Introduction 

• There is so much information available relating to weight loss it is ludicrous, especially around this time of year. In a quick 5 minute google search you can have different sources claiming opposite things are the very best for losing weight, most are absolute rubbish.
• I fully appreciate that by publishing this article I am adding to the volume, but I’m hoping to make it obvious and easy to understand, helping people to see the wood between the trees.
• My underlying belief on weight loss is this: diets never work in the long-term, to lose weight for good and in a safe, consistent manner, you need to change your lifestyle and follow a simple set of rules regarding your consumption of food. In addition, until you have ~10% body fat for men and ~15% body fat for women then 90% of losing weight will happen in the kitchen, not in the gym.
• In the rest of this article I will; (a) provide a breakdown of my 10 ‘rules’ of food (and drink) consumption that facilitate weight loss (b) give some example meal plans and snacks (c) cover the additional factors that also play a role in effective weight loss. Taken together I hope this post will be a cheat sheet, helping people to hit their target weight in a safe and ever-lasting way.

The Rules of Food 

• I see there being 10 rules of food and drink consumption which if followed can help you shift a significant amount of weight in a healthy way over a few months.
• The following list is what you should start doing right now. As you see the weight being shifted and have your good habits set and working, then feel free to have the occasional ‘cheat’ day or meal. But, the key is not to do this for the first 4 – 5 weeks. This period is the crucial habit forming time where cheating could knock you off track completely and put you back to square one. For more information on forming habits check out this post: http://jablifestyle.net/2016/05/22/forming_habits_routines/
• The following 10 rules are in order of what I believe is be most important to achieving weight loss:

1. Don’t think about unsaturated fat content, this fat is good for you. Your new macro-nutrient priorities should be reducing; (1) sugar (2) carbohydrates (3) saturated (un-natural) fat.
   • All Carbohydrates turn to sugar in the body, if you aren’t burning it off immediately it turns to fat (for the most part).
   • Unsaturated fat on the other hand is difficult for the body to digest, it takes calories to break it down, it can also be turned into ketones which is a non-glucose (sugar) based energy source.
2. Write down everything you eat and drink.
   • It is best to do this in a notebook or similar as you’ll want to keep an on-going record. There is never an excuse not to do this, especially on a cheat day, being honest is the only way to progress.
3. No Carbohydrates for Breakfast
   • For more information about the theory behind this and why I do it, check out my post ‘Converting to a Ketogenic Breakfast’, here.
4. Carbohydrates should never take up more than 1/3 of your lunch or dinner plate
5. No refined carbohydrates.
   • White pasta, bread, white rice couscous etc. Instead, replace refined carbohydrates with: brown or whole-wheat rice, Brown or whole-wheat pasta, quinoa, bulgur wheat, sweet potato & lentils.
6. Only drink tea or water (still or sparkling)
   • You can have up to 3 alcoholic drinks a weeks (preferably Gin & Tonic or Vodka & Soda)
   • No Wine or Beer
   • No Squash/Cordial
7. Eat a lot more Greens.
   • Think: Broccoli, Mangetout, Frozen Peas & Sweetcorn, Spinach, Courgette.
   • It should be these greens that replace the high volume of carbohydrates you’ll be losing from your plate, see rule number 4.
8. No eating after 8:30pm….no exceptions.
   • The only thing to pass your lips after 8:30pm and the next mornings breakfast is water or green / peppermint tea.
9. Nothing beats homemade, real food
   • Not only do the vast majority of ‘ready’ or ‘prepared’ meals taste terrible they are extremely unhealthy. Due to the large scale manufacturing processes, the food is often packed full of salt, sugar and/or unnatural fat.
   • For example pre-made pasta sauces: Dolmio’s contains 6 cubes of added sugar, that is more than half the adult recommended daily allowance.
10. Be extremely skeptical of anything that claims to bee ‘low fat’ or a ‘healthy alternative’
    • It is in almost all cases code for ‘high sugar’ or ‘high sugar substitute’, fresh and homemade is always better.

What should I eat? Example Days 

• I personally find examples an excellent way to show theoretical principals (or rules) in reality. That’s why I’m now putting the above rules to work and sharing a 3-day example food diary, as well as a longer list of snacks.
• Day 1
  • Breakfast: 2x soft boiled eggs with half an avocado
  • Snack 1: Ryvita Dark Rye with Hummus & cherry tomatoes
  • Snack 2: Handful of mixed nuts
  • Lunch: Grilled chicken fillet with grilled Mediterranean vegetables and cottage cheese
  • Dinner: Steak with sweet potato mash, broccoli & peas

• Day 2
  • Breakfast: Natural yogurt with mixed berries (strawberries, raspberries & blueberries)
  • Lunch: Soup
  • Snack 1: Ryvita Dark Rye with cottage cheese & salsa
  • Snack 2: Carrot sticks with Hummus
  • Dinner: Homemade spaghetti Bolognese (max 65g brown pasta)

• Day 3
  • Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs with grilled mushrooms, tomato and spinach
  • Lunch: Salad with Tuna, tomatoes, cucumber and balsamic vinegar
  • Snack 1: Peanut Butter with banana or Ryvita Dark Rye
  • Snack 2: Celery with tzatziki
  • Dinner: Salmon fillet with red peppers, courgette, tomatoes and quinoa

• Other good snacks
  • Ryvita Dark Rye with Hummus & cherry tomatoes
  • Ryvita Dark Rye with cottage cheese & salsa
  • Carrot with Hummus
  • Unsalted mixed nuts
  • Natural yogurt with berries (no honey! Cinnamon is a good alternative)
  • Peanut Butter (with a banana or on a Ryvita Dark Rye)
  • Mixed seeds
  • Celery with tzatziki, hummus or cottage cheese & salsa

Additional Factors to Weight Loss 

• Simply following the above will go a long way to helping you shift that extra and unwanted weight. As I alluded to at the start, if you have more than 10% body fat as a man or 15% as a woman, 90% of your fat loss will take place in the kitchen, however there are still other things to be aware of:
  • Exercise – The amount of exercise you do should be dependent on your size and any underlying health conditions. It is much harder to make sweeping generalisations about exercise, so I won’t. However, everyone, regardless of weight, needs to do a minimal amount of exercise everyday. Therefore I’d suggest that at minimum you ensure you hit 10,000 steps each day, what you do on top of that will depend on your goal. Just remember, going to the gym is not an excuse to eat a whole cheesecake. Ensure food consumption, not hours in the gym, is your key driver.
  • Try not to weigh yourself – Everyone’s weight fluctuates naturally through the day, whether it be when you last ate, how much water you’ve drunk etc. Therefore, weighing yourself can often lead to a significant loss of motivation. If you are someone who feels they absolutely must weigh themselves, make sure you only do it every two weeks and also at the same time, in the same place, on the same day of the week. This will keep the uncontrollable factors to a minimum and make the result of weighting yourself more useful. A better way to judge how you are doing it looking at yourself in the mirror, seeing how clothes fit and being conscious of how you are feeling. Is your overall mood better, do you feel you have more energy?
  • Cheat Day – As I have touched on already, try following all of the above for at least the first 4-5 weeks, this will help you get your habits re-aligned and your body used to functioning on a significantly reduced amount of sugar. Once you are comfortable with your new routine you can start adding a cheat meal in once a week or every 10 days. Adding a cheat meal is a good way of rewarding yourself and also keeping you focused.

Conclusion 

• There are thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, of articles and books available on the internet telling you the best and quickest way to lose weight. The aim of this article was not to add to this noise, but to provide a safe, easy to follow yet effective way to lose weight based on a few easily understood and manageable ‘rules’. Following these will lead to a lifestyle change, which should result not only in weight loss but an overall happier and healthier you.
• If you implement these and are progressing well with reaching your target weight I’d suggest reading my post on ‘optimal gym exercises‘, to help you burn even more calories and pack on muscle or become leaner.

 

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