Now I know weight loss is NOT you’re only health concern.
In fact, you don’t want to just lose weight solely for vanity’s sake.
You’re concerned about…
-not being able to run with your nieces and nephews.
-becoming a pemanent hermit and shutting yourself off to the world.
-being embarrassed about how much space you take up.
-not going on dates and skipping events with your family
-and the list goes on.
So know that not only does eating optimally promote weight-loss, but it simultaneously promotes better health and can actually prevent and reverse certain diseases too. Yay!
(We’ll talk more about that in my next post).
Optimal Eating™️ is one of the safest, effective and most maintainable ways to lose weight, but how does it actually work?
Optimal Eating™️ promotes weight loss and better health by eating foods that are the most nutrient-dense (to promote health), but the least calorie-dense (to promote weight-loss), while staying full (maintainable).
How eating optimally promotes weight-loss
The major way Optimal Eating™️ promotes strictly weight-loss (vs promoting health) is by a nutrition principle called calorie density.
Calorie density refers to the amount of calories per pound of food.
For example, one pound of lettuce is just 68 calories while one pound of olive oil is a whopping 4,013 calories. 😱
One pound of lettuce is about 14 cups of food but one pound of oil is only 2 cups of food.
14 cups of food = 68 calories vs 2.10 cups of food = 4,013 calories. CRAZY.
Now I know you’re not going to eat 2 cups of oil in a day but this is the most dramatic example I can give you to understand the basic principle.
Optimal Eating promotes weight loss by having you focus on eating the food groups that are lowest in calorie density, so you can eat the same quantity of food you are now (or maybe even more), but actually eat less calories.
On the flip side, if you have a large bowl of salad that’s let’s say 20 calories and you add just 1 tablespoon of oil onto that salad, you’re 20 calorie salad is now 140 calories for the same quantity of food. You’ll be just as “full" eating this 20 calorie salad as you would the 140 calorie salad because oil is not satiating… it doesn’t promote the feeling as fullness.
That’s the second way Optimal Eating™️ promotes weight loss…
Your delicious and low calorie dense meals are also really FILLING (salad is NOT one of those filling foods).
Why is feeling satiated (the feeling of fullness) a must for weight loss? What do you STOP doing when you’re full?
You STOP EATING… naturally, all on your own WITHOUT trying to push the plate away or play head games with yourself to not take those 2 extra bites that you really want.
When you stop eating, you stop consuming calories and you stop even thinking about food for hours because you’re full and your body has the ENERGY it needs to do other things.
What most Americans are doing is trying to eat smaller portions of high calorie foods instead of eating a larger and satiating portion of foods that are much lower in calories.
It’s much easier and more maintainable to focus on simply eating low calorie-dense and filling foods and eating until you’re full whenever you want, than trying to force yourself to eat a smaller portion of high-calorie foods.
Now it’s time to hear from you. Comment below and tell me…
What new thing did you learn from this post or the greatest insight you took away from this post?
Let me know and I’ll happily respond 😊
Love and Leafy Greens,
Trish
P.S. The source I used to calculate the calorie content was the USDA’s Nutrient Database which you can access here: https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/