113. Find Your Forever Food Strategy

Creating a following a long-term, sustainable eating plan, especially when it includes losing weight, doesn’t have to be an impossible journey. It’s all about working with three key strategies, finding the best long-term strategy for your body and goals, and knowing when you might want to be flexible or choose a different plan for different periods of your life.   Key Takeaways 3 Nutrition Strategies for Sustainable Weight Loss  Intuitive Eating Mindful Eating Macro Counting   Strategies for Sustainable Weight Loss Long-term, sustainable nutrition is possible. Weight loss is within your reach. And finding a solution to your eating habits is a very realistic goal. It comes down to picking the right strategy for you, your body, and your goals… and then knowing when you need to change it up. One thing I really want to stress is that once you lose more than 10% of your body fat, you need to reevaluate and recalculate your weight loss strategy. If you don’t, you will actually be eating in either surplus calories or in maintenance mode - neither of which will let your body lose weight! First, I talk about Intuitive Eating. Intuitive Eating is the right strategy for you if you are working towards healing your relationship with your body and with food. With Intuitive Eating, we have to talk about satiety and the satiety gene, MC4R, which might make it harder for you to determine your own satiety.   Tracking or Estimating Macros for Empowered Eating The next strategy I discuss is Mindful Eating. Mindful eating uses a flexible macro-based approach that lets you use your best estimates of the food you eat. I find it helpful to track your food for a few days so that you can get a good idea of what each portion looks like. I also talk you through the ratio I use for protein, carbs, and fat. The final strategy I look at is full-blown Macro counting. Macro counting isn’t for everyone as it does take time and dedication to ensure you’re tracking your food correctly. But when it works, it works well and I find it very empowering to be in control of your food. My final thought, however, is that I think weight loss works best when you use a combination of all three weight-loss strategies. If you need a more flexible approach, like you’re going on vacation, switch over to intuitive eating. If you need something a bit more structured, head into macro counting. The bottom line is that the way you eat should make you feel good and empowered and that it’s sustainable! How have you tried to lose weight in the past? What worked or didn’t work for you? Which of these three strategies do you think sounds the most sustainable for you and your goals? Let me know in the comments on the episode page!   In This Episode How to manage a long-term, sustainable eating plan [3:30] What happens if you lose more than 10% of your lean muscle mass at once [5:15] Who intuitive eating is good for [7:30] What you need to know about satiety and the satiety gene [9:30] The difference between mindful eating and intuitive eating [12:30] How to calculate your protein goal [16:00] How macro counting can be empowering [24:00] How to use all 3 nutrition strategies to support your nutrition through every stage of your life [30:00]   Quotes “We won’t decrease our Basal Metabolic Rate as much if we maintain our lean muscle mass because lean muscle mass is more metabolically active.” [5:00] “When we’re committing to intuitive eating, our goal is going to be one of the more compassionate goals. Finding love for our body, finding love for our food, and really being one in mind and body.” [7:15] “If we have trouble with satiety, we can actually calculate our macros just to see what our body would require to be where we currently are, and then we can see how much food that is. Then our brain can see how much food that is so we can get more of an advantage when we’re figuring out when satiety would likely happen.” [11:41] “Macro counting is a way for me to discover the most accurate data on what works, as I compare it to my primary goal, and what doesn’t work.” [25:25] “Macro counting is reserved for those who like to work their mindset with it. There will be some struggles. If you are doing/counting/tracking/following them, it is an extra step of effort. It’s more of a layer. If you believe that it’s impacting your time and that you’re giving up a lot to do it, and then you don’t see the results you want, potentially you will be frustrated. But, if we think about it this way, what if the results you’re getting with the data you’re inputting are what they are, and all you have to do is input different data for different results, things change a bit. Macro counting becomes much more neutral.” [29:24]   Resources Optimizing GLP-1 Weight Loss Program. Learn more HERE. 31 Days of FIT. Learn more HERE. Muscle Maintenance During Fat Loss. Waitlist HERE. Fit Woman Collective™. Learn more HERE. Transform® 8.0 deposit link is now open. Sign up HERE. Follow Dr. Ali Novitsky on TikTok | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube Subscribe to The Muscles and Mindset Podcast on Spotify | Apple Podcasts   Related Episodes Episode 68. Siobhan Key on Sustainable Weightloss Episode 110. How Our Genes Impact our Jeans Episode 79. Do More of What Works