12 Ways to Eat More and Lose Fat After 50

EAT MORE and LOSE WEIGHT? EAT MORE FAT and LOSE WEIGHT?

No, I haven’t lost my marbles. Yes, eat more and lose weight. That’s not such new news. What is newer is eating more fat and losing weight. Here’s how it works, all of it.

The concept of getting full on fewer calories has been around a long time. That is code for diet really. Eat more celery, more lettuce, more soup the old adages said and you’ll burn more calories digesting than are in the foods.

So if we can agree that eating the fewest calories was never the right answer, what we’ve got to do is look at quality. The concept of eating more of the highest quality foods you can find in order to stay satisfied, content, craving-free, and humming along with energy to spare is what we all want. Let’s face it America… we like to eat!

Embrace it. Let’s just make better food to enjoy.

If you think it’s a lot of work? What’s work? Pouring concrete on a hot day in humid Iowa is work. Chopping a head of broccoli in pieces is not work. If you don’t want to chop the onion, garlic and broccoli… you can buy it chopped. All you have to do then is turn on the burner and move a spoon around. This is not work. If our exercise is leaving us too tired to cook decent meals? It isn’t working very well and exercise is not the answer. Food is still going to have the ability to give or keep you from cancer. It still has the ability to heal or cause inflammation that leads to 79 other diseases.

You can’t get a hall pass for this one. So here’s how to eat more to lose more fat.

1. Add a fat to smoothies. Coconut oil, nut butter, avocado, raw nuts, or coconut. The right fats decrease inflammation and if you have or have had a disease, you are training or recovering from exercise, you likely have inflammation.

2. Eat fish 3 times a week and consider a fish oil supplement. I recommend whole food. Yet, most of us are getting more inflammation-causing fat (Omega 6) than we are inflammation reducing fats (Omega 3). I write about that more in my book. Fish oils contain the type of Omegas that we need most for reducing inflammation. Salmon, halibut, tuna steaks are examples of fatty fishes.

3. Eat as many green leafy veggies as you can. Salads yes, but also chopped kale in your soups and casseroles (do you still do casseroles), or spinach in your eggs and on your pizza. Toss a handful of spinach and or kale into every smoothie for a serving of veggies without even tasting it.

4. Cook with cruciferous veggies. There’s a wonderful property in cruciferous veggies called DIM for short. It helps hormone function and improves overall health. You may or may not want to take another supplement but you should make these veggies a part of your weekly grocery list. Eat them raw, roast them with some coconut or olive oil drizzled on top and flavor with garlic and sea salt. Make cauliflower crust pizza or flat bread. Roast for cauliflower soup, steam for rice, or use as a mashed potato substitute. Make a batch of creamy broccoli soup with onion, celery, carrot and garlic. Just add the broccoli and water for half hour and blend with a small bit of goat cheese.

5. Make a creamy asparagus soup over the stove or a spinach and avocado chilled soup. Find ways to get in greens before the main dish.

6. Shoot for a high protein meal or snack four times a day. Losing your muscle faster than you gain it beginning at age 30 means you have to fight for it. Recommendations range from 25-30 grams of protein to 35 grams at breakfast to quote a Sept 2015 study. Subjects successfully kept fat off during 12 weeks by eating high protein breakfast of 35 grams of protein.

7. Eat your berries and then your citrus. Before other fruits, these are your best friends. Lower sugar and higher nutrient density. It doesn’t mean never will you have a mango again. It just means if you want to eat more with more benefits to your skin, eyes, hair and energy you’ll go with berries.

8. Skip the soy and dairy dressings. At home try tahini- blended sunflower seeds – together with cannelloni beans, lemon juice, water, cilantro, garlic, and chili powder. It’s a rich creamy southwestern-tasting dressing without the obesogenic reaction (fat cell increasing and fat storage enhancing). You don’t have to have this dressing on the side!

9. Add cheese. Most women “dieting” will skip the cheese at the salad bar. Skip the soft cheese or the slices of processed food masquerading as cheese and opt for hard cheese. If you aren’t sure if you tolerate dairy and haven’t tested you can find lactose-free cheese in most grocery stores. That and goat cheese are natural ways to include the taste and texture you love without the bloating, gas, or digestive nightmare of dairy.

10. Go for the yogurt made with coconut milk. It’s a yogurt substitute. Same for kefir. They’ll allow you the rich creamy goodness without the bad feelings you can get from dairy.

11. Drink plenty of water between your meals but not during. The more you drink between the more you help yourself digest. The less you drink during the less you interfere with your body processing foods in a way that works for you best.

12. Eat dessert. If you really want it, you’re hungry for it, have it. Have it after the meal. Usually then a taste is enough. You’re really full and it’s psychological want you have. You’re also not mid-afternoon blood sugar low when a sugary dessert is going to to spike and drop blood sugar.

There are dozens more ways to eat well, eat plentifully and never go hungry while you lose weight. The more you feed your body the more it will burn efficiently. If there are signs you’re not feeling good try the whole food whole you approach again. If you fall in love with food again you’ll fall in love with your body again.

What’s worked for you in regards to whole foods?