Running Lean with Patrick McGilvray
One of the biggest myths in the running world is that you can’t lose fat and keep running strong at the same time. Well…I’m here to tell you that’s just not true. The key is learning how to fuel …
Continue Reading about 287. How to Eat for Fat Loss Without Losing Performance →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner sports nutritionist, master life coach, and weight loss coach. For runners, I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 287 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners, and today how to eat for fat loss without losing performance. So one of the biggest myths in the running world is that you can’t lose fat and keep running strong at the same time.
Well, I’m here to tell you that that is just not true. The key is really learning how to fuel your body so that you burn fat efficiently and support your training and recovery. So in this episode, I’m gonna break it all down for you how to eat so that you can. Continue losing fat without losing your running performance.
In the process, you’re gonna learn exactly what types of foods promote fat loss. In which promote fat storage. Uh, why you don’t need all the carbs all the time, how to time your carbs around your runs for maximum fat burning, and how to hit the right calorie intake without totally crushing your energy.
If you wanna drop fat, get leaner and keep running strong. This episode is for you, so listen up. But first, if you’re struggling to drop the weight, if your energy is low, if your runs feel like a grind and nothing you’ve tried is working, listen, I get it. Most runners are following outdated advice. Eat all the carbs, train more, eat less, and hope for the best.
But that’s not a real strategy, that’s just guesswork. What you need is a clear proven plan that actually works for you. One that’s built around real food, smart fueling, consistent training, and the mindset required to keep it all going for life. This is exactly what I do with my coaching clients. We take the guesswork out, we simplify your nutrition, we dial in your training and build the best habits that actually help you to lose fat, that help you to get stronger and make running easier without really feeling deprived or burned out.
So if you’re ready to stop spinning your wheels and start seeing actual results, go over to my website, runningleancoaching.com. Click on work with me. Let’s get you leaner, stronger, and running better than ever. Okay, so today’s episode, why I wanted to talk about this today. Um, how to eat for fat loss without losing performance.
Um, I decided to talk about this because this is one of the most common concerns that I hear from runners that I talk to. Which is, you know, I want to, I wanna lose weight, I wanna lose fat, but I’m afraid it’s going to completely tank my running. And I’ve heard that you can’t do both. If you wanna lose weight, your running is gonna suffer.
Or if you want to keep running strong, you gotta forget about losing weight. But listen, that’s just not true. The truth is you can do both. You just have to be intentional about how you fuel your body and how you structure your training. So that’s what we’re talking about here today. I want to clear up the confusion.
I want to give you an approach that is proven. This works for, I’ve worked with like around 500 clients now, 500 runners who have lost weight and improve their running at the same time. I would say that’s a proven approach, okay? You don’t have to lose running performance in order to lose weight. Okay. But I wanna start today by addressing the biggest myth around all of this when it comes to nutrition and fat loss is that you, you, you know this one that I’m just started talking about, which is you just can’t lose weight and run strong at the same time.
Um, the truth is that there is a delicate balance there. You need to be intentional about what you’re doing, and that’s kind of what this whole episode is about. It’s gonna be showing you how to do this, okay? Um, it is 100% possible. Like I said, 500 of my clients have done this, and you can do it too. What you can’t do is under eat, overtrain and, and somehow expect to perform at your best.
That’s the fast track to injury burnout, and just plateauing your progress. Okay. But this is what most people think of when they think of losing weight. That you gotta undereat, you have to cut your calories way back, and that you need to run more. So train more and eat less. But that’s a recipe for disaster and that’s where most people, good intention to people, good in intentioned coaches, that’s where they’re operating from.
That’s the standard, you know, uh, uh, operating procedure for people who wanna lose weight, cut your calories and in increase your cardio, you know, run more, eat less, run more, and that’s not a good plan. So that will tank your running performance. Absolutely. But that’s not what we’re gonna do. That’s not the approach that I take with people.
I never encourage people to undereat. I never encourage people to overtrain. Okay? That’s not the approach that we’re gonna take. So losing weight, fat loss, and running performance or not mutually exclusive, right? You have to have a smart approach though, to, you have to take a very smart approach to your nutrition and to your training.
Okay. So there are certain foods that will, um, promote fat loss and there are cer certain foods that kind of promote fat storage. So when it comes to losing fat, um, what you eat is probably just as important, even more important as how much you eat. Okay? So the right diet is gonna be the one that supports your, uh, fat loss goals and your running goals.
And again, this is, this is one of those things that’s kind of individualized and there’s no one answer that’s gonna fit everybody okay? But. There are certain foods, generally speaking, that will help you to lose fat and there are certain foods, generally speaking, that will cause you to hold onto that fat or to increase your fat stores.
So we, we, we are either choosing foods that, uh, diminish our fat stores. That, that help promote fat burning, or we’re eating foods that add to our fat stores that promote fat storage. Like we don’t, we don’t necessarily want that one. Okay. Also, keep in mind through this whole conversation we’re having today, that burning fat is an amazing fuel source for, uh, endurance athletes.
So if you’re a runner who wants to improve your endurance, burn more fat. So that’s kind of the, the over. Arching, uh, uh, topic here today, which is we wanna be burning the fat. We don’t wanna be storing the fat. We want to be burning the fat. ’cause when you’re burning the fat, you’re losing the excess weight, the excess fat.
When you’re burning the fat, you have this unlimited, virtually unlimited supply of fuel on board, on your body all the time. So there are certain foods that kind of promote fat loss. These are typically nutrient dense foods that are high in protein and lower in refined carbohydrates. So think about things like meat and fish and eggs and Greek yogurt, vegetables, berries, nuts, seeds, certain, you know, good fats, like, uh, uh.
Olives and olive oil. Um, and, and berry, uh, I’m sorry. And dairy, uh, like, uh, uh, butter and, uh, coconut oil and avocado oil, avocados, all those things. Okay. Low, high, high end protein, lower and refined carbs. Nutrient dense foods, and then we have uh uh, and that’s by no means an exhaustive list. This is just some examples.
Then there’s foods that promote fat storage. So pro foods that promote fat storage are typically ultra processed carb heavy. And low in nutritional value. So they’re not nutritionally dense. Um, they’re not high in protein and they’re high in those refined carbs. So think about sugary snacks, breads, pasta, soda, granola bars, baked goods, even a lot of these so-called like health foods.
They’re just loaded with sugar, seed oils, refined carbs, um, that stuff. It actually promotes fat storage. That stuff raises insulin in your body. It raises your blood sugar by a lot, spikes in blood sugar, spikes in insulin. Insulin seems to be the, the driver of fat storage. And as long as your blood sugar is high, your insulin is high, you’re, you’re storing fat.
If we can focus on a diet that is, um, lower in, in, uh, the. Nutrient, you know, diminished carbs in the, um, refined carbs if we’re eating more, um, high protein, nutrient dense foods, like I mentioned. Then your body is not producing as much blood sugar, not producing as much insulin. You’re keeping your blood sugar low essentially, and your body can burn the fat.
So high blood sugar means you’re just gonna be burning off that blood sugar. Essentially. You gotta, you gotta burn that off before you can do anything else. And if you’re eating a very high carbohydrate diet constantly, you’re just gonna be fighting a losing battle here. You’re always going to be storing fat.
Whereas if you’re eating a lower. Uh, blood sugar kind of diet, then your body can actually, uh, burn the fat. Okay? So that’s just something you have. If, if you wanna lose fat, then stick with eating these, uh, whole foods, these real foods, foods that keep you full, that support your workouts, that don’t spike your blood sugar every time you eat.
Okay? So let’s talk about carbs for a minute, because this is where a lot of runners get tripped up. We’ve been told for decades that runners need to constantly be loading up on carbs. You know, pasta before a long run, gels every 30 minutes, bagels before and after every workout. Here’s the thing though, your body doesn’t need a constant influx of carbs to run well.
In fact, if you’re constantly fueling with carbs, your body never learns to burn fat efficiently. And if fat loss is your goal, you want to be burning fat efficiently, especially during those long, steady state runs. So I’m not saying you have to go like full keto, you don’t have to be super low carb, but what I am saying is that you don’t need all the carbs all the time.
Again, once you train your body to start burning fat effectively, you’ve got a ton of fuel for running. And this is where a lot of runners just don’t understand this and they’re just stuck in this old mentality of having to eat all the carbs all the time. ’cause that’s what they started teaching us back in the eighties, you know?
And it’s just kind of, it’s all the same information. Since the 1980s. Well, I think it’s time to maybe change that or maybe add some other options to the mix and getting fat adapted, adapting your body to using fat as fuel, as opposed to just carbohydrates as fuel is a great way to improve your running and to lose the fat.
And why not? Why wouldn’t you want to do that? As a runner, why wouldn’t you want to be a better fat burner? It’s just one more tool that you have available to you. I, I don’t know why you would leave that on the table. So, and when we talk about carbs, I’m not saying like, you gotta, like, again, we’re not talking about going full keto.
Like keto typically is like 20 grams of carbs or less per day. That is very hard to do. It’s very hard to sustain that. Um, and we’re not talking about eating, you know, 300 grams of carbs a day either, but somewhere in between there, you know, a lot of people do well with 50 or a hundred or 150 grams of carbs, something like that.
That’s still considered kind of low carb, you know, and everybody has to figure out what works for them. I. But we wanna find that sweet spot and we want to include carbs in our training. We want to include carbs as part of our, um, a strategy to, you know, improve our running performance. And, but there are, but not all carbs are, you know, the same, there, there are some carbs that I, I want you to kind of include and maybe try and there’s some that I want you to kind of avoid.
So some of the carbs that we can use around our training would be things like. You know, root vegetables, sweet potatoes, beets, that kind of stuff. Um, squash, you know, like acorn squash, butternut squash, berries, beans, lentils, some oats. Um, ideally something like steel cut oats, and then whole fruits, you know, whole kinds of fruits.
You don’t need to like blend up all your fruit into a smoothie, but, you know, eating whole fruits, um, because these are. Nutrient dense, slow digesting carbs that provide energy without completely spiking your blood sugar, like just eating gels and stuff like that. Um, carbs to avoid or maybe just really limit.
I, I never say like, you can never eat bread again or something like that, but just kind of limit this stuff ’cause it does have a high impact on your blood sugar. It’s interesting that. When you look at the spikes of blood sugar and everybody’s a little bit different, but generally speaking, um. Uh, white flour will spike your blood sugar more than like table sugar does because you’re, you’ve, you’ve refined this grain into a fine powder, and so there’s like more surface area for the, I don’t know, enzymes to work or something like that.
And so it actually, you know, white flour will spike your blood sugar more than just eating plain table sugar. Well, that’s crazy, right? So when people are like, oh, you know, you’re being o overly. Uh, cautious by avoiding all these carbs, all these bread, like you can eat bread. Dude, listen, it’s like eating sugar.
It, it’ll spike your blood sugar more than sugar will. So just be mindful of that. I’m not saying not to do it, just be mindful. So some of the carbs I say to kind of avoid or limit would be white bread, pasta. Anything made with flour, really. Cookies, crackers, um, things like potato chips, all the processed energy bars, sugary drinks, cereals, ultra processed foods, ultra processed snacks, like all that stuff.
Okay. These kinds of carbs are delicious. I get it right, but they’re easy to overeat. They don’t satisfy your hunger. They’re they’re devoid of nutrients, and they’re going to sabotage both your fat loss and your performance over time. You might think you’re doing yourself a favor by eating four bagels before you run.
But over time you’re just gonna be storing more fat. You’re not gonna be a good fat burner. You’re diminishing your running performance, in my opinion. So you’re not allowing your body to function properly. Um, and that stuff can have a negative impact. There’s a lot of runners who are. Um, what’s considered tophi, TOFI thin on the outside, fat On the inside, they’ve got, they look like they’re in good shape.
They’re pretty healthy and lean, but on the inside there’s a lot of fat, uh, like, um, uh, visceral fat that’s around their organs and things like that. I know that some runners, ultra runners and things like that who have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes or diabetes, um, but they don’t look like they’re overweight or anything like that, but they have a lot of.
Internal fat around their organs, which is the kind we really don’t want. That’s not good for you. So we have subcutaneous fat. That’s the fat that you can see on the outside, and then we have that visceral fat on the inside. That’s the, that’s the bad stuff there. Okay? We don’t want to be adding to that store, okay?
We want to be burning that fat. Okay? Now another question that comes up a lot is, okay, well when should I be eating these carbs? How do I time carbs? To, you know, around my workout so that I can burn fat and support my running because I’m all for using carbs for running. I think you should. Um, so if you’re gonna eat carbs, uh, do it in a strategic way.
And, and here’s a couple rule of thumbs we want to. We wanna time your carbs around your workouts, not just randomly throughout the day. You don’t wanna wake up and eat 16 pancakes and then, you know, later on in the day eat, you know, 12 bagels and then go to sleep with, you know, half a gallon of ice cream.
I. As good as that sounds. It’s ridiculous. I don’t know why I came up with those numbers, but whatever. So your body is primed to use carbs for fuel and for recovery, like before and after you train essentially. So that’s when your muscles are like sponges. They soak up glycogen. Um, rebuilding is, is a, is a, the process of rebuilding muscles is stronger.
Uh, recovery is faster, so you don’t wanna just be snacking on carbs all day while you’re sitting at your desk or watching Netflix. Um, those excess carbs are probably gonna get stored as fat. So if you’re using. Carbs as fuel before a workout, you’re gonna burn those carbs. Um, if you’re using ’em after a workout, that’s a good too because your, your body can like, use those to replenish glycogen stores and rebuild muscles.
You do need some carbs and protein to, to rebuild muscles. Um, so we wanna use carbs like a tool, right? It’s just not a thing you can do freely all the time. Um, I know people are like, well, I run so I can eat whatever I want. It’s like, okay. But if you’re like. Gaining weight in the process. Maybe you can’t eat whatever you want, you know, but again, everybody’s an individual.
Um, but we wanna use carbs like a tool. So we wanna fuel our workouts, we wanna recover well, and we wanna try to stay in that fat burning mode for as long as possible. That means we don’t eat carbs, you know, all throughout the day, every day. So time ’em around your workouts. Um, another question that comes up a lot.
Is calorie deficit, and I hear so many people say the only way to lose weight is being in a calorie deficit. It. So I think that without getting into this too much, I think that there is some truth to that, that I think you have to be in a slight calorie deficit in order to lose some weight and lose fat.
But most runners take this too far, and most coaches. Push this too much with people and that’s why they suggest, you know, don’t run if you’re trying to lose weight. ’cause all they’re doing is cutting calories aggressively. When you do that though, your performance suffers. So you don’t want to do that. We don’t want to, you know, drastically cut our calories.
You’re gonna be tired, your runs won’t suck. Your recovery’s gonna tank worse. Your body’s gonna be holding on to fat and breaking down muscle in this process. So we don’t want that. We do not wanna be breaking down muscle. We wanna be building up muscle. So what we want to aim for is a, a modest calorie deficit, just enough to promote fat loss, but not so much that it tanks your training.
Now a lot of people will say, well, what does that mean? How much should we, you know, lower our calorie deficit by? That is a good question and everybody’s different. And this is where I hate putting numbers out there ’cause I get people coming back to me and they send me messages, you said this and that doesn’t work for me.
I’m like, so it’s hard for me to put these numbers out there. I. Generally speaking though, I know I’ve said that a lot today, but just keep that in mind. Generally speaking, a ballpark number might be like a 10% calorie deficit, you know, so that might be where you’re focusing on eating lots of protein.
You’re getting good healthy fats, you’re doing some carbs, you’re timing, some carbs are on your runs, and if you’re in about a 10% or so calorie deficit, then you’re probably gonna be good. You’re. That’s probably gonna work for you. Maybe that doesn’t work for you though, and you need to do crank that up to like 15%.
Or maybe you can go like right around your maintenance calories and that’s works for you and that helps you to, to lose weight. Okay? Again, there’s no right answer here. Um, how, how many calories should you be eating? Again, I kind of use this as a ballpark number. I usually say take about 10 times your body weight.
So if you weigh, you know, 190 pounds, then 1900 calories is probably good for you. And we don’t really need to factor in running and all this other stuff because all, all that does is, is that, um, you’re trying to do some math. You’re trying to do math on like, well, but I, I run and I burn a thousand calories a day, so that means I get to eat a thousand calories more.
Hey. Try that and see if it works for you. Most people I talk to that does not work for them, but hey, give it a try and see. See how that works. I tried that four years with an app. I was trying to, I was logging all my food. I was counting all my calories. I was counting all my workouts. Couldn’t lose a pound doing that.
Not a pound. Um, so what I tell people is just focus on eating plenty of protein, good, healthy fats, some carbs, you know, eat, you know, things like, uh, meat and eggs and vegetables and some fruit and nuts and seeds and, and some dairy. If you can handle it and all that stuff is good. Whole Foods, focus on whole foods.
Eat until you feel kind of satisfied, but don’t go beyond that. So be mindful not to be overeating and you should, your calories should just kind of stay where they are supposed to be. They should, you should be able to eat in a way that feels good for you without overeating. You know, if you’re somebody who’s like a chronic over eater, you may want to count your calories.
You may want to use that approach, but I don’t think it’s necessary for everybody, and I, it’s not really sustainable for most people too. Really though protein is gonna be kind of your secret weapon, okay? Um, if you’re not getting enough protein, you’re making fat loss way harder than it needs to be.
’cause protein helps you to maintain lean muscle while you’re losing weight. It helps you to recover faster from workouts. It helps you to stay full and satisfied, so you’re not tempted to be snacking all day long. How much protein should you get? Again, I’m gonna give you this disclaimer, it’s different for everybody.
Point seven to one gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight per day seems to be where, you know, most people do. Okay? Um, spread it out over, you know, two or three meals. You know, you don’t need to be eating 12 times a day, uh, two or three meals a day. Um, prioritize high quality sources of protein, meat, eggs, fish, Greek yogurt.
If you need to supplement, do something like whey protein. That seems to be great. Or if you, if you’re plant-based, then do like a pea protein. Those teams, that seems to be pretty good too. But protein is gonna be your best friend during, during this process. Okay. So the bottom line with all this is you’re an individual.
You gotta kind of figure out what works for you. I’m trying to give you some guidelines. Um, so try some of this stuff, see how it works. I mean, you’re, you’re an experiment of one. We, we all are. And so you have to kind of figure out what is the right formula for you? How much protein do I need to eat? How many calories should I be eating?
What supports my running and my, uh, fat loss? Because there’s an answer there, you know, and everybody’s a little bit different, but you can lose fat and run strong at the same time. You don’t have to choose one or the other. You can do both. You just have to be smart about it. You gotta fuel wisely, you gotta train smart.
I. You gotta give your body what it needs to thrive. So don’t fall for the myths. Don’t follow what every running guru out there magazine is telling you. Whatever fuel like an athlete, burn fat efficiently, eat real food, train hard. Yeah, but then rest. Well this is how you get lean or get faster and become the strongest, most badass version of yourself.
Okay, and if you want help putting this into practice, if you’re ready to lose the fat for good and keep running strong, then I’ve got you. This is exactly what I do with my coaching clients. Every single day, we’re gonna dial in your nutrition, optimize your training, and build the habits that you need to stay consistent for life.
Just go to my website, runningleancoaching.com to learn more. You can apply for coaching. We’ll have a conversation, see if this is a good fit. Cool. All right. That’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on running lean and I will talk to you soon.
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I’ve received a lot of comments on my social media posts over the years basically saying that if you are a runner, you shouldn’t need help losing weight. Comments like, “If you want to lose weight, …
Continue Reading about 256. Why Runners Need Help Losing Weight →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 256 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners and today, Why Runners Need Help Losing Weight. So I’ve received a lot of comments on my social media posts over the years, basically saying that if you’re a runner, you shouldn’t need help losing weight.
Comments like, “if you want to lose weight, just run more” or “I lost all the extra weight I needed to when I did this couch to 5k training program.” Or, “if you’re a runner, you shouldn’t even need to lose weight.”
And the main thought behind all these types of comments is that if you run, you shouldn’t be overweight, and that running, in and of itself, is all you need to do in order to shed those extra pounds. These are nice ideas, but they just don’t hold up in reality. So today, in this episode, I’m going to address all the reasons why runners need help losing weight and why it doesn’t involve running more miles.
But first, if you’ve ever thought about coaching, if you can, if you’ve considered having someone like me help you with your weight loss journey, with improving your strength, your overall health and fitness, your running performance, then this is a great time to take action, because we are in the off season, and this is the time where you want to make changes.
We can get you started on the right track now, so that when your training starts in January, you’re going to be all set, you’re going to be stronger, you’re going to be leaner, you’re going to feel better, you will have changed your diet, and you’re going to be setting yourself up for success for a spring race.
Coaching gives you all kinds of things that you don’t really get on your own. So you get guidance, you get knowledge. You get direction. There’s a feedback process. The way I do my coaching is all about you getting results. If you’re getting results, awesome. We keep going. If you’re not getting results, if something isn’t working, we make a change somewhere, until we get things working. All right.
Coaching is all about support. Supporting you. It’s about accountability, holding you accountable. It’s about motivation, giving you the motivation that you need to keep going. It’s about encouragement, making sure that you’re, you know, praised for doing well, and sometimes I gotta dole out a little tough love here and there. But really, you don’t have to figure all this stuff out yourself.
Coaching gives you what you need to be successful, helps you to stay on track so that you can get your results much faster than doing it on your own. So if you’ve ever thought about coaching, now is a good time to have a conversation with me about it. Just go to my website, runningleancoaching.com, click on work with me, and I’ll show you exactly what you need to do to become the most badass version of yourself yet. So go to my website, running leancoaching.com, click on work with me. We’ll have a conversation. We’ll talk about coaching. I’ll answer all your questions. We’ll see if this is a good fit, and we’ll get you started right for the new year. Cool, awesome.
Okay, so this topic came to me recently because I have been seeing some comments on some of my social media posts about runners. The gist of it is this, runners shouldn’t need help losing weight. Runners should just run more, and that’s all you need to do in order to lose weight. And this is not just stuff that I see on social media.
These are comments that I hear from people in real life and around the web, and from, you know, other coaches who are running coaches and things like that. And the sentiment out there just seems to be that runners shouldn’t need help losing weight. They shouldn’t be overweight. If you’re running and you’re doing it right, then you shouldn’t be overweight. Like running is all you need to do.
And I think this is such a huge misconception for people that some people truly believe this first of all, and the other thing to understand is that this is not true for the vast majority of people out there. I’ve been involved in running for many, many years. I have run many, many, many races where there’s tens of thousands of people in these races, and I can tell you a lot of those people are not super skinny and lean.
You know, there are a lot of runners who are, you know, pretty lean, and those are the typically anyway, the faster runners. You’ll see a lot of leaner, faster runners who fit that sort of stereotype of what you would think of when you think of a runner, you know, see these like Olympic athletes, and you think that’s what runners should look like, you know, these marathoners or whatever.
The reality is, runners are all shapes and sizes. There’s all kinds of people who run marathons and half marathons and 10k and 5k or whatever. And lots of runners are overweight, and they struggle with their weight, and it’s like some sort of taboo that you’re not allowed to talk about it, or it’s like something that people just don’t want to acknowledge. You know, it’s like there’s something wrong with you if you’re a runner and you’re overweight, and I just want to say that this is a bunch of BS, and that everybody, regardless of what you do for exercise, everybody has not, I shouldn’t say everybody, most people struggle with their weight.
You know, at least here in the US, the vast majority of people in the US are somewhat overweight, and it’s okay. You know, there’s things we can do to help with that, but just understand that just because you’re a runner doesn’t mean you’re gonna fit that stereotypical look of an Olympic athlete that you see. You know, that’s probably the the rarity, the exception, not the norm.
The norm is just like everyday people, you know, and we’re all different shapes and sizes, and it’s okay, but if you’re somebody that is a runner, and you feel like, I don’t know, maybe you’re feeling like you’re talked down to, or you’re bullied or something like that online, or you feel misrepresented because most runners don’t look like me. You know, you have this mentality, most runners don’t look like me.
Just know that there’s lots and lots and lots of runners that don’t fit that typical stereotypical look. Okay, and so there’s a lot of runners out there that need help in this area. That’s why I do what I do. And the reason I started doing this.
The reason I started helping runners with their weight is because there are so many runners that I see and that I have experienced and that and I was one of them that struggled with their weight, and I just wanted to bring it out into the open and talk about it openly and say, hey, listen, if you need help, I’m here for you, and when I decided I was going to call myself the The Weight Loss Coach For Runners, that was really scary for me, because I’m putting myself out there and saying like, I’m addressing this issue that people don’t want to talk about.
I’m addressing this issue that is very important to me, that I’m very, very passionate about, that I’ve devoted my life to solving this problem for people, helping people to become their best selves, and if that means losing some weight and getting to a more ideal weight for them, that’s my goal in life. That’s what lights me up. That’s what fulfills me. T
his work that I do is incredibly important to me. I’m incredibly impassioned. You know, this is something that is fulfilling for me to help people to overcome these stereotypes and these struggles that they’ve had for a lot of times it’s their whole life. Like a lot of people have struggled with their weight for most of their life, and nobody has been able to really help them.
They may have started running because they wanted to lose weight and it didn’t work. Maybe they gained weight in the process. I can’t tell you how many people I talked to say, Oh yeah, Patrick, I started running because I thought I could lose weight that way, and I just started gaining more weight. Why is that? Well, there’s a lot of reasons why.
One of the reasons is that when you train more, when you exercise more, your body is burning a lot of energy, and your body is going to want to replace that energy. Your body is going to want to replace the calories that you’re burning when you’re exercising, you know. And so your hunger signals go up, your desire for food goes up. And if you’re eating a lot of sugar and high carbohydrate foods, which a lot of runners do, you know, runners are told they should just eat the all carbohydrate diet all the time.
When you’re eating a lot of that stuff, it messes up your hunger signals, and you’re just generally more hungry. And so when you combine being generally more hungry and a diet that’s mostly carbs, you’re going to be hungry for more carbs. That stuff just tends to keep the fat on your body, as opposed to a diet that helps burn the fat.
And then, you know, your exercise intensity goes up, you know your volume of training goes up, and so you’re more hungry, and this is a bad situation to be in, because you’re more hungry, you’re more hungry for carbohydrates. You’re already eating a ton of carbohydrates, and your body is just holding on to all of that extra energy, and no amount of running is going to really fix that.
Okay, so that’s that’s one thing to just sort of consider that a lot of people have this misconception that all you have to do is run more, just run more, and it’s going to fix everything. Well, not everybody, not everybody’s body works that way. I think the vast majority of us, our body doesn’t work that way. Some of us are more sensitive to carbohydrates, some of us are more sensitive to overeating, and we have to be careful, and we have to be more mindful about what we put in our body and how much we eat, and no amount of running is really going to fix that.
You know, my story is that when I was training for, what was I training for my 100 mile race and and then I was doing other ultra marathons. I did a summer where I did, like, four or five different ultra marathons and I did my 100. That was back in like 2017 and during that period, there was about a two year period there where I was doing all this training. I was running a ton, and I remember like a peak week for me when I was training for my 100 was like 85 miles for a week. And some people run more than that.
But for me, that was crazy, because normally my marathon training, you know, I’m like, at 40-45, miles a week, something like, that’s like half of that. So my running increased, like double what I was used to. And during that two year period, I gained like, 40 pounds. I gained a lot of weight because I was telling myself, and my brain was going like, hey, you’re running a lot, you’re training a lot, you’re running a lot of miles. You can just eat whatever you want.
And I did, you know, full pizzas, pints of Ben and Jerry’s all the time. Like I was just, I was going to town on all that stuff and and it caught up to me after some time, and the weight just started piling on.
And finally, I was like, I really have to do something about this. Like, this is getting crazy. I’d been pretty overweight, and then lost a lot of weight, and then, you know, started running more, and then started gaining the weight back again, and I didn’t go back to where I was before, you know, back in the early 2000s I was really overweight, smoked cigarettes, drank a lot of alcohol, just ate a crap diet, you know.
And I was super overweight and had a big like, pot belly kind of thing, like, I carried my weight in my belly, and I was just really unhealthy and really unhappy, and I had to make changes in my life. And once I started, you know, eating better, and I started exercising more and started running, the weight did come off, but I had to really be careful.
One of the big things I did was quit drinking alcohol. That made a huge difference, but I had to be careful about not slipping back into old habits, you know. And so the food was a really big thing for me. And once I changed my diet and stopped drinking, a lot of the weight started to come off, and I did get pretty lean, and I felt much better. And then, you know, started running more and all this other stuff. And I was okay for a while there, until things started to catch up to me again.
And this was like, in the 2016-2017 something like that. And so for me, it was like I really got to this place where I needed to make some big changes to my life and and I needed to really address the fact that all this running wasn’t working for me, and that I needed the help, and I needed the help figuring out what to eat so that I could continue running, you know, I was told, like, if you’re a runner, you need to eat all the carbs, you know.
So that meant donuts and pasta and pizza and ice cream, like, that was my diet, right there. That sounds amazing, right? It was amazing. I was like, I was in heaven. I was like, This is so great. But then it stopped, stopped working for me. It just started to catch up to me. And I was like, Okay, I can’t do this anymore. I’ve got to start eating better.
So I know a lot of other people that are listening to this right now, if you’re somebody listening to this, and you’re like, yes, Patrick, I can relate. That’s me as well, then please reach out to me and let’s just have a conversation. I can help you. I want to help you and and this is, like my life’s passion is to be able to help people that were in that position that I was in.
You know, this is why I do what I do, because I want to help end the struggle for other people, because I figured some stuff out. And really what helped me more than anything else was just having somebody show me the way. I had a coach, and, you know, I had some guidance and some direction and some feedback. And, you know, kind of took a personalized approach to this whole thing, and that’s what really worked for me. And so that is one of the main reasons why I do what I do.
But understand that if you’re a runner and you’re somebody that has struggled with your weight, you’re not really doing anything wrong. You know, it’s just you’ve been given bad advice. You know, you’ve been hearing from a lot of you know, normal sized runners who, honestly, they don’t have a problem with their metabolism. They don’t have a problem with carbohydrates. They can do whatever they want.
I know people that can eat whatever they want, and they never gain weight, and it just seems to be like they have some crazy metabolism. I always tell a story about this friend of mine who was the same age as me, and this guy was about 145 pounds, soaking wet. He was a skinny little guy, and this guy would out eat me and out drink me like he could eat more food than me and drink more alcohol than me and never gain weight. It was crazy.
So people like that do exist, and some of them are runners, and that’s awesome. If you’re one of those people, you’re probably not listening to this podcast, but if you’re one of those people, more power to you, like, keep doing what you’re doing. That’s awesome. I love that. But if you’re somebody that does struggle, then we got to start doing something differently, right?
Like, because what you’re doing is not going to work for you. Doing that like eating whatever you want is probably not going to work for you. And I talk about food so much because, listen, I’m going to say, like, 90% of the problem is going to be your diet. It’s not about exercising. You know, there’s things you should be doing from an exercise standpoint.
You want to be lifting weights, you want to get stronger, you want to improve your cardiovascular fitness. You know, running is a great form of exercise. I’m a big fan of running. I’m a big fan of getting stronger. But those things, in and of themselves, aren’t going to be the solution for you to burn the fat and lose the weight. It’s just not like you gotta fix the diet.
So, you know, one of the things that runners struggle with is changing anything really, but changing their diet is because they’re so ingrained with this one way of doing things. And if that’s you, and you’re shaking your head, yeah, I totally understand, then you’re not alone, because so many people struggle with that.
So many people struggle with, you know, being told all this advice about how they should be eating all the grains and all the sugar and all the carbs all the time, and it just doesn’t work for most people. And taking a different approach is kind of scary, because you’re like, well, this isn’t what normal people do.
Well, guess what? Most normal people are overweight. You know, most normal, quote, unquote, normal people are unhealthy. You know, there’s something like, you know, over 70% of the population here in the US. I’m, I don’t have this number in front of me. It’s probably higher. I know it’s higher than that. It’s like 78% or something like that, of the population is, like, overweight or obese, or, you know, has some sort of, you know, chronic metabolic illness, you know, some sort of chronic metabolic disease, you know, whether that’s like heart disease or type two diabetes or pre diabetes, or something like that.
So the norm, what’s normal is not being healthy, it’s not being fit, it’s not being lean. What’s normal is to be overweight and diseased. So to me, it’s a no brainer. It’s like, I don’t want to be normal. I don’t want to be one of the quote, unquote, normal people out there, you know, I want to be somebody that is fit and healthy and lives a good, long life with a lot of quality years in there. It’s not about how many years I live. It’s about the quality of life during those years that’s important to me.
You know, I want to be strong until the day I die. I want to be running till the day I die. I want to be able to lift weights and open up jars and, like, walk upstairs and do all these things when I’m like, 100 you know? I want to just be like, fit and healthy until the end, and whatever that is, and the only way I know how to do that is that I have to watch what I eat, and I have to exercise, and I gotta lift weights like I gotta, you know, improve my cardiovascular health, improve my strength, and stay at a lean body weight like those are the things that are important to me and that are going to facilitate a long quality of life for me as an individual.
And I’m going to say for you too, like these things are proven to help you not only live longer, but have those quality years. You know, the last 10 years of our life or so should be high quality years like that’s what we want for ourselves, and just running more is not the answer. We’ve got to get stronger. We got to, you know, be at a healthy body weight, and we have to have a good cardiovascular system. You know, we need good cardiovascular health. Health as well.
So improving your VO2 max, getting stronger, you know, being able to do all sorts of strength exercises, and then, you know, being at a healthy body weight, those are the things are going to help you to live longer and feel great as you get older. You know, one of the main issues that people have, and one of the main reasons why people die early is that they lose muscle as they get older.
So they lose a lot of their strength, they lose a lot of their cardiovascular fitness, and they become more sedentary, and then something happens, like they fall and break a hip or something like that, because they’re not strong. They don’t have the muscle mass to be able to even hold themselves up, and so they fall down. And once they become sedentary like that, like once you know something like that happens, and they’re bedridden for extended periods of time, then their quality of life goes down dramatically, and their death becomes much faster. It just becomes imminent, unfortunately.
So that’s the reality for a lot of people, and some data that I was just reading came out recently where they’re showing sarcopenia starting to happen. Muscle loss starting to happen in people, starting in their 30s. So people start losing muscle mass, beginning in their 30s, until whenever they die. Like that is not a good situation, so we need to reverse that.
And you can start today, get stronger, starting today, improve your strength, start lifting weights, improve your cardiovascular health, and then get to a healthy body weight. Those are the three things that you can do that are really going to improve your quality of life more than anything else. And if you’re a runner and you need some help losing weight, then get the help. Like, there’s, don’t, there’s no like taboo about this, you know what I mean?
And you know, don’t let these people that say like, oh, you should just run more like that doesn’t make any sense. It just doesn’t make any sense. There’s so many people that have tried that and it doesn’t work for them, and I’m one of them, and I talk to people every day who tell me this, like, oh, yeah, I started training, and I thought, you know, running, training for this marathon, was going to help me to lose weight, and it didn’t. I actually gained weight. And I’m like, Yeah, I get it.
I remember working with a guy who was on this running streak, and he ran at least a 5k every day, and he had done this for seven years. When I was working with him, he had been running a 5k every single day, never missed a day no matter what, for over seven years, and gained 50 pounds in the process. So that’s another just example of saying, like, this doesn’t really work. All this running just doesn’t work. So thinking that you know, if you’re if you’re a runner, you shouldn’t be overweight, that’s just stupid. Like, let’s stop thinking that. Okay.
And if you are a runner and you feel like you have some weight to lose, then don’t be ashamed of that. Just start doing the work. Change the diet. That’s number one. You got to change the diet. Keep running. Yeah, running is great for you, but it’s not going to help you to lose weight. So definitely change the diet and then start becoming that best version of yourself, that version of yourself that you ultimately know that you can become.
You know, we all have this idea of who we should be. We have this like vision inside of us, in our mind, of like who we want to be and what we should look like, and what we should how we should act, and you know, the things that we want to do in our lives, and a lot of times, what we’re presenting on the outside is not the same as this vision that we have of ourselves on the inside, and so what I want for you is I want that vision that you have on the inside to match what’s on the outside.
That means changing what you do and getting you to become the healthiest and most badass version of yourself from the inside out. Okay, that’s the work. That’s the work with just become the best version of yourself, okay? But this is something that we should all be striving towards, that we should all be moving towards every single day. We should be taking little, tiny actions that are moving us in that direction.
So think about that this week, what is that best version of you? And if it is somebody that is 20, 30, 40, 50, pounds lighter, then keep that vision in your mind, but then start doing what you need to do in your day to day actions to move you to that in the physical presence. Okay, that’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on Running Lean and I will talk to you soon. Bye.
If you want to lose weight and you’re finding it difficult - maybe you’ve hit a plateau and can’t seem to get the weight moving again - this episode is for you. Losing weight is never a linear …
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My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, sports nutritionist, Master life coach and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 248 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners, and today, How Do I Know If I’m Overeating? So if you want to lose weight and you’re finding it difficult, maybe you’ve hit a plateau and you can’t seem to get the weight moving again, then this episode is especially for you. Losing weight is never a linear process. There’s always going to be ups and downs and even stalls in your weight loss journey, and all of this is perfectly normal, but if you’re really struggling to get the weight moving in the right direction again, you might want to consider whether or not you are eating too much.
So in this episode, I’m going to answer that question, how do I know if I’m overeating, and offer some practical tips to help you stop overeating, if you are and if you’re somebody who’s struggling with losing weight, you’re a runner. You’re training for a 5k or a 10k or a half marathon or a marathon or ultra marathon, or maybe you’re just someone who loves running, and you don’t have any races scheduled or anything like that, perfectly fine. You would probably benefit from some coaching. Overeating, losing weight, running, all of these things can be complicated.
When we start thinking about them, we start breaking them all down, and today, I’m going to be going over a lot about what overeating looks like and how we can overcome that, but some people just need a little bit more help. They need a little bit more hand holding through this process. They need a little bit more guidance, a little more direction, a little more accountability. And if that sounds like you, then you might be somebody who could benefit from coaching. Coaching is just having somebody who’s got your back, who’s there to help you, to guide you through this process, who’s done it all before, who’s made the mistakes, who can help you not make mistakes, and who can help you to get to your weight loss goals faster and easier than you can do on your own. I know this because I struggled for years trying to lose weight and learn how to eat properly. And once I got a coach, it really changed everything for me. It was the game changer for me. It might be the game changer for you, too. And if you want to learn more, you can go to my website, runningleancoach.com, click on work with me. You and I have a conversation. We can talk about coaching. We’ll see if this is a good fit for you, but I want to be there to help you to become that best version of yourself. So if you’re ready to become that most badass version of yourself, then maybe consider coaching. You can’t hurt to have that conversation with me. It’s completely free. It’s runningleancoaching.com and then click on work with me. Cool.
Okay, so today we’re going to be talking about, how do I know if I’m overeating, and a few episodes back, don’t have my notes in front of me, but I talked about, you know, why calorie counting doesn’t work and and we talked pretty extensively about that, and that would be a good one to kind of dovetail into this episode, because in this episode, I really want to talk about what it means to be somebody that overeats. And the reason I want to talk about this is because I have always been a chronic overeater, and I don’t know where or when this started for me. I have a feeling it’s because I grew up in a family of five kids. You know, there was two parents, so there were seven of us at the dinner table every night. And you know, my mom made, my mom was an amazing cook, by the way, she was, she just showed love by cooking and so I grew up eating amazing food, but there was only so much to go around, you know, and you had to fight for your portion.
And then after I got a little bit older, and I started living on my own and stuff, I realized that I didn’t have to fight anybody for food, and I could just eat as much as I want. And I think there was something implanted in me at a very early age that was this, like, scarcity mindset or something around food. It doesn’t really matter. I’m just saying that. I don’t really know where this comes from, and it’s a little bit different for each person. We all get different cues as we’re growing up.
We get different messages implanted in us, from parents, from authority figures, from siblings, whatever. And some of us really struggle with eating too much or chronically overeating. And that was definitely me. I was definitely somebody who had to eat a lot. And to this day, I can still eat a lot, and one of the reasons why trying to control the amount of calories I was eating didn’t work for me is because I felt like when I was counting calories and tracking on my food and app and stuff like that, I felt like I was starving all the time. I was miserable because I was hungry all the time. I wasn’t eating to that uncomfortable fullness that I got accustomed to. And if this sounds like you, if you’re accustomed to eating to a place where you feel a little uncomfortable, you’re like, oh yeah, I’m full. I really can’t eat anymore. That’s probably a sign that you might be eating too much. You just might be overeating.
Okay, so going back to this traditional thinking that in order to lose weight, you have to count your calories, and you have to be in a calorie deficit, I don’t think that is really necessary. I don’t think it’s required to count calories, measure your food, track all your food in an app. I think we can be very intuitive about how much food we’re eating, and that’s a big part of what I want to talk about today is, how do we get in touch with those natural signals that our body tells us when we’re eating the right amount, but not beyond that.
So we don’t want to be in a calorie deficit all the time. We don’t want to be in a calorie surplus all the time. And there are different things that affect us, from a hunger standpoint, especially, and a fullness standpoint. And there’s really two parts to what I’m talking about today. There’s a physical aspect of what I’m going to be calling overeating, and then there’s a physical, I’m sorry, there’s a mental or emotional aspect of overeating. So the physical aspect of overeating a lot of times, the physical overeating is caused by the types of foods that you are consuming and when you are eating the right kinds of food, your body operates much differently than when you’re eating, for example, highly processed, hyper palatable, ultra processed, high sugar laden foods, those kinds of foods mess with your system.
Hyper palatable foods mean foods that have been engineered to be extremely desirable, addictive, even I will go as far as to say that those kinds of foods mess up your hunger signals. They make you feel much more hungry than you actually are, so they increase the production of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and you end up feeling hungry all the time. And even though you’re eating more ultra processed foods, you just can’t seem to get enough, because it’s so amazing. They’re so good, they’re so addictive. And you just, the more you eat of that stuff, the more you crave that stuff, and the more you eat, the more you eat. Bad cycle to be in.
So the ultra processed foods, the hyper palatable foods, will definitely mess up your hunger signals. They’re going to make you more hungry. You’re naturally going to eat more food when you are eating ultra processed, hyper palatable foods. The other hormone that gets affected profoundly by these types of foods is leptin. Leptin is the fullness sensor, the fullness hormone. So when you eat some food, let’s say you eat a bunch of chicken. You can only eat so much chicken and your and leptin is going to go, guess what? You’re done eating, and you stop eating because you’re like, I cannot eat anymore of this chicken as an experiment. Try this sometime. Just sit down to eat some chicken breasts. See if you can eat, like, a pound of chicken breasts. I’m going to tell you right now, it’s going to be very difficult to do, because I’ve tried it and I can’t do it, it’s very hard to do, but if you put three pounds of pasta in front of me, heck yeah, I can eat that and all the bread that goes with it.
So eating ultra processed, hyper palatable foods will not only increase ghrelin production and make you more hungry, it suppresses leptin production so you don’t feel full when you’re eating these foods. So this is a bad combination, right? So these, these two things alone, are enough to make you pause, I hope anyway, and think about the types of foods that you’re eating. How they affect you. So again, we’re not just talking about calories. It isn’t about the number of calories. It’s about the types of foods that you’re eating, which affect you profoundly. So those ultra processed foods, those hyper palatable foods, are a big problem, and they really cause you to overeat.
One of the biggest physical causes of eating too much food, overeating is eating the wrong types of foods. And something I just heard today, which is very fascinating, is that ultra processed foods, these things are not good for you, and I think we all understand that, but each additional serving of ultra processed foods increases early mortality by 18%. 18% more likely to die early with each additional serving of ultra processed foods, this is crazy. The crazier part, though, is that 67% of the foods that kids are eating today are considered Ultra processed foods. 67% of the foods that our kids are eating today are considered Ultra processed foods. This is crazy.
One more quick little stat I’m going to share with you is that 82% of independently funded studies. So when they do Food Studies, these are, like independent researchers doing these studies, 82% of these independently funded studies show that ultra processed foods are harmful to us, while 93% of studies that are funded by the food industry show that ultra processed foods are not harmful for us. This is a big red flag right there. So if you’re, if you’re looking to, you know, the big food companies to help you make a decision about what kinds of foods you’re eating, probably a bad idea. Just going to throw that out there. Much better to just stick with eating real food, food that still looks like food. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store, stay away from all the packaged, processed, hyper palatable foods, that kind of stuff.
Okay, so going back to the physical aspect of overeating. So another thing to consider is that a lot of us, and I’m including myself in this. A lot of us have trained ourselves, over decades of eating to that uncomfortable state. You know, you eat and then you’re full, but then you eat a little bit more, and then you’re, like, really full, like that, that uncomfortable state. Years of training yourself to do this means that when you sit down and you eat a normal food, a normal amount of food, you have to keep eating until you get to that uncomfortable state, because that’s what you’re used to. That’s what feels good for you.
And there are some chemicals that get produced when we eat like that, and we get to that, you know, have you heard the term like, food coma? Yeah, it’s like, you get into that food coma, where you’re like, oh, I just can’t eat anymore, but it feels kind of good. You know, there’s like, dopamine, and there’s different chemicals, neurotransmitters that are being released in your brain that actually make you feel good when you overeat, like that. And if you’re used to that feeling when you eat, that’s what you’re going for.
It’s kind of like the person that drinks to get drunk, you know, they drink because they want the feeling of getting super buzzed, you know, whereas some people can have a half a glass of wine and they’re fine. So if you’re one of these people that has trained yourself over decades to eat until you feel uncomfortable, then that might be something you’re going to have to undo, because you just learn. It’s a learned behavior. You’ve learned it over decades. You can unlearn that. We’ll talk a little bit more about that in a second.
A comedian that I love, Jim Gaffigan said once, he said, I have a problem with overeating. He said, I don’t stop eating when I’m full. I stop eating when I hate myself, and it’s kind of funny. It’s kind of sad in a way, but it’s said in jest, obviously, but I think it’s, it’s very telling of how we treat ourselves, when we eat food, how we want to get to this place where we feel miserable, but that’s like the goal for a lot of people. And so for me, I always wanted to get to this place where I felt slightly uncomfortable, and then I’m like, uh, okay, yeah, I think I’m done now, you know, so that is something that we need to address. We need to address the overeating issue.
So how do we do this? How do we just stop if I just tell you to stop overeating. Just stop eating too much food. You’re gonna be like, dude, that it’s hard to do right? One little philosophy that I love is this Japanese philosophy called Hara Hachi Bu and I may be mispronouncing that, but what it means is stop eating when you’re 80% full is a very simple concept, and there’s a lot of very healthy Japanese people. They consider this one of the Blue Zones, I guess. I don’t know, but, you know, people in Japan are generally pretty, pretty fit. They don’t have the kind of obesity numbers that we have here in the United States and other Western you know, considered like Western cultures. So if you can start to be more mindful about what you’re eating and how much you’re eating, and stop when you feel about 80% full, this can go a long way to help you to not get into that overeating place.
Now, one thing that’s going to be challenging is that you’re used to eating until you’re uncomfortable. You’re used to eating until you get to that food coma state, or whatever it is for you, and that’s going to be difficult. And this is where we start to get into the mental and emotional side of overeating. So we’ve talked about the physical side. You know, the types of foods you’re eating. You know why you eat too much, why you tend to overeat. There’s pleasure involved with that. There’s also the mental and emotional side of this. So you’ve kind of trained yourself that you want to feel a certain way. You know you want to, you want to get to this mental and emotional state where you feel satiated, you know, where you feel like, probably overly satiated. I’ll say it that way, because just feeling satiated is a good thing. That’s like that 80% so that’s like feeling satiated when you go beyond that, that’s when we start getting into overeating. And remember, this is all of the stuff I’m talking about is just for you to start thinking about. I want you to be just thinking about this stuff.
If you’re somebody who’s trying to lose weight and you’ve hit some kind of stall, you’ve hit some sort of plateau, the weight loss is not moving for you. You’re doing all the right things, you’re eating all the right foods, you’re exercising, you’re lifting weights, you’re feeling you’re doing all the good things, but it’s just the weight is just not moving for you. Consider whether or not you are overeating, and look at the types of foods you’re eating, look at how much you’re eating, look at, you know, eating to a place where you feel naturally good, and when you feel naturally good, that’s a good time to stop like that’s when we feel satiated. We don’t want to go beyond that, and that could be about 80% or so.
So then we’ve got the mental, emotional side, and that’s where you know we are eating because we’re bored or stressed or angry or nervous, or whatever, fill in the blank, whatever that emotion is that is causing you to go eat mindlessly. So this is a lot of snacking. Snacking is just one of those things that you don’t need to be snacking. We’re snacking because we’re bored, we’re snacking because we’re lonely, we’re snacking because we’re stressed out. I can’t tell you how many people I talk to are like, I don’t really need food, like I’m just I’m not even hungry, but I need that bowl of chips or, you know, M&M’s, or pretzels or something at my desk all day while I’m working, just so I have something to munch on. That is what I would call emotional eating, because you’re eating not because of hunger, not because your body needs fuel, you’re eating because you’re bored or you’re nervous, you know, or you’ve got some anxiety or something like that, whatever that emotion is for you.
Also, we just train ourselves to do this that we have to be eating constantly. So one thing that you want to be mindful of is, what am I eating? Why am I eating this? You know, not just what am I eating, but why am I eating in this moment, you can ask yourself those questions like, what do I really need this right now? Or am I just like, bored or stressed out? Or is this just a habit?
Because those automatic eating behaviors really need to stop. If you want to lose weight, then you need to really start getting in touch with what your body actually needs. What does that nutrition look like for your body? What does my body need in this moment, and stop the mindless, automatic eating behaviors. Once you do that, I guarantee you the weight will start moving again. Most diets do not ever address this, though, but if you want to lose weight, you’re going to have to address the mental and emotional sides of eating.
And we all do this. There’s nothing wrong with you if you do this, if you know, I do some emotional eating sometimes, we all do at times. Now I have learned that. That I don’t snack anymore. I’m not just walking around. I don’t have snack food in my house anymore, you know, I just don’t have anything here that is going to be something that I need to, like, munch on. I do have some. I keep some salami and some cheese in the fridge. And occasionally, while I’m making dinner, if I’m exceptionally hungry in that moment, I’ll slice off a little bit salami, some cheese or something like that, and eat that as sort of like an appetizer while I’m, you know, cooking dinner.
But for the most part, yeah, I don’t, I don’t do snacks, and I’ve just trained myself that I can be uncomfortable and I don’t have to eat because of it. You know, I could just be uncomfortable. Sometimes I get bored, sometimes I get stressed out and I’ll just be bored and I just be stressed out. It’s okay to feel that way.
One thing that’s important though, I want to just talk about how we evolved as human beings over 10s of 1000s, hundreds of 1000s of years, and we never counted calories. And you know, we lived beautiful lives. We ate because we needed the nutrition for our body. We ate because, you know, we wanted to survive. We needed to not die. So we needed food to eat in order to not die. It was a survival thing for us as human beings. For hundreds of 1000s of years, and now we eat because we just want to feel good. We eat Ultra processed foods, hyper palatable foods, because it feels good to do so, and then we eat all the time. So why don’t we just sort of start sliding back into our caveman roots, if you will, and start eating because our body needs the nutrition and we don’t want to die.
So the bottom line here today, if you’ve hit some sort of a stall or some sort of a plateau in your weight loss journey, you’re doing all the right things, you’re eating the right foods, but you’re not losing weight like just consider that you might be overeating. You don’t need to count calories, you don’t need to weigh all your food. You don’t need to enter everything into an app. But just start being more mindful about how much you’re eating.
Try that Hara Hachi Bu method of just eating until you’re about 80% full, and see how that feels for you. You want to get to this place where you’re eating more intuitively. You’re naturally eating the right amount of food for you, not too much, not too little, just the right amount you want to eat until you feel about 80% full, satiated. Not until you’re uncomfortable, not until you hate yourself, just until you’re satiated. Okay?
And then look into that emotional eating side of things too. Because I think a lot of people who set out to lose weight, they address the types of foods they’re eating or the calories, but they’re not looking into that emotional side of things. And that’s a very, very important part of all of this. And just a lot of diets out there, a lot of programs do not address this at all. So it’s something you really have to address if you want to lose weight.
And just notice, like, when you’re about to eat something, ask yourself, Why am I choosing this right now? Like, do I really need this, or am I just stressed or bored, or whatever? And remember, as human beings, we’ve managed all of this beautifully. We did really well listening to our bodies and being in tune with our body’s natural hunger and fullness signals. What, when do we need to eat? When should we not be eating?
We did this beautifully for hundreds of 1000s of years. We can do it again. You can do it again. You got this.
Okay, that’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on Running Lean. I will talk to you soon.
