Eat fruit (or whatever you like), and lose weight.

Two posts in one today!

First up on the right is a screen shot of a message I got from a client who is following my custom calorie and macronutrient recommendations and steadily losing weight and finding it EASY.

Now, this ties in with something else I wanted to talk about, which is people who are trying to make this too difficult. People who are scared of eating, and who think that they need to suffer if they want to be successful.

So here goes.

I shot this video the other day talking about how awesome fruit is, and clearing up some of the myths out there that maybe fruit is not such a great idea if you’re trying to lose weight. I mean, really. Of all the things a person might be eating that could be contributing to their weight problem… you want to single out fruit?

You know by now that people pushing these “food-phobic” messages really grind my gears. If you’ve read up on IIFYM as I’ve described here in my free program you already know that there is no single “bad food” that will cause you to get (or stay) fat. If your intake of calories is higher than what is required to maintain current weight more often than not, you will put on weight. If not, you won’t… regardless of your meal choices.

So, too much of any type of food will make you fat if you go over your maintenance levels. Of all the foods that might be pushing you into weight gain territory though, you want to talk about fruit? FRUIT? Really? Something that’s fresh, full of nutrients, fibre… and actually doesn’t come with a hell of a lot of calories in relation to it’s size anyway? Ridiculous.

Anyway I shot the video, and you can see how exasperated this topic makes me. I got flummoxed at the end and lost for words, so I don’t really even reach a point (that’s what all this writing is supposed to make up for), and then I really just wanted to eat all the fruit rather than attempt to do a better take. But anyway, people seem to like it when I swear about things on video so here you go.

I’m not sure why the sound quality is so bad, sorry about that.

So the point is, stop worrying about food. Stop making this more difficult and complicated that it needs to be. As I started to get to in the video, most people’s calorie requirements when losing weight are much higher than they realise, and all you have to do is come within a reasonable range of these targets and you will be successful.

As far as where fruit fits into this? Fruit is good for you and it’s delicious. The more fruit (vegetables too) you can stuff into your meal plan, the better. In fact I’ll go so far as to say no matter how much fruit and vegetables you eat, they won’t put you over your required calories. If you go over, it’s not because of too much fruit and vegetables; it is because of too much of things that are NOT fruit and vegetables. Although let’s not forget protein, that’s important too!