Hi! I’m Donna Reish, IF teacher, weight loss coach, blogger, and half of “The Minus 220 Pound Pair” as my husband and I have lost over 220 pounds together (160 of that in the past couple of years through the Weight Loss Lifestyle habits and strategies I teach!). In this episode, I present ten things that we will want to consider in choosing/developing our own food protocol for weight loss/management.
I have uncovered ten important factors that we should consider in creating our food protocol if we want to lose weight/maintain that weight loss.
These factors do NOT include—what worked for my best friend, what made me lose fast before (if it was sooooo good, you would still be on it!), what we see advertised, or what people in a FB group tell us.
The ten factors, which I unpack one factor at a time in today’s broadcast, include:
1. Deficit: You must believe a deficit is needed
2. Sustainability: The protocol must be sustainable (these are top two for sure!!) TFE 16, 17, and 18
3. Food enjoyment: Must contain foods you like
4. 3 F’s: Must contain foods that are 3 F’s at least in part: fluidy, fluffy, fibrous. TFE 29 and 30
5. Volume: Must contain foods that meet your personal volume desire (i.e. liking to be full vs. fullness doesn’t matter to you as much—this is a thing…my husband and I are opposite!)
6. Cravings: Protocol must not induce cravings/preferably will reduce cravings TFE 7, 8, and 9 and TFE 35
7. Complexity: Protocol needs to be at your level of complexity (i.e. brainpower in its approach—some like to think a lot about protocol; others don’t want to think about all the details of foods’ macros, micros, weight, etc.)
8. Cost: Protocol needs to fit your budget (lots of specialty foods vs. not as many specialty foods)
9. Execution: Protocol needs to be at your execution level—how much cooking, dishwashing, food prepping, shopping, etc., on a daily basis do you enjoy?
10. Availability: Protocol should contain foods easily available to you.
Find all of my episodes, outlines, and articles for my two weekly broadcasts:
(1) Weight Loss Lifestyle broadcast (formerly Donna’s Intermittent Fasting Broadcast)
Think Feel Eat 40: Ten Factors for Choosing Your Protocol
A. #1: You Must Believe a Deficit Is Needed
1. Creating a deficit
2. If you don’t create a deficit, you will always fall back on the “as long as I eat this way (keto, low fat, vegan, whole 30, etc., etc.), I will be fine.”
a. You won’t lose weight on any type of eating protocol unless it creates a deficit
b. It’s unusual for a strict food protocol alone to create a deficit that leads to weight loss all the way to goal
i. Too hard to stay on
ii. Eventually, the foods on the list or the amounts of those foods no longer create a deficit
iii. People who do not count anything but lose all the way to goal with narrowed foods only are nearly perfect on that food protocol.
3. All weight loss protocols that take people to goal and keep them there create a deficit
a. Current sized body –calories to maintain weight you are at
b. Next sized body—calories to go down by ten more pounds
c. Right sized body—calories needed at your goal weight
B. #2: It Must Be Sustainable
1. Once a deficit is made, the primary thing is sustainability/compliance
2. Six protocols and what they take to maintain them (Pick a Protocol Chart; TFE # 16,#17, and #18)
3. “If you keep falling off of your weight loss wagon, you need a better wagon” (for you!)
4. Compliance is everything!
a. Can you comply with the protocol, food rules, amounts, fasting hours, etc.?
b. Can you do this “forever”?
c. If not, either the protocol is flawed, or you are jumping to too much of a deficit too quickly or your food choices are too strict, etc.
C. Next THREE: Foods
1. #3: Foods You Like
2. #4: 3 F’s—Fluidy, Fluffy, Fibrous (TFE #29 and #30 Over-Hunger and Over-Desire)
3. #5: Volume
D. #6: Cravings Induced or Reduced
2. #35 Reducing Cravings
E. Next THREE: Complexity, Cost, and Execution
1. #7: Complexity of counting, measuring, etc. (brainpower)
2. #8: Cost
3. #9: Execution—how hard is it to live with in your daily life (food prep, too many dishes, too much time, etc.)
F. Number Ten: Availability
G. Get More Help!
1. Join our holiday weight loss challenge
2. Join my FREE FB group where I record videocast/podcast episodes!
3. Emails with teaching around weight management—articles, videos, free charts and booklets, and more
4. Take my month-long Intermittent Fasting course
