Inside Scoop: Here are 7 ways you can lose weight by eating more, and how to listen to your body for weight loss success.

Losing weight means one thing is fact: it’s time to start a diet… right?

This thought is common to a lot of people when they consider losing weight, diet = weight loss, and yeah it’s 100% true, but what does DIET really mean?

Head on over to wiki, and you get this in the first line of the definition:

“The use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons (with the two often being related).”

But the conception that diet = weight loss is usually accompanied by other thoughts: Calorie restriction & counting points, cutting carbs & limiting fat, following trends & fad diets, and  monitoring, obsessing & limiting.

This isn’t our style, we would rather have you lose the weight by eating instead of avoiding everything.

What the heck got lost in translation from ‘health + weight management being related’ to where we are today? We definitely stopped focusing on the word ‘nutrition’ and started obsessing about weight loss and being perfectly skinny.

But really, this is what reality looks like:

Not everyone is perfectly skinny. As a matter of fact most of us aren’t! Thicker frames are AWESOME and every body is different. Some of us work hard to get thin, and others work hard for a juicy booty. We all have insecurities, and weight loss and health should never be measured by numbers, but rather by how we feel physically and mentally.

Both of us have been through a lot to be thin and stay thin, but it never worked. Cravings for sugar and carbs were always there, and we always fell out of our diet patterns and turned to binge eating. Our weight fluctuated, we were bloated, always hungry for crappy food, and always obsessed about the way we looked.

It hasn’t been easy, and a harsh truth to be told, you simply can’t expect it to. But, if you focus on it and really search for what you want with your health and weight loss goals, you can find balance and happiness with your body.

You actually can lose weight by eating a well-balanced diet, and believe it or not you don’t need to cut out foods or obsess about calories, you just have to be the master of your choices, learn how to listen to your body, and learn how to love yourself.

Here are 7 ways that you can lose weight by eating what you want!

1. NO MORE EXTREME DIETS!

A friend of ours was recently on the Master Cleanse, and if you don’t know anything about it, it’s basically 14 days of water, lemon, maple syrup and cayenne pepper. Yes, you drink a spicy lemonade for 14 days and DONT EAT ANY FOOD! Whatt??! If you visit their site, they make great health claims; a cleansed liver, extreme weight loss, re-setting the body… and they have some pretty fancy packaging to reel you in!

But what actually happens on this ‘cleanse’?

You lose weight over those 10 days, but at the cost of what? The human body was meant to eat, people! You cannot just stop eating for 14 days! No way, no how. You will be angry, starving, irritable, maybe have headaches… and then when it’s over you are so darn hungry you reach for anything and everything ending up in a carb frenzy, which usually results in more weight gain on than initially lost.

This is just one example of an extreme diet, and other diet trends fall into this category as well (there are so many), but just because a diet worked for someone you know, it doesn’t mean it will work for you. So, why not try a method that lasts for life?

Here’s what we recommend: Start observing how foods make you feel – energized, lean, tired or bloated. When you realize which foods make you feel less than awesome, you will start to limit those foods and make way for healthier ones. *Hint: most processed foods would fall in this category.

2. EAT WHOLE, REAL FOODS AND DON’T CUT OUT MACRONUTRIENTS

Macronutrients are your carbohydrates, fats, and protein, and they are needed for your body to thrive and survive. The way you get an adequate amount of all of them is eating whole foods as close to their natural state as possible!

You can lose weight by eating a whole food based diet, because this type of diet will help you combat cravings, fill you up, and keep you energized.

Here’s what we recommend: Try to stick to well rounded, whole food based macros. Here is an amazing list of the healthiest macros to start adding to your diet today, Top 15 Healthy Carb, Protein & Fat Rich Foods.

3. SUGAR BRAIN! IT’S A THING.

Hello sugar babe! We want you to go to your cupboards and read some of your labels: yogurts, granola bars, nut milks, soups, salad dressings & sauces, unfortunately, most of these items will have some kind of sugar in them. Whether it’s a high fructose corn syrup, or a more natural sugar like cane or honey, bottom line is sugar is sugar and it definitely adds up.

Even if you are ingredient conscious, being careful of the amount of sugar, whether natural or not becomes important for weight loss and overall health. Excess processed sugar (and even natural sugars) not only contribute to many health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cholesterol and heart disease, but if unused it gets stored as fat by the body.

Here’s what we recommend: Fear not, you can lose weight by having a diet that contains sugars, you just need to be mindful of how much sugar you are consuming and how it makes you feel. A lot of us can get sugar highs and crashes, or can end up feeling worse after a high-sugar snack or meal due to dysbiosis playing a factor. Try going for more natural sweeteners and reducing your intake of daily sugar.

4. YOU WANT PIZZA? HONOUR THAT!

You can absolutely lose weight by eating what you want, and honouring your hunger. The trick is to understand your hunger. If you are bored, anxious, stressed or feel guilty, you may end up over eating or binge eating, which is not honouring your hunger. It’s feeding your emotions. If you are truly hungry, or truly desire a food, and you allow yourself it without the guilt attached, you may find that your cravings and desires minimize over time. You can also dabble between regular foods and healthier alternatives. For example, try cauliflower crust pizza, if you like it keep at it. If you don’t like it and would rather have a regular pizza, go for it. Just understand what works best for you.

Here’s what we recommend: Going back to the second point, keep your food as close to it’s natural state as possible, try to cook your favourite meals, and do some healthy swapping. Cut back on processed and pre-packaged foods, and when you really want Taco Bell…. just have it.

5. KEEP YOUR BLOOD SUGARS IN CHECK!

Ever notice when you eat a breakfast high in simple sugars, and then lunch comes along you feel the need for more sugar? That’s most likely your blood sugars acting all loopy.

We say protein and fiber balanced with the sugar to create more stability with your blood sugar levels, but it’s also important to make sure what’s on your plate is a balanced meal, containing plenty of whole foods, rich in nutrients. It’s a very simple equation actually, consider:

• MORE veggies & whole grains
• MORE plant based protein
• LESS animal products including dairy
• LESS sugar
• And aim for foods as close to their natural state as possible
• A whole food diet is always the best diet

Here’s what we recommend: Protein + fiber for breakfast, healthy snacks high in protein throughout the day, and a balanced meal at night. Here is a list of 10 Energy Bars For Snacking On-The-Go.

7. GOOD GOOD GOOD… GOOD HYDRATION!

Your body is made up of about 65% water. Water is needed for all your organs and processes including digestion, healthy bowels and healthy skin. In addition, staying hydrated increases satiety, weight loss and your metabolism. And water is not the only way to hydrate, you can have herbal tea, soups and veggies – all contribute to your water intake. Water is also an amazing tool to help combat those cravings and curb the emotional eating.

Looking for new ways to stay hydrated that isn’t boring old water? Check out our Tea Guide for Weight Loss.

These are just some tips you can start tackling today to lose weight by enjoying food, enjoying your life, and not feeling restricted. If you’re interested in learning more about a nutrition plan that tackles all of this and helps you lose weight in a healthy way, check out our signature program The N5Diet. 5 weeks, 5 simple steps and over 125 recipes with 5 ingredients or less.