Module 7
DEFICIT DIETING HACKS
To burn fat you need to be eating in a calorie deficit. Which if you return back to the burn diet module, I teach you how to do this without becoming obsessed with calorie counting.
When in a calorie deficit, your body has to use its own stores (such as body fat) for energy.
As you use your body’s fat stores for fuel, you can begin to feel a little bit hungrier or a little bit more tired than usual.
Here are some tips on how to make eating in a calorie deficit more manageable for you, so that you can still glow, thrive and feel your best whilst you are transforming your physique and burning fat.
- If you’re hungry between meals, instead of restricting food, choose to snack on low calorie water-based fruits like melon or pineapple. You can eat a huge bowl of watermelon for just 60 calories. Because of the high water % and fibre content, it will keep you satisfied until your next meal. Snacking on raw veggies like carrot sticks or celery sticks which are again full of fibre can also be another good option to keep you satisfied between meals.
- Make veggies fill the majority of your plate. The high fibre content will keep you full whilst also providing you with heaps of nutrients!
- Base your meals around a protein source. Protein takes a long time for your body to digest & so will keep you fuller for longer. Add in protein with every meal!
- Soda water, herbal teas and black coffee are all calorie free and will also help to keep you full in between your meals! I love squeezing some fresh lime to my soda water for that extra flavour.
Different teas can benefit you in different ways. Here are a few of my favourite and their benefits.
Chamomile Tea:
- Helps promote sleep (making this tea a good option to relax you before bed)
- Helps reduce inflammation / digestive issues
- Can reduce stress and anxiety by inducing a calm + relaxing state
Peppermint Tea:
- Freshens your breath! (making this a good tea to have in a morning)
- Can reduce headaches
- Helps reduce inflammation / digestive issues
Ginger + Lemon Tea:
- Helps reduce inflammation / digestive issues
- Strengthens and boosts your immune system
- Can help to reduce feelings of hunger
- Has healing & anti-inflammatory properties
Green Tea
- Supports brain health
- FULL of antioxidants
- Helps to strengthen + boost immune system
Some more ways of managing your calorie deficit are:
- Stay hydrated! Aim for 3 litres of water a day as a start. Being dehydrated can leave you tired, de-motivated, and can cause unhealthy food cravings to creep in. The signal your body will give you when you're thirsty is really similar to the signal you get when you're hungry. So by staying hydrated you're less likely to receive a "false hunger signal". Try to get into a habit of drinking a large glass of water every hour and also before every meal.
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Don’t restrict your favourite foods or drinks. If you completely cut out the foods you love, you will end up craving them more than ever. This will either cause you unhappiness, or it will cause you to binge (or both). If you love a glass of red wine, babe have a glass of red wine. If you love chocolate, eat chocolate! Having a no-restriction mentality is the key to sustaining your results FOR LIFE. You can use myfitnesspal to check that your favourite foods are in line with your calorie target. It can be as simple as reducing calories by swapping rice for salad with dinner, so that you can enjoy a glass of red wine in the evening. As long as these foods you love also leave your body feeling amazing, continue to include them in your diet!
Creating new habits takes time and can be challenging at first. You’re basically reprogramming your body from what it's always been used to, which for some can be a whole lifetime of habits! Take all the new changes slowly, and remember you don’t need to make all changes all at once. If there’s a lot of new things for you in this plan then start by just choosing one thing to change (which could just be the workouts) once the new change becomes easy to stick to, implement another...and so on. Remember, please be kind to yourself!
