Good morning! 

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about the relationship between hunger and snacking. I think it’s fairly common for people to equate being overweight with eating lots of food. In fact, many cookie cutter diets take the approach of simply eating less food as the solution. So, what’s more important? How much you eat or what you eat? Or is it both? Well let me clear the air right away by saying that the amount of food you eat is not the issue nor the solution in and of itself. Perhaps in your mind you are disagreeing with me. Let me explain. The volume or the amount of food means nothing because every piece of food you eat has a different number of calories, and at the end of the day it’s all about calories in versus calories out. It may shock you to hear that in the 8 years I’ve been a personal trainer I’ve never once heard someone who is trying to lose weight say they eat too much food. Instead, many of them, in their own words “eat very little”. Many don’t even feel full at the end of the day, and most of them only eat 1 or 2 meals a day. Now, many people would think “they must not be telling the truth”, but I believe them. If you would say the same, I’d believe you as well. It doesn’t surprise me however, that people who don’t feel full and eat very little struggle with their weight. It actually makes complete sense when you realize a few simple things. First, we need to define a few key words. What does it mean to overeat? The dictionary definition is “to eat to excess”, or the one I like even more, “to eat more than is good for oneself”. The reason this is important to define is because it really is dependent heavily on WHAT you are eating. Most define overeating as “eating after I feel full”. Survey says? X You don’t have to feel full to have eaten more than what is good for you. This is true for more than one reason. The obvious reason, as I’ve already mentioned, is that every food has a different number of calories, but another reason is that every food has a different nutritional value to you. We get this concept with other things, but for some reason when it comes to food it escapes us. Can you overdrink water? Sure, but it’s not likely to happen because you would have to drink A LOT. We don’t use the same standard of what would be considered overdrinking for water as we do for soda though. Why is that? Well, because water is actually good for you while pop on the other hand is quite bad for you and has no nutritional value whatsoever. Basing whether you’ve overeaten on whether you feel full (when you’re eating something unhealthy) would be the equivalent to basing whether you’ve drank too much soda on if you’re no longer thirsty.  One way we can begin to realign our mindset about food and overeating is to categorize food into 3 camps. Actual food, Complete junk, and Actual food with some complete junk sprinkled in, which is what people usually eat the most of. It may not seem like what you’re eating is the most unhealthy, and it probably isn’t, but the in between foods are the most dangerous because they seem harmless, but they’re also very high in calories most times. If it seems harsh to label certain things as “complete junk” and not even consider them to be food, it really isn’t. The reason we don’t like it is because when we call it what it is we feel bad about eating it. Before you stop reading because you think I’m going to go on to say you need to stop eating anything that is unhealthy, let me assure you that’s not the case, and it’s not how I personally live either. It sounds nice, and it would certainly be the healthiest option, but remember there’s more to health than just the physical. I understand the difficulty of cutting out any and all processed foods and sugar, especially in the world that we live in. It’s not impossible, but I also don’t believe it’s necessary. If you choose to go that route more power to you! Just don’t look down on others who don’t do it the same way. You can still be very healthy without being PERFECTLY healthy. For most people, being very healthy rather than perfectly healthy is OVERALL healthier…and less annoying (sorry to all the perfect people out there). I’m attaching images from 2 examples below for the sake of illustration. Reminder it’s an illustration. I’m not saying it’s a perfect representation or will match up with how you personally do things, but I hope it still gets the point across. Example 1 is what a healthy 1,328 calories could look like whereas example 2 is the opposite at roughly the same calories, 1,382 to be exact. Example two isn’t 2 a day of eating desserts either. Most people don’t do that. It’s more the “middle of the road” foods (snacks). Take a look.

Example 1 - *The rotisserie chicken is 6oz worth

Protein – 144g

Carbs – 85g

Fat – 48g

Example 2 – *The cheese is 2 slices worth

Protein – 31g

Carbs – 133g

Fat – 75g

There are a few things worth pointing out from the illustrations above. The most obvious is that example 1 has WAY more food, and yet slightly less calories. Most people aren’t surprised to hear that healthy food has a lot less calories, but I think that sometimes we fail to grasp just how big the difference is. Perhaps the more shocking thing is just how many calories are in example 2 for how little food it really is. Maybe looking at it you aren’t that surprised, but actually eating it over the course of an entire day, not all at once like you are seeing it here, you would feel like you hardly ate anything. And you would be right. Here’s where the bigger problem comes in, and what the larger topic of this whole message is. At this point if your calorie deficit goal is around 1,300 calories you would lose weight whether your day looked like example 1 or example 2, BUT….When you don’t eat enough real, unprocessed, single ingredient foods in a day, YOU WILL BE HUNGRY. And there’s only two options when you’re hungry but have already consumed all the calories you had available for the day. Either you go to bed hungry, develop a hatred for dieting, and probably give up (not to mention all the other negative effects you’ll have from lack of nutrients your body needs). Or you’ll eat, and understandably so. This is when you go from being in a calorie deficit to simply a maintenance. Add one extra bad day on the weekend and now you’re in a calorie surplus. All the while you’re never really eating very much food. If 1,300 calories doesn’t sound like a lot, look again at example 1 and just imagine eating all of that food and still LOSING weight. The temptation to snack will still be there if it’s a habit, but I can promise you that it’s WAY easier to say no when you’re stuffed. Did you notice in example 1 how 1tbs of butter is almost the same amount of calories as an entire sweet potato? It’s an understanding of these kinds of things that will help you start making some changes to your diet, and it doesn’t mean you can’t use butter, but it may help you limit how much you use! So, what’s the takeaway? Most people don’t need to eat less food, THEY NEED TO EAT MORE. More of the right foods. You by no means need to go vegetarian to lose weight, but why does it work so well? Is it because they’re not eating meat? NO! It’s because they aren’t eating all of the sugary processed foods. You don’t have to fully eliminate things you enjoy in order to lose weight, and you certainly don’t need to eliminate meat if you like it. The same goes with carbs. It’s very popular to demonize carbs. The ironic thing is most of the unhealthiest, fried, processed foods are high in fat, not carbs. I’m not demonizing fats either though. I’m saying losing weight and being overall healthy are two separate topics. You can lose weight eating whatever you want to as long as you’re in a calorie deficit. And yes, there are health benefits to losing weight, but you will negate many of them if all you eat is complete junk. If you want to be overall healthier, happier, and not feel like you’re starving, then eating more single ingredient, unprocessed food is the solution, regardless of how many carbs you eat, and whether or not you eat meat. The last thing I’ll point out between the two examples is the protein difference. Protein is more filling than carbs and fats. Which means not only is example 1 already more food which means you’ll be more full, but it’s also almost 5 times as much protein! So, this means you’ll feel EVEN more full! Other benefits from a diet more like example 1, besides weight loss, are the countless health benefits that I won’t go all into today, but also that a higher protein diet will not just result in any kind of weight loss, but specifically FAT loss. The goal is to lose fat not muscle, and a high protein diet is a critical part of that. I have one more example for you below. This would be my personal preference for how I would harmonize example 1 and example 2 where I would still feel full enough, get enough of the nutrients I need, but also enjoy it a lot more than example 1.

Example 3 - *The rotisserie chicken is for 4oz & the cheese is for 1 slice

Calories – 1,344

Protein – 132g

Carbs – 68g

Fat – 60g

Just remember, this is also a phase for these next 8 weeks. Add another 500 calories into the equation and you can have a lot more wiggle room for eating things you enjoy, while still not gaining any weight, and possibly still losing a pound or two each month!

To Your Health,