Hello once again!! This next post is a lot more science-based and less like me telling a story or writing everything that comes to my brain (well…for the most part at least). The goal of this is to help those of you that struggle with nutrition concepts to understand and weed through the sea of nutrition fallacies. This is breaking everything down into its simplest forms, and giving you a great spot to start. Even for those of you that feel more nutrition-savvy, it can be very valuable to revisit some of these basic concepts (which are easily forgotten, by me as well!) and possibly stumble upon one you forgot to implement. It could end up being the key to getting you out of your rut and back on the track you’d like to be on! 

Before we get started, even though nobody asked, I’ll talk a little bit about my “qualifications” (they are actually qualifications and real certificates and all that fancy stuff, I just don’t really like the term “qualifications”… I can’t help but say it in a funny voice and push my glasses further up my nose). I am certified through NASM to be a personal coach, have a nutrition certification through Precision Nutrition, an associates degree and work-in-progress bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology (study of how the body moves), a women’s health specialist certification through NASM, and am CPR/AED certified as well (although I should warn you, I can not yet perform CPR through the computer, so if the vast nutrition knowledge in this post gives you a heart attack, I shall sadly not be able to be of assistance). As far as experience goes, I have been training clients for over 4 years, teaching and training in Kung Fu and Tai Chi for over 10, working out for about 13, and have gone through almost every “fad” diet I could think of. So, I have some experience in this area. But as always, make sure to question everything you hear, all the time. And if something doesn’t sound right, I recommend doing your own research or testing it out yourself! The things I’ll be breaking down have been verified in numerous studies, have worked for almost every client and student I’ve had, and have worked for me personally as well. But even then, the industry is constantly changing, what I say now may not be fact in another 3 or 5 years, so make sure to listen to your own intuition and try things out for yourself! 

Let’s get started, shall we? The way this post is going to be organized is by me explaining the steps I would take with a client to help them lose fat and gain muscle (this is called a body recomposition), which is one of the most sought-after goals in the industry (and with my clients as well). After explaining what I’d have my client do to start, I’ll include a “reason” portion so you can see WHY I have my clients take those specific steps; this helps you see why exactly you’re doing what you’re doing, and helps with consistency and keeping the strategy’s importance high. What I challenge you to do is to follow these steps yourself and do your best to start implementing what you can. 

One of the most important pieces in this is tracking your progress; this gives you information on what path to take next, and also gives you some motivation that you’re moving in the right direction! Progress checks should happen usually about once a month, but for the start of this while we’re learning how your body works we’ll do progress checks about every 2-3 weeks. As a disclaimer, I want you guys to understand that you aren’t going to see a tremendous amount of progress in just 2 weeks, AND if you aren’t moving the direction you want to go right away that is not a fail. All that is is you getting more information on seeing what is working and what isn’t; paths are simply being opened and closed for you to help you see where you should go next. 

Progress checks I recommend are progress pictures (front, side, back; taken at the same time and in the same clothing), body composition scans (if you have access), measurements (I have a video on how to do this on Instagram @taylormillerfitness if you’d like to learn how to do them yourself), and daily energy and sleep check-ins (something as simple as the date, and how good your energy and sleep was on a scale of 1-10). Take those progress checks first, and then we’ll talk about steps to take next! 

First thing I would recommend you start with for nutrition would be working on adding healthy food to your current eating-situation. The goal is to start with something simple and easy to incorporate! For example, if you have cereal for breakfast then we can add protein powder to the cereal (it tastes better than it sounds!) and add a small serving of fruit. Then, we’ll do that consistently for each meal for about 2 weeks (to build the habit) and then go from there. If you’d like to take that a step further, then you could eat the healthy additions FIRST, and eat the rest of the meal after. For example, if you have a PB&J for lunch, we could add extra peanut butter to the sandwich and add apples on the side, and you could make it a kind of game to eat the apples first and the sandwich after. This allows you to ensure you’re getting the healthier food first (and helps to keep it consistent, so it isn’t forgotten while you’re paying attention to the rest of the meal); this could also be the start of helping you not overeat (if that’s something you struggle with), while still getting the healthier food in. 

Reason: Adding healthy food is a great way to help keep a positive mindset around these changes, and a positive mindset allows for easier maintenance and happiness throughout your life, while still attaining your goals. If we only focus on taking things away, it can leave a bad taste in our mouths and make it less likely for us to stick to what we’re doing; consistency is key. Fruits and veggies as one of the additions to each meal gives you more fiber (to help with digestion, gut health, and satiety (keeps you full)) and necessary nutrients to help your body do what it needs to do. Adding protein allows you to maintain muscle mass during a cut (muscle is metabolically active, so the more muscle you have the more calories you burn naturally throughout the day, meaning you have to make less changes to your current diet), and it also keeps you full for longer.

After those 2 weeks you can take your progress checks and see what’s happening so far (it is likely you’ll start to slowly see and feel results already). Next thing I would recommend after keeping that consistent for about 2 weeks would be to start switching certain foods out for healthier foods (in addition to continuing to add the extra fruits/veggies and protein to each meal). For example, if you like pasta you could use whole grain pasta instead, lower fat sauce (if possible), plant-based butter, plant-based cheese (or lower fat cheese), and lean or plant-based meat. Start switching certain foods up for healthier versions, and do that for another 2 weeks consistently, and then we’ll check back in once again!  

And again, after those 2 consistent weeks of this next step you can take more progress pics and see what’s happening so far. Next (also keep in mind that consistent mainly means at least 85% of the time, in order for this to work you do NOT need to be perfect) we can move on to the next step! Next, we would track your calories as accurately as possible for 3 days (eat the same way you’ve been eating, inputting drinks and everything, and being HONEST). After those 3 days, take the amount of calories and total them up, then divide by 3. This is about how many calories you have been eating day to day. For example: if you eat about 2,500 calories one day, 2,000 calories the next day, and 1,800 calories the third day, then the total of that would be 6,300 calories, divided by 3 would then be 2,100 calories on average. Now, we’ll subtract 200 from your number. This amount (that would be 1,900 for our example) is what you’re going to be aiming for for the next 2 weeks. I highly recommend you track during these 2 weeks to keep everything as accurate as possible for our experiment to work (you won’t have to track your entire life, this is temporary! Think of tracking as your training wheels, once you understand how your body responds to certain foods and calorie amounts you can move towards eating intuitively!). 

Reason: We track calories for 3 days extremely accurately with no further changes to see how much you eat on average, this gives us a number to start with. That number is going to be our first trial number to make changes to. And remember that we are still adding extra protein and a serving of fruit/veggies to each meal, but now we’re shooting for 200 calories less. The easiest way to do that is to lower the amount of fats and processed carbs you consume, while keeping everything else the same (like the whole foods and protein); things like lessening how much oil you use when cooking, less cheese, less butter, less mayo, things like that! And notice how I didn’t say to eliminate anything, we’re just lessening how much we use! 

Lastly, we check in once again using whatever forms of progress you choose (I highly recommend making circumference measurements (mainly waist), the body composition scanner, and energy and sleep ratings as your main progress checks, for accuracy and ease for reading the results). If you are losing fat the way you want to, then keep doing what you’re doing! You’re on the right track. If you are maintaining the same amount of fat, or are gaining, then subtract another 200 calories. We will continue doing it exactly like this; maintaining a change for 2 weeks, seeing how our body responds (progress checks), make changes again and maintain for another 2 weeks, and continue that over and over. Keep in mind there are TONS of other things that could help you if you get too hungry, your calories end up too low, you still aren’t seeing progress, etc. This is where having a coach is absolutely necessary, because everyone is different and responds to things differently. 

Extra Credit: For even more efficient fat loss I would VERY HIGHLY recommend starting a resistance training program (lifting weights and focusing on building muscle and shaping your body the way you want it). Muscle is metabolically active, which means that the more muscle you have, the more calories you’re going to be burning every day without any other changes to your food. Muscle also allows you to achieve the body of your dreams. Fat loss shows your body, and muscle shapes it. 

I would also recommend increasing your NEAT (nonexercise activity thermogenesis, fancy-talk for any movement you do that isn’t structured exercise). The way to do this is by parking further from where you need to go, using the stairs, fidgeting more, or setting an alarm to walk around or stretch every hour while working. This is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to lose fat as well (in addition to everything else of course). 

This is where we’ll stop for today! What I outlined for you here are the most basic steps to start to achieve fat loss on your own (although I always highly recommend getting a trusted coach to help you with the process). Now keep in mind that there are a million other variables that could contribute to you achieving success from this, and a billion other ways for you to approach this to make it most sustainable and enjoyable for you as an individual. 

Some things I’d like to outline once again and for you to remember are to track your progress and understand that even if you aren’t moving in the direction you want to right away it isn’t a fail, it is simply you gathering information and allowing paths and next steps to open or close for you so you can get to your goal as efficiently as possible. I’d also like to again highlight the importance of having a coach to walk you through this and do the tough organization and next steps outline FOR you, so all you have to do is communicate your difficulties (so the coach can help you through, or find different paths you haven’t thought of or tried) and maintain consistency. 

I hope this helps. If you have any questions at all please reach out! I respond the fastest to DMs, and have more content on this topic on my Instagram account @taylormillerfitness. Thank you for reading, let’s get to these goals!