Mine would be to take at least a couple weeks to count calories so you get a better idea of how much you’re eating. People tend to not eat enough when “eating healthy” and tend to eat too much when just going by what they want.
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Damn. That’s such a good way to put it. Can I change my answer lol.
Count your calories. Always. There will never be a point where you get good enough to “just know” whether or not you’re on target, especially in an environment that is engineered to get you to eat as much as possible.
Same, was just going to say this.
I watched a video on diets, where a dietician says >90% of the people who start diets, end up failing / not sticking with it. The few that manage to stick to it, are those who either 1) have a program of planned, consistent meals (jenny craig, weight watchers, etc), or those who strictly watch their calorie intake, and build habits to stick to it (almost always via calorie counting apps nowadays).
I started using a calorie-counting app, and a scale, and its been remarkably easy to decrease the amount of food I eat in meals, and watch how much snacks I’ve been eating. I don’t even deny myself these things, I just end up eating less of them to stay under my daily limit.
Yeah I do that as well, I just like to say “at least for a couple weeks” because it does give people a decent measuring stick. But ideally, just count em lol.
My problem with calorie counting apps is I have no idea what to input sometimes, especially when its a homecooked meal. What do I put? How do I measure my portions?
I do almost all homecooked meals. just measure the main ingredients, search for them, and put in their approximate quantities.
Don’t agonize over what kind exercise to do. Studies have shown that any exercise is extremely beneficial to your physical and mental health, and past that, the individual exercises don’t make too much a difference.
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Two things: also wall o text warning
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All the exercise in the world won’t make up for a bad diet. Not a “a lot of food” diet. Not a “high calorie” diet. Not a " high fat/carb" diet. A “BAD” diet. I’m talking lots of refined and processed trash. You could eat fucking sweet potatoes for 90% of your food source and be perfectly healthy. It’s the doughnuts, cookies, cornpuff whatever bullshit fried in refined, oxidized seed oils, high fructose corn syrup and sugar infused trash that will ruin your body. Some of that here or there? Ok maybe. But on a regular basis and you are doing yourself a disservice. The exercise might keep it at bay but every time you stop, miss a day, or just “slow down” as you age those trash foods will catch up little by little and drag you down.
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I eat for protein first (for this bit assume whole food protein because macronutients, they go hand in hand). Food without protein is essential useless in my mind. The body wants protein (also macronutrients). It needs protein. It’s the main thing we eat for from an evolutionary standpoint. Protein is what builds your body. Sure, fat is used too for cells too but not nearly as important as protein. Carbs are the least important but are still necessary for some functions. In the end though those last two are almost entirely used for fuel. Protein is the building blocks. And unless you are just chugging protein shakes all day (which you shouldn’t do for a number of reasons) eating high protein foods will still get you ALL the fat and/or carbs you need if you are meeting your protein needs.
Studies show that those who eat more protein, whole food protein (also high in macronutrients), become fuller, quicker, and eat overall less calories because of it. It’s pretty much impossible to eat too much, because you don’t store protein like fat or carbs. If you eat too much you burn it as heat and piss/shit it out. Want to know where the “meat sweats” come from? One part digestion of the protein and fats, the other part is your body burning excess protein. (Which I guess is also a part of digestion but whatever.) What’s worse is as diets incorporate more and more refined processed shit the amount of protein decreases because those foods are typically significantly lacking in that department. So our bodies want to eat more to compensate. So try to always have a decent amount of protein in every meal/food item. Beans/lentils, cabbage family, are you best vegetable sources. Not vegeteble…meat is well, meat. Dairy, things like Greek yogurt and cheeses. Not saying you can’t splurge occasionally just be mindful.
Also I’m not saying exercise isn’t also VERY important, but that a healthy diet in general is more so.
Another good answer. I definitely agree with the first one 100% and I generally agree with the second only that can be cost prohibitive if your source of protein is meat. I like to have a carb heavier diet because it’s cheaper…
Beans are cheap and high protein and the fiber helps reduce the insulin impact of the carbs and also other non-bean carbs.
Eat beans Ferment beans Fart beans
Vegan here, beans, lentils, seitan, chickpeas, and tofu are all high in protein, and most of those are incredibly versatile and cheap staples. I use lentils to make a ton of vegan seitan steak that I use in various recipes throughout the week.
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[the one piece of advice I would have given was already said, so I’m not going to waste a post just repeating it]
Take a bit of time to do things properly. Whether that be making sure your form is correct in resistance training, taking a lower weight or a break to avoid injury, comparing nutrition of similar products, choosing a programme. I was pretty close to picking a poorly developed but widely recommended (even in non-commercial communities) program just because it was the one recommended by a platform I considered popular and reputable.
If you have bad form for one day, it probably won’t hurt you. If you make bad form a habit, it will hurt you, badly.
My one essential exercise is to follow up a strong leg day with whatever muscle groups you want to work on most. Example: Day 1 I hit 4 sets of 5-8 reps of Squat, 4 sets Leg Press at highest weights I can do comfortably, some calf exercises, etc. Day 2 I hit some bench press, cable pulls, bicep curls, preacher curls. Your body produces more cortisol, testosterone and Human Growth Hormone in response to heavy leg exercise, so you should use that for the next day. You’ll notice some results for sure
That’s interesting. I’ll keep that in mind because I usually do legs as the last day of my three day split before my rest day, I’ll try putting it at the front.
Yea exactly, just try it out once or twice, if it feels weird or you like the old schedule, do your usual one, but it’s a nice tip that can speed up the fitness goals a tiny bit
Anorexic for 10 years. It really is just CICO for the majority of people. Occasionally on pro-ana or anorexic support boards you’d get people on diets trying to find out our secret and get an ED and yea, it’s just CICO. You can’t eyeball oil and shit like that which balloons calories, so also try and eat healthy and educate yourself if you dont know what’s healthy.
Lots of anorexics also try and cut meat because of how many more calories that has than veggie food on average
If you struggle to eat enough, look into routines.
What helped me to improve was to accept a solid base of food that I don’t change, really. Every morning I eat oatflakes with (soy)yoghurt, peanuts, seeds and an apple. After that it’s two peanut butter jelly sandwhiches. For lunch I eat some rice/pasta with beans, lentils and sauce. Sometimes I have a protein shake as well.
This has been my base for two years now and it helped my improve greatly. This alone brings me to around 60-70 grams (without the protein shake) of protein each day and I only have to think about what I eat for diner really. And some snacks in between. You’d think it’s boring but surprisingly for me it wasn’t. It felt really great to finally eat enough without having to worry about what I have to eat.
I really think excercise is more important…I’m not judging, I don’t practice what I preach!
