Do This Now If You Want To Lose Weight Fast
It always works for me
Isaiah McCall
Isaiah McCall
Mar 13 · 5 min read
Image from Canva

How much you eat and where it fits into your macronutrients is a small piece of the puzzle. It’s so small a piece that people are able to gain weight when they eat the same amount of food, or even less!

This is because losing weight isn’t always about quantity, it’s about the quality of what you eat. Macronutrients don’t mean s*** if I get all my protein from a Big Mac. Or my carbs from french fries and fat from tiramisu. Even though you will hit your macronutrient or caloric goals, you’ll feel like crap.

First off, everyone can benefit from timing when you eat; not eating three square meals with snacks in-between. Your body is constantly producing insulin when you don’t stop eating. This leads to prediabetes, which leads to full-blown diabetes, which culminates with you losing a toe like my Auntie.

Not a fun experience.

That’s where intermittent fasting helps you control how often you eat. Secondly, however, is controlling the quality of foods that your buying.
A calorie doesn’t equal a calorie

This is where a lot of vegans run into problems; they think just because something has protein in it, that it’s the same protein you’d find in a steak. This is most certainly not the case. When my sister was a vegan she would faint because she didn’t prioritize quality.

Foods, even if they look the same, have different ingredients, nutrients, blood sugar effects (otherwise known as the glycemic index) and amino acid profiles that result in better or poorer health.

When it comes to amino acids at least — A.K.A. the building blocks of protein — we need nine essential amino acids to maintain good health, yet these vary across different foods.
Here’s an example:

Say we ate a few scoops of crunchy peanut butter and a juicy grass-fed steak. They’re both high in protein, but the steak will have a much better amino acid profile than the peanut butter. In other words, the steak has better protein for your buck.

Protein, fats, and carbs all differ depending on where they’re coming from. Once again, the protein from a Big Mac is much lesser quality because its lower-quality meat filled with antibiotics and other harmful crap that doesn’t belong in food.

You’d be scared reading the Big Mac ingredient label on the back of hair spray, let alone on food.
Nutrient absorption is Key

Burgers shouldn’t cost $1. You’re eating a cow, for a $1… Did you really think they were going to give you high-quality meat for that kind of price? If it’s too good to be true, it often is. This is why you should read the ingredient list of healthy options at fast-food chains; they’re often not what they seem.

Buy and eat grass-fed, grass-finished beef and you’ll notice a difference in a week. Or at least your toilet will notice a difference.

Major fast-food chains are graded from A-F on their quality of beef. Here are a few places who got an F in 2019:

Starbucks
Burger King and Arby’s
Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and Little Caesar’s
Apple Bee’s, Chili’s, and Olive Garden
Buffalo Wild Wings

3. Forget calories. Think nutrition

I’m not the grim reaper here to take away fast food or dessert for life. I enjoy these kinds of food too, but I know I’m getting less bang for my buck when it comes to the energy I’m giving my body.

It’s like filling up your car with watered-down gasoline — it’ll run fine, but don’t rely on it.

Stop thinking “healthy and unhealthy,” think more nutritious, and less nutritious.

If we swapped a Big Mac meal for an alternative of eggs (protein), oatmeal (carbs), and avocados (fat), the difference would be insurmountable. Ok, it’s not as s*** as a Big Mac — for me it is — but you could easily replace your Big Mac with a more nutritious meal that is just as delicious.

Besides, you can eat more nutritious foods because they’re often less calorically. A medium-sized Big Mac meal is 1000 calories. 150 grams of carbs (from cheap processed bread), 48g of fat (from unhealthy low-quality oils), and 29g of protein (from antibiotic nearly-spoiled meat).

Aside from that, there’s 67g of sugar in the meal, nearly three times the amount the American Health Association recommends. So what could we have done with that 1000 calories instead?

Bowl of oatmeal, cinnamon, whipped cream and a banana — 475 calories, 15 grams of protein, 10 grams of fiber, and plenty of vitamins and minerals.
A cup of egg whites and 2 eggs, scrambled — 260 calories, 38 grams of protein, healthy fats, and cholesterol (yes, not all cholesterol is bad).
Salmon fillet — 240 calories, 26 grams of high-quality protein and omega-3 fatty acids, which support heart and eye health.

You’d even have a few calories to spare. Why not go get some dessert? There’s no need to feel guilty when you’re eating more nutritious foods.
Final thought

So instead of limiting yourself and opting for diets, incorporate more nutritious foods into your life. Also start to slowly reduce the less nutritious foods that you know you shouldn’t be consuming every day.

Life doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing mindset. You can cut back slowly and make small yet meaningful adjustments. If you change the way you look at food, you can enjoy what you like and lose weight in the process.
Medium