One of the biggest struggles when trying to undertake a fat-loss journey is the hunger that can (and will) accompany it when calories start to get lower and lower.
The basics for fat loss are: We must expend (through exercise and incidental movement) more energy (calories) than we intake (foods, drinks and alcohols).
There’s no way around this equation. No magic fat-loss pill, specific exercise or diet type will make fat loss occur (assuming you don’t have a diagnosed metabolic disorder which can in fact play a role in rates of fat gain and loss). Just consistently sticking to a calorie deficit.
Keeping this in mind, when we start to diet down we must start to reduce calories from somewhere, ideally from the fat and carb content of our diets. The reason I haven’t mentioned proteins is that when dieting it’s ideal to keep protein content of your diet relatively high and consistent as it plays a large role in tissue repair, immune system health and satiety (feeling full). All things that are extremely important to maintain, dieting or not.
When we do start to reduce calories, and subsequently the food volume that goes along with it, we can start to look at different options of food types to help us maintain our satiety after each meal.
This would be an example of a lunch meal before we start a fat loss journey:
100g Grilled Chicken Thigh, 150g Steamed Rice, Steamed Greens and 30g Tomato Chutney/Relish (for a bit of flavour). Total volume of food for this meal equals 430g.
Meal Nutrition Breakdown
| Food | Protein | Fats | Carbs | Calories |
| 100g Grilled Chicken Thigh | 26g | 11g | 0g | 207 |
| 150g Steamed White Rice | 4g | 1g | 42g | 195 |
| 150g Steamed Greens | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 30g Tomato Chutney/Relish | 1.5g | 1.5g | 11g | 45 |
Total meal calories = 447 Cal
Below could be an example of a similar meal of the same volume (430g of food) but with significantly less calories:
100g Gilled Chicken Breast, 150g Roasted Sweet Potato, 150g Steamed Greens and 30g Tomato Salsa (still 430g of food).
Meal Nutrition Breakdown
| Food | Protein | Fats | Carbs | Calories |
| 100g Grilled Chicken Breast | 31g | 3.5g | 0g | 164 |
| 150g Roasted Sweet Potato (no oils added) | 3g | 1g | 31g | 133 |
| 150g Steamed Greens | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 30g Tomato Salsa | 0.5g | 0g | 2g | 10 |
Total meal calories = 307 Cal
From those small changes made we’ve managed to save ourselves 140 Cals for that one meal.
If you need to drop calories by 100-200 Cals per and you’re eating a minimum of three meals per day you would simply need to change just one meal to what your currently doing to elicit this drop in calories and enable yourself to be put into a calorie deficit which will lead you on the right path towards dropping that extra body fat.
The reason that I haven’t included the steamed green in both example is that the calories are so low that it’s not even worth counting them. Eat lots and lots of greens!!!
This method is most effective when done using some method of food tracking/logging so if you want to give it a try maybe consider downloading an app such as Fat Secret or MyFitnessPal to start recording what you’re eating on a day-to-day basis.
Like always, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask us here at Real Fitness Training about how we can help you further!
Coach Grady.
