nutrition Q&A: REVERSE DIETS, TRACKING MACROS AND RECIPES, MINDFUL EATING, CARBS AND FATS, AND MORE
I had an overwhelming response to my call for your nutrition questions! I answered several questions in this Q&A: Part 1 and am sharing some others this week.
Nutrition can be confusing and overwhelming, and I hope some of these responses help clear up some questions you’ve been wondering about as well!
I recall seeing an IG post from you about abstainers vs moderators. You mentioned that you are an abstainer (same!). I also see many coaches insist that moderation with all foods should be possible if you shed all dichotomous thinking about food and are able to be neutral enough about the foods. I have struggled with doing this in the past. Just curious if you think abstainers can become moderators if they change their mindset around certain foods?
I like to think of moderation as a skill, rather than a concrete personality attribute. People who are naturally better abstainers likely have some higher-reward “treat” foods that they can successfully moderate their intake of. Even for people who are great moderators, there may be certain foods that feel impossible to not overeat. (Coach Whitney, for example, is generally a strong moderator -- unless she’s eating Oreos or french fries).
While you may have a natural inclination to be an abstainer, being able to stop seeing foods as “good” or “bad” is still really important for your overall relationship with food. If there are foods that you know are hard for you to stop eating, it’s okay to not keep those around just yet -- but mentally refer to those as high-value foods or special occasion foods, rather than being “off-limits”. As you are working on building that moderation skill, try starting with some treat foods that you know you can be satisfied with, in amounts that support your goals. That can help build confidence in your ability to moderate your intake.
And remember that shedding dichotomous thinking includes how you think about yourself: you may see better success from abstaining rather than moderating, but that doesn't mean you can’t build moderation skills!
What are reverse diets?
Reverse dieting is the process of slowing increasing calorie intake after a fat loss phase to combat any metabolic adaptation and allow the dieter to maintain their fat loss progress while increasing their intake. Reverse dieting is often a necessary process for individuals who have been chronically underfed for a long time and need to first address metabolic adaptation from chronic dieting before then pursuing another fat loss phase. Here is a great post on reverse dieting!
How to track macros when I cook a recipe at home when the recipe doesn't include nutrition info?
There are 2 options here really, and we generally want to go with the option that is most responsible and sustainable for you!
First, you can type the recipe into MFP and see if there is a similar or the same recipe already in there (sometimes there is!).
The more accurate way (which is great if you're going to re-make that recipe at any time) is this:
When making recipes, a chili, for example, you must weigh all of the ingredients input into it, then take your portions from the total weight. Say you make chili with 1000g ground beef, 500g crushed tomato, 500g beans. You would create a new recipe on MFP and enter all of the separate ingredients. Once the final product is finished, you can weigh the final product and set that final weight as the serving size. So if the whole chili weighs 2000g, set the recipe in MFP to 2000 servings. Then when you prepare a lunch of 250g of chili, you just log it as 250 servings. It sounds confusing but it really only requires you to weigh the final product as an extra step.
I have a highlight on my IG that gives a visual of the process. I promise it's easier than it sounds!
More than anything, remembering that consistency is always the goal; never perfection. Everything we track is an estimation because even nutrition labels estimate and round up/down and are rarely ever super accurate. When we focus on consistency, it can give us permission to loosen our grip on tracking a bit and use it as a tool to help us work toward our goals rather than approaching it with a perfectionist/all-or-nothing mentality.
I want to try getting away from MFP but the thought frightens me. How can I do that in a way that doesn’t mess up my progress I’ve seen?
It can certainly be scary to start moving away from MFP and the idea of tracking, but it’s good to remember that tracking is a tool and being confident in making your own decisions (versus relying on MFP). That said, just like learning to track and use MFP is a skill, learning to accurately estimate your meals and understanding what foods you need to eat each day to feed yourself appropriately is also a skill. There’s not a hard and fast rule of when you’re ready to stop using MFP, but if your current goals are to maintain your current weight and you’ve been tracking for a while and you feel confident in what an average day looks like for you in terms of intake, then you’re more than ready! If you’re someone who typically pre-tracks your day, I would recommend post-tracking your day instead. You can still weigh and measure your food per usual, but instead of planning it all out ahead of time, try to eat based on your skills and knowledge and use MFP as a way to “check” yourself at the end of the day. Another thing you can do is to track only your protein and total calories as a way to stay on track without relying too heavily on MFP to make your food choices throughout the day. Again, just like when you were learning to track, learning to rely on yourself takes time and practice and there’s no right or wrong way to do it, just the way that you feel best and that works for your lifestyle.
What is your opinion regarding foods that are zero/low fat vs whole fat? I struggle with foods that should naturally have fats in them but commercially marketed foods are often stripped of natural fats and add sugar or salt to enhance the flavor. Which is better for our bodies - chemicals or fat?
Foods in their most natural, least processed state are always going to be most optimal for our bodies. Dietary fat is not bad at all, and choosing food choices that feel most sustainable to us should be a top priority. Utilizing some of these more processed foods on occasion may be sustainable (I know that's the case for me, especially when it comes to convenience and ease), but also don't be fooled by thinking "fat-free" or "sugar-free" alternatives are better/healthier when that may not be the case. Aim for a majority of your food coming from unprocessed, whole foods but also don’t restrict yourself from foods you want that may fall outside of that.
Do I have to cut carbs to lose weight?
Not at all! Losing weight is all about creating a calorie deficit. Creating a calorie deficit can be done in a myriad of ways. That is what any diet - keto, paleo, vegan, Atkins, etc. - is doing when it results in weight loss. The diet industry has done a lot of work in telling us over the years that carbs somehow are worse for us than other food components when in reality they are our bodies’ primary source of fuel. Carbs don’t contribute to weight gain; excess calories do. It’s all about energy balance and in an effort to lose weight, that balance should look like expending more calories over time than we are consuming, however you choose to arrive at that. You CAN choose to do so by focusing on a low-carb method, but the real question of this approach is: is that method sustainable? The answer for most is no and cutting out carbs is just another method of cutting out a portion of total calories. With an approach like tracking macros, we are learning how to use a balanced spread of protein, carbs, and fats to fuel our bodies with balance and avoid restriction and deprivation entirely, allowing results that are achieved to be sustained.
We love Q&As but also try to address common nutrition questions and hangups through our blog and our free resources. To learn more about 1:1 Flexible Nutrition Coaching, head here!