it’s all about portions

At the end of the day losing weight really boils down to portions. It’s so much more about how much you’re eating (calories) than the types of foods you’re eating. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying types of food you’re eating aren’t important, they absolutely are, but they’re important for health not for weight loss.

What matters the most in weight loss is the total calories you’re eating on a regular basis. What matters the most for health is the types of food you’re including in your diet. Two separate goals that are often mixed together and thought of as one.

Just cos you’re on a healthy diet doesn’t automatically mean you’re losing weight, and just cos you’re on a not so healthy diet doesn’t automatically mean you’re gaining weight.

Health and weight are two different conversations.

I hope by being able to differentiate the two you have a much easier time figuring out what to focus on for your goals.

Being on a diet doesn’t mean you gotta follow something like IF, keto, paleo, vegan, etc. You could absolutely be on a weight loss diet with your current normal day to day diet. You don’t need to change a thing except for the portions.

Say you usually have two pieces of toast and coffee for breakfast, cut that down to one piece of toast. Say for lunch you usually have fried noodles and 2 eggs, cut your fried noodles portion by 15-25% and have one egg instead. Say you usually have 2 sugars in your coffee, cut that down to 1 sugar instead. Say you usually have a scoop of ice cream as dessert after dinner, cut that to half a scoop instead.

Portion adjustment alone can put you in a consistent calorie deficit and in the long run help you lose weight. You don’t need some fancy method, you don’t need some exact digit macro ratios, you don’t need to fast, you don’t need to demonize or champion certain foods. Your regular habits can get you to your goals with some simple portion adjustments too.

Losing weight is about the lifestyle change.

It’s changing your habits and being able to maintain them for a very very long time. It’s not some crash course thing where you go quick and hard. Quick & hard produces results sure, but they’re not sustainable results so you’ll often find those results to be fleeting and end up back at square one in a short amount of time.

Losing weight sustainably is all bout slow and steady.

Hope you're doing well in your journey!

— Po