Beautifully Well Conversations with Nik
Curated conversations for women with National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach Nik Sweeney. Transparency meets community with engaging topics surrounding self-care for busy women.
Beautifully Well Conversations with Nik
Balancing Calories: Finding Your Weight Loss Formula
Finding your personal weight loss formula requires balancing two key aspects of health: how often you move and what you eat. Success comes from discovering what specific approach works for your body rather than following generic advice.
• Sustainable weight loss comes from losing 1-2 pounds weekly through realistic changes
• Losing just 5% of your body weight significantly lowers health risks
• Food is energy – when feeling tired, first consider what you've eaten or not eaten
• Smart food swaps allow you to enjoy favorite foods while reducing calories
• On exercise days, increase calorie intake to ensure your body burns fat efficiently
• Eating 5 smaller meals daily keeps metabolism active and energy levels stable
• Portion awareness matters more than eliminating entire food groups
• Beverages can contribute hundreds of hidden calories to your daily intake
• Water intake should equal half your body weight in ounces for optimal health
• Your personal weight loss formula depends on your specific body needs and lifestyle
Take a few minutes to calculate your calorie needs using MyPlate.gov and identify small, sustainable changes you can make to your daily eating habits that you'll still be following a year from now.
Stepping into this next chapter of health should feel empowering not overwhelming.
Simplify your journey to better health with our holistic approach to managing stress, mindfully eating, and moving more.
Beautifully well in 30 Days, the overwhelmed woman's guidebook to a clearer, realistic path to better health is available on Amazon. It includes one of our favorite meal plans you can use a blueprint to healthier eating.
Order today! https://a.co/d/iVPKbKs
Self-Care meets healthcare at Amani Nicol Wellness. Book a Service.
can we lose weight, but we can lose inches along the way as well. And one thing to note that's really important about managing our health, managing our weight, managing trying to lower our risk or prevent our risk is going to go back to incorporating two very important aspects of it, and we know that is how often we decide to move and what we decide to eat. And the interesting thing in this conversation, I hope that you're able to find your formula, because we know, not everybody's formula is a match. It's not cookie cutter. What's needed is the same for everyone a healthy balance of healthier foods, a nice routine for exercise. But how you go about it and what's sufficient for you is going to vary. But how you go about it and what's sufficient for you is going to vary. So, throughout this conversation, you want to ask yourself what is my formula? Right, Lisa? What's my formula? What do I need in order to balance this journey as a whole? So we'll talk about weight loss and eating enough food. So we'll talk about weight loss and eating enough food. What happens on the days that we exercise and need to replace it, how the type of food we decide to eat affects our energy as well, and I love that we're using the words energy, because food is energy when we are tired, when we're feeling a little weak.
Speaker 1:First question what did I eat? Or what did I not eat? Because food is energy. So so often and yes, I'm going to pick on women, because I am one that we can go throughout our day off of scraps, especially for those of us that love coffee, which is a suppressant, so you can literally load up on that cup of coffee, feel so good because it's almost euphoria. I don't know what it is about caffeine or just the experience of coffee in the morning, even if it's decaf, but it acts as a suppressant. So you can literally breeze your way through lunch and forget that you did not eat. And yet by three o'clock you're doing a North Avenue lean, but you're still trying to make it happen. How do we balance this? So we want it.
Speaker 1:You want to know how much do you weigh. Remember I said this is going to give you the tools, but your own personal formula is what's going to lead to success for you. How much do you weigh? You know, I spent a little bit of time at Jenny Craig as a center director and I just found the interest in. I mean, I'm not bashing the company by any means. They had some good things to it. But I sat there knowing that this person in front of me needed more than 1200 calories a day. Like, why is it that almost 90% of our clients are on a 1200 calorie diet and they come back week after week like I just I'm so hungry I couldn't shake it. I just I feel like I need more food, Because it's not cookie cutter. How much do you weigh?
Speaker 1:What is your preference with exercise activity, Realistically based on your lifestyle? How often are you going to move more and what is the pace? Because the reality is, if I barely exercise, if I am not an exerciser, I'm definitely not jumping up to do anything that looks like P90X or a HIIT routine, right, those high intensity interval training. I need to know where I am for a number of reasons. I'm not trying to have a heart attack or a stroke because I feel like now I have to go hard when I have not conditioned my body to accept that level of exercise activity and then, at the same time, if you are an exerciser, maybe there are opportunities for you to increase it, or if you're in a plateau when you're an exerciser now.
Speaker 1:This conversation may help you to understand that nothing's happening right now because you are burning calories that you don't have, and that's not helpful either. So let's look at balancing these calories in and out. We have Paul. Paul is smiling, so I can only assume that Paul's story is going to motivate us. He has two parts to this story. If anyone would like to come off the mute and just share with us Paul's part one just by reading the three paragraphs, or I can hop in.
Speaker 2:I can read. Okay, paul is 47 years old, weighs 240 pounds. He is at risk for type 2 diabetes. His doctor has told him that he can lose 5% of his weight through CDC's National Diabetes Prevention Program Lifestyle Change Program to lower his risk. That is about 12 pounds total. That is about 12 pounds total. But Paul is wondering why his doctor is suggesting a year-long program over a diet that would help him lose weight faster. His doctor explains that slower and steady weight loss is a way to make lasting changes. Research suggests that each person will lose weight at different rates, but losing an average or of about one to two pounds per week can be a safe goal, according to most experts. Keep going. Oh, there's only one. Paul needs to adjust the amounts of calories he consume and the amount he burns if he wants to lose one pound a week. He can do this by eating fewer calories and increasing his activity. Paul has some good ideas about what he can do is about what he can do.
Speaker 1:Thanks for that, lisa. So, paul is like wait a minute, you telling me 5% is going to change my life. Why can't I just go and do a 10-day smoothie cleanse and be done with it? Well, he could, and a smoothie cleanse is cool too, but what is your 5%? So that's the first question we talked about when we opened up our conversation how much do you weigh? Keep it to yourself. I may send around a private chat to you for my ladies.
Speaker 1:The CDC wants to know what's happening here. I may send that private link. How much do you weigh and what is 5% of that? This information is evidence-based. It's been tried and true. It's been in several studies. This program is now, as of 2023, years old and still going. So 5% if I'm 240 pounds. If I lose 12 pounds, I'm in the green area. It's ready set go and the safe zone is one to two pounds a week. Could you do a green smoothie cleanse to kind of accelerate and clean? Cleanse your system? Absolutely. But the goal when we think about sustainable weight loss one to two pounds will not creep back up on you right away if you are making sure that what you do is sustainable to get there. So how can you go about averaging one to two pounds a week? We're going to talk about it and I keep saying we're going to do something, we're going to modify this page here because we don't need those feet. But what is Paul doing? Here's some of the adjustments. See if some of this could fit your situation.
Speaker 1:His regular breakfast was three eggs from three to two. He had an English muffin with light butter instead of two slices of toast with butter and jelly, so he's reduced 200 calories and he's definitely saved. On some of the added sugar, he decided to measure the sugar and cream in his coffee, because he was probably having cream with his coffee, right, but he was able to cut 150 calories just by using one teaspoon of sugar and two tablespoons of cream. Now, but we can do even better than that. Right, because we know about monk fruit. We know about agave. There are other sweeteners, but natural sweeteners like agave and monk fruit can help. Now, not knocking the refined sugar, right, because the thing about this sustainable weight loss is that if right now you're doing a refined sugar but you notice you're using four teaspoons, well then the cutback would be to gradually cut back that. Right, but at lunchtime he has apple slices instead of the chips. He has sparkling water instead of his bottle of soda, instead of the chips. He had sparkling water instead of his bottle of soda. That alone cut him 345 calories.
Speaker 1:But later that day Paul went out with his wife for dinner. He asked for his salad to be served with the dressing on the side, so he controlled the amount that he added and this cut 100 calories. Now Paul didn't talk about what else he had for dinner, he just talked about what he decided to do with that salad. That is none of our business, because he at least started out. Remember these gradual changes. He probably had a rack of ribs and some mac and cheese, but he started out with that salad and he managed his salad dressing. But after dinner he decided to do a brisk walk for 40 minutes. So now Paul is back on track, averaging one pound a week. So he's halfway there.
Speaker 1:Are there any changes that you can make Towards the end? I'm going to share with you a page from one of our programs that just helps you to start thinking mindfully about the food you already have, or the food that you eat, and ways that you can make the swap, and then notice. Did you notice the two things that Paul is doing? Let me grab my little pencil here Two things we notice that he's doing. He is adjusting his calories throughout every meal, you know, but how many of us know exactly what we're eating every day, throughout the day, and we could be drinking our calories, but how many of us know exactly what we're eating every day, throughout the day? We could be drinking our calories. We actually could be doing pretty well with our foods. We might not be doing a frozen TV dinner we're more mindful about our food but we're still picking up a sweet tea, or there's a lot more sugar in our coffee. Or, like me, you love Coca-Cola and you find yourself picking up a can, right, and you go. Where is it coming out? Where the weight not coming off? I'm still. I'm doing better than I was. Well, that's the place that you want to be, that you see that you're making some changes. Paul made a couple of swaps and he increased exercise activity.
Speaker 1:So, although you know we talk about one focus at a time, because if we got too many areas to focus on, it will leave us frustrated and defeated we can focus on, have one main area of focus, just remembering that with that one area of focus, that if you are consistent in it, eventually what happens? Those other parts of this journey begin to fit right in. They become a part of it. And for some reason, zoom and these updates I forgot how to erase this. Did I do? Yeah, there it is Okay, yeah. So if you have a healthy swap or something that you do or can relate to Paul, please drop it in the chat. Share it with us. We would love to see to share, because you all are the experts You're already doing this. You're only here to get a nudge. You know exactly what to do. So a little bit of education can be helpful, but it's more so the accountability and the goal setting piece.
Speaker 1:So how do we do this at breakfast, instead of the one cup of Cheerios, instead of Raisin Bran? But why Raisin Bran Then? I love, because we know Raisin Bran has added sugar. Those raisins are delicious, and so are the cranberries, if you've ever had the cranberry version. So it's brand, which is great, right, but we're getting the extra sugar Instead of butter, a vegetable oil. But then remember we have some other alternatives. Are you using substitutes for butter? Butter in excess contributes to cholesterol issues can affect our cholesterol health. Vegetable oil can too, not as drastic as butter, so we use small amounts, right, but we have options. We talked about this a few weeks ago. Earth balance smart balance is about $2 less than earth Balance, and I like it because it tastes like butter. So have fun in this journey. I know groceries are an arm and a leg. Now you're walking out the grocery store with two bags and you done spent $105. Almost everything fitting in one bag now. But have fun with this and let your journey pique your curiosity to trying some of the healthier substitutes.
Speaker 1:When it comes to bread, notice we're talking about bread, people. We do not have to eliminate bread. The first thing we think about with carbs is oh my goodness, I'm not going to be able to have a sandwich. I need to put this on pita bread. Or let me think about a wheat tortilla. That's all good, that is fine, but still, this thought that we have to let bread go doesn't mean anyone on this call right now is struggling trying to figure out how to eat a sandwich with lettuce as the bread. That's great too, but we don't have to leave it out.
Speaker 1:We're going to talk a little bit about why you want a healthy balance of carbs, because carbs are our energy and, although we're on a weight loss journey, we still need that energy, especially on the days that we are exercising. So, instead of that bagel with the cream cheese, opt for the two slices of whole wheat toast or even better than that, I like bagels. So maybe I don't need the cream cheese and I'm still good with my bagel. Or maybe I want the cream cheese, but I'll just use a little less than a tablespoon and eat half of the bagel because I don't need to eat a whole bagel. So, remember, we said in this process you'll start to note what works for me, what do I need to swap out or what are some adjustments that I can make?
Speaker 1:You're a salty snacker, got to have that bag of chips, bag of pretzels. What can we swap it out with? Here they have fruit, but there are other options. They're lower sodium chips. If I have to have some, maybe the skinny girl popcorn, maybe you just like to hear a bag open. So, remember, we talked a little bit about triggers and then our sensory. Some of this stuff, some of the things that we like, well, one their habits. The other thing is that, realistically, if we swap them out, we won't miss them, but so much, especially if it's not dramatic.
Speaker 1:You might not go from a bag of potato chips to the veggie straws Well, you might, but watch the sodium in those as well. Well, you might, but watch the sodium in those as well. Right, because there's a such thing as those snacks that look like healthy snacks because they put vegetables on the cover. Just check that label. Vinaigrette versus ranch. You already know that. But what if you are struggling with the cream dressing? Do you have to let it all go? Any tips, any suggestions, feel free to come off of me. You like ranch, you like caesar? How can you still enjoy them guilt-free, because we don't have to feel guilty? Remember, this is a lifestyle program, whose lifestyle is your lifestyle.
Speaker 2:So if you well, I like the. Oh, I'm sorry, I like the ranch, but I got the, the low, the lower calorie one, and what I do is mix it with the vinaigrette, so that way it makes it look like it's going a long way.
Speaker 1:Yes, and it's delicious. I do the same thing. I'll mix a little Italian in the ranch and it actually, and for some reason, you just want to see cream on your salad dressing. It's really about the taste. But good job, kudos to you.
Speaker 1:On reducing we can reduce the. We can do a lower fat. We can even reduce the amount. Some people like creamy salad and some people actually like to crunch their lettuce. Some people actually like to crunch their lettuce.
Speaker 1:So if you like to eat salad like soup, maybe the first thing would be just reducing how much salad dressing you use and gradually build up to being able to add some vinaigrette. And it's the same scenario with the soups. Basically, creams give us more fat, which means they give us more calories. In some cases they could give us more sodium. So we're just checking those labels. We check the labels and have fun adding more of your own flavor. Add some fresh herbs, mix up your salad, play around with some other vegetables, just for the sake of taste.
Speaker 1:And then for dinner, a couple of tweaks. Maybe you don't have broccoli and cheese, maybe it's just broccoli with some pepper, some Himalayan salt and remember, himalayan salt has the same amount of sodium as traditional salt. Just because it's pink doesn't mean it's better for us. You can look that up. It's still salt. It just has a different taste, and Himalayan salt crystals are amazing for us from a health perspective. But not ingesting it's actually pretty good for the air.
Speaker 1:Our cheese pizza we can still have pizza. I don't know. Does anyone make their own pizza like with the naan bread? Still have pizza? I don't know. Does anyone make their own pizza like with the naan bread? Or I mean, maybe you use your own crust, I don't know.
Speaker 1:There are options for the pizza. They have pizza here because people like pizza. And then you see the pasta too, because we don't have to eliminate. If we take too much out of our daily intake, it will do more harm than good. Yes, I said that we need pasta and we can still have pizza. What we do with it, what we put on it, how we fix it. Will you eat wheat-based pasta? Zucchini noodles are not carbs per se, but can you mix the two? Would you spiralize your zucchini and mix it with your pasta? Now you're cutting some of the carbs in half, but you're not letting them go. And then, for your pizza, maybe you opt not to have the overly processed cured meat like a pepperoni, and you opt to add veggies to your pizza, and there are ways to make pizza even without cheese or just a little bit. So those are just some of the things as you're thinking about building. Okay, what's going to work best for me? What are some swaps that I can use? Yes, and even a smaller, a small size PETA, so you're controlling the amount.
Speaker 1:Back to our coffee drinkers, whether it's Dunkin' or Starbucks. I'm not even going to say 7-Eleven. I don't know if 7-Eleven go in the same category of Dunkin' and Starbucks, but I cannot sleep on McDonald's either. I know people who love to make cafes. Those beverages. How many calories? And are you saving calories by having your coffee at home? And nine out of 10 times, I promise you, you probably are considering how much sugar we find in those other beverages. There are ways you can alternate that too, right? You can alternate that too, right, I know, at Dunkin', tell them no sugar if you're going to do the cream, because the cream and the flavoring is more than enough. Try it. You never know unless you try it and you know they have bottled water here.
Speaker 1:But we have other options, right, bottled water is number one right Always say we wouldn't skip a shower. So water is the shower to our organs. Your lungs want to love you and so does your kidneys, your pancreas, your heart, your brain. It wants to shower too. So we know we're getting enough water in when we don't feel thirsty.
Speaker 1:The moment that we're thirsty, we are in a stage of dehydration. If the body has enough water, we're not thirsty. And guess what the reality is? You know how they say water helps with weight loss. The first thing we think of is water as an appetite suppressant, because if you drink it before you start to eat, your stomach will feel full. So that's one water hack. But the other reality is when we drink enough water, we are. We can resist that urge to binge eat because when our body is, we're no longer confusing the cues of thirst and hunger. A lot of times we're thirsty, but we think we think we're hungry, which the reality is many of us are.
Speaker 1:Are you drinking half your body weight in ounces, unless you have been told otherwise by a physician? For various reasons, various conditions, various medications do not allow you to overindulge in water. But if that is not your case, then the goal is half your body weight in ounces to sufficiently hydrate the body. Add some lemon there. We can still have iced tea. We can still make it a bit sweet. I don't know, have you had the cold brew iced tea bags? The tea bags made for cold. Iced tea bags, the tea bags made for cold. They are so good, and so think about adding your fresh lemon and a couple of little drops of agave or monk fruit I use the mint.
Speaker 1:The mint one cold brew anything to it because I like the taste of the mint. It is so good it's refreshing and I find that really curves my appetite sometimes when I drink that they're really um, so I love it. Yeah, mint is amazing is it caffeine free? You know what they might have?
Speaker 2:a caffeine free okay, because they do have a decaf too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, and they come in flavors. But then remember we said you know, level up, have fun with it, add your fresh fruit and fresh herbs, cut up some mint and make a pitcher that'll last for two or three days, because we know after that the mint it's no good unless you freeze it. But have fun with it. Um, some of us think that because ginger ale is a clear soda, that it doesn't have as much sugar as you know those black sodas. Well, do not discriminate, because added sugar is added sugar and you would be surprised to see that the added sugar in a Coca-Cola is only maybe 10% more than a ginger ale. It's the clear soda that gets us right Psychological. But the sparkling water splashes here. But some of you may be familiar with the recipe. The healthy soda with the concentrated fruit juice, 100% fruit juice, has no added sugar. It's all fructose, better for the body. You pick your favorite sparkling water. Use a sparkling water that has a flavor to it as well, so you can level up the flavor. And boom, there you have it, we still get the fizz. And boom, there, you have it. We still get the fizz. We still get to feel the taste of something that tastes good. It doesn't always have to be plain sparkling water, although that can be refreshing too. So let's see where we are with this. Feel free to chime in, hop off mute, use the chat. If you have any suggestions or some tips that you've used, or even some things you're thinking about changing up, use the chat so we can have a conversation there as well.
Speaker 1:But let's segue a little bit to that nutrition label. We're all familiar with them, so this is just a refresher. Familiar with them, so this is just a refresher when we think about our drinks. We just talked about ginger ale and Coca-Cola. The added sugar is too close to apt. Right, it's still soda. But one thing that sometimes we can overlook on a nutrition label is the servings per container. That's why it's highlighted that sometimes we'll grab something and decide to drink it really quick just because we see 100 calories. But according to this nutrition label here it's 100 calories per serving. And how many servings are in this container?
Speaker 1:two and a half and notice that it's only eight ounces. I don't know about you, but eight ounces. So this soda has 250 calories in it. 250 calories, and so what this tells us, this little eight ounces, and this is how they get you with this 100.
Speaker 2:It's really full.
Speaker 1:Exactly so the key is the serving sides on one end, we know that it's going to help us to not take on too many calories, too much sugar. On the other end, this can also help us when we're practicing mindfulness, when there are certain foods or beverages we're not ready to totally let go of just yet. Then now, instead of drinking the eight ounces in one sitting, maybe we look at half of that bottle and we put the other half away for the next day.
Speaker 1:So we have to do this with everything that we decide to eat too. But notice this we don't have to become rocket scientists and trying to do the calculations, trying to do the strong math Ain't nobody got time for that. You keep this situation really simple when you're thinking about okay, how many calories am I working with for the day? Where am I with my calories? Can I afford to do a little bit more? Do I need a little less? And on days that you're working out, remember we want the workout to actually burn calories and fat. If we're moving more, even at Brist Walk, you know, brist Walking is awesome. It helps. 10 minutes of movement every day is going to help. So if you do more than that, whoa, it's really going to help.
Speaker 1:But what we don't want is the recycled fat scenario where I'm working out on E, I'm exerting all this energy and a body is saying go for what. You know, I got to survive. I'm not burning nothing up over here, I'm taking fat from here and I'm using that fat as energy so that I don't deplete. So what we want is for our bodies to actually burn the fat they need, the food as energy. They need the food, so we're burning food energy, which means we're burning actual fat and our body is not going into starvation and survival mode because we have not taken in enough calories to support a workout. We got to eat the leaves. So there are a few suggestions in here. Suggestions um in here, the simple things you usually if you're going to, if you're going to a starbucks or a duncan skipping a whipped cream?
Speaker 1:um managing the sugar amount. Taking a look at your drinks? Um those calories add up. If we are not careful. We literally can drink a thousand calories a day when your daily intake is probably 14 to 1600, but you drink more than half of it real easy with coffee, sweet tea, um coca-cola, ginger ale Sprite. I keep thinking that I'm erasing this, but it's not so. This thing is going with me everywhere I go. Let me see.
Speaker 2:Oh, there it is erased all right.
Speaker 1:So how do we track our calories? And we're going to do this math real quick and let's see. I got my later, um, uh. Now. Paul needs 2200 calories a day just to stay the same weight. So he's not going to lose any weight if he keeps at that 2200. He wants to lose weight. In order for him to do that, he has to cut his calorie count by 500 a day, so that he's at 1700 calories. Let me have my calculator close here. So taking these small steps is going to help him. So let's take a look at what he did and then we'll do some simple math for all of us. We want to look at your daily calorie needs. I'm going to use the example of 1600 calories in a minute because I can almost guess that the average calorie intake for most of us is between 1400 to 1600 on days that we're not exercising. Right, trying to get to that. So let's take a look at this your daily calorie needs in order to maintain your weight. This number is based on multiple things, right, your weight height. If you come into the office to do the InBody, you know we also incorporate your muscle mass, so it's highly accurate what your resting calories are right.
Speaker 1:But if Paul, this day he ate three meals and two snacks, he had 2000 calories. He made an effort to increase his activity. So he walked after breakfast and he walked after dinner. He even mowed the lawn. By doing this he burned 310 calories. So take a look at his math To figure his actual calories. We just start with the calories that he took in and then we'll subtract them from the calories he burned. He took in 2000. He burned 310. Now he's at 1690. Hold on target. That's 1700 calories is what he needs to be on point for weight loss. He took in enough food. He knew his activity would help him to create a deficit. But what if Paul did not have any exercise going on for the day? Then he would have to become more mindful about his food intake. Maybe Sunday is not the day he exercises.
Speaker 1:So let's look at us. Let me grab the pen. I'm going to write in a small spot here. We'll start with your calories to maintain. If any of you are familiar with myplategov, they will tell you it's a safe estimate. It does not take into account, you know, muscle mass and so forth. Right, but it'll give you a fair gauge. What we're going to do is use. I'll use text instead. I hope you can see this.
Speaker 1:We'll say that in order for you to maintain your weight and not gain, just to stay where you are you need 2000 calories to maintain. But we know we're on a weight loss mission and in order to lose a pound a week we have to take 500 calories off of that, because 500 calories times seven days is 3,500 calories, which equals a pound. So when we take away the 500 calories, that's going to leave us with a goal of 1,500 calories a day. But here's what typically happens. So if you're at your 1500 calories a day, I'll just just break this down. This is not a hard fast rule.
Speaker 1:Perhaps during breakfast, the start of your day, maybe the goal is to aim at 350 calories. For breakfast you have that small snack. I'm not going to spell exactly here. Let me go back up here. You have your 100 calorie snack. Let's say we have lunch and lunch is at 450. We throw in another snack. A snack puts us at 100. We get to our dinner and where are we here? We had 350, 200, 50, so we got 500 left right for dinner. But this is a day that we had no exercise. This is your typical day. I'm aiming at my 350,. Got my little bag of my 100 calorie snack but on workout day, so that you're able to experience a burn, breakfast becomes 500. You keep your snacks. Lunch becomes 550. Let's say dinner is 700, breakfast and lunch increased. We're at $17.50, which is not a lot. So if you're at $17.50, let me go over here Then maybe all you decided to do was a breast walk for 30 minutes to give you a difference of about 200. You've burned 250 calories, so now you're back at your 1500.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's how it works. So now you're back at your 1500.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's how it works. So this is super, super, super important. When we think about our calories, it leaves us so that, oh, let me exit out, there we go. It makes it so that we are conscious about our activity and your signals. If you're experiencing hunger and you've made sure that you've drank enough so you're not just thirsty trying to eat, then you know you're on the right track with your calories. A good tip to use throughout the day. Why are we saying five times a day? Do I have to have two snacks a day? Well, it's a nice place to work towards.
Speaker 1:We want the metabolism to begin to move right. Like with anything that we don't use often enough, it's not going to get going. It's not going to tell the body that we are now resetting and positioning for weight loss. It won't tell the body that, hey, we are looking to lower our cholesterol. I want to manage this blood pressure. I want to keep my A1C in check. In order to do that, we need the metabolism to function. So each time that we eat and these aren't big meals, we don't have to have that one giant meal either.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you've seen a video on intermittent fasting. There's a clinical way to intermittent fast to make it work. There's a clinical way to intermittent fast to make it work. Most of us are not intermittent fasting the right way. So some weight is coming off naturally because you're giving yourself a deficit, but you ever see them a little while later. The weight is right back on them. So there's a way that you can position your body, even through intermittent fasting, to be able to lose effectively. But there's a way to that. Lunch might be your biggest meal if you're intermittent fasting, because during lunchtime unless you are a shift worker that has to work overnight, late night, or 3 pm to 11 pm, something like that lunch may be your biggest meal because that's when your metabolism is at its height. That window between 10 AM to 4 PM is when the metabolism is going.
Speaker 1:Dinner does not have to be and it probably shouldn't be the largest meal of the day, largest meal of the day, right? So if you're looking at okay, how can I my system, my formula, what works for me, how can I develop or look at each meal to fit where I'm at, maybe lunch is your largest meal already. Maybe dinner is something you could probably struggle with because maybe dinner is I mean, lunch is so big and then you have a snack and then dinner is like, well, if it happened, it happens. Or the other way around, lunch is if it happens, it happens. But when you look at this formula for success, now you can look at where you are and how can I make it work for me. If I'm not eating three meals and two snacks, I'm barely eating two times a day. You're not going from two to five tomorrow.
Speaker 1:If you did, awesome, but that is not a realistic expectation of your realistic expectations. You definitely want to build up to it. If you're not a snacker or you prefer not to be a snacker because you know your snack habit resembles that little section at the checkout line when you're leaving out the grocery store. So you know you want to work on your snack choice, then let that be the goal Work on a snack choice. So tonight's segment I know a lot of it was just a reminder because you ladies you already know. But the beauty of this conversation is that hopefully it helped to one, motivate you to make some of those tweaks and at the same time, give yourself kudos for seeing a lot of the tweaks you're already making, the things that you're already doing, and just accelerate it, level it up a bit. So, as we get ready to wrap up tonight, the summary carbs in, carbs out. If you are not 100% sure about your calorie count, we can help you out with that.
Speaker 1:And there's also that resource, the myplategov. They like for you to create. They love for you to create an account, but you do not have to. But it has a really simple formula to help you figure out your weight maintenance and what it would take in order for you to reduce your calorie count. So it asks you if you are on a weight loss mission and just to maintain weight. It can be used for that. But you also have access to the spa to do an InBody if you want to get super, super accurate. Myplategov, myplategov and I just added it to the chat too, so you might want to save that or click it and save it and go right to it and just fill out the information.
Speaker 1:In a matter of minute or two, boom, there's your maintenance calories and your calories for weight loss. And just remember the days you decide to exercise. I'm not saying eat two sandwiches, because I know y'all heard me say we can have bread, we don't have to leave it alone. Don't say Nick said I can have a bagel with a little bit of cream cheese not a lot, and then at lunchtime I can go to Panera and I can get that turkey bravo sandwich and I can have a roll at dinner. I did not say that that's it. We don't have to let it go. We just use a little mindfulness about it because it's the energy that we need right.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we're tired not just because of what's on our mind, what's on the news, what's on social media. We talk because our bodies are, um, they're asking for us to give us, give it the energy. That energy is coming by way of food. So, unless anyone have any questions, um, I I have.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's a question or if it's a statement or a confused person, but if you don't eat enough calories, then that affects your weight loss as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. Think about food as nourishment. We know we're getting enough when we feel good. That's how we can also gauge if what we're eating is sufficient. Like. That's the.
Speaker 1:The body is so much smarter than us. It's called wisdom of the body. The body will tell you I don't like that, we're not going to do that. All right, snicker bar loaded up, you got energy for five seconds and then you're going to crash and all your teeth going to fall out. So you know, the body will tell us, we know if we're getting enough food.
Speaker 1:If we're not and remember, I'm not talking about the exhaustion, because those are two different things although food can affect it. But if physically we don't have the energy we should have, it's going to go back to food. If I'm eating well, if I'm eating whole, if I'm trying to eat clean, I'm going to feel like it, I'm going to feel light, I'm going to feel good. If I'm battling a chronic condition or my body is susceptible to a chronic condition, of course the body has to fight a little bit more in order to feel well. It'll need a little more effort in terms of food. And we won't sleep on exercise, because exercise is also the body's way of building up a strong immunity and strong health.
Speaker 1:But if our goal tonight is to focus on that food part, yeah, if we don't get enough, the body will tell us. If we're not eating enough and we're exercising, we're not going to see ultimate results. But remember, we said it's individual. So we want to know what our individual calorie intake is so that we are you know, we're working with a full deck, we that we know that what we're doing is supporting our personal goal. Yeah, and I put my plategov, but we can.