Eat MORE food to lose weight, not LESS

It is extremely important to increase your calories, and for some, doing it on a regular basis. You hear me talk about it all of the time if you follow me on any social media site, "stay in a calorie deficit and you'll lose weight" but I also say "eat more food to lose weight" so whats the deal? Am I just contradicting myself?

NO! You should be in a calorie deficit if you want to lose weight, BUT it shouldn't be too low (I say anything below 500 of your DCEE is too much). Most people are actually eating NOT ENOUGH food! The assumption that you need to survive off of 800-1000 calories a day because you're in a calorie deficit is just misinformation and downright stupid.

I say the majority of my clients (online or in person) that want to lose weight long term is to get them to eat as much food as possible, while still losing weight. Some, come to me only eating less than 500 calories a day... So when they start eating more, they start gaining weight (another reason I hate the scale). This is because their metabolism isn't used to eating that much. Your metabolism is going to digest what you give it, no matter your DCEE (thats where the term slow metabolism comes from).

Now, of course, everyone will have a different calorie ceiling, shall we say, where if you eat more than that you are at risk of putting on fat. However, with 99% of the population, I rarely see it happen. I tell people all the time, it's almost impossible to overeat on Whole Foods. Normally, if they do eat more, the increase in calories leads to slight increase in muscle mass, but definitely more energy to train hard, recover, manage stress, and lose weight. Basically all goals of a healthy lifestyle (all coming from eating more healthy food)

The main strategy of increasing calories is so you have room to bring them back down in you're at a plateau or if you have a short term goal such as a wedding, event, etc. You will be surprised how high your calories can go, especially when you are weight training and being active.

FOR EXAMPLE: Lets say your DCEE is 2500 calories, but you're only consuming 1000, not only is this a health problem, this is a weight loss problem, because you can't decrease your calories any more without starving yourself more. SO WHAT DO YOU DO? You start eating more, and eventually get up to 2000-2400 calories a day, still burning less than you're taking in, but this time you are actually feeding your body! Then, add in a treat day once a week, and your metabolism won't know what hit it!