eating for health vs eating for fat loss

Firstly I know I know there was no letter last week and I deeply apologize for that. The whole fam caught a bug, while it wasn’t anywhere close to severe I had to be on full on nurse duty just in case it did. Thankfully all is good, everyone’s fully recovered and I have all the time in the world (at least it feels that way) to sit here and write to you!

During the whole of last week I was basically on meal duty for everyone at home, I was in charge of everyone’s meals and snacks as they rested and recovered. I noticed that I didn’t count calories at all for anyone, at least not in detail. The calories I tracked for everyone was mostly just to make sure that they’re eating enough and not severely under-eating since the bug did kill all our appetites 

I was concerned with macros and micros the most as for health having well-balanced meals was much more important than calories consumed. I think we could all agree that during times of recovery gaining or losing weight is really at the bottom of the priority list.

Tracking macros/micros is a lot simpler than calories. It’s really just making sure everyone’s getting some form of veggies/fruits/protein throughout the day instead of just clinging one to one type of comfort food. When it comes to eating for health, eating a wide variety of whole foods and lean protein beats eating one type as you could a wider spread of different types of nutrients.

I think my train of thought whenever eating for recovery is simple: get as much nutrient rich foods into the body as possible so the body has the best fighting chance against the illness.

Mommy’s comfort food on the first couple of days was good ol’ instant noodles (indomie) which was totally fine since that what she could stomach but we did squeeze in 1-2 eggs and veggies to up the macros/micros a bit rather than plain instant noodles which doesn’t have much nutritional value.

I wanted to share a bit of insight into how food goals and diets could changed based on current circumstances. The way to eat for health, weight loss, and muscle gain are very much different from each other even though in most cases we clump them all together as one.

I mean it’s totally fine to be eating a healthy weight loss diet that preserves as much muscle as possible while you lose weight, but that’s a lot of things you gotta track. If you’re overwhelmed, prioritize one goal first before adding on all the other goals together.

Example being say your main goal currently is to lose weight. That means your number one priority is to be eating in a consistent calorie deficit. Doesn’t matter your macros/micro ratios, if you’re in a consistent deficit you’re gonna lose weight. That’s not saying health and muscles aren’t important, they are, but focusing on one thing at a time can skyrocket your chances of success rather than juggling too many balls at once and fumbling all the time.

Once eating in a calorie deficit is easy and something you can keep up with, then start trying to hit your proteins for the day for muscle. Give that some time to get used to, and finally once you’ve gotten used to that too then start adding more whole foods in your diet to boost the nutritional values you’re getting.

Weight loss, health, muscle gaining, workouts, all these things are very different goals that require very different specific actions to achieve them. I believe it’s a huge mistake to lump them into one, as it can become very misleading on figuring out the most efficient path to your goals.

Focus on one at a time and build from there.

Hope you’ve been well & healthy!

—Po