Don’t know what to eat to lose weight? Let’s simplify it by establishing some easy to follow nutritional rules for sustainable fat loss.

+++

If you’ve been confused about what to eat to lose weight, you’re not alone. It’s a common question that I receive in social media posts, DMs and emails responses.

The answer to this is as complicated, or as simple, as you’ll allow.

Of course, the fitness industry wants you to think this is complicated by tossing out so many contradictory rules:

• Never eat carbs
• Don’t eat too many fats
• Fruit sugars are problematic
• When you eat matters, so don’t eat after 8:05 p.m. EST
• Eat six small meals per day
• OR simply fast and only eat once or twice per day.

In this article, I’m going to simplify this whole thing for you. You’ll learn my easy to follow rules for establishing what to eat to lose weight in the most basic terms. 

You’re overthinking this stuff. So I’m going to help you drill it down to the bare minimum for success.

If you adopt these simple-to-follow “rules,” you’ll build a healthy foundation for health that will lead to better, more sustainable and more long-lasting weight loss.

Let’s get into it.

+++

Eat these things to lose weight for good

First and foremost, you know that weight loss occurs only when you have created a calorie deficit.

Let’s go ahead and eliminate any confusion that eating specific foods will lead to some progress on your scale or measurements.

That is not true.

And any coach or influencer that says otherwise is an asshole and should be fired or unfollowed.

Again, for those having a hard time keeping up:

• No one food or food group will lead to weight gain or loss.
• Establishing a calorie deficit is the only way to lose fat.

Period.

And if you need help creating that calorie deficit, you’ll want to read my extensive guide to doing just that for fat loss.

Now that we have that covered, let’s talk about what you should be eating.

Because while a calorie deficit and controlling how much you eat is the overriding factor, what you eat does play a role.

In other words, if you load up on calorically-dense, nutrient-poor foods (like a candy bar), it will make sticking to your calorie deficit incredibly difficult.

The first thing you’ll need to do is create some structure

You’ll establish some rules for yourself to hold yourself accountable to your behavioral habits.

And that starts with the building blocks for good overall health.

Here’s what you know:

You need protein to eat.

Protein is the most filling macronutrient. It burns more calories in digestion than carbs or fats. And it preserves lean muscle while dieting.

Here’s how to eat more protein to fit your dietary needs.

You also need to eat your vegetables.

Non-negotiable.

They are packed with nutrients––if you eat enough veggies, you likely don’t need to piss expensive urine by taking a multivitamin (unless your doc says you’re lacking something, of course).

Eating a big ass salad is a great way to pack your veggie requirements into one solid and filling meal.

You need some carbs.

They are the preferred energy source of the body. I’m not even going to entertain the hate from the Keto crowd.

If you want peak hormonal health, you should eat some carbs. Especially if you enjoy them. Because carbs do not make you fat. And carbs are fucking tasty.

Imagine living life without pasta, couldn’t be me … and shouldn’t be you, either.

You need to have some fun foods in moderation.

Pizza is awesome. So are cookies. Wine and bourbon can be fun, too.

You can enjoy all of these without uncontrolled weight gain as long as you are doing so in moderation.

Once you’ve established some baseline rules, it’s time to break down how you’ll set this up in practice.

How to build a healthy plate of food

This is how I encourage all of my Lean4Life Academy members to set up their meals.

Every meal starts with protein as the star.

If you take that approach, you’ll go a long way towards crushing your protein goals without giving it too much thought.

Think back to those dinners you might whip together with pasta and some sauce. Maybe you took a few pieces of chicken and tossed it into the pan, too.

Let’s flip this around now.

You’ll start with the chicken and then use the pasta as a supplement to the dish.

Yes, you can eat pasta.

No, you won’t get fat from eating pasta.

But you probably want to have better control over how much pasta you plop on the plate.

Which is where that plate graphic comes in handy.

Make protein at least one quarter of the plate.

Eat your damn veggies

Make sure every single meal has a plant involved.

It can be a fruit, or veggie. If fat loss is the goal, then you’ll want to lean towards more veggies than fruit, preferably of the leafy, non-starchy kind.

But it must be a part of each meal.

Vegetables are packed with nutrients.

Which is fancy for saying you probably don’t need that stupid multivitamin that Keith from GNC convinced you to buy that makes your pee turn neon yellow.

Instead, you need to eat more veggies.

Your goal will be to fill up half of your plate with leafy, green veggies.

Leafy. Green. Veggies.

A sweet potato is not leafy. That’s a carb source.

Which provides the perfect segue into the next part of the equation.

Remember that in order to lose weight, you must be in a caloric deficit. Now to optimize fat loss, you need to go a bit deeper than that and prioritize protein, too.

But once protein and calories are handled, the ratio of carbs to fats does not matter.

So with that in mind, you can now fill out the final quarter of your plate however you’d like.

Perhaps it’s a healthy chunk of avocado for some healthy fats.

Or maybe you opted for a nice helping of sweet potatoes, rice or even pasta.

The final quarter of your plate is for you to decide. And if you’ve managed your protein and veggies according to our plate guidelines, you’ll be just fine.

But what about snacks?

Here’s the thing about snacking: if you are eating enough protein and fiber at meals, you shouldn’t really need to snack.

Too often we conflate the feeling of being satisfied and full with “getting fat.” And there’s some truth in there to this.

If you stuff your face hole with pizza at each meal for a day and get uncomfortably full, yeah, you’ll likely be adding some excess calories and then excess weight to your situation.

But that’s not the case here if you are staying true to our plate set up.

So any snacks in between meals should follow a few quick guidelines, too:

• Add protein (simple stick of cheese can help)
• Must fit in one palm of your hand (like a piece of fruit)
• And should be eaten slowly and mindfully while sitting down (get your hand out of the chip bag)

Simple rules that will keep you consistent for life.

This is the easiest way to build a new eating lifestyle habit.

No calorie counting needed. Just a simple baseline to turn back to whenever you’ve fallen off track and need an easy way to get back on plan.

Let me help you learn what to eat to lose weight … 

I’m here to help you out. 

If you have any questions, reach out. I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “What to eat to lose weight” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Or you can hit me up anytime on the socialz on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

If you enjoyed this post, maybe you’d like more knowledge bombs from me. I’d be honored if you join my mailing list to get regular updates every time I post something pretty dope.