In Part I of this series we established that healthy meals and weight loss meals are not always the same. It is entirely possible to be eating in a way that positively affects some of your health markers without creating weight loss.
If you missed Part I, go ahead and read that first since each reason has homework that builds with each subsequent reason.
Otherwise, let’s go ahead and jump into the last two reasons why your healthy meals are not helping you lose weight.
REASON #4: You are eating too many starchy carbohydrates.
Whether or not you are overweight, how long you have been overweight, how active you are, what type of physical activity you are regularly engaged in, and how much fat you eat each day all influence the appropriate amount of starchy carbohydrate intake for you.
Your super lean friend who lives in the weight room may be able to eat potatoes, rice, and pasta with every meal and still have a flat stomach. You may need to stick to oatmeal and starchy vegetables with two meals a day to see any progress at all. I know this is soooo not fair but accepting what works for you rather than insisting on doing what you want to work for you is an important step toward getting results.
The good news is that your starch tolerance is not set in stone. When you do resistance training and conditioning and achieve and maintain a healthy weight, your tolerance for starchy carbohydrates increases. So eat now for results knowing that what you can eat later and still maintain your results will likely be different.
Your Homework: Record what you eat for 3-5 days and note how many servings of starchy carbohydrates you have each day. If you are regularly including starchy carbohydrates with your meals and you are not losing weight, try reducing your intake by 1 serving. Pay attention to how you feel (you don’t want lower energy) and whether or not you are losing fat (a decreasing belly measurement is a great sign). Repeat the process until you see fat loss without energy loss.
REASON #5: You don’t create balanced meals because you are confused about food content.
This one is huge and quite honestly may have been reason number one but that ship has sailed. So how well do you know your food?
Is peanut butter protein?
Is cereal a starch?
If you weren’t quite sure about your answers, you are in good company. Many of the ladies that I meet are completely confused about which foods belong to which macronutrient family and are at a loss when it comes to creating balanced meals that support weight loss. No amount of trying can overcome a lack of knowledge.
Your Homework: Commit this to memory…
Write down the meals you eat most often. Look those foods up on a site like calorieking.com. Note which macronutrient (protein, carbs, fat) is prominent in each food.
Now you have it all laid out for you. Go forth and turn those healthy meals into weight loss friendly meals and let me know how it goes.
What did you think. Let me know in the comments below! And if you found this helpful or inspirational, be sure to share.
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