Part 2: How Counting Macros Changed My Outlook on Weight Loss

If you haven’t already, go check out Part 1 of my series on what I’ve been up to lately! Part 1 was all about slowing down and creating the perfect environment to make changes to your nutrition and fitness stick for the long haul.  If you don’t have the right environment for your changes to stick, they will not stick.  Let me give an example – If someone who works 80+ hour weeks, sleeps only 5 hours per night, drinks only coffee and no water, and spends weekends letting loose at the bar decides they want to start waking up at 4:45am to workout for an hour daily, how long do you think they can keep that up? And more importantly, do you think that in the long run losing another hour of sleep to physically push the body (when what it really needs is rest) is best? My answer is definitely not.  If this same person decides they are going to add a “diet” to the mix, do you think they are going to feel better, or worse? When we are already sleep deprived and stressed making those healthy food choices becomes so much harder.  My biggest piece of advice if you’re looking to change up your nutrition and fitness to achieve certain goals (whether they are build muscle, lose weight, feel better etc.) is to first create YOUR ideal environment for change.  For me it is 9+ hours of sleep, and a couple days/night a week where I can relax, sleep in, and watch Jersey Shore, lol. Before you embark on nutrition changes, take a look back at Part 1 and set yourself up for success! ❤️

The FNCE Session That Changed The Way I Think About Weight Loss

FNCE is a Food and Nutrition conference hosted by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics each year in October.  I love going to learn about new topics, hear from fellow RDs, and, of course, to try new products to share with you guys! This year it was in DC and I got to go with my other half, Michael! We went to a session titled “Metabolic Adaptations in Weight Loss” and it would be an understatement to say it changed the way I think about nutrition for weight loss.  I’ll try to sum up the session for you here in a few sentences and my take home points.  When we lose weight, most times we lose not only fat, but also muscle mass, this happens because when we put ourselves in a caloric deficit our body doesn’t discriminate what weight it loses.  When this happens the amount of calories we burn at rest (called our resting metabolic rate or RMR) also goes down, meaning once we get to our goal weight we have decreased the amount of calories we burn at rest, and this can make maintaining that new weight very challenging.  In their lab the presenters have been manipulating macronutrients (think protein, carbs, and fat) in an individual’s diet to see if they can help people lose body fat and minimize the loss of muscle mass while they are trying to lose weight.  Why does this matter? Our muscle mass is more metabolically active (think – it burns more calories) than fat mass.  So, what “usually” happens when people lose weight is as they drop pounds, they are smaller (duh) and have less muscle mass, so the amount of calories their body burns at rest drops a lot, meaning, once they are at their “goal” weight they need to eat quite a bit less than they used to to maintain that new weight.  How can we prevent this? Enter – manipulating macronutrients (yes, that does mean tracking them too) to help people preserve muscle mass as they lose fat and therefore minimize the reductions to the amount of calories they burn at rest by as much as possible.  This is what I’m going to call preserving metabolism.  So, if you maintain muscle mass while you are losing weight you preserve your metabolism, making it easier to maintain that weight loss in the long term.  

I always knew these things, we learned the physiological details of weight loss in school, but I felt like in my own life I had never put this into practice. So I leaned over to Michael and said “let’s do this to me.”  We calculated my needs, I had my RMR measured previously, had my body fat percentage measured, and we planned a couple of “sample” days.  When we got home from FNCE we immediately kicked it into gear.  Here are some of the changes we made that made it so easy for me to stick with this new way of eating and tracking my macros: 

• Meal Planning: Every Saturday or Sunday we sit down with a weekly calendar and plan out what breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks we will eat each day, taking into account any events. 
• Create a Grocery List: While meal planning, we write down the ingredients for each of those meals on our grocery list for the week.
• Take Pantry Inventory: We never buy anything we already have on hand, so throughout our meal planning/prep session we take a look at what we already have and try to use that up first.  
• Pre Log Meals: Guys, in a past life I despised logging meals.  I found it to be horribly stressful and damn near impossible.  I was doing it wrong.  And I won’t lie to you, the first week or two was hard, I had to really plan and be flexible at the same time to figure out how to meet my macros.  I can’t say enough how important taking the time to plan and do some trial and error with your meals for the week is in setting yourself up for success.  Now I love it, it’s like a puzzle and having a support system like Michael (my fiancé and live in RD) makes it so much easier too.  Throughout the week I know what we’ve planned to eat “fits my macros” and it makes it so much easier to stick with it even when things get busy.  
• Ask for help: Talk with your family and friends about your goals and how they can support you.  If you are not a dietitian seek out an RD that can help you figure out your needs and help with this planning process initially.  If I was not a RD, and didn’t have Michael as an objective RD to help me create, and adjust, my plan I would find one.  
• Plan for challenges/events/treats: I plan to include a meal out, or a treat, or a fancy latte a few days of the week. Those things make me happy and no weight loss goal is worth compromising your happiness on a day to day basis.  If I don’t know what’s in the food or it would be stressful to try to log it, I just don’t.  Honestly, at this point I feel so good when we do go out to eat I try to choose options I know will make me feel good and I’ve noticed if I go out and eat a bunch of junk, I usually feel like junk the next day.  

Failing is A Part of the Process

One of my favorite quotes about habit change is “…this process of experimentation – and failure – is critical in long term habit change” “It’s tempting to see those relapses as failures, but what’s really occurring are experiments.”  This is from The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.  You have to fail in order to figure out what will work best for YOU.  Don’t expect to make changes to your habits, especially when it comes to food choices, and have things go off without a hitch.  Where we get into trouble is when we think a failed experiment is the end of the road.  The best example of this is when we go to a party or event on Friday night and eat all the treats and then decide the whole weekend is wash because we “cheated.”  Don’t think of that event as a “cheat” think of it as an experiment! Give yourself some grace and time to adjust to these changes, every small change you make is a step in the right direction, even if it’s followed by a few “experiments.” 

How to Think about Weight Loss in a Healthy Way

My Social Media feeds recently have been filled with posts saying “f*** the scale!” and bashing tracking macros.  For some people (see my disclaimer below) this way of approaching weight loss that I’ve described may not be healthy or beneficial.  For some people, losing weight may not be a good or healthy thing.  Everyone is different and there is no one way to eat that is best for everyone. I have been scared to talk about wanting to lose weight for fear people would judge me or think I thought this was the only way to do it.  But I want to frame it a different way.  If you read Part 1 you heard about some of the physical manifestations of my stress and “pedal to the medal” lifestyle.  For me this change was about so much more than the number on the scale.  It’s about taking care of my body by eating things that make me feel good both mentally and physically (sometimes it’s a cookie, other times it’s a chicken and veggie dinner) and loving my body by giving it the fuel it needs to support my life.  Tracking my macros has helped me realize that the way I was eating before wasn’t healthy. I wasn’t taking the time to prep healthy meals for myself. Sometimes I was eating too much and sometimes too little, defaulting to popcorn for dinner, excessive amounts of coffee, or a meal that wasn’t satisfying because I had gotten so hungry I couldn’t wait for a healthy meal to cook.  For me losing weight is a part of a much bigger self care picture and eating healthy isn’t something I have to do, but instead a way of practicing self care 3-6 times per day, every time I put food in my mouth.  

If you’re interested in learning more about if and how this macro counting lifestyle could work for you, you can contact me here. 

New Year. New Habits. Same You. 

In addition, Michael and I are SUPER excited to announce our New Year, New Habits Challenge.  We will be leading a FREE 45 Day Challenge starting January 1st 2019 all about changing your habits to accomplish your goals.  Whether you goal is to feel better, live a more healthy, balanced lifestyle, lose weight, or improve your performance in a sport this challenge is for YOU! We will be providing tricks, tips, recipes, and workouts throughout the first 45 days of the year to help you establish habits you can stick with for the long haul.  Go ahead and do yourself a favor and commit now – you can sign up here or on the home page of lizhurleyrd.com!

Disclaimer: This way of eating and tracking macros is not for everyone, if you have a history of disordered eating, or any special dietary needs due to a medical condition, talk with your doctor and a dietitian about how to best meet your goals.  Everyone is different and just because this works for some people, doesn’t mean it is what is best for you and that is totally ok!!  None of the information in this blog post is meant to diagnose or treat any medical condition.