Right after “What should I eat?”, the most common question I get is, “Cristy, how much should I eat?”
The reality is, there’s no simple answer to that question, and here’s why.
Despite the fact government nutrition guidelines, and a lot of “diets” and weight loss programs out there, provide cookie cutter portion sizes and calorie amounts, my experience in coaching thousands of people through weight loss is that there’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all when it comes to how much you should eat.
A 6’5 25-year-old male firefighter who needs to lose 100 pounds is gonna have different nutrition requirements than a 5’1″ 73-year-old grandmother who needs to lose 28 pounds.
It’s ludicrous to me that serving, calorie, and portion sizes are used across the board, because it sets you up for failure and frustration.
Even insisting “all men should eat this much” and “all women should eat this much” is wrong, because there’s unique requirements even then, based on a TON of factors.
This is one reason I teach Code Red Rebels to listen to their bodies, meaning you only eat when you’re hungry, and you stop eating when you’re full.
How much you eat does matter, and I don’t agree with some of the experts I’ve met–even though I respect them–who insist you can eat “as much as you want” of even Code Red-approved foods and lose your weight.
Mentalities like that don’t account for things like food addiction and emotional eating. People going through those things, who are told they can “eat as much as they want,” are gonna overeat, period. They’ve got no radar when it come to their appetite, because their appetite is driven by addiction and/or emotions, not hunger.
Another reason I teach you to listen to your body is to get you thinking for yourself.
It’s true, I offer custom programs that give you custom numbers, so you know how much to eat, based on your unique needs.
But even then, I expect you to listen to your body, meaning if you get up at 7 a.m., but you aren’t hungry until 10 a.m., then 10 a.m. is when you eat your first meal.
Learning to listen to your body further tunes you in to your unique needs and teaches you to think for yourself.
That may not sound as sexy as cookie cutter programs that brainwash you into thinking you need someone to spoon-feed you and do the work for you.
But spoon-feeding you will not set you up for lifelong success. It’ll just leave you even more helpless, which is something I refuse to do to you.
I want to see you succeed, and get off this mountain once and for all.
Doing that means teaching you to think for yourself when it comes to your nutrition needs, and that includes listening to your own body.
If you want help understanding how to do that, a custom program will get you there faster, no question. And it will remove the guesswork from how much you eat.
Just know, going in that you’re still expected to do your part.
If you’re good with that, use the link in the sentence below to check out custom programs