Could you be eating too much?

Here’s a quick blog post based on a few questions I have received lately.
Ok so you’ve been following a healthy diet for a few weeks now and you’re still not seeing any results? You’re eating the right foods but that waist line still isn’t dropping?

Well there is a chance you could still be eating too much! So I said in a recent post that when you are eating the right foods its hard to put on weight because you will be more satisfied with the foods that you are eating. What I forgot to mention is that although you can be eating all these great healthy foods you still have the ability to overeat on these healthy wholesome foods.

A lot of people just enjoy eating/snacking (me included) and may not realise that that extra handful of nuts they’ve snuck into their daily intake might be what’s stopping them from losing weight. Be honest with yourself when you reach for that snack, are you bored or are you starting to get a little peckish and need to curb your hunger until your next meal? This is where listening to your body comes in, if you’re eating foods for the sake of it then you need to be prepared to pay the price and suffer the consequences of overeating.

I’m not particularly a fan of calorie counting but it can work for some people, just by cutting your calorie intake by about 500 per day (through both exercise and diet) you will start to lose weight at a steady level. But if you’re eating a poor diet and are just reducing your calories on that poor diet you might get results short term but you will still be holding on to the fat stores and your weight loss could be coming from muscle rather than from fat.

The best way to keep on track with your weight loss is by using a diet planner to plan your meals ahead and a diet diary to keep log of everything you have eaten (yes that means everything – even that tiny bit of chocolate you pinched from your children!).

Start making your portions that little smaller, if you’re having porridge on a morning it can be easy to overdo it, just make your porridge using a small cup ¾ full or for larger males a full cup. Watch your snacks in the day and be careful of overeating at your meals. You should never feel totally bloated after a meal – if you do its counterproductive.

If you have been exercising and you have stopped getting results you need to increase your intensity of the exercise, increase the amount of exercise your doing in the week so that your body has a challenge again and also be sure that you are progressing with your exercises on your training sessions too – if you have been doing press ups from your knees for 6 weeks in a row – guess what your not progressing, by now you should be doing a few full press ups!

If you’re not seeing results then you may need to reduce your daily food intake and/or increase your energy output (exercise more): eat less – move more!!