that’s how much you want to eat if you’re using the hand portions. So remember, with method one with the calories, we want to stay within that calorie range for the day. So in method two, if you’re choosing this method, and using the hand portions, breaking it down per mil, again, it’s two pounds of protein per mil, two fists of veggies, one cup, handful of carbs, and one thumb of fat. And that’s assuming you’re eating about three meals a day, and you have minimal activity throughout the day, and you want to have a balanced meal.

Method 3: Track What You’re Working On

So method one, tracking calories, Method two is using those hand portions. And then the third method that I want to tell you about, and this is the easiest of them all and takes the least amount of time as all I want you to do is track what you’re working on. So if you go back to last week, when we wrote down the top three things that you wanted to work on first, or that would make the biggest impact on your health. And then I said, Pick the one thing out of those three that you want to work on first. So that’s all I want you to track.

And so for instance, with me, when I first started in my weight loss journey, I wanted to make sure I was drinking more water than I was before, because I basically was drinking absolutely no water throughout the day. And all I was drinking was soda. And so if I wanted to only track what I was working on in the beginning, in the beginning, I was just trying to replace the soda with more water. And so that’s what I would try. And so what I would do is track and check off every cup of water that I was drinking. And the goal was to get half a gallon of water a day. And now I’m at the point where I’m drinking half a gallon of water a day consistently. So I don’t necessarily need to track that now. And I can focus on tracking something else. Or maybe your thing is that you want to eat less ice cream than what you’re currently eating. So a track that maybe you put a checkmark on the days that you’re not having ice cream and an X on the days that you are. So whatever that one thing is that you want to focus on and work on. And that you want to replace with a healthier habit track that one thing.

So that’s three methods to help you know what and how much to eat. Like I said, pick the one that’s going to work best for you. And that’s going to fit best into your lifestyle, and then run with that one.

Homework

But before you go, I have some homework for you. So if you remember last week for your homework, you were to write down what you ate and drank every single thing for an entire week. And whether you wrote it down or took pictures of it or tracked it in an app, I just wanted you to track what you’re eating for an entire week. And I didn’t want to make any judgments about what you were writing down, just write it down. And so let’s take a look at that food log or that food journal that you kept from last week. And I want you to look at what you ate each day. And again, I don’t want you to make any judgments, but I just want you to make some observations.

Okay, so what do you notice about what you’re eating throughout the week? So maybe you notice that you eat out really often that’s something for me and something that I’ve had to work on. Or maybe you notice that you’re always in a rush early in the morning so you don’t have time to make nutritious food. So you usually end up going through the drive thru and grabbing some breakfast from a fast food restaurant. And maybe that’s something that you notice. Or maybe you notice you aren’t eating veggies at every meal, or that you only had vegetables once for the entire week. And that may have been the lettuce and tomato that was on your burger. You may be noticing while looking at your food log that you eat snacks every evening or dessert every evening or that you’re always eating convenience meals. Whatever it is. I just want you to take a look at the food log and make observations, not judgments just a Observe what you’re doing and what you’re eating. So what I want you to do those things that you’re noticing about the way you’re eating, write those things down so that you’re aware of them.

Now that you have that written down your homework is to change one of the things that you wrote down for the next two weeks. So for instance, if you notice that you’re eating dessert every single night of the week, and that’s something you want to change, because that will help cut your calories a lot, then what you might want to do is decide for your one thing, that instead of having dessert seven nights this week, I’m only going to have it four nights. Okay, so that’s improvement. And that’s a step forward. And so for the next two weeks, you’re going to work on only having dessert four nights a week instead of seven. And on those other three nights, maybe instead of having a piece of cake or cookies that you would normally have you have a piece of fruit, or some yogurt, so that way, you can still get something sweet. But it’s not necessarily like the cake or cookies that you would normally have.

So look at your food log, write down your observations, and then write down one thing that you want to work on for the next two weeks to improve the way you’re eating. So that’s your homework, figure out which of those three methods that you’d like to use to know what and how much to eat, and then do that homework and go through your food log and write down that one thing that you’re going to focus on for the next two weeks. All right, so that was part two, and how to lose weight and keep it off series.

I’m excited to continue this with you. I hope you’re getting a lot of value out of this. And if you are, by the way, share this with a friend that might also be able to use this information for their health goals in their weight loss journey. I would appreciate that so much. So I will see you next week for part three. All right, have a great day.