What is the best and quickest ways to lose fat weight?

Eat whole, natural foods!

This principle seems almost too obvious and simple to be true, which is why I’ve dedicated a video and blog to it. We know this truth, and yet tend to complicate things way too much and forget the basics. It’s easy to get caught up in the latest diet fat – low carb, keto, low fat, Atkins, South Beach, alkaline, gluten free, cabbage diet, liquid detox,  and so on. “Which one is best?” As a trainer, I get asked that ALL the time. “One friend lost 15 pounds doing low carb, another lost 10 doing a detox, another lost 30 doing Paleo.”

Well, if you look at the common thread between all of these popular diets, they’re almost all based on natural, organic, unprocessed foods. They almost all restrict calories to some extent as well. The rest is pretty much all details and semantics.

These diets all work well because they’re all limiting junk and “forcing” you to eat foods that contain high protein, high fiber, lots of vitamins, low sugar, healthy fats to keep you full, and that keep your muscles fed and fat-burning working well. They make you feel good and give your body what it needs to repair, restore, and stay healthy and lean.

So, STOP over-complicating it! We do this because, in truth, we want to find out how we can get away with eating crap and still lose weight. But your body was designed to eat food from nature, not from chemicals with preservatives that give them a shelf life of 3 years. I mean, what are these things doing inside your body if they do that to food? Yuck!

Sure, you can flexible diet or IIFYM your way through your weight loss journey, but for most people it’s too much to constantly track food and macronutrients. But this style of eating allows for junk if you want it, and while you may lose weight, you’re hurting your body in the process and may end up gaining it all back, or simply stuck with headaches, brain fog, lethargy, etc.  One of the simplest, most effective ways to lose fat and get healthy is to eat whole, natural foods, because your body can use the energy from them easily and effectively. Plus, they contain tons of vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy brain, healthy skin, and weight maintenance. 

WHAT ARE WHOLE, ORGANIC FOODS?

Organic foods are foods that come from the earth and have not been grown with chemicals or sprayed with pesticides.  “Whole” foods are still in their natural state or some close derivative. For instance, a tomato is a whole food, and homemade pasta sauce with organic tomatoes and herbs is still a great, natural food. However, buy a non-organic tomato sprayed with chemicals and it can negatively affect your body. Or buy pasta sauce from the store with loads of white sugar added and preservatives to keep it fresh, and you’ve lost that ideal, natural state of the food.

Examples of whole foods include:

• Organic chicken
• Wild caught fish
• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Grass-fed beef
• Grass-fed butter
• Raw cheeses and yogurts
• Brown Rice
• Potatoes
• Olive oil/coconut oil
• Seeds
• Nuts/nut butters

I like to think of it like this: Did God put it on the earth for us to hunt, gather, forage, grow? Then it’s probably good to eat.

Truly natural foods are:

•  As close to what you find in nature as possible
• Not made in chemical plants
• Don’t generally come in packages (aside from items like rice in a bag, or quinoa in a box, etc).
• Meats that have been grass fed and given no hormones or antibiotics
• Are not chips, cookies, cereals, granola bars – things which you find on the middle aisles of the stores
• Filled with added colors, preservatives, chemicals, sugars, or artificial sweeteners

Unlike processed, unnatural foods, whole foods are filling, satiating, and naturally low in calories. So you can skip all the “low fat”, “low calorie” packages you see in stores. Have you ever noticed how you can eat a bag of chips, cookies, or an order of Chinese take-out and yet feel hungry about an hour later?  Yet, with natural foods, even with the higher calorie items, such as olive oil or beef or nuts, it’s hard to overeat them. And it’s near impossible to overeat vegetables – and even if you do they’re mostly fiber. These things don’t spike your blood sugar as much as processed foods like breads, pastas, candy, crackers, etc. That’s why these foods will make it much easier to lose weight. You stay full, you can eat a lot, and your body will thrive from all of the nutrients.

WHAT’S NOT WHOLE OR NATURAL?

While many brands may choose to label their food as “natural”, it doesn’t mean much. “Natural coloring” and “natural flavor” is usually some chemical derivative of things found in nature.  “Natural” might refer to sugar, but it’s still processed and super unhealthy for you to be loading in sugar that isn’t naturally found in food, such as in fruits. Processed and packaged foods usually man-made concoctions that are not real food, or have so many things added to them like colors, flavors, salt, sugar, and various ingredients you can’t even pronounce. They’ve usually lost so much nutritional value at that point, they’re not very beneficial anymore.

Processed foods include things like:

• Chips/Crackers
• Ramen
• Cookies
• Bacon
• Frozen meals
• Deli meat and sausage
• Milk and flavored yogurt
• Pasteurized cheese
• Canned vegetables and fruits
• Cereal
• Microwave popcorn
• Granola bars/protein bars
• Breads and pastries
• Canned soup

Read my article on ProSourceFit.com for more details on what you should and shouldn’t eat and what chemicals to avoid, etc. I’d also suggest reading If It’s Not Food, Don’t Eat it. This is an amazing book with so much detail and helpful information.

Getting rid of processed stuff in boxes and from restaurants only harms your body and contains tons of calories and mysterious additives. By eating things the earth naturally produces, you will increase your energy, reduce inflammation and pain, feel better, look better, and lose weight much easier!

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