Perhaps the biggest change in my current weight loss/muscle toning goals from the past is my diet. My trainer imposed a rather strict and difficult to maintain diet, but he promises that if I stick to it, I'll see results. I can definitely see why. The diet is as follows: 200-250g of protein a day, 20-30g of fat, and up to 140g of carbohydrates eaten in multiple small meals. Calorie counting is not involved with this diet, but its roughly 1600-1800 a day. Normally, people not monitoring any of these probably eat 60-100g of protein a day and more than double the fat and carbs recommended. The tricky thing is that fat and carbs hide in everything, and high protein foods are particularly high in fat.
This diet must be combined with a strength training workout to be effective. The idea is that muscle requires a lot of energy, and the more muscle you have the more calories you burn even at rest. So, you may choose to go to the gym and do a whole bunch of cardio, and that'll help burn fat to a point, but only so long as you're on that treadmill. But, if you add more muscle, you'll keep burning more calories throughout the day and end up losing more fat.
(*Note: Fat is like fire: it takes oxygen to burn. By doing cardio at a high heart rate it's not actually helping, since your body is using all the oxygen it's getting to keep your muscles moving and not oxygenating the fat. Instead of something like running, it is better to walk on a treadmill at a steep incline.)
Honestly, I have never been able to meet the requirements of the diet, mainly because I haven't found foods that are high protein and low fat. Basically, it would involve consuming whey protein multiple times a day and my other meals would have to be low...everything. I'm definitely trying, though!
My eating has become very focused on getting the amount of protein I need each day. I've been eating lots of meat, protein powder, protein shakes, and protein bars. Instead of eating a deli sandwich for lunch, I've been eating tuna salad (with low-fat mayo) with lettuce and carrot sticks. Chicken salad is an option I'm trying this week. Both tuna and chicken have a lot of protein and are fairly low fat in the white-meat variety, plus they are filling and tasty. For even more protein, I could add a hard boiled egg-white. (Note that the egg yolk is where all the fat and cholesterol is and adds only a tiny amount of protein.) Greek yogurt is a killer secret weapon, as well. Chobani yogurt has 14-18g of protein and is available in non-fat varieties, but even with fruit in it, it's very tart.
While I'm still working out all the details on how to stick to this diet, it hasn't been too hard to make some meaningful changes and see results. (Lost about 4lbs so far and ) Whenever I think "Gawd this stuff is gross," I remind myself that I'm eating to change my body, not because the food tastes good, I'm bored, or it's comforting. That is very satisfying.
If I haven't bored you enough yet, here's a story about a man who lost a whole person from following a diet similar to my own. Amazing stuff!
