Diet culture is being revolutionized as we speak and I mean an overhaul of all the silly, unfounded, non-scientifically backed information that left many of us confused and incredibly frustrated.
The pic on the left is me 40 weeks pregnant with my 2nd Baby May 2019. Pic on the right is about 3 years later.
The thing is, we have and are so desperate to achieve weight loss goals that it was easy to jump on anything that appeared to be promising and get us quick results. We have such a strong tie and connection to how we look and how that makes us feel about our self-worth, confidence, and value that its so easy to get sucked into pretty marketing and fall for the bs.
I know I’ve fallen for a lot of unfulfilled promises, inaccurate nutritional information, and companies or individuals looking to profit off of someone’s desperation for weight loss.
BUT, today is a new day sis! Let me first give you a little history on my dieting journey. Let’s take it back to like 1999. I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus, but your girl has tried so many different diet approaches. I can remember dieting since I was about 15 smh. I remember I was willing to try anything. At that age I remember my mom was doing a low carb based diet and I saw that she was getting results so I hopped on the train. I would lose weight, but it never felt sustainable.
I don’t remember really having any significant body-image issues in college, so it was more so of what can I find that will keep me full and save me money so I can buy next outfit lol.
Then I remember graduating college, getting comfortable in my career with a decent paying income, eating out a lot and not being very intentional about my health. So back on the dieting train I went. Through social media, I discovered the world of “clean eating,” which is primarily based on consuming real foods. Think like fresh chicken, beef, shrimp, fish, vegetables, fruits with minimal additives. When I started eating like this, I certainly started feeling better because the quality of my foods improved and I was filling up my caloric intake with nutritionally dense foods leaving less room for calorie dense foods that weren’t very filling. I remember taking before and after pictures and would definitely notice progress but never much movement on the scale. This was frustrating because I knew I probably was about 15-20 lbs above my ideal weight at the time but kept at it and from here tried to typically stick to whole food sources as the cornerstone of my diet.
Ok enough of my history, lets get to the point. Flexible Dieting. This is the food philosophy I follow now and will likely follow for the rest of my life. Shout out to my husband for pointing me to this direction (Hey Sexy). So, basically flexible dieting is very much what it sounds like. Depending on your goal, you would first figure out how many calories you would need to consume on a weekly average. Goals typically fall under 3 categories: (1)Maintaining your current weight (2)Fat loss (3)Build Muscle which would involve gaining weight. You would then break that total calorie goal down into macronutrients, which are protein, fats, and carbohydrates. Pro Tip: You can do this manually using a website like TDEEcalculator.net, or you can be lazy like me and use an app like carbon diet coach which I will have to write a whole entire post about.
This is where the flexibility comes in. So lets say your goal is to lose weight and you calculated that in order to lose 1 pound of fat per week you need to eat 1500 calories per day. This would equate to 10,500 calories per week. So this means that I can eat whatever foods I want and no food group is off limits as long as I meet my weekly calorie goal of 10,500 calories. So no rules like you can’t have sugar, or you can’t have carbs, or you can’t have more than one fruit per day. Forget alladat, unless you have some dietary or medical restrictions of course.
The other reason this approach is considered flexible is because you can do what the fitness world calls calorie cycling. Let me explain. So say I know I have a dinner celebration plan for Saturday. I know I’m going to want to eat some higher calorie food options and drinks. I can allocate 2,000 calories for Saturday and then lower my calories for the other days within that 1 week period so that I have the flexibility to eat more during an event and STILL meet my fitness goals. Um, this is awesome.
Sis, this is all backed and researched by evidenced based science, meta-analysis, peer-reviewed, etc, etc. That’s one of the beauties of this dieting approach. There is no gimmicky tricks, false promises, or sales tactics. It’s straightforward and that’s what we need more of in the fitness and nutrition community. The science component of it took out a lot of frustrations that I had with other diets. Sticking to plans for a month and seeing 0 results. I was over it. For example, I felt better eating Whole Foods and that is still the anchor of my diet, but if I’m eating more calories than what I burn (energy output), I will not lose weight. It’s simple math. And the whole reason other diets work comes down to the basic concept of energy balance. For example, people who choose keto and lose weight are losing because they are removing an entire macro nutrient (carbohydrates) from their diet which will result in lower calorie consumption. If I expel more energy (measured in calories) than I consume, I will lose weight. That’s what the science proves. Again, this doesn’t apply to a very very small percentage of people with underlying medical challenges. So for me, lets keep it simple and not exclude any foods, enjoy the foods I love within my macronutrient/calorie targets and still crush my goals. That’s a yes for me and it also helps for me to sustain my fitness goals. I can still eat ice cream everyday if it fits into my macro targets, I can still eat a bagel if it fits into my macro targets, I can still drink a margarita if it fits into my macro targets, I can still eat pancakes if it fits into my macro targets. This is what makes it sustainable for me. I could never personally do keto because heart flutters for carbs, I could never betray carbs like that haha.
Let me know some of the dieting gimmicks you’ve fallen for before, and if you need any help getting started on a scientifically based, sustainable approach to dieting, I’d love to help you! Comment on this blog post, or connect with me on my instagram page @stacymichellemccray.