#1: Take Control of What You Put In Your Mouth
When people let their emotions drive their eating, they end up feeling out of control and always hungry. Instead, try making informed choices about what and how you eat. By taking control of what you put in your mouth you avoid the pitfalls of emotional eating and can be empowered by your decisions.
#2: Get Fat Adapted
Most people don’t have the metabolic machinery to effectively burn body fat. Instead they run on carbs all day. The solution is to restrict carbohydrates in favor of protein and fat for your first two meals of the day (or at least for breakfast) in order to force the body to fat. Anaerobic exercise such as weight lifting or sprinting will also improve your body’s ability to burn fat.
#3: Eat The Most High-Quality Proteins—10 Grams of EAAs At Every Meal
High-quality protein includes fish, meat, poultry, eggs, and Greek yogurt. Planning meals around these foods blunts appetite and keeps you full, while also preserving lean mass during fat loss;. Protein also keeps blood sugar steady and and increases resting energy expenditure because protein is the most metabolically costly food for the body to digest.
#4: Ruthlessly Take Care of Your Gut Health
The microflora that live in your gut play a pivotal role in establishing your body composition, cholesterol profile, and long-term heart health. Support it by eating foods with fermented probiotics and lots of plant foods. Studies of groups that eat traditional diets have excellent gut health due to the high intake of root tubers, leafy vegetables, fruit, and nuts.
#5: Eat Fats That Are Good For You
Healthy fats are necessary for optimal hormone function and they provide bioavailable nutrients that will support a lean, muscular body composition. They are also delicious and filling. Good fats include those from olive and coconut oil, nuts, avocados, eggs, dairy, wild fish, and organic meat.
#6: Eat. Real. Food.
Most processed foods are engineered to trigger food intake and make you eat more calories. Processed foods also have a lower thermic effect than whole foods, meaning that if you eat a processed meat sandwich with white bread, your body will burn fewer calories during digestion than if you ate the same amount of calories from chicken breast, rice, and sweet potatoes.
#7: Favor Plants Over Grains.
Favoring vegetables instead of grains is an easy way to fill you up and increase nutritional density, but with fewer calories. Grain-based foods, whether it's good bread, crackers, rice, or cereal are very easy to overeat and they tend to crowd out other more nutritious foods.
#8: Save Higher Carb Foods For Dinner/Post-Workout
After working out your muscles are starving for nutrition. They are extra sensitive to insulin so that any carbs you eat will be stored as glycogen instead of fat. This makes post-workout the perfect time to enjoy higher carb foods. Further, including complex carbs at dinner will help lower cortisol and raise serotonin for restful sleep.
#9: Invest In Organic Meat, Eggs & Dairy
Organic meat, eggs, and dairy are significantly more nutritious than conventional versions and they help you avoid growth hormones and pesticides that may have estrogenic activity. High chemical estrogen intake is associated with higher body fat and worse health.
#10: Strength Train & Do Sprints—Proper Exercise Makes Everything Better
Don’t let lack of exercise be your blind spot. Exponentially greater benefits will come if you combine training and the optimal diet. Find a way to make it fun so that you enjoy movement—it’s what you were put on this earth to do!