Caution to the “if it fits in the calories” crowd (yes I’m one of you)

Tldr; yes if it fits works for CICO and weight loss. But if you are doing consistent workouts, your body needs protein. Don’t trade in your protein for rice cakes and beer.

To the “if it fits crowd”:

I am your biggest advocate. I am queen of fitting in a couple beers and a burger or the occasional treat on 1400-1600 a day. I advocate strongly for this approach because I believe we NEED to eat a variety of foods that we love to be sustainable in this. But I realized something tonight, I’m abusing this to my own detriment athletically. I used to do this for the occasional Starbucks treat, now it’s like a game and I do it wayyyy too often.

I’ve been working out progressively harder, think workouts of 60+ weighted squats, 50+ burpees, etc. 45 minutes a day, 5 days a week, walking about 13K steps average, and I start every day with about 25 minutes of yoga. I also play tennis 30-60 minutes several days a week. During the day I do yard work, I garden, today I refinished furniture, I clean and get stuff set up around the house (we just moved, new house, lots to do, teacher with time to do it). I basically don’t sit down except to eat until about 8pm most days.

Lately I’ve been feeling achy and tired, lacking strength for workouts, afternoon cravings are rough, you know the drill. I should know the drill too. But I also know my intake is a reasonable deficit, I monitor my rate of loss, I use an adaptive TDEE spreadsheet. So everything should be fine. I’m doing this right, right?

But I’m trying to listen to my body so I stop ending up hurt and overweight.

So I made a plan to finish the 8th week of the BBG beginner program this week, and then instead of going into BBG or redoing the last few weeks, I was going to switch to the body and mind yoga workout program to give my body a break from the impact. Because I feel tired. I feel rundown.

Then I had an epiphany, I ate over my calories today. Didn’t feel bad about it because I said I’m listening to my body and it’s acting like it needs this. But I ate over my calories in crap. I only consumed 47g of protein. Yup, you read that right.

So I looked back and while my protein intake hasn’t been BAD, for my level of activity it has not been enough. So I’m about to go even more over my calories and have some Greek yogurt with protein powder (chocolate powder and freeze the whole thing, DELICIOUS) because I need to take care of my body.

So yes, fit in your treats and your fries, that is SO important. But if you are fitness minded as well, don’t forget your protein intake. I’m not a huge advocate of macros on here because they aren’t necessary for the average person. But if you are moving A LOT more than the average person, you need to fuel your muscles so they can heal.

Thanks for coming to my talk kids, just a friendly reminder.

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