67 What To ACTUALLY Eat to Lose Weight

Welcome to the ”You’re Not Gonna Make It” podcast, where I discuss threats to your physical and mental health (and find ways to deal with them, too).

This episode: Literally what to eat.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker1: I'm sure you've heard it. You need to eat less. You need to eat better if you want to lose weight. (00:31):
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Kevin Tejada: Your macros to the exact gram. Because you don't need that. Not to lose weight. (00:54):
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Kevin Tejada: Here's the thing about what to eat to lose weight. The only thing for sure that needs to be followed, (01:00):
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Kevin Tejada: is a caloric deficit. If each day you're eating fewer calories, (01:09):
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Kevin Tejada: then your body burns naturally through just existing and exercise and all that stuff. (01:14):
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Kevin Tejada: If the calories you consume are a bit under that, you will lose weight and that's it. (01:19):
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Kevin Tejada: Now, part of this is if you sit at a desk all day, the amount of calories that (01:24):
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Kevin Tejada: your body is going to burn by default is going to be lower than someone else, (01:29):
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Kevin Tejada: let's say an athlete or someone who goes to the gym very consistently. (01:32):
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Kevin Tejada: So if you're not a really active person, you just sit at your desk all day answering (01:36):
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Kevin Tejada: emails, your body probably burns between 1,800, 2,300 calories, (01:40):
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Kevin Tejada: the leanest chicken in the world, the best salad in the world, (01:53):
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Kevin Tejada: or Oreos. If you're consuming fewer than whatever that calorie range is for (01:57):
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Kevin Tejada: you, you'll lose weight. (02:03):
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Kevin Tejada: In terms of actual mass, your body doesn't give a shit what you're eating as (02:06):
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Kevin Tejada: long as the calories add up. (02:10):
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Kevin Tejada: Now, that's not to say, hey, eat 1,700 calories of donuts and you'll be fine. (02:11):
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Speaker1: You'll lose weight. You will lose weight, 100%. (02:17):
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Kevin Tejada: It's going to be way harder, though, because you're going to be a lot hungrier (02:19):
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Kevin Tejada: and you're going to feel like complete dog shit most of the time and have no energy. (02:23):
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Kevin Tejada: So I wouldn't recommend that. But mathematically, you could. (02:26):
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Speaker1: And I don't say this to recommend, oh, eat whatever the fuck you want. (02:30):
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Kevin Tejada: Options. You have any option in the world. (03:08):
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Kevin Tejada: Whether you want to go for low carb, I wouldn't recommend that. (03:12):
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Kevin Tejada: High protein, I do recommend that. (03:15):
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Kevin Tejada: Low fat, gluten-free, blah, blah, blah, blah. None of that shit matters when (03:18):
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Kevin Tejada: it comes to the numbers of the calories. (03:20):
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Kevin Tejada: That's why you have so many options with what you can eat to lose weight. (03:22):
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Kevin Tejada: None of those really specific types of eating habits are going to matter if (03:26):
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Kevin Tejada: you don't stick to it, if you don't like it. (03:32):
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Kevin Tejada: Again, that's why I do not like restrictive meal plans because, (03:34):
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Kevin Tejada: hey, what if the person doesn't fucking like it? (03:37):
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Kevin Tejada: Either they're going to stick to it and be unhappy, or they're not going to (03:41):
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Kevin Tejada: stick to it and do something possibly crazy. (03:44):
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Kevin Tejada: Okay, now for real, actually, what can you eat? What would I recommend? What do I eat? (03:46):
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Kevin Tejada: Now, remember when I was talking about the donuts, how you can lose weight eating (03:53):
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Kevin Tejada: just donuts. But I wouldn't recommend it because it's basically, it's not really food. (03:56):
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Kevin Tejada: It's something that tastes good, but it's not, it doesn't, it doesn't provide (04:01):
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Kevin Tejada: your body with sustenance. It doesn't satisfy you. (04:04):
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Kevin Tejada: Besides mentally, of course. So I recommend foods that actually satisfy you, sustain your body. (04:08):
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Kevin Tejada: Basically foods that are high in protein or fiber. (04:17):
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Kevin Tejada: I don't subscribe to any specific diet per se. (04:21):
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Kevin Tejada: So when I recommend you Mission Tortillas, the keto version, (04:25):
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Kevin Tejada: it's not because I say, oh, keto is great. I don't give a shit about that. (04:29):
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Kevin Tejada: I recommend those because the fiber that they have in them is a lot. (04:33):
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Kevin Tejada: It's like 50 to 60 percent of the fiber you need per day per tortilla now look (04:39):
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Kevin Tejada: at the ingredients that i think they have a bit too much in them i'm like hmm (04:45):
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Kevin Tejada: not really sure what that is but. (04:48):
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Speaker1: It doesn't have the wild shit that i (04:50):
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Kevin Tejada: Like to stay away from usually like high fructose corn syrup monosodium glutamate (04:52):
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Kevin Tejada: because those are basically just omega sugar and salt. (04:57):
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Speaker1: Just for extra fun (05:00):
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Kevin Tejada: So take this with a grain of salt no pun intended check see if that's good for (05:03):
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Kevin Tejada: you The fiber is, I feel like it's worth it. There's a lot of fiber. (05:07):
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Kevin Tejada: Fruits have a lot of fiber too. Vegetables have a lot of fiber. Go crazy on apples. (05:11):
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Kevin Tejada: The reason I love apples is because not only do they taste good, but they're juicy. (05:16):
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Kevin Tejada: When you have all this munched up food and you get some liquid in there, it fills you up as well. (05:22):
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Kevin Tejada: And here's the tricky thing with liquid. I don't normally like to drink my calories. (05:28):
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Kevin Tejada: And the reason for that is most drinks that are available are pretty high calories (05:33):
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Kevin Tejada: Some kind of juice or quote-unquote coffee, (05:39):
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Kevin Tejada: have, you know, a couple hundred calories, you know, or even soda. (05:43):
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Kevin Tejada: So if you're drinking those calories, you're going to run into your calorie (05:47):
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Kevin Tejada: limit for the day real quickly. (05:53):
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Kevin Tejada: I think I saw a can of soda the other day. It was like 240. (05:55):
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Speaker1: I'm like, what the fuck? (05:58):
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Kevin Tejada: You can eat like two apples, maybe three if they're small for that amount. (06:00):
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Kevin Tejada: So I don't prefer to drink my calories in terms of juice or soda but i do recommend (06:05):
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Kevin Tejada: is maybe almond milk it's pretty low calorie dirty calories for eight ounces kombucha. (06:09):
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Kevin Tejada: There, they're helpful as well. Not only do they have a bunch of protein, (06:38):
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Kevin Tejada: but they're also liquids. (06:40):
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Kevin Tejada: They just fill you up and sit in you in a way that makes you feel a bit fuller. (06:41):
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Kevin Tejada: For proteins, I recommend chicken. (06:47):
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Kevin Tejada: Beans have some protein to that. You know what has, (06:51):
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Kevin Tejada: recommend cachava over basically anything because it tastes fucking great. (06:56):
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Kevin Tejada: It's kind of a meal replacement, But it's got 26 grams of protein per serving (07:03):
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Kevin Tejada: So it's basically protein powder for me And what I also do And this is something (07:06):
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Kevin Tejada: I have to be careful with With your protein shakes You, (07:11):
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Kevin Tejada: what you're going to do put all the stuff inside blend it (07:15):
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Kevin Tejada: then put a bit of oats (07:18):
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Kevin Tejada: in there whatever kind you want put it back (07:21):
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Kevin Tejada: in the blender but for like two or three seconds just so (07:24):
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Kevin Tejada: it gets mixed up maybe sliced a little bit but not completely (07:27):
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Kevin Tejada: shredded then leave that in your fridge (07:30):
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Kevin Tejada: and you come back those oats are going to be a little (07:33):
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Kevin Tejada: i don't say soggy because it's not really (07:35):
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Kevin Tejada: appealing but they'll be a bit softer so when you drink that it's (07:38):
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Kevin Tejada: going to be it's going to be nice it's almost like drinking oatmeal but not (07:41):
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Kevin Tejada: quite as thick and personally i love that so i recommend that if you want to (07:45):
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Kevin Tejada: feel really full and like you're not just drinking some kind of liquid it's (07:49):
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Kevin Tejada: like something of substance that's going going in and sustaining you, (07:53):
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Kevin Tejada: so that's what i like let's get into busting discrediting killing some myths myth. (08:00):
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Speaker1: One you need to eat six small meals a day to (08:07):
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Kevin Tejada: Boost metabolism are you talking about calories the the frequency has like nothing (08:10):
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Kevin Tejada: to do with it you can eat once per you're gonna have a huge ass meal per day (08:16):
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Kevin Tejada: and it'll accomplish the same thing you want to increase your metabolism become more active, (08:19):
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Kevin Tejada: myth number two carbs make you fat fat makes you fat you need keto paleo vegan carnivore blah blah, (08:25):
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Kevin Tejada: can make you fat if you eat too much of it. This is why I absolutely hate that (08:33):
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Kevin Tejada: the macronutrient of fat has the same name as what we call excess body weight that we don't want. (08:37):
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Speaker1: It's very fucking (08:44):
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Kevin Tejada: Confusing for people. You can say dietary fat if you want. You can say lipids, (08:45):
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Kevin Tejada: but people will be like, what? (08:50):
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Kevin Tejada: So it's fucked up. I really don't like, I do not like the whole labeling of (08:52):
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Kevin Tejada: fat. it's gotten a bad rep anything can make you fat anything can help you lose (08:58):
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Kevin Tejada: weight the reason why most people say. (09:03):
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Speaker1: Carbs make you fat is because most of (09:06):
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Kevin Tejada: The carbohydrates people consume are in calorie dense i don't know they're high (09:08):
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Kevin Tejada: in calories but not dense in nutrition i'm talking again like donuts and shit (09:13):
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Kevin Tejada: croissants certain kinds of bread you eat them there's a lot of calories but (09:17):
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Kevin Tejada: they don't really fill you so people think oh i'm eating a bunch of them because (09:22):
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Kevin Tejada: they don't fill me and I'm getting fat. (09:26):
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Kevin Tejada: Yeah, it's because you're eating stuff that's not ideal for you, (09:28):
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Kevin Tejada: not because fucking one third of macronutrients are making fat. Same for fat. (09:31):
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Kevin Tejada: Now, yeah, fats have nine calories per gram as opposed to carbohydrates and (09:35):
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Kevin Tejada: proteins that have four calories per gram. (09:40):
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Kevin Tejada: So yes, you need to be a little more careful if there's something that has a (09:42):
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Kevin Tejada: lot of fat in it, but fat by itself does not make you fat. (09:46):
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Kevin Tejada: It's a macronutrient like the others. So as long as you're eating them in a (09:49):
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Kevin Tejada: way you're keeping track of in some way, you're not just going to whoops, become fat you. (09:53):
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Speaker1: Don't need keto (09:58):
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Kevin Tejada: Paleo vegan whatever the only reason you would do any of this is if you have (09:58):
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Kevin Tejada: some kind of belief system around it like the vegan stuff you don't want to (10:03):
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Kevin Tejada: consume animal stuff or whatever it is if you're talking purely from a sustenance point of view it (10:07):
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Kevin Tejada: doesn't it doesn't matter your body doesn't really care when it comes to the (10:13):
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Kevin Tejada: the weight loss itself myth three just cut 500 calories daily and lose exactly one pound per week. (10:16):
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Speaker1: To say this for a long time, (10:24):
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Kevin Tejada: And I actually still do say this because it's kind of easier to get the point across. (10:25):
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Kevin Tejada: Have a consistent deficit per day, and then per week you'll lose, (10:29):
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Kevin Tejada: you know, a certain amount. (10:32):
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Kevin Tejada: But this isn't always necessarily the case for people. If you're starting out (10:35):
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Kevin Tejada: and you're attempting to lose, drop 500 calories out of your budget every day, (10:39):
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Kevin Tejada: just because humans are imperfect, you might actually be losing more weight (10:44):
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Kevin Tejada: at the beginning, maybe less because you don't know what you're doing and same (10:48):
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Kevin Tejada: when you're getting really really used to keeping track your food and everything (10:51):
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Kevin Tejada: it might become a bit harder to do you might, (10:56):
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Kevin Tejada: 300 calories instead because cutting down 500 would be fucking not fun at all (10:59):
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Kevin Tejada: and sometimes your body you know adapts to the way that that that this whole (11:05):
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Kevin Tejada: thing works like not everyone is the exact same but the main point is if you (11:10):
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Kevin Tejada: are consistently dropping your your caloric intake Like, (11:14):
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Kevin Tejada: week by week, it's going to drop somewhat consistently too. (11:19):
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Kevin Tejada: Now, if that changes, guess what? Change it again, keep it consistent, (11:22):
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Kevin Tejada: and then the drop should be consistent as well. (11:26):
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Kevin Tejada: That's why I'm going to keep saying 500 per day, you lose a pound a week, (11:29):
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Kevin Tejada: because just the simplicity of it makes sense. (11:32):
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Kevin Tejada: It doesn't always work out that way, but if you try to do that, (11:35):
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Kevin Tejada: it will work out, period. (11:38):
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Speaker1: Myth four, you have to eat clean, (11:41):
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Kevin Tejada: Organic, whole foods to lose weight. god damn it you (11:43):
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Kevin Tejada: should but you don't have to you again you're gonna (11:46):
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Kevin Tejada: eat trash and lose weight i wouldn't recommend it you're gonna feel like you're (11:49):
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Kevin Tejada: gonna feel like trash but you can lose weight eating trash (11:52):
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Kevin Tejada: all about the calories again please eat please have some common sense and don't (11:55):
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Kevin Tejada: eat trash every day but mathematically you can keep that in mind if you can (12:01):
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Kevin Tejada: have a good food trash ratio that works for you final myth high protein diets (12:06):
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Kevin Tejada: damage your kidneys bones and organs, (12:13):
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Kevin Tejada: what the fuck is this talking about yeah. (12:16):
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Speaker1: I'm not sure how to respond to this (12:19):
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Kevin Tejada: Get a lot of protein it's pretty good your your body will will love it, (12:20):
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Kevin Tejada: a lot of people up especially people who you know (12:26):
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Kevin Tejada: they work in tech they they're at their desks all day they want (12:29):
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Kevin Tejada: to maximize they want to optimize this kind of stuff so they're (12:33):
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Kevin Tejada: looking for you know perfect diet perfect eating frequency perfect types of (12:35):
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Kevin Tejada: foods perfect timing and then because life isn't perfect and people aren't perfect (12:40):
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Kevin Tejada: it just doesn't fucking happen and then they do nothing instead so quit that (12:46):
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Kevin Tejada: shit don't worry about most of that stuff just focus on the calories to begin with. (12:50):
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Kevin Tejada: First and foremost, focus on what you eat to begin with. (12:54):
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Kevin Tejada: That's why I recommend to people before they start tracking calories necessarily (12:58):
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Kevin Tejada: in earnest, just track a day or a week, whatever you can do of what you eat right now. (13:02):
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Kevin Tejada: That knowledge will be absurdly helpful for you. (13:08):
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Kevin Tejada: You know, by Friday, you're looking, you're like, hmm, looks like one third (13:11):
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Kevin Tejada: of my calories are from Starbucks. (13:16):
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Kevin Tejada: I wonder if I could allocate those calories elsewhere. If you're aware, (13:18):
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Kevin Tejada: you'll make more informed decisions, obviously. (13:23):
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Speaker1: So I recommend that first. (13:25):
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Kevin Tejada: You get more into it make sure you're tracking well as in don't be so don't (13:29):
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Kevin Tejada: be so so lax about it because then you're going to be inaccurate if you're okay (13:36):
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Kevin Tejada: with kind of a you know a messy, (13:40):
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Kevin Tejada: weight loss or in terms of not knowing exactly what's happening but stuff is (13:42):
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Kevin Tejada: happening just not at a rate that you are aware of then you know have fun with (13:46):
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Kevin Tejada: that but make sure before you say oh it's networking that you're keeping track (13:51):
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Kevin Tejada: properly because then you'll know as best you can. (13:55):
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Kevin Tejada: All right, let's get into some numbers here. (13:59):
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Speaker1: As a reminder, about 500 calories, (14:02):
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Kevin Tejada: If you want to be safer, you can bump it up to about 700 calories less per day. (14:04):
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Kevin Tejada: And by less, I mean, under your maintenance amount will give you about a pound a week of loss. (14:09):
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Kevin Tejada: Now, remember, you can lose less than a pound a week. Keep that in mind. (14:17):
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Kevin Tejada: You're in this for the long term. So don't think, oh, I need to lose a pound (14:20):
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Kevin Tejada: a week. I need to lose 52 pounds this year. (14:23):
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Kevin Tejada: You can lose like 20 or 30 pounds in the year. If you want to lose less per (14:25):
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Kevin Tejada: week and, you know, have your day-to-day intake look a bit different, it's fine. (14:28):
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Kevin Tejada: One to 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight you have would be pretty great. (14:34):
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Kevin Tejada: I think that's fairly hard, kind of hard to achieve depending on what you're eating. (14:43):
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Kevin Tejada: But if you adjust your way of eating to match this, it'll be pretty good long-term. (14:48):
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Kevin Tejada: But what you can also do is instead focus on one gram of protein or 1.2 per (14:52):
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Kevin Tejada: kilogram of body weight you have to start off with. (14:57):
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Kevin Tejada: So for me, that'll be getting 70 something grams of protein per day. (15:01):
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Speaker1: Which is not as hard as getting... (15:05):
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Kevin Tejada: A hundred, 180, 170 something. So just keep that in mind. (15:10):
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Kevin Tejada: Again, don't, don't, don't reach for the numbers in the hardest way possible to begin with. (15:16):
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Kevin Tejada: Try to do something good, you know, sustainable for you first. (15:21):
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Kevin Tejada: 67% is apparently the percentage of days that you need to track your food to (15:27):
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Kevin Tejada: lose 10% of your body weight. (15:32):
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Kevin Tejada: I don't know what, over what period of time. But the point is you don't need (15:35):
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Kevin Tejada: to track perfectly every single food, every single day. (15:39):
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Kevin Tejada: That's ideal, of course, but you just need to do that most. You need to do these (15:42):
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Kevin Tejada: good things most of the time and then you'll reap the benefits. (15:47):
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Kevin Tejada: So it doesn't matter what kind of perfect meal plan you're on, (15:50):
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Kevin Tejada: what kind of perfect diet you're on, whatever it is. (15:55):
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Kevin Tejada: If you can't even stick to that, if you're not happy, it's just not going to last. (15:57):
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Kevin Tejada: So because the calories are all that matter in terms of weight loss, (16:02):
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Kevin Tejada: you know, quality of food is good for everything else. So keep that in mind. (16:07):
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Kevin Tejada: If you want to craft a, a ratio of like pretty good foods, and then you get (16:10):
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Kevin Tejada: some trash here to make your brain happy. (16:15):
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Kevin Tejada: If that's what works for you, you stay in their calorie range, do that. (16:17):
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Kevin Tejada: If you're thinking, yeah, but what about the trash I'd be eating, (16:21):
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Kevin Tejada: you know, every day or so? (16:24):
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Kevin Tejada: I don't know. What the fuck were you eating beforehand? Probably mostly trash, (16:26):
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Kevin Tejada: right? So this is an improvement. (16:29):
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Kevin Tejada: Worry about that. Worry about improving, not being perfect because you're never (16:31):
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Kevin Tejada: going to be perfect. Just be better. (16:34):
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Kevin Tejada: And one thing I can recommend too for the eating is to not... (16:37):
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Kevin Tejada: Ultra-processed foods often because they are similar to what people like to blame carbs for. (16:44):
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Kevin Tejada: They are foods that don't really fill you. They taste good, but give you almost (16:49):
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Kevin Tejada: no nutritional value whatsoever. (16:55):
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Kevin Tejada: And you can have your Pop-Tarts if you want. Just know you will still be hungry (16:57):
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Kevin Tejada: afterwards and you took out a big chunk of your budget. (17:03):
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Kevin Tejada: So if that's worth it for you, have fun, but keep that in mind. (17:06):
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Kevin Tejada: Those kinds of things are going to work against you a lot, especially when you're (17:10):
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Kevin Tejada: down more in your body weight and you need to ration your intake a bit better, (17:14):
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Kevin Tejada: then that's going to be more important. (17:20):
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Kevin Tejada: But do a ratio that works for you. (17:22):
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Kevin Tejada: I'll leave you with this main tip too. Drink a bunch of water. (17:25):
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Kevin Tejada: Sometimes you're not hungry. You're just thirsty. And like I said about the (17:29):
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Kevin Tejada: liquids kind of filling you in there, water's got no calories. It's pretty good. (17:32):
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Kevin Tejada: Drinking a bunch before you eat as well will help you not be as hungry. (17:39):
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Kevin Tejada: So try all that. Try tracking your food first just to see what you eat and then (17:45):
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Kevin Tejada: start adjusting as you see fit for your goal. (17:49):
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Speaker1: Use MyFitnessPal. (17:53):
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Kevin Tejada: Use chronometer, chronometer, however you say it. (17:54):
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Kevin Tejada: Diary, whatever it is. Just remember, you can eat basically whatever you want (17:59):
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Kevin Tejada: to lose weight, but you kind of have to know what it is you're eating. (18:03):
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Speaker1: So you can make adjustments to fit (18:09):
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Kevin Tejada: What you want into that. Even if you eat at restaurants, you can usually track that in some way. (18:11):
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Kevin Tejada: My Fitness Pod has a pretty good database. Or, (18:17):
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Kevin Tejada: many calories is that probably and they give me that now obviously that differs (18:33):
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Kevin Tejada: depending on how big of a fucking scoop the workers actually use but it'll help (18:36):
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Kevin Tejada: it's better than saying well i don't know so keep that in mind you have you have you can have help, (18:41):
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Kevin Tejada: so get that going in a way that's comfortable and you can make it sustainable (18:47):
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Kevin Tejada: just remember you can eat whatever the fuck you want. (18:50):
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Kevin Tejada: Just don't be dumb or else you're not going to make it. (18:54):
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Speaker1: Leave a comment saying what (18:58):
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Kevin Tejada: You thought you absolutely needed to eat to lose weight. And also subscribe (19:00):
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Kevin Tejada: or I'll steal all your fucking Oreos. (19:05):
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Speaker1: All right. See you next time. (19:08):
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