If I had a £1 coin for the amount of people that tell me they eat really ‘well’, ‘healthy’, ‘ I don’t eat much’ and the ‘I train so hard all the time’.

Yet are left bemused why they aren’t progressing week-to-week, month-to-month and year-to-year.

Now for me, there is quite clearly a disconnect. For most people nutrition is confusing, too much information out there with conflicting messages.

So my advice with that one, is follow those that have the same message and know what they are talking about (I’m not a bad shout).

Secondly you need to follow the underlying principles of what works, this article should solve that problem. And I hope 1 person tries it for a period of time as it means I have helped 1 additional person, which is always great!

Lastly, you need to learn how to get the most of your ‘diet’ and by this I mean being able to actually eat plenty of food to feel happy, full and satisfied and not hangry on your new found diet.

Let’s dive in!

Look at the picture below, same breakfast or meal right?

Well…

On the left we have 640 calories

On the right we have 225 calories

Left:

Full fat natural yogurt
Honey
Berries
Pre bought smoothie
Right

Total 0% yogurt
Berries
Greens powder added to a bottle of water

An almost identical breakfast with 2 very different implications to your daily calorie allowance (the right one is the smartest option for a successful and easier ‘diet’).

The option on the right is fundamentally what getting the most (food) out of your diet is all about, it will fill you up about the same but you are eating 400 kcal less.

Eat more protein
Eat more veg
Eat foods high on satiety index
Eat low fat or non-fat options.

Fat is thee most energy dense macronutrient in our diet and provides more than twice the amount of calories per g compared to protein and carbohydrates. This means that if we eat a whole lot of foods rich in dietary fat, we are likely going to over consume calories and not necessarily get the most out of our diet. And no fat isn’t bad but opting for lower fat and fat free options makes infinitely more sense to control our calories (as we would get the same amount of food for less calories).

The table above demonstrates 5 different fruits and their nutrition information for 100g, which one would be more filling if you were going to consume 160kcal from fruit?

Strawberries right?

You would be able to eat 484g of strawberries for the same caloric yield as 100g of avocado.

You get a lot more food for your buck, this isn’t to say that the other fruits are absolutely obsolete and should never be consumed but it is wise to make smart decisions and see your diet more as a financial budget and to use it wisely depending on your hunger levels.

If hunger is easily satisfied then have the avocado but if it isn’t then we need to be bold with our choices.

The same can be said for protein sources, if we are on low calories then what would be the most filling per calorie due to its volume?

Egg whites and tuna seem to be our best ‘bets’. You can have nearly triple the protein for the same amount of calories if you have 300g egg white compared to 100g eggs. Again you can see how this may matter when it comes to making you full, the egg whites quite simply provide you with more food and more protein.

This obviously isn’t what you have to do but this goes to show you that just eating ‘healthy’ isn’t going to cut it, you still need to control your intake. I like to mix whole eggs and egg whites to control calorie intake whilst upping the protein density of the meal.

Also I want to mention this to let you know that this isn’t a banned food list but to literally demonstrate some examples of how to perhaps get more food out of your diet whilst controlling energy intake.

The table above pretty much sums up why snacking may not be the best thing for weight loss, most of these options are high in calories and do not provide much fullness. I know that you wouldn’t necessarily eat 100g of chocolate as a snack but if you did, look at how many calories.

You could eat 500g of tuna and be full and consume same calories as 100g chocolate and not be full (I do not recommend eating 500g of tuna, that would be grim).

But if you swap the chocolate or crisps out for that 0% Greek Yogurt with some fruit then you could save calories and consume more protein, that would be a worthy habit change and keep you fuller for longer.

One of the key things to do when dieting is focusing on satiety (on feeling full) first and foremost with your dietary decisions and it may leave a little wiggle room later in the day for something totally awesome like ice cream or whatever!

Don’t diet and work up a ravenous appetite by eating very little in terms of portion sizes (easy to do with cereals, chocolate and crisps).

Your diet is a budget, if you aren’t losing weight then you aren’t making the right choices, swap things around to reduce your calorie intake and ensuring adequate protein intake.

Pay attention to how much you are putting into your body in terms of calories and food and make adjustments!

– See more at: http://seanarmstrongfitness.co.uk/2015/11/26/get-food-diet/#sthash.U6OXpi8H.dpuf