Can I still lose weight while eating what I want? 5 Simple Steps.
Can I still lose weight while eating what I want? 5 Simple Steps.
Losing weight isn’t all about calories and cutting out ice cream sundaes. There are so many other factors which affect our waistline, such as metabolic rate, insulin sensitivity and the types of food we eat and when. So you may ask, can I still lose weight while eating what I want?
You can lose weight without restricting your calorie intake by controlling blood sugar, which will help regulate cravings. Intermittent fasting then allows you to eat what you want in the eating window. Eating mindfully helps you to enjoy the food you eat without piling on the pounds.
So, you’re probably thinking ‘I understand this now but I’m still confused – can I eat whatever I want?’ The answer is yes, within reason. If your diet contains the right types of foods which help control your blood sugar, then you will curb cravings and not have to worry about calories. Weight loss will come naturally.
You should also be able to avoid getting too hung up on what you should be eating, which can lead to mental stress.
Getting away from the strict diet mentality and diet culture is crucial for some people to hit their healthy weight loss goals.
Can I still lose weight while eating what I want?
In order to be able to stop worrying about calories whilst still losing weight you need to do these five things
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- Get your blood sugar under control.
- Try intermittent fasting.
- Keep hydrated.
- Avoid snacking in between meals.
- Eat mindfully.
By combining these five approaches you should be able to stop worrying about calories and have a relaxed approach to what you eat whilst still losing weight and improving your nutrition and health.
This approach is a kind of No Diet Diet. You should be able to lose weight without thinking about it too much. You don’t need to think about good or bad food. Just nurture your body with these 5 steps.
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1 – Getting Your Blood Sugar Under Control
When you eat food, it’s broken down into its components and absorbed through the intestinal wall. From there, your body can use glucose for energy or store it as glycogen in the liver and muscles.
But if we don’t need that energy we can convert the excess sugar into fatty acids and store them as triglycerides in adipose tissue (body fat cells).
How does high blood sugar cause weight gain?
If your body can’t use the glucose for energy – that is, if you have insulin resistance and can’t process carbohydrates and sugar effectively – and can only store it as fat.
This means your blood sugar levels will continue to rise and so you’ll start gaining more weight
The type of foods you eat can directly affect your blood sugar levels and also how sensitive your body is to insulin and whether you store fat or lose it. A sugary donut will have a very different effect to eating a vegetables or protein based foods.
The vicious circle of cravings
As well as meaning you put on weight, out of control blood sugar levels also mean the nightmare of cravings.
Ever woken up and just HAD to go and eat something from the fridge?
Thats because your blood sugar levels dropped, driving you on to find more sugar to boost them up. If you want to lose weight whilst eating what you want, you need to break this cycle.
You need to NOT WANT the 3am chocolate bar or cake slice.
To get off the craving rollercoaster you need to calm and lower your blood sugar. Lowering your blood sugar is crucial for your metabolic health too.
Read on to find out more about how to do that.
What can raise blood sugar?
- Over-eating or snacking on sugary or refined carbohydrates at night {such as cake or bread} can cause your blood sugar to rise throughout the night, which can lead to cravings and weight gain.
- Eating large amounts of sugary desserts can cause your blood sugar to rise, but can also make you feel tired and sluggish after you’ve consumed the sweet treat. This can give you cravings for more food through the day.
- Getting caught on the sugar rollercoaster. Eating a sweet snack leaves you craving more. Cut out the sugars and you soon won’t be missing them as your blood sugar adjusts to normal.
What can lower blood sugar?
- Drinking water can help to balance your hormones, hydrate your cells and flush out toxins that can stress out your organs. Your kidneys are responsible for removing excess sodium, which can cause high blood pressure and increase the production of insulin to counteract this. So by drinking more water you can reduce your salt intake, which can lower blood pressure and help to lower insulin levels.
- Eating more protein can increase your metabolic rate by up to 30 percent , allowing you to lose weight faster. Protein can also decrease insulin resistance, helping you to control your blood sugar levels better. It also makes you feel full and reduces cravings
- Intermittent fasting can also help because the less time food is in your body, the less chance there is of having a spike in blood sugar levels.
Getting your insulin under control will help you to lose weight
Can I still lose weight while eating what I want if I control my blood sugar?
Yes. This can certainly help. By controlling your blood sugar you can control cravings and help to stop binge eating, which can not only cause your weight to fluctuate but can also throw your hormones out of balance which can also lead to weight gain.
Stepping off that blood sugar rollercoaster is crucial to being able to lose weight whilst eating what you want.
Warning – It’s not a quick fix
It can take time to get your blood sugar under control, though, so don’t expect immediate results. It can be helpful to track your food intake using an app like MyFitnessPal – this can help you see where you can make improvements and how certain foods affect your weight and health.
2 – Intermittent Fasting to lose weight whilst eating what you want.
Intermittent fasting can help to control your blood sugar levels by limiting the time food can be in your body. You aren’t constantly grazing and pushing up your insulin levels all the time.
This can help to calm cravings as well as generate weight loss.
How does intermittent fasting control weight and allow you to eat what you want?
The most popular form of intermittent fasting plan is the 16:8 plan,
This involves fasting for up to 16 hours a day and only eating within a comparatively small window – the 8 hours that are left.
Most of the fast is over night. So if you stop eating at 7pm in the evening, you wouldn’t eat again until 11am the next morning. This is relatively easy for most people, especially if you have got your blood sugar levels under control.
The good news is that during the eating widows you can eat what you want. You have to be sensible though. If you spend the time eating ice cream you arent going to see weight loss.
However, you don’t need to count calories during your eating window and can enjoy your food without worry or guilt.
You can still lose weight eating what you want – as long as you eat sensibly and don’t overeat.
Fasting usually results in weight loss of between 1 and 2 pounds a week, but can sometimes even lead to more substantial losses if done correctly.
It also makes you feel amazing once you get the hang of it with increased focus and energy.
3 – Drink enough water to curb cravings
Drinking more water basically helps your body to function better all round. We arent at our best when dehydrated.
However one of the main ways it will help is to stop cravings. Often we crave food, thinking we are hungry when actually we are dehydrated.
Making sure you are fully hydrated will take the edge of cravings so that you arent compelled to eat fattening foods.
How can drinking more water help you to lose weight?
- Drinking more water can naturally lower blood pressure and can improve your insulin sensitivity, which can both lead to natural fat loss over time. If you’re insulin sensitive you can stop cravings and can naturally control your appetite.
- Amazingly, drinking more water can actually increase your metabolic rate and can help to burn excess fat. The average man can expect to see a 0.3% boost in metabolic rate by drinking 1 litre of water, while the average woman can gain a 0.2% increase from drinking that same amount. However, if you’re an overweight man the increase can be as high as 0.5%, while for heavier women it can be as much as 0.6%. You can read the research here.
- By drinking more water you can flush out toxins that may be making you feel sluggish. Drinking enough water can naturally help to lower blood pressure and can improve your insulin sensitivity.
- Drinking more water can help you to control your appetite, stop cravings and can naturally regulate your food intake.
- By drinking enough water you can stop the irregular cravings that can sometimes turn into binges.
Drinking enough water will help you to stop cravings
4 – Avoiding snacking and eating in between meals controls your blood sugar levels.
Snacking can be a way of life for some people and can often come about due to boredom or habit. Snacks can also give us the opportunity to get in some extra calories without really thinking about it.
If you find that you snack all the time, there’s a good chance that your blood sugar levels can be a little out of whack. This can lead to a whole host of problems, from mood swings to overeating.
How can avoiding snacking help you lose weight?
However if you can stop snacking and only eat 3 meals a day, it can make a huge difference to your weight loss efforts as it can control those high peaks and drops in blood sugar. This can also be a huge benefit to your mood and can naturally help with those binges.
You also cut out a bunch of mindless calories from junk food that you didn’t even notice. These are often refined carbs and sugars.
This means that when you do eat your main meal you can enjoy what you eat without worrying about the calories.
5 – Eat mindfully
We all know that its way too easy to stuff food down without really noticing what we are doing. Boredom and stress often make this happen. Its common at work or after a stressful day, sitting in front of the TV.
This can lead to rapid weight gain and bingeing.
Eating mindfully is a new way of approaching food. It helps you slow down and enjoy your food while naturally cutting out extra calories. It can also make you feel much more satisfied after a meal, therefore limiting the possibility of snacking or binging later on.
It might sound new-age but its actually not hard to do at all if your mind is in the right place.
It’s even been proven by science. This research paper showed great results
Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training (MB-EAT) for Binge Eating: A Randomized Clinical Trial
“Results suggest that MB-EAT decreased binge eating and related symptoms at a clinically meaningful level”
What does mindful eating mean?
Eating mindfully basically means slowing down and concentrating on the food you are about to eat while not allowing yourself to get distracted by anything else. It can help if you avoid all distractions like TV, internet, cellphones etc.
This can be as simple as eating at the table without doing anything else and concentrating on your food while you eat. Feel the crunch of the vegetables. Taste the salty flavours. Notice the colours.
You’ll be surprised by how difficult this can actually be to do, but if you persevere it will become natural over time.
Eating mindfully can change your whole relationship with food. You may discover that you reach for familiar comfort food without even realising it. Emotional eating can have a big impact on what you eat. By looking carefully and mindfully about what you eat your relationship to food can improve.
You should also try to avoid consuming snacks mindlessly in the evening.
For example, instead of snacking on chips mindlessly while you watch TV, try having a piece of fruit or a vegetable smoothie. The only thing that should distract you is the food and not other daily distractions like work or family life.
Drinking alcohol is also something that we do without thinking in the evening. You can have a glass of wine. Just make sure to savour and enjoy the flavour of each sip
How does mindful eating help with weight loss?
Eating mindfully can positively impact your weight loss efforts in a couple of ways.
- You cut out the extra calories that are often consumed when you eat mindlessly.
- It helps to naturally limit those binge eating sessions where most of us can easily go overboard on food and snacks without realising it.
These two things combined will ensure that you lose weight whilst still enjoying the foods that you want.
Eating mindfully will help to control binging and snacking
FAQ
How can I lose tummy fat fast?
The best way to lose tummy fat fast is by following a low carb diet with high quality protein and by doing intermittent fasting. Contrary to popular belief, what you eat is much more important than exercise and you don’t have to do crazy exercise to lose tummy fat.
Can I lose weight by eating what I want without exercise?
You can lose weight by eating what you want without exercise. Weight loss is eighty percent about food and only 20 percent about exercise. What you eat and when you eat it is the most important thing. Intermittent fasting will allow you to control your weight whilst still enjoying the food you eat.
Conclusion ; Can I still lose weight while eating what I want?
Yes, you can still lose weight while eating what you want by controlling your blood sugar, drinking more water using intermittent fasting and avoiding snacking in between meals.
This will get cravings under control so that you are no longer driven to overeat the kinds of foods that put weight on.
You will then be able to successfully use intermittent fasting which will allow you to eat what you want within reason during your eating window.
Avoiding snacking and eating mindfully all help to cut empty calories, allowing you to enjoy the foods that you do actually want to eat whilst still reducing your body weight.
By using these strategies, you should be able to see weight loss without having to count calories. You will be able to start to change your relationship with food and start to eat a healthy diet.
The best approach to losing weight is to not get too hung up about it. By combining these approaches you will be able to enjoy your food whilst still achieving you weight loss goals.
Love and Light
PS If you would like a little more guidance to start your menopause weight loss journey I created a FREE guide
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“Medical Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. This article is for informative purposes only. As always, our content is strictly informational and shouldn’t be considered medical advice.”
Helen
