Why You Should Consider a Flexible Diet for Reaching Your Fitness Goals
Why You Can Trust Me On This
In case you’re new here, hi and welcome! My name is Emily. I am an online health coach, a group fitness instructor, and a national level bikini competitor. I have spent the last 6 years weight lifting, experimenting with different nutrition styles, and transforming my own body as well as others!
I’ve seen the results that come from different strategies. I understand the benefits and downfalls of different styles and what works best for people, not just physically, but also psychologically.
That’s why I’m writing this post today. I feel like flexible dieting is one of those best kept secrets that people just NEED to know about!
I started my own fitness journey with clean eating and I can tell you that the transition over to flexible dieting truly changed my life. It was easier to adhere to and fun!
I spent the first couple of weeks in fear that it wouldn’t work because it just seemed too good to be true. But that’s simply because the weight loss/health industry wants you to believe that reaching your goals needs to be hard, painful, and involve a lot of sacrifice - especially when it comes to the foods you actually like.
Anyways, if you’re interested in a less painful, more fun, and more realistic approach to reaching your goals, keep reading!
What is Flexible Dieting
Flexible dieting is the process of tracking your macronutrients each day. The macronutrients you will track are your protein, carbs, fats, and fiber. These macros help to ensure your body has what it needs to function properly while you’re meeting your goals.
When it comes to ANY diet, the diet works because it puts you in a calorie deficit. How it does this is different for each one.
Keto eliminates an entire food group (carbs), so you lose weight because you have less food choices. Same with vegetarian diets or vegan diets. This also goes for paleo, the military diet, and any other diet on the market.
The difference with flexible dieting is that you don’t have to give up any of the foods that you love! You can eat absolutely anything that you enjoy as long as you are eating in portions that fit your daily targets for each macro.
This process works because each macro provides the calories in your food. Protein provides 4 calories per gram. Carbs provide 4 calories per gram. Fats provide 9 calories per gram. Fiber is a carbohydrate but we track it in addition to our carb count to ensure proper digestion.
By setting your targets properly, you create a calorie deficit which leads to weight loss.
You could also use the same process for muscle building goals. Just set your targets for a caloric surplus instead.
Benefits of Using a Flexible Diet to Reach Your Goals
Easier to Manage Cravings
This form of dieting makes it much easier psychologically to manage cravings. You don’t have to give up any of the foods you enjoy to reach your goals. Many other dieting styles require you to eliminate foods you love from your diet. This mentally makes you want those foods more. If you’re still allowed to eat them (in reasonable, healthy quantities), you’re less likely to let cravings get the best of you.
A Precise Approach to Getting Results
Unfortunately, it’s quite possible to overeat and work against your goals with many other dieting styles.
Take a low carb diet, for example. Sure, you’re eliminating carbs. But if you start eating protein and fats in a surplus, you’re still going to gain weight.
Any approach that doesn’t require you to track your caloric intake runs the risk of working in the opposite direction of your goals. If you aren’t tracking, you might overeat and not even know it. It’s easier to do than you think!
Especially with fat sources like nuts and peanut butter, very small quantities have high calorie content. Guesstimating these foods can throw you way off track accidentally.
Easy to Adhere To
Because you don’t have to change WHAT you eat, you get to keep eating all of the foods you enjoy. The less restrictions you have, the easier it is to adhere. Adherence it what creates success.
They say if you can’t see yourself on your diet 10 years from now or 20 years from now, it’s not the right diet for you. Of course you shouldn’t have to do this for that long. The point is simply that if you had to, you could because the diet should feel that easy to transition to and stick to.
If you’re finding it hard to adhere, you’re at risk for a rebound. Weight rebounds generally result from the inability to continue with your commitment and a sudden, huge increase in food.
This is awful for your psyche and leads to people giving up! We don’t want that, so focus on making changes that you can see yourself sticking to long term.
I track my own macronutrients year round - even when I’m not in a cutting phase, and it feels easy! There is no hindrance to my lifestyle with this dieting strategy.
You Can Still Eat Out with Loved Ones or Eat on the Go
If you’re using My Fitness Pal, most restaurant meals (sit down and fast food) have their macros in the app. This means you don’t have to avoid meals out with friends and family to lose fat and get fit. Being able to continue having a social life and ENJOY food is so important for this process. Dieting and exercising should not disrupt your life. It should complement it and improve it!
This was something that particularly bothered me when I was using a clean eating strategy. I felt like I couldn’t eat anything that was not on my meal plan for fear that I would go over my daily calories and lose my progress.
This won’t happen if you’re tracking macros!
A calorie is a calorie to your body. So whether you choose to eat carbs or eliminate them, whether you choose to eat only clean foods or not, whether you choose to eat meat or not, the only thing your body sees when it comes to weight is the calorie count.
This is why it’s important to pick the strategy that feels psychologically easiest to commit to. It’s HOW MUCH you’re eating that determines whether or not you reach your goals - NOT how much you suffered in the process.
Are you looking for extra guidance to reach your fitness goals faster and easier?
I've been helping women just like you build muscle and lose fat with an easy to follow flexible diet and FUN, time efficient resistance training routine.
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Not convinced? Check out some of these amazing success stories from women JUST LIKE YOU. Stop telling yourself you're too old, too far off, too busy, or too tired. You are NONE of these things!
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