We've seen a massive rise in clients seeking out help over the last couple of years who are totally perplexed as to why they've put in huge efforts to train hard, eat clean and have, to their horror, gained weight. It's become such a 'thing' that we've had to give it a term 'organically overweight'.
It's one thing to know that you're overweight because you're on first name terms with the pizza man, but another to be doing what you think is 'healthy' but laden with hidden calories and sugars. We're bombarded on social media with organic, seasonal, whole food porn, it does mislead people into a style of eating where they think calories don't matter and then are understandably disheartened when they don't lose weight. Whilst I'm not for a minute saying that the passionate movement away from processed food is not a good thing, there's just more to it than meets the eye.
Instagram is awash with skinny girls posting cacao and pistachio energy balls and coconut porridge drizzled in agave and dried prunes. Delicious - yes, organic - yes, whole food - yes, nutritious even, but calories wise it's a match for my mothers sticky toffee pudding and not best consumed daily if your goal is to look like the girl in the picture. What you can't see is that perhaps she doesn't eat it, or she works as a personal trainer for 8 hours a day.
We can't simply eliminate unprocessed food and eat as much 'cleaneating', 'wholefood' or 'rawfood' and hope to lose body fat. Ultimately, calories do matter. They're not all equal - and we teach you how to use your calories most effectively to boost your metabolism and nutrient profile.
But balancing the calories that your body actually needs with what you consistently consume over a week is just a hard fact of science, and where we have to start. We balance the calories you eat with your personal BMR and coach it to you in portions so that you don't have to count a calorie or get involved in anything that tedious. There are many more layers to our nutrition method to ensure it's the most effective, healthy, nutritious strategy there is, but if you're wanting to lean out you have to know the difference between 'cleaneating' and 'leaneating'.
Once portions are reset, carbohydrate and food groups beautifully balanced, appetite and mood are balanced in a way that enables you to stick at it - and if you stick at eating the right foods, your body will lean out at a rate that surprises you. We coach you to eat a beautiful balance of all groups at regular intervals throughout the day for optimum fat loss and metabolic protection. It's the consistency of the perfect habits we teach you that yields eye watering results, not severity.
A 'paleo eating' fan with a daily cross fit habit may be able to get away with snacking on raw cocoa and nut balls between meals, but if you're in a sedentary job and don't train like an athlete, you just cant burn off the energy - no matter how pure the ingredients are. Whilst eating raw, whole, organic food is nutritious - we still need to calibrate the levels of the macronutrients (carbohydrate, protein, fat) to turn your 'fat burning tap' on and give you the results that you deserve.
The trick is to eat whole, real, seasonal, nutritious food and so it's a great move in the right direction - but the sugar and calorie content has to be balanced in a way that stabilises your blood sugar levels and creates a gentle calorific deficit, whilst boosting you with nutrients, to create an impressive and sustainable fat loss.
The alternative is that you end up 'organically overweight' and disheartened that this style of whole, real, seasonal food actually doesn't work - and ultimately if a style of eating doesn't work for someone, the habits wont last a lifetime.
If you want to have freedom from trend dieting the only way to do that is to create new habits. By making them beautiful, comfortable and a pleasure, your habits become a part of you. Ultimately, habits are what sustain long-term results.
Motivation is temporary and habits last a lifetime.