Sacrificing your favorite foods is one of the hardest parts of starting a new diet. Yet it’s not always necessary. Losing fat, building muscle, and getting healthy take eating healthy, which can be done on a flexible diet.
It all comes down to making smarter food choices because if you’re still eating too many calories, you won’t lose fat and may gain some, regardless of your food choices.
Clean and healthy foods can lead to consuming fewer calories. But eating clean and healthy foods could mean you are eating too many calories, especially if you are consuming several small meals every few hours.
Swapping a donut out for a healthy fruit smoothie may not be a smart choice if your goal is to lose weight.
Food identified as healthy, clean, or nutritious doesn’t mean it’s low in calories. Ultimately, calories count, and if you eat too many, you won’t lose fat and may gain some, despite “good” food choices.
Flexible Dieting vs Clean Eating
Healthy food can add up to more calories than you need to consume to lose fat. A diet of carbs like oatmeal, sweet potatoes, rice, and fruit combined with lots of protein and healthy fat may be nutrient-dense but also calorically dense.
Example of a “healthy diet”:
| Breakfast | Smoothie- oatmeal, banana, a tablespoon of peanut butter, a scoop of protein | 470 calories |
|---|---|---|
| Snack 1 | Handful of almonds, apple, string cheese | 360 calories |
| Lunch | Chicken with brown rice | 470 calories |
| Snack 2 | Protein bar | 380 calories |
| Dinner | Turkey burger, wheat bun, sweet potato | 660 calories |
| Snack 3 | Protein shake with two tablespoons of peanut butter | 440 calories |
| TOTAL CALORIES | 2,780 calories |
Despite being packed with nutrients, it won’t lead to weight loss for most people unless you’re quite active. Still, at best, 2,780 calories would maintain your weight and probably lead to weight gain for people who lead a sedentary lifestyle. It’s also unsatisfying, hard to stick with, time-consuming, and can get expensive.
Healthy diets often include a cheat day, but that cheat day could quickly turn into a binge following several days of deprivation. In any event, a healthy diet often already delivers too many calories, and the cheat day isn’t warranted.
The “Flexible Dieting” Approach
You must track and control your caloric intake to guarantee weight loss results. Your calorific intake decides the effect your diet has on your body and is the one thing you must control if you want to lose fat. In simple terms, you must consume fewer calories than you need every day to lose fat.
Controlling calories requires some discipline, but flexible dieting can be quite enjoyable, affordable, and sustainable.
Healthy foods definitely have their place- when you want and need them, but it’s key to consume enough of them to get all the nutrients you need to stay healthy, full, and with enough energy to get through the day.
Example of a flexible diet:
| Breakfast | Egg white omelet (2 eggs + cheese), black coffee | 250 calories |
|---|---|---|
| Snack 1 | Low-fat Greek Yogurt (½ cup) | 80 calories |
| Lunch | Chic-Fil-A grilled chicken sandwich, fruit cup, diet soda | 400 calories |
| Snack 2 | Bag of beef jerky | 240 calories |
| Dinner | Thin crust ham and pineapple pizza(small), diet Coke | 860 calories |
| Snack 3 | Low-fat ice cream (1 cup) | 240 calories |
| TOTAL CALORIES | 2,080 calories |
Personalize Your Diet
The flexible diet example can be tweaked to meet your needs and preferences. For instance, you could eat fewer calories in the morning, save more for later, or eat a big breakfast but less during the rest of the day.
Snacks can be skipped in favor of adding calories to main meals, or you could eat nothing in the morning and save the calories for later that day. It’s the total calories and the overall energy balance that matter the most.
The example of 2,080 total calories could lead to sustainable and steady fat loss in most people training at least a few times a week, but it’s advisable to include some vegetables in your diet. These can easily be added in any of the meals for very little additional calories and add many nutrients to keep you satiated and healthy.
A flexible diet also doesn’t require much planning and meal prep. It may be a better option if you have been eating a healthy diet but are not seeing weight loss benefits.
Professional Health and Fitness Coach. Encouraging and inspiring busy working people to take time out for themselves through fitness and general health and wellness.
