Foods To Eat When Dieting

What foods to eat when dieting? This is a question I constantly receive as a weight loss nutritionist. In this Dish On Ditching Diets podcast episode, I explain exactly what foods to eat when losing weight and what foods to eat in maintenance.

I make the foods you eat to lose weight this as simple as possible for you (and for my clients) so you can make weight loss much easier than you have in the past.

Often, I find women over 35 are very confused about food and what diet to follow when trying to lose weight. They've done all the diets - Weight Watchers, Noom, Whole30, Paleo, Keto, Low Carb, etc.

Very commonly women over 35 think a specific diet or food plan is how they lose weight. This is why they are always in search of what to eat to lose weight or the right dieting meal plan.

Much to my surprise, clients always tell me they have no idea what to eat anymore. It's scary and sad that diet culture, food processing and misinformation on social media has created so much confusion for women that they no longer know what to eat.

While I do have some weight loss clients who truly do not know how to build a nutritionally balanced plate and how to eat all foods in moderation, it's very few are lacking nutrition information.

Most individuals know a lot about food from years of dieting and pursuing weight loss. However after years of not succeeding in keeping weight off, it makes sense why an individual may feel as if they just don't know what to eat.

It's kind of like what you think the problem is, really is not the problem and that's what I discuss in detail in this Dish On Ditching Diets podcast episode.

I also share the most important detail that I know you want to know - what diet to follow and what foods to eat when dieting! Enjoy the episode!

In this Dish On Ditching Diets Podcast Episode, You Will Hear:

• You Don't Have To Lose Weight If You Do Not Want To
• A Lesson From A Client Consultation
• The Exact Foods To Eat When Dieting
• What Diet To Follow When Losing Weight
• The Exact Foods To Eat In Maintenance
• How The Problem You Think Is The Problem, Isn't Usually The Problem
• The Mindset Change You Likely Need To Make
• Can You Not Lose Weight In A Calorie Deficit - A War On Facebook

Never Miss An Episode! Subscribe to the Dish On Ditching Diets Podcast on Apple, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotifyor Amazon Music

Related Dish On Ditching Diets Podcast Episodes

• 8 Fat Loss Myths Holding you Hostage
• How Weight Loss Works
• How To Start Losing Weight
• 5 Most Underrated Weight Loss Tips For Women
• 5 Thoughts Stopping You From Losing Weight
• Do You Have A Diet Mentality?
• What To Eat To Lose Weight

Food To Eat When Dieting Podcast Transcript

Hello Friends!

Today we’re talking about what foods you should eat when you’re dieting. This is by far the number one question I receive from women over 35.

What should I eat to lose weight? Now before I tell you exactly what foods to eat when you’re trying to lose body fat, I have a story to share with you.

Most of you know I offer free consultations for those who are wanting to work with me one-on-one in my 6-month weight loss coaching program.

Anyone who’s been on a call with me, knows it’s casual. We’re just having a conversation about your diet history, things you’ve tried in the past, what your results were, what you’re trying to accomplish, what things keep getting in the way – the common roadblocks.

Because really, I want to bring those to the forefront for them and help the individual overcome them if I can and sometimes, I know exactly what they need to do but they’re not the best fit or I know exactly what they need to do, and I do think they are a good fit and we have a conversation about what that might look like. It’s very low pressure and I think it’s super valuable.

Anyway, this woman scheduled a consultation with me, and that person is the one who has to take the initiative. They go to my website they schedule a call and when they schedule the call they have to answer a few questions – one of them being are you ready for coaching.

People always answer yes. Then after they schedule the call, there is an online form to fill out. It’s a simple form, but at the very top it states:

"Complete this application for 1:1 weight loss coaching for women over 35. It should only take 10 minutes to complete!

Please only apply if you are a serious applicant. This program is an individualized 6-month total transformation and a long-term, sustainable solution.

The total lifestyle transformation program includes nourishment, education, mindset, lifestyle habits, stress management etc. If you are not ready to commit the time, energy and space to the process, I recommend you apply at a later date."

Then they complete the form, hit submit and we eventually have the call. So, it’s clear throughout the steps of this process that you need to be serious about getting help because I don’t want someone’s who’s not really interested in getting help. There are all these steps in order to book a call with me and this individual still went through all these steps.

I called her and when she picked up the phone the initial impression, I got from her was why are you calling me. So, immediately a red flag went off for me about this person. I said to her hey, this is Megan calling.

You scheduled a consultation with me. Do you still want to chat? Is this still a good time? Her response was “yeah it’s fine.” I said are you sure? She said “yes.” I said “okay, let me go over the purpose of today’s call.”

That’s when I explained to her that I was going to ask her about her goals, what she’s tried, what were the results and see if I can offer some insight. After I said that, she said yeah that sounds good.

So, we began having our conversation and she explains to me how she’s been wanting to lose 30-40ish pounds for a while but she’s really struggling to make progress with that. She’s lost weight before and gained it back.

She struggles staying consistent with anything. She doesn’t have a set workout routine. She knows she needs to eat more protein and probably more fruits and veggies but struggles with it. Often, skips breakfast then comes home ravenous and eats everything and she’s usually too tired to make a meal so she just snacks.

When I asked her what she usually ate throughout the day, she said well, when I’m dieting I eat these foods. I said, hmm that’s interesting. Do you enjoy that?

She responded, it works for fat loss and getting protein. Now this is a common conversation I have with women and this way of thinking needs to stop. It is why women lose weight just to put it on again.

As she was talking, I could tell there was a lot of fixed mindset language like I don’t have the time to do this, I’m too busy for this, I’m terrible at this. Just a lot of definitive language around things and typically when I hear those things, I try to get to why do you even want to lose weight?

You don’t have to want to lose weight. No one is going to care whether or not you pursue this goal. So, when someone has such a fix mindset around things, I try to find out like why does this matter to them?

If it’s causing you so much frustration and you’re not doing anything to fix it, what’s the purpose and why does this even matter? I asked her that and her answer was number one to be a good role model for her kids and family and to be more active with them.

The second part was she told me she was pursuing a career as a nutritionist and that she felt uncomfortable that she was not healthy and how she would coach people if she couldn’t get her own health together. Now those are strong whys. It’s not a flimsy I just want to look better why.

I asked her why was now the time to get help she needed and why she scheduled the call with me and she said because I’m not getting any younger.

I’m 55 and I don’t want to miss out on making memories with my family. This everything I like to hear from someone who’s ready to make a lifestyle change. She had powerful whys, and she had a sense of urgency.

She did say she worked with a coach in the past and accountability was key for her, but after she stopped working with the coach, she gained all her weight back.

My understanding from what she explained from her old coach was that it was a meal plan and there were certain foods she wasn’t allowed to eat like gluten, dairy and sugar.

Now she’s struggling with consistency, not working out and she says I know what I need to do, but I’m just not doing it.

Then I said, okay, you have a strong purpose around why you want to do this and it’s relevant to future career and it’s urgent so you can make memories with your family so what’s your plan to do this? And she was like I don’t have one.

I asked her if she thought having a plan would be helpful and she said yes, but she once again started making a lot of excuses.

There were so many red flags for me, oh and I failed to mention too that the online form she filled out, she barely filled it out. She put an F effort into filling it out. That was a red flag for me prior to even getting on the call with her.

So, I told her listen I don’t feel you are a good fit for me to work with you. I said I’m sensing that there’s a resistance and an unwillingness to change. You are saying how important this is to you, yet you’re disinterested in actually doing it. Am I off here? She said, no I think you’re right.

So, I’m not ever going to try to convince someone that they need to do anything. You have the goal. You’re the one who’s really frustrated, spinning your wheels, doesn’t have a plan, has a sense of urgency, but isn’t doing anything to change it.

In order to do this, you really have to reconcile in your head that everything you’ve been doing up to this point has gotten you to where you are now and you have to really want to change. You really have to want to be in a different place and get out of your comfort zone. You have to do things differently to get a different outcome. In this case, the willingness just wasn’t there with this individual.

I said to her. Listen. I’m not here to lecture or judge you. I’m just giving feedback. You at some point have to decide what you really want and when you decide that you have to make a commitment and follow through and until that happens you are always going to be playing mental gymnastics about I know what to do, I’m not doing it, I kind of want to do it, but I have all these excuses.

But at some point, there has to be a commitment to doing things differently than you are doing now.

Now, she is not a bad person. It is the most human thing in the world to want something and your actions to misalign with the thing you say you want.

This where you values don’t match your action. But there is no difference between her and the people who are successful. The only difference is the people who are successful, they make a commitment, and they follow through.

You can’t say her why wasn’t powerful enough either. She had a very powerful why and there was some urgency around it too – her age and this new career she’s working towards and yet, there is a WALL of resistance.

Here’s the unfortunate thing that will likely happen for this individual. The frustration will likely continue, her dissatisfaction will continue until she jumps into a restrictive, quick-fix, unsustainable diet where she’ll probably lose some weight quickly and gain it back just like she has in the past.

And maybe the cycle repeats forever. I truly hope not.

Now I realize we ventured a bit off the main topic today, but I think it is important to highlight the entire conversation I had with this individual because you don’t have to lose weight.

You don’t have to get healthier and fitter. You don’t have to put the pressure on yourself to do something you don’t want to.

I will say this. Most individuals I see in my nutrition practice have this idea in their mind that they have to do really hard, strict and miserable things to reach their goals. Give up all their favorite foods and sacrifice all their time for meal prepping and exercise.

Many individuals also fear failing and have an all or nothing mindset. What if I do this program and don’t follow through or don’t get the results? What if I let myself down? So instead of doing something to change their situation they do nothing, but the irony here is they are letting themselves down by doing nothing. Not getting the help and support you need is letting yourself down.

It’s no different than staying in a toxic relationship. You know the relationship with the person you’re with is not the relationship for you. You really want to leave them, but you’re scared and unsure how it will work out.

Maybe scared no one will ever love you. Scared you won’t be able to support yourself. Where you will live, where you will go. So, you stay in the toxic relationship because you fear the unknown.

Staying in the toxic relationship is no different than not getting the help and support you need. You are letting yourself down. But this what most individuals do. They choose the misery of certainty over the unknown. The irony is by choosing to do nothing you are letting yourself down.

The fact that you’re scared of not following through, not getting the results, scared of letting yourself down and then that you do nothing actually means you are already choosing to let yourself down. This is a mindset reframe many individuals need to make otherwise they just stay stuck.

Anyway, onto our topic for today what foods you should eat when dieting. Notice, when I spoke with this individual, I asked her what she usually ate throughout the day.

She said well, when I’m dieting, I eat these foods. This is a red flag to me that this individual hasn’t realized that she needs to make a lifestyle transformation in order keep weight off permanently. You actually have to change your behavior in order to lose weight and keep it off forever.

You can’t just do a 6-month program or 30 day diet then go back to how you were eating which is what most individuals do. Creating a lifestyle mean you have to find foods that are enjoyable to you while including key nutrients that are healthier and keep you full. It’s a mindset shift from what women are used to doing every time they try to lose weight.

It seems like there is so much confusion over what foods to eat when dieting and an overall disconnect about what making a lifestyle change means.

My client Nancy who was on podcast episode 109, she spoke about making a lifestyle change and how she realized during our coaching that changing her lifestyle wasn’t about memorizing a meal plan or following a strict plan for a short period of time. I do think many individuals think that’s what it means to make a lifestyle change.

The scary thing I’ve seen working with women over the last 10 years is that they are scared of eating and often will ask permission to eat certain foods.

Can I eat this food? What do you think about this food? There’s a lot of disordered thinking around food. It is truly unfortunate so many individuals are in this scenario.

I’m going to make this very simple and logical for you today. The foods you eat when you are dieting or trying to lose body fat should be no different than the foods you eat when you are maintaining your weight.

The only difference should be the number of calories. Now should you be trying to eat more nutrient dense foods? Absolutely! Should you be focusing on getting adequate protein, fiber, fruits and vegetables and having structure around your meals? Yes! Absolutely!!!

Last year I did a fat loss phase and I shared on my Instagram a snapshot of my food tracker of my breakfast before and after my calorie deficit. I typically eat protein oatmeal for breakfast most days with some berries, cinnamon and flax meal.

Super simple. Super chocolatey and delicious. The only difference in my calorie deficit was the number of calories. I wasn’t eating anything vastly different from how I normally eat.

So instead of ½ cup of dry oats, I was eating 1/3 cup of dry oats in my deficit. Instead of 150 grams of fruit, I was eating 80 grams of fruit in my deficit. Instead of 2 tablespoons of flax meal, I was eating 1 tablespoon of flax meal in my deficit. All I did was slightly reduce the quantities of my foods.

Now when I shared this before and after of my breakfast on Instagram, I received many messages from women. They were like oh, I never thought I could just do that. Right, because you’ve been brainwashed into believing there is some complicated thing you need to do with food.

You’ve been brainwashed into thinking you need to cut out bread, rice, pasta, ice cream, chips, popcorn and chocolate to reach your goals. You’ve been brainwashed. All those foods can fit into your calorie budget and should fit into a balanced lifestyle you can do forever.

I will add this as well. Many clients I have worked over the last 10 years really struggle with having a routine with their meals, struggle with eating adequate protein and fiber, having an all or nothing mindset around their habits, good and bad thinking around foods, eating for emotional reasons then blowing themselves up with negative self-talk. They’re extremely critical of themselves and hard on themselves for not being perfect.

It's like the problem really isn’t what they think the problem is. Most women think they have a food problem or not knowing what to eat problem and I have had some clients who are certainly like that, but honestly very few. Most of the time the problem isn’t knowing what to eat.

It’s that they keep approaching weight loss from the mindset of I must eliminate all my favorite foods.

There’s no way I can eat what I currently eat and lose weight. How I eat must be wrong! I need to punish myself and be super strict and rigid, eat bland, boring foods and make the process suck as much as possible so I can get results as quickly as possible.

This is an awful way of thinking. Don’t you think? But this is what I see over and over. This mindset of thinking that somehow you can’t eat foods you like and lose weight.

Listen, if you want to lose weight permanently you do actually need to change your behavior with food. Do you come home and binge every night? You need to change your behavior. Maybe you’re not eating enough satisfying food earlier in the day?

Do you do well all week then it’s a food party on the weekend? You need to change your behavior. Maybe you restrict too much during the week and allow nothing satisfying in your meals, so the weekend comes and you blow yourself up. Maybe you’re skipping lunch and snacking all afternoon.

You need to change your behavior and actually eat a balanced lunch with protein and fiber. Maybe you keep approaching weight loss trying to cut out all the foods you think are bad only to fall off the wagon after a short period of time. You need to change your behavior.

Learn how to include all foods nutritious and less nutritious so you can achieve a balanced lifestyle. These are examples, but the bottom line is you need to change your behavior and likely your mindset.

Listen, the right foods for you to lose weight are foods you enjoy with the slight upgrade of adding quality foods to hit your protein and fiber goals that get you into a calorie deficit.

That’s it. But like I said, the problem generally isn’t the food. It’s this mindset that the foods you eat when you are dieting should be different from when you are not dieting, and it should be harder or stricter.

What you eat when in a fat loss phase, you should be eating the same or similar foods you eat when you are in maintenance.

Now, you may need to work on improving your nutrition if you don’t know how to hit your protein and fiber goals, if you are still restricting fun foods, have an all or nothing mindset around food and still think of food as good or bad or use it for emotional reasons.

I encourage you to take a moment to ask yourself if the real problem is that you keep thinking what you eat when you’re losing body fat should be different than how you normally eat? Is that the real problem? That thinking?

I’m willing to bet it’s THIS mindset that’s keeping you stuck in this loop of looking for new diets, new programs, new books and relentlessly dieting over and over again.

Like I said, I’ve seen some individuals who are truly just confused about nutrition over the years and how to enjoy all foods in balance. But honestly, it’s been very few individuals. It’s the thinking that needs to change.

We need to stop thinking we need to be these clean eating robots who only ever eat unhealthy foods. Who never eat pizza or bread or pasta or snacks. Should you be eating more high-quality nutrition, adding more protein and fiber, adding more fruits and veggies? Absolutely!

But the other less nutritious foods can certainly fit in with the high-quality foods and be part of a balanced diet.

The mindset that you need to eat like a healthy, clean eating robot is what kills you and puts you into this all or nothing mindset. Changing this mindset will be everything for you in your journey.

Because if you change your thinking about how you need to eat to lose weight, you will change your behavior and approach. Remember I said, behavior has to change somehow. Like I described with my breakfast earlier. The only thing that changes in my fat loss phase are my calories. Not the foods that I eat.

Do I have to make sacrifices when I’m in my calorie deficit? Yes. I don’t eat out as much and I realize I can’t eat everything that I want. Is that for the rest of my life? No.

I can eat more calories intuitively and maintain my weight after I’m done with my fat loss phase. I think a lot of individuals think that the amount of food they eat in their fat loss phase is what they will have to do forever. That’s not true. It’s only for that short timeframe.

So, the bottom line is the type of foods you eat while losing body fat should not drastically change from when you are in maintenance.

If you eat totally different while in a fat loss phase from how you normally eat, then what you are doing is chronically dieting which guarantees gaining the weight back. You are not doing something sustainable. Remember what you do to lose weight is what you will have to do to sustain weight loss.

Do you need to potentially need to add more nutrient dense food to your diet to have more energy, control cravings, balance blood sugar, feel fuller, sleep better, perform better, feel less bloated and better overall? Probably.

Do you need to work on having a structure and routine around when you eat and having some ingredients prepped in advance and foods in the house to support your eating structure and routine? Probably.

My main point is you have to change your behavior and approach to losing body fat and that begins with changing this thinking that you have to cut out specific foods and what you think you have to do with food to lose body fat.

When you change your thinking about foods and realize you can eat all foods and losing body fat and get out of the all or nothing thinking, no longer telling yourself you just need to be more disciplined, no longer being so self-critical and thinking you failed from having a non-perfect day, it changes everything.

You get freedom. It won’t feel hard and dreadful. It won’t feel like you’re battling yourself so hard to do this.

And just like the woman I mentioned to you about earlier who I had the consultation with; you will no longer feel this misery around getting healthier and losing body fat.

Now last thing I want to mention in relation to all this are calorie deficits. I am going to do a future episode on calorie deficits because I just recently realized that people do not understand calorie deficits and the law of thermodynamics.

I posted something controversial on my Facebook page, well I didn’t intend for it to be controversial, but it became it. The post said if you are in a consistent calorie deficit can you not lose body fat. Everyone answered yes. But the real answer is no.

Let’s say it this way, the simple answer is no. If you are truly in a calorie deficit, you will lose body fat. People starve to death because starving is from being in a prolonged calorie deficit.

No one starving in Africa is gaining weight from starving. They are withering away. Now a bunch of women argued with me and told me I was wrong and that calorie deficits don’t work.

One woman even stated that she starved herself and lost nothing. I challenged her on that and got no response surprisingly.

But a lot of women got mad and said but my hormones, but my age, but my thyroid, but my health conditions. Listen, I never said these things don’t make it harder to get into a deficit. They absolutely do.

Your body is very likely burning way fewer calories than a theoretical online calculator because of these things and because a lot of women have been chronically dieting this also lowers basal metabolic rate making your calorie deficit harder.

Does not mean you defy the law of thermodynamics? No. This is just basic physics. I mean if you jump up in the air do you think you defy gravity and will stay in the air? No.

Basic physics. What goes up on must come down. Gravitational pull. Law of thermodynamics is also basic physics. Our bodies require energy to keep you alive.

When you are in a calorie deficit, think of it as filling your gas tank. Instead of filling your gas tank to full. You are filling it to 75%. But you are expecting your car (or in this case your body) to still drive as far as it did on a full tank of gas.

Body fat is just stored energy. When you are in a deficit your body is tapping into stored body fat for the other 25% of its energy needs so you can drive your car the same distance you typically do.

For the people arguing that this is not how fat loss works, where do you think your body is getting energy from when you are in a deficit? It can’t get it from nowhere. Yes, certain conditions, age and hormone issues make it much more difficult to get into a calorie deficit. Absolutely, no doubt.

But a calorie deficit is how the human loses body fat. If you have ever lost weight in your life, the only reason you lost weight was because you were in a deficit. Anyways, I’m going to do a podcast on this in more depth at a future time because it dawned on me recently that individuals really don’t understand this concept.

I’ve been doing this for 10 years and I’m truly surprised this is something individuals don’t understand. I guess when you’ve been so focused on the food and what foods to cut out and what diet to follow, you kind of miss this fundamental concept.

Anyway, we covered a lot of stuff today. I hope this was helpful to you. I’ll talk to you soon!

About Megan

Megan is a certified nutrition practitioner, author, freelance food photographer and fitness instructor living in Phoenix, Arizona. On her blog, Skinny Fitalicious she shares EASY, gluten free recipes for weight loss. Follow Megan on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for the latest updates.