What if you have takeaway pizzas and burgers daily.
Would you still be able to do exercises to lose weight, even from those processed meals?
Your diet is the most important habit for fat loss or weight gain.
Your diet has the power to regulate your hormones;
Insulin is strongly affected by what food you consume.
Overall, hormones can profoundly affect your mental, physical, and emotional health.
If you want to know if you can still lose weight without a healthy diet, you’ve come to the right place!
Continue reading this article to find out if you can still lose fat without a healthy diet.
What is a healthy diet?
My definition of a healthy diet is a diet that:
- Is void of ultra-processed foods
- Void of refined carbs
- Doesn’t contain high glycaemic sugar
- Has vegetables
- Has healthy fats
- Has animal protein and (or protein like beans)
Reasons for this diet
Refined carbs spike your insulin, so your body asks for more (cravings); have low carbs in your diet.
- Your body uses refined carbs fast, giving you a quick energy boost. Unrefined carbs, on the other hand, release energy slowly over time.
- After the quick energy from refined carbs is gone, you might feel hungry and want to eat more (cravings).
- It can lead to extra energy being stored as fat in your body.
High glycaemic sugar is sugar like maltodextrin and glucose syrup. [1]
- They have higher glycaemic indexes than regular sugar.
- These will spike your insulin even more than common carbs, which will spike your insulin even more, therefore increasing the fat your body stores.
- It’s okay to consume carbs, just make sure the carbs are unrefined and come from nature.
Vegetables have many micronutrients, which you need for better bodily function.
Healthy fats give you more energy (9kcal per gram) than carbs (4kcal per gram).
When you get fat-adapted, you will feel more energised and full for longer.
FUN FACT
Our ancestors had meat-free diets, and they were an essential source of protein. They probably had the energy to hunt for hours because they ate the fat on the meat they got!
Animal protein has micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), so your body will function better.
They’re packed with a lot of protein, and they contain fat, which will provide you with energy, and fill you up. Animal protein comes from nature.
Protein that isn’t from animals but still comes from nature, like beans and nuts, are also good for you.
This diet can help you build muscle and maintain a healthy body weight, and body fat percentage.
Why are ultra-processed foods bad for you?
These foods contain chemicals and sugars that preserve the product and increase its shelf life. However, these chemicals can ruin your gut and make you prone to digestive issues.
Sugar that has a high glycaemic index [2] spikes your insulin even more than regular sugar, which means your body stores more of it as fat.
Even foods you may think aren’t processed are ultra-processed.
For instance, take this cereal bar.
it has over 10 ingredients, and it isn’t even 100% oats, or even a minimum of 90% oats, but it’s 60% OATS.
And it has ingredients like molasses, which will increase your cravings.
This protein bar has maltodextrin, glucose syrup and fructose. These are all sugars which are high on the glycaemic scale.
Once again, your cravings will spike hugely from consuming these!
Spotting ultra-processed foods
How to spot ultra-processed foods:
- UPFs are foods sold because they’re easy to use. These are often foods that you can eat right away or quickly heat up.
- They tend to have a long shelf life. For example, if baked goods, which are usually best when fresh, can last for a month or more, they’re probably ultra-processed.
- Ultra-processed ready-to-eat foods often contain cheap ingredients that taste good but may not be healthy, like trans fats, sugar, and salt.
- When you check food labels, be cautious if you see ingredients that don’t seem like regular food. These could be chemicals like high-fructose corn syrup and hydrolyzed proteins, as well as additives such as flavour enhancers, artificial colours, sweeteners, thickeners, and various agents used to modify the texture and appearance of food.
Conclusion
Can you Lose weight (fat) Without a Diet? No.
Your diet is the main factor that contributes to fat loss. It’s by far the most crucial factor.
You can do cardio and strength training for hours and still gain weight due to your ultra-processed diet.
In contrast, you can do zero exercise and maintain your weight due to a healthy diet without ultra-processed foods.
However, you should consider working out.
Even if you don’t have high amounts of protein in your diet, you can still build muscle.
And simply incorporating animal protein into your routine and prepping them for future meals can increase the muscle and strength you build.
If you don’t know where to get started, save and download my workout plans in my Pinterest >>
*You can ignore the cardio workout added to it!
FAQs
IF I HAVE TO LOWER CARBS, WHERE CAN I GET MY ENERGY FROM?
From consuming healthy fats, like avocados. If you make having healthy fats in your diet a habit, your body will be able to use fat as an energy source, and you’ll feel more energised!
CAN I STILL CONSUME CARBS?
Absolutely! Just have low carbs in your diet, and those carbs should be whole foods and foods that come from nature, like a sweet potato.
CAN I LOSE WEIGHT EVEN FROM CONSUMING PROCESSED FOODS?
Yes. But you are just doing unnecessary cardio when you are going to gain all the fat back. You wouldn’t be able to sustain intense cardio so often, and you’ll find yourself quitting, and then the fat will come back. If you control your insulin, your fat won’t come back even if you don’t do regular exercise.
WHAT IF I’M A VEGETARIAN?
If you want to eat eggs, they are a good source of protein. Otherwise, beans and nuts are one of your only options!
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO BE FAT-ADAPTED?
I don’t know, because everyone is different. To conclude, the longer you have been solely consuming carbs, the longer it will take to be fat-adapted. However, just keep it a habit of consuming healthy fats and you’ll be fat-adapted in no time!
