Weight loss

Insight: The secret to weight loss isn't perfectionism. How could it be? Weight loss is really hard, and shaming or criticizing yourself, especially after a mistake, will only make you feel worse and eat more. But there is a kinder and more effective way to lose weight, grounded in two ideas . The first is a willingness to forgive yourself and to try again. The second is a willingness to take pride in yourself, no matter where you are on your weight loss journey.

Insight: So much weight loss advice is centered around a specific diet, from keto to vegan. But that is a mistake. Assuming you eat the same number of calories per day, you'll lose the same amount of weight on any diet . Yes, even a Twinkie diet . All that matters for weight loss is calculating how many calories you need to eat per day to maintain your current weight, called your caloric maintenance, and then eating less than that, AKA at a deficit. For example, if you eat 500 below your maintenance per day, you'll lose a pound of fat per week, as one pound of fat is 3,500 calories.

Insight: The more a food weighs, the better it is at fighting hunger, even when calories are constant. This is why eating 100 calories of Twizzlers (~ 3 Twizzlers) will leave you hungry while eating 100 calories of broccoli (~ 1 lb) will leave you super full. Thus, eating foods low in caloric density, a number that measures that calorie to weight relationship, is a super effective way to diet , especially because hunger is the number one predictor of weight loss success .

Insight: Of the three macronutrients, carbohydrates, protein, and fat, protein is by far the most filling . In one study, simply replacing 15% of the calories from fat with protein led to people eating 500 fewer calories per day without trying . Protein density is also really important for building and preserving muscle, especially during a diet . The best way to measure protein content is protein density, the percentage of a food's calories that come from protein. For example, chicken breast has a protein density of 75, while strawberries only have a protein density of 9.

Insight: Healthy eating is rather simple. Was the food made in a factory? Well, then it's usually unhealthy. Otherwise, you're golden. And yes, this covers everything from beans, to fruit, to red meat. The evidence is quite clear that our ancestors were both quite healthy and ate a massive variety of different foods

Insight: Humans will basically eat whatever food is available, even stale popcorn . Even something as simple as moving a bowl of chocolates closer and making that bowl clear more than doubles consumption . So, if you keep healthy, low-density foods like broccoli and salmon in the house, and remove junk food like chips and soda, your default meal becomes much better. Plus, you'll find yourself craving those junk foods less as you eat them less, even in a caloric deficit . Just make sure you enjoy your replacement foods, otherwise your deficit won't be sustainable.

Insight: People are terrible at measuring how many calories they eat per day. In fact, for some, this measurement error can exceed 50% . That’s like thinking you’re eating 1,000 calories but actually eating 1,500 calories, which is the difference between losing weight and maintaining it. This inaccuracy, which we call a lack of caloric awareness, can be remedied by using a food tracker . In fact, this is what Clean Slate is: a food tracker designed for people who struggle with perfectionism.

Insight: While measuring your fat loss is important . the scale is a tricky way to do so! This is because your weight can fluctuate up to 5 pounds every day, mostly due to changes in water retention , especially on your period. Hence, while we do recommend weighing yourself every day or week to track your progress, just keep it mind two things when doing so. One, your weight may go up on that day for a reason outside of your control. Two, as long as your weight is decreasing from month to month, you are golden!

Insight: Motivation is useless for almost everything, but especially weight loss and exercise. The evidence is clear and overwhelming. . The only mental technique that is actually works is an implementation intention. This is when you set when and where you are going to doing something. For example, I will exercise at 3 PM at Tuesday. Or I will eat every day at 11:00 AM, 3:00 PM, and 7:00 PM for a maximum of 30 minutes. While this technique may seem trivial, it will double the odds of you sticking to your plan. For example, it may help you eliminate eating at night.

Insight: Eating or cooking with TV unequivocally increases energy intake . This is for two reasons. One, TV will extend the time period you eat to the length of the show. Two, TV will force you to miss food cues (i.e. mindless eating), which are important for satiety. In other words, when you cook or eat with TV, you eat for longer and it takes more food to fill you up.

Insight: Psychological hunger is the desire to eat when your body doesn't need the nutrients. Unlike real hunger, which comes on gradually and came be satisfied with any food, psychological hunger comes on suddenly, usually with an emotion, like boredom, or a specific food, like chocolate. It can result in everything from overeating to binge eating. To handle it, we recommend urge surfing, a highly effective mindfulness technique. When you're ready to learn it, check out our guide

Insight: Exercise is not magic. 1,000 calories burned from exercise will have the same effect as 1,000 calories burned from dietary restriction . But, still, it's stupidly good for your overall health and useful if you want to burn some extra calories . It's also the only way to get muscular, the core driver of sex appeal in both men and women .

Insight: Having proper sleep is important for weight loss. Not only does sleep deprivation make you hungrier, it also increases how much muscle you lose during a diet . Plus, sleep deprivation is also linked to basically every bad health outcome, especially depression, so it’s worth fixing .