The Easy to Follow Fat Burning Diet Plan
Here’s an easy plan to follow a diet that can help you burn fat.
As you get deeper into your diet, you most likely start to see weight loss. You can continue to lose by using this simple diet plan.
Simple enough: Reduce your carbohydrate and fat sources only. Protein remains the same.
Keep It Simple.
Look at a plate of food and picture it like a clock. Here's an illustration of how I want you to envision the plate. Going clockwise, you’ll eat in the order of the clock. By the time it comes to the final part of the plate, you're less prone to finish all the food on the plate. It's planned caloric reduction.
Your first part of the meal is to have a major part of the clock dedicated to eating protein. Some examples are eggs, fish, soy, steak, beef, chicken, and chicken thighs.
The second-largest part of the diet is your fiber-loaded vegetables (or fruit). Some examples are broccoli, spinach, string beans, and kale, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, etc.
The last part of the meal is the starchy carbohydrates. These can be potatoes, yams, bread, rice, quinoa, etc.
Easy enough? Remember that protein, carbohydrates, and fats are all categorized as macronutrients. Macronutrients play a major part in your fat loss goal, your job, or your competition goal.
Here’s the what and why of what’s on the plate:
WHY DO WE NEED PROTEIN?
The majority of your “macronutrient plate” should be protein. Protein has many uses. It repairs and rebuilds bones, blood, muscle, and skin tissue. It helps creates chemicals, enzymes, and hormones to build muscle. It essential in survival. I prefer sources of protein that have a natural source of fat. Just be aware that you should have a marbled fat steak. Use common sense and trim some fat off the meat. We can also choose to cook with some healthy fats to flavor and add essential fats.
Shoot for 0.8 to 1g x bodyweight or 45-50% of your calories to be in the form of protein. If you desire more, make the trade off with less starchy carbohydrates.
WHY DO WE NEED CARBOHYDRATES?
I am an advocate for carbohydrates. Especially if you have a labor-intense job or are a performance-based athlete or both. I know keto dieting (very low carb) is popular right now. I don’t doubt that ketogenic dieting is effective, especially for physique athletes. But a life without carbohydrates isn’t sustainable. Carbohydrates have a lot of flexibility in a diet. It helps with energy expenditure. It fuels your workout and tasks that need energy. And your brain uses carbohydrates to do its all-important processes.
There is a place in our diet for a reasonable amount of carbs. If you are trying to add weight to the bar or add size to your frame, carbs are a magic bullet. You need to gauge how much you need to make the goal a reality. Too many carbohydrates can make you fat.
Shoot for 10-15% of your calories to be starchy carbohydrates.
CARBOHYDRATES CONTINUED: WHY FRUITS AND/OR VEGETABLES?
Fruits and vegetables have a ton of micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals. They are responsible for helping you process your food. They can lower your cancer risk, the risk for diabetes and help lower your chances of heart disease. They are also responsible for waste management. Through the fiber that occurs in our colorful choices, we are able to digest and eliminate waste. There’s even research coming out that fruits and vegetables improve your vision. (1)
Many people say that they hate vegetables. I say you haven’t discovered which ones you like. I hated beets for years because of what they looked like. Then I tried them. Now I roast them and throw them in a salad with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
Brussel sprouts smell bad because people don’t know how to cook them. I roast those suckers until they’re crispy and eat them like I’m going to the electric chair and this is my last meal. Discover new fruits and vegetables and enjoy them.
A trick I learned years ago from a friend was to get a large bag of frozen vegetables and divide the bag into all meals. Use spices to doctor the taste and make it palatable.
The rest of your plate should be your fibrous vegetables/fruit.
PREP YOUR OWN MEALS
If you’re dieting, make it easy. Spend a few hours once or twice a week and prep large quantities of protein. When I diet for a bodybuilding contest, I slow cook my beef or ground chicken with my crockpot. Spice your food. Spices are easy to use and can make food taste even more amazing. Pour some low carb sauce in a crockpot with the protein of choice. It’s easy to cook a few pounds of chicken or beef in the crockpot and it comes out tender every time. For some meals outside of the home, scoop some food into a Tupperware container for lunch or dinner. Use round containers so that it mirrors what we discussed.
MAKE SMARTER CHOICES
Do you need to eat french fries? Or can you get by with some ketchup on a baked potato? Do you need to have sweet and sour fried chicken? How about a chicken breast with a little duck sauce to flavor the otherwise boring food?
Use extra virgin coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil instead of corn oil. Or spray your oil instead of pouring it on. Dehydrate some thin-sliced, semi-frozen flank steak. Season it with your favorite herbs and spices and make a protein snack. Google “eat this not that” and you can have some great substitutions. Easy enough?
FAT BURNING SUPER-FOODS ARE LIES.
There are no fat-burning superfoods. They don’t exist. Sorry. Food doesn’t burn fat. Foods feed your body for its purpose. Super-foods come loaded with lots of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. The only thing the super-foods do is favor the chances of a fat-burning environment. But the fat burning process is up to you, your diet, and your amount of exercise on a consistent daily basis.
DIETING DOESN’T NEED TO SUCK
The more complicated a diet is, the more of a turnoff it can be to some individuals. I like to count macros. I eat whatever I want on Friday night, but for the entirety of the week, I track my macros. Other people need to follow a written diet menu plan. I find this to be restrictive but some people don’t want to guess what to eat. They want it written down meal to meal. I have some clients who favor this approach.
I find the easiest way, especially for a new client or dieter is to use the above illustration. Picture your plate of food like a clock. Follow it. Dieting can be easy. Give it a shot!
(1) Dietary carotenoids, vitamins C and E, and risk of cataract in women: a prospective study.
Christen WG1, Liu S, Glynn RJ, Gaziano JM, Buring JE.
Author Information: Divisions of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215-1204, USA. wchristen@rics.bwh.harvard.edu
