Ep 45: Healthy Eating versus Eating to Lose Weight…They’re Different!
Oct 19, 2023
Hilary Downey
"I'm eating healthier but I'm NOT losing weight!" We hear this a lot. I KNOW it's frustrating to be changing your diet and your habits and still not seeing results. Let's get this obstacle out of your way NOW!
If you're ready to lose weight and transform your life, apply for Elite Coaching today. Here you'll have guidance, accountability, and unwavering support throughout your weight loss journey. Our coaching program is designed to empower you with the knowledge and tools to create a balanced diet and achieve sustainable weight loss. Say goodbye to yo-yo diets and hello to a healthier, happier you!
By joining our transformative coaching program, you'll gain access to me as your personal coach, ready to help you navigate any challenges and celebrate your victories. Together, we'll unlock the tools to shedding those extra pounds and keeping them off forever.
Don't wait any longer to take control of the body and life YOU DESERVE. Remember, you deserve to feel amazing in your own skin. Let's make it happen together!
"I'm eating healthier but I'm NOT losing weight!" We hear this a lot. I KNOW it's frustrating to be changing your diet and your habits and still not seeing results. Let's get this obstacle out of your way NOW!
If you're ready to lose weight and transform your life, apply for Elite Coaching today. Here you'll have guidance, accountability, and unwavering support throughout your weight loss journey. Our coaching program is designed to empower you with the knowledge and tools to create a balanced diet and achieve sustainable weight loss. Say goodbye to yo-yo diets and hello to a healthier, happier you!
By joining our transformative coaching program, you'll gain access to me as your personal coach, ready to help you navigate any challenges and celebrate your victories. Together, we'll unlock the tools to shedding those extra pounds and keeping them off forever.
Don't wait any longer to take control of the body and life YOU DESERVE. Remember, you deserve to feel amazing in your own skin. Let's make it happen together!
How's it going? You guys. Okay. Today, we're going to talk about. A very common. Misconception or rather misunderstanding. That I see happen with women that are ready to lose weight and transform their body. And this comes up quite a bit because I get a ton of DMS every single day. And I'll hear from you ladies. Um, in the DMS like Hillary, I'm eating healthier, I'm working out like what gives I'm not losing any weight. And then also we see this in our applications for elite coaching. Whenever somebody is applying to join our transformative. Coaching program for women that have 20 pounds or more to lose. We ask, you know, what are your struggles? And what's holding you back from feeling good in your body and losing weight. And. We see this a lot. And it's like, I'm eating healthy. I've like stopped eating out as much. I've stopped eating as much fast food. I'm buying more fruits and veggies. Like I'm eating all of these super foods and health foods. And I am not. Budging on the scale. And in fact, we will sometimes hear I'm gaining weight. What gives what's going on? I don't quite understand. Let's get into this, let's dive into this so that we can remove this obstacle out of the way for you so that you can start losing weight. Okay. So the title does not just suggest it tells you the answer to this. Very common. Obstacles. So I'm not going to have a big buildup and, and, you know, give you like a good one. Two punch at the end here is the facts. And before I get into the facts, I want to say something because. Oh, my gosh, I can't even count how many times I've made a post about this on social media and it'll get in the algorithm and somebody who doesn't know me at all. Um, and just sees my post and takes it, you know, without. Without reading into the caption, which happens all the time. That's so weird to me. I can't imagine taking the energy to comment on something. And like give this long rant or opinion or like tear somebody down or whatever I'm taking all that energy, but you didn't spend like, even an ounce of that energy to actually like read what the post said. Anyways. Okay. So I, I will have somebody come across my page that sees me talk about this, um, idea that healthy eating and eating for weight loss are two different things. And there'll be like, I cannot believe you, you know, It's all about weight loss and. You know, and you're promoting, eating unhealthy and. Trying to get people to not eat healthy foods. And that's how I know that they obviously know nothing about me or my philosophy or framework at all. Um, and also I think a big part of this is because we teach a macro counting framework, which if, you know, then, you know, our framework is so different than regular macro counting. We simplify it, we remove the overwhelm, um, and we make it easy and also sustainable. Um, but part of this whole, like back in the day, especially like if it fits. Fits your macros. There was this like idea that macro counting was the junk food diet. And that is because you will see people abuse this diet and, you know, show that they can eat Twinkies and big Macs and still lose weight. Right. And. Whatever, I'm not even going to get into that, obviously from a scientific standpoint, like they are eating. Like enough calories to be losing weight. But if we look at their actual health, like how good, how good are we doing? You know, vitamins and minerals and all that, it really matters. But. I digress. My point is this people have come at me before, when I shared this information, which is facts and science that they're angry, that they think that I am not promoting a healthful way of living or that I'm saying that a healthy diet does not matter. Guys. I have a bachelor's of science in nutritional sciences. Okay. Um, I had to take many classes. One how food and nutrition impacts your health, your body. All of these things, medical nutrition therapy, you know, Um, nutrition for the life cycle, meaning literally from conception birth, like onto, you know, the end of your life, like all through the life cycle. Um, metabolism, sports, nutrition, I mean, I could list out all the classes, but I have a very, very full understanding of how important a healthy diet is. I also have a psychology degree and, uh, that's a behavioral health degree, right. I 100% believe that a healthy lifestyle. Is everything it's. Everything. It is more important than weight loss. Okay. So I'm declaring that statement right now. However weight loss is a specific niche. Okay. And here is, here's what I'm trying to say. Just because you have a healthy diet. Does not mean that you will lose weight. And the women that come to me and what I specialize in as a fat loss coach is helping women lose weight. Now. An important part of my philosophy and my framework is. Teaching women how to have a balanced diet. So I don't subscribe to the, if it fits your macros, fill up your day with junk food. As long as you hit your protein goal. Who cares? You can eat whatever right. Or stay in your calories. You can eat whatever. Absolutely not. We teach our framework, which is focused on calories. First, step one. Prioritize your protein. Step two. And step three is learning to balance your fats and carbs. And if you've ever done our program, if you did a challenge, when we did challenges or, you know, you've been a coaching client, or you've used our resources, then you know that in step three, We teach you all about nutrition for a healthy lifestyle. We talk about fruits. We talk about vegetables. We talk about grains, whole grains fiber. We learn about healthy fats and treat fats. All that good stuff in step three of our framework. Because a healthy diet is absolutely going to enhance your life, your quality of life, how long you live, right. How well you keep yourself free of disease and illness. And how you just feel in your body. It's really important. And having a nutritious diet, that's got lots of vitamins and minerals and fiber and color and nutrients and allows you to feel your best is important. However, if you are trying to lose weight, One of the most common mistakes is that you can miss the forest for the trees. Am I butchering that? I swear. I always get that wrong. Whatever you guys. What I'm trying to say is that it's really easy to get hyper-focused on a healthy diet and eating healthy foods and no processed foods and no this and no that and no, no, no, no, no restriction restriction. And miss the most important foundational parts of fat loss, which that is what our framework is all about. The foundation. Uh, fat loss. This is what we teach. If you want to lose weight, and that is your goal specifically. There is a foundation to fat loss and it's not healthy eating. I'm sorry, like for the, for the haters that are like, I don't like when you say that it's like you're promoting a non-helpful diet. It's not. The framework for fat loss is not a healthy diet. Now is a healthy diet important. And will it enhance your results? Yes, that is why we focus on that. And step three of our framework. One of our biggest things inside of our coaching, we have something that we call tweaking. You know, we're going to tweak your diet. We're going to really just fine tune what you're eating in order to get fabulous results. And I actually, I was doing a food log review. Today, we do these for our elite coaching clients, where I'll review your food blogs and give you feedback on things that you can do differently. Things that you can add in, in order to enhance your weight loss results. And guess what? Most of the time it is really moving towards more nutritious foods. In your diet. There are other things that we can, can focus on and change, but like nine times out of 10, that's what we're looking at. Okay. So a nutritious diet is very important. However, it is not a requirement to have a nutritious diet in order to lose weight. And what is so important here is that we make sure that we are focusing our energy on what is most important. So think about it. Think about it this way. Right? In any case, whenever you are, let's think about this as like Ikea furniture. I'm pulling off the top of my head today, by the way, I didn't script this one. So let's think about Ikea furniture, right? Like, could you really put together the Ikea furniture without like the step-by-step process? I mean, I will. Tell you. I'm the worst. And I will literally pay somebody to put together any kind of furniture for me because I am so impatient. And I just want to skip steps. I can't do Legos with the boys. Like no. Don't even bring them to my house. Don't do not gift them. Like I cannot, I'm not, I'm not great with the step-by-step. So I resonate a lot with women that struggle with this concept of, we got to take it step by step and focus on what's most important. But if you think about this as you know, And Ikea furniture set. If you're trying to jump to page four of the directions and you haven't even made it through page one, two, and three. You're gonna feel kind of lost or you're never going to get it put together, whatever it is. Okay, well, your weight loss is the same. There is a framework and a foundation. That matters scientifically. For fat loss. And if you were just focused on page four, Which is maybe in your mind, like eating healthy, I'm eating more avocados. I'm eating more. You know, whole grain bread, I'm eating more fruits or more veggies. I'm eating, you know, out less, less fast food and less Coca-Cola and all this, if, if you're on that, but you haven't focused on page one, two and three of the framework. You might not see results. In fact, if you aren't seeing results and you're, you're like, I struggle with this. Um, I'm eating healthy, but I'm not losing weight. Then, what that tells me is that you have skipped. Pages one through three. So. Here's what I want you to know. And what I want you to take away from this short episode today. Healthy eating is amazing. And it's so important again, I'm not going to keep saying it, but it's absolutely crucial that you create a well rounded, balanced diet. But what is extremely important to understand and to grasp is that you've got to make sure that you focus on the foundational pieces of fat loss. If you have weight loss goals. So. What are those foundational pieces? Uh, in order to lose weight, you have to be in a calorie deficit. Okay. So you can listen to past episodes. There's an episode where I actually talk about like macro common macro terms and definitions. And if you hear the word calorie deficit, you see it on the internet and you hear it thrown around. You've been listening to the podcast, but you like are like, I don't really. I don't fully understand what that means. Go back and listen to that podcast episode where I define the common macro term so that you can fully understand it. But. Just know that you need to be in a calorie deficit in order to lose weight. And that means that you are taking in less calories than your body burns consistently. I always, if you ever hear me give the definition. Most people stop at, uh, burning less calories or taking in less calories and your body burns. I take it one step further. And I say consistently, because it's really easy to be like I'm in a calorie deficit, I ate less calories, you know? Monday through Thursday and then Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we're going over the calories like. That's not gonna work. You got to do it consistently. It has to happen consistently over time does not mean it has to be perfect. Seven out of seven, like, but it's, it's gotta be more than four days a week. Right? So consistently and consistently overtime, can't just do it for two weeks, three weeks, even four weeks, and expect to be at your goal. So. You got to be in a calorie deficit. This is step one. This is page one of the book, right? Got to be in a calorie deficit. If you want to lose weight. The reason that so many women. End up struggling with. I'm eating healthier, but I'm not seeing results. Is that. In our mind, we are, we, we believe on some level, whether it's because we've logged food before, usually that's not the case. And that's why there's not as much of an understanding around these things. But. You know, you've logged free before, so you, you know, that fast food is a ton of calories, right? But what you don't. Understand is that healthy food can still, still. Be pretty dang calorie dense. So, for example, I've seen this with, um, uh, breakfast. I did the comparison on this. One time for a presentation of a breakfast. And it was, you know, they were swapping out there like typical McDonald's breakfast with their hash brown and they're like egg McMuffin or whatever it was. And they swapped it for like a more healthful, like breakfast place. And so it was a like breakfast panini or wrap or something. And it had like avocado and egg. And, um, I even think it had like Turkey bacon and it was like on this whole green. Bread or rap or whatever, and then a smoothie. They got a smoothie. And, um, in their mind, they had made a swap, a healthier swap. In reality. That healthy or swap actually added calories. Maybe it was more filling. Maybe more nutrient dense, right. But at the same time, it had more calories. Smoothies guys, man, like not always, but specially out to eat, you know, restaurants and places that can be a calorie bomb. They can be full of sugar. Okay. I love tropical smoothie, but just check out the tropical smoothie, you know, nutrition facts, right. You know, avocado great, like so important, such a good, healthy fat, and does have some fiber and great eggs are great, but fat and calories. And so in your mind, it's like I'm making the swap, I'm doing better. And this is where you can just end up feeling so defeated and frustrated. It's like I'm doing all the things and I'm. I'm doing better. But really you added calories or the calories are the same. And in this case, when I was comparing it to the egg McMuffin and the hash brown, she was consuming 300 more calories. This also happens when you swap, you know, your sandwich or whatever for lunch, for a salad. You know, you start adding dressing and, you know, nuts and seeds and toppings. And you know, if the protein choice even salmon is higher fat and higher calorie. And so the point that I want to make is yes, nutrients are important. Yes. A salad is incredible. It's fresh and it makes you feel good. And. And it helps you, you know, get those important vitamins and minerals and all of that's important, but what's important for weight loss. Is to make sure that you are not over consuming calories. How to babe reach out to me recently, she was applying to find out more information about our coaching and she was talking about how she swapped her breakfast for a healthier option. I think she was eating like peanut butter toast or peanut butter, apple, and an apple slices. And she looked at it and she started logging it after she'd been listening to the podcast and watching some of my stories and she. We were voiced noting in the DMS. And she was like, I saw the P the amount of calories in the peanut butter and like, my jaw dropped. She would have sworn, she said I would have sworn I was doing so much better. I was eating so much better. She was eating like 400 calories more. Again, page one. Of the book. The foundation for weight loss is not. Consuming more calories than your body is burning. If you want to lose weight, you have to be in a calorie deficit. You've got to be eating less calories than your body is burning. And a lot of the healthy and nutritious foods that we deem as superfoods and, and all of this. Our calorie dense, all avocados, nuts, seeds, oils, I mean, fruits even have sugar and more calories. And that doesn't mean that these things should be avoided. Again, step three, in our framework balance these carbs and fats learn. How to include these foods into your day, because yeah, those foods aren't going to be more filling, more satiating. Than a breakfast sandwich with no fiber and high in fat and is not going to fulfill you and sustain you through your morning. But we cannot miss the most important piece of the puzzle, the absolute foundation that we've got to be managing our calories and staying in our calorie budget. So, if you are somebody who's been eating healthy. But you aren't seeing weight loss results and you've been resisting. Logging your food because you really just want, you really just wanted to be able to make some swaps. Like I'm just going to swap some of our groceries and swap some of these things. And. And we'll be able to lose weight and it'll be fine, but you're not seeing those results and you haven't logged the things that you're eating. I want to invite you. To step one of our framework. Which is to log your food and, and get a handle and awareness around your calorie intake. This is. The most important part. Of their framework and there are other steps, like I said, protein and all that, but that's for another day. I want to invite you to do that. And I want you to DM me. Like, what did you learn about your calorie intake are the foods that you've been consuming that are helpful or that you've viewed as, you know, Quote unquote healthy and that are nutritious. Do they have more calories than you thought? I mean way the avocado way the peanut butter get, get an idea of how many calories you're actually consuming oil. Seriously, portionate out like. Log it in and get an idea, truly have the accuracy and awareness for how many calories you're consuming, because here's the thing I want you to have. All of the success in the world. I want you to reach your weight loss goals. I want you to feel absolutely amazing and confident in your body. And I want to get this obstacle out of your way. Fast let's stop, like dwelling on this one. Let's rip this bandaid off and let's log our food and let's see. Are we consuming more calories than we realize. And once we've got a handle on, on the calorie intake and we're looking at that, we can, we can figure out how to incorporate and include imbalance these things out so that we're eating. The healthy, nutritious diet. But we're also making sure that we are staying in our calorie budget so that we can actually lose the weight. All right. You guys. Shoot me a DM after you've done it. Your little homework assignment. If this is you, and this is speaking to you, shoot me a DM. At balanced by Hillary on Instagram. Let me know. And if you're ready, like, if you're like, I know that I'm over again, zooming too many galleries, or I know that I don't know the first thing about this whole logging and macro counting business and I'm ready to learn and I'm ready to have the transformation that I deserve to have. If you are a woman who has 20 or more pounds to lose, I want to invite you to apply for our elite coaching program. We are. Absolutely so excited right now we are filling up holy cow. Like these ladies are like not letting the idea of I'll wait for the new year, hold them back. I'm so excited for how many we've enrolled and are getting ready to, um, kickstart their journey with us inside of elite coaching. It is so incredible to take the pressure off of trying to figure it out on your own. And have a simple framework to follow. That takes you. Step-by-step. Like we don't do the overwhelmed thing. We really do take you a small step by small step. But what you'll be surprised is when you're actually focused on the framework and the foundation of what actually works for VAT laws, not only is it simple, It's enjoyable and you start seeing results. Faster. I love it. So if that's you, you wanted to, um, explore elite coaching. I will drop the application in the show notes, go ahead and apply. I'll shoot you a message when you apply and we'll chat about it. We'll see if it's a good fit for you. I would absolutely love to walk beside you and coach you on your weight loss journey. And let's not waste any more time. Like let's stop trying to figure it out and eat healthy foods and put all the pieces together ourselves. Let me do the dirty work and you just show up and follow the plan. So excited you guys for, uh, wrapping up the end of this year. We've got some fun podcast episodes coming and, uh, that's it for today. I will see you guys in the next one. Bye.