How to Lean Out the Healthy Way

I won’t lie and say i’m above trying to lean out a bit for summer. I’m not talking anything drastic, maybe 2-3 pounds over 6-8 weeks. I won’t be doing this by weighing my food, or tracking my macros daily. I might check in here and there, but certainly not daily. I have a lot of experience tracking macros so I’ll use what I know about my protein/fat/carb intake to make educated guesses about how much I’m consuming. If you’re new to macros you can check out more information/videos and links here.

What exactly will I be doing?

1. Eat less than I usually do. I know, I know, duh! But it has to be said. I’ll aim to eat about 80% of what I normally eat. If my plate is usually full, I’ll only fill it 80% full.

2. I’ll fill my plate with protein first, veggies second and complex carbs last.

3. I’ll consume most of my carbs pre and post workout

4. I’ll continue to drink 4+ litres of water (I always drink 2 L between my pre-workout, BCAAs and greens drink during my workout)

5. I’ll be more mindful about the tastes/licks and bites I have throughout the day. So often we have one small chocolate around lunch, maybe one in the evening, a bite of someone else’s food, an extra coffee with milk…and before you know it you’ve consumed 200+ calories more than you intended or even remember eating. These little things add up and make weight loss feel impossible or like we’ve plateaued. When in reality all of these little things are actually taking us out of our calorie deficit.

6. Don’t buy things you’re trying to avoid eating. If chocolate chip cookies are your kryptonite, don’t buy them. Instead, if you really want one, go out and buy one. Not a box, just one.

7. Prioritize sleep. (Why? Read more here)

8. Drink green tea throughout the day. I like to make a pitcher of green tea in the morning or night before each day. It gives me some caffeine to sip on which can help to suppress your appetite a bit. It also helps to keep my hydrated while being zero calories. You can also make it more exciting by squeezing in different citrus fruit (lemon, lime, orange) or muddling in mint/cucumber/berries, etc. Or choose a caffeine free tea if you prefer.

9. Continue to take my fish oil and multivitamins because sometimes eating a calorie deficit means less nutrients and micros.

10. Make sure i’m not being too sedentary throughout the day. While it’s fantastic to workout 5 or 6 days a week for 30-90 minutes this doesn’t mean it’s okay to sit and do nothing the rest of the day. A lot of people over estimate their daily calorie expenditure and this doesn’t help. I’ll also be aiming to get 10k-15k steps a day.

11. Workouts: weigh training 4-5 days a week, 1 low intensity cardio session 45 minutes and 2 HIIT sessions of 10-20 minutes following an upper body workout. I won’t be adding more cardio than this because, as most you know, I hate cardio. I do conditioning regularly to stay healthy and fit but I don’t use cardio year round to maintain my weight.

12. Be prepared! When leaving the house, I always have snacks in my purse (this doesn’t really differ from the rest of the year though because I ALWAYS have snacks with me!)

13. Be mindful of emotional eating and eating out of boredom. This can add a lot of extra calories to your day!

Don’t try to make drastic dietary changes all at once. Before you make a change ask yourself how long can I keep this up, and be realistic! Some things that help are: reducing your liquid calories, cutting back on treat as opposed to eliminating, eating your protein as opposed to drinking it, add more veggies to your plate.

Tips to feeling full in in calorie deficit:

• blend your smoothies/protein shakes with more liquid or ice to increase their volume. You can use water or unsweetened nut milks. More volume will keep you full longer and make it easier to stay in a deficit.
• I find eating bigger meals less often works better for me ( If I train in the morning i’ll aim to eat around 9/10, then lunch at 2 and dinner at 7 with maybe a small snack around 10 or 11 if I’m hungry)
• Make sure I’m eating to 80% full (read more here)
• Eat more low calorie/high volume foods. These are foods that provide you a lot of bang for your buck with fewer calories. I’ll be sending out a list of these soon!
• Intermittent fasting can be beneficial! I have a more in depth post on IF here.

Things you shouldn’t do:

1. Don’t create a list of foods you can’t/won’t eat. Instead, make it more challenging to get them or keep them out of site. Out of site, out of mind really is effective!
2. Don’t skip meals when you’re hungry. Yes, being a bit hungry is part of dieting but you should never be in pain or uncomfortable.
3. Don’t keep it a secret, the more people you tell the more people you’ll have to be accountable to. If people at work know you’re trying to cut back you’re likely to be more conscientious about what you eat in front of your co-workers.
4. Don’t completely eliminate your favourite foods. If you normally have pizza on Friday’s, go for it, just have half as much as you normally do a get a healthier appetizer or salad to fill you up.
5. Don’t aim to be perfect. Trying to eat perfectly almost always results in failure and that “screw it” mentality which makes you think its okay to eat whatever else you want for the rest of the day because you already messed up. Instead, focus on doing the best you can every day! Progress over perfection is the key!
6. Don’t Go crazy with cardio. Add it in, but don’t go overboard. You certainly need to do it every day or do hours of it!
7. Don’t expect results immediately. Just because you feel like you’ve been “really good” for a day or 5 doesn’t mean you’re going to see drastic results. Results take time!