Eat More, Not Less: High Volume Eating Approach to Fat Loss After 50 [Ep 78]

Can you actually lose weight after 50 by eating more? Discover why standard calorie restriction often backfires when trying to lose weight. Many women struggling to lose weight after 50 rely on outdated advice to simply eat less. 

This episode covers why that approach frequently fails and presents a different perspective on weight management. You will learn the science behind why your body might actually need more fuel to initiate fat loss. By adjusting your eating strategy, you can better support your health and long-term goals. 

This information is designed for women over 50 who feels stuck in a cycle of restrictive dieting without seeing results. A simple next step is to check your next meal for protein, fiber, and water-rich foods, and grab the free Lean and Strong Checklist for full framework to lose inches, boost energy and feel fit: https://lisadupreecoaching.com/checklist

Thanks for listening!

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Want more between episodes? Follow Lisa DuPree Coaching for tips, encouragement, and real talk on building strength, losing menopause weight and feeling at home in your body again after 50: 

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Transcript

Lisa DuPree: Hello, hello and welcome back to Midlife Mojo Fit and Flourishing After 50. Today we're gonna be talking about something that I think might sound a little backwards at first, eating more food, not less, to lose weight after 50. And so here's what I'm gonna be covering today. Wanna talk about why the generic advice of just eat less doesn't work for most of us.

We're gonna break down what actually makes a plate of food filling And we're also gonna talk about how to build that plate out so that you know kind of exactly what goes on your plate. And I'm also gonna give you a simple guideline that makes this whole process sustainable instead of, you know, one more diet that falls apart in three weeks.

And so by the end of this episode, you are gonna know exactly how to build a plate that keeps you [00:01:00] full, it also supports your muscle, and gets you into a fat loss deficit. So let's just dive right in with why eating less backfires, right? So many of us have a story about undereating. Like I know I do, I bet most of you do as well.

Back in the '90s, if I can remember back that far, like I worked in corporate health promotion, and I watched over and over women trying to lose weight by barely eating. They were living on Lean Cuisine meals and SlimFast. And, you know, those are highly processed, low volume, low calorie foods. And then here is what happened just about every single time.

They were hungry all day long, like hangry, and then they'd be able to white-knuckle it for a week, maybe two weeks, and then they would just give in, and go ham, and eat everything in [00:02:00] sight. And then they'd feel awful, both physically and emotionally, and that just set them up for a rollercoaster of restrict, binge, crash, repeat.

And the big problem was their deficit was built around low volume, low nutrient foods that were also low calorie, but left them hungry and undernourished at the same time. And so, uh, you know, I've had my own experience with this. Um, I really love food. I love it. I love chocolate, and if I had tried to get lean enough to step on a competition stage to do a bikini competition just by following the generic eating less, you know, re- advice, it never would've worked.

I would not have been able to stick to it. Um, and even if I had like stuck to it, just white-knuckled it, I... It wouldn't have stayed off, right? During my competition prep time, my goal for protein was about, I don't know, [00:03:00] 120 to 140 grams and about 25 to 30 fam- grams of fiber a day, and it was usually on the higher end of both of those.

And with the calorie level I was at, it was a lot of food. I remember, um, on more than one occasion getting to the evening and still having, like, two full meals to eat, and actually complaining about having to eat more food. And then also you couple that with your brain. My brain was conditioned to think there's no way you are gonna lose fat eating so dang much.

But I, I trusted the process, and after my last competition, I did a reverse diet to get back to a sustainable level of calories, not staying in a calorie deficit, and get to a body fat level that I feel best at. And so now that I'm not prepping to get on a stage in a really skimpy bit- bikini, I'm in maintenance.

And so I'm training for real life, for high energy, for strength I [00:04:00] can actually use day to day. And so my protein target is a little lower now. And I'm sharing this 'cause I want you to see that the exact targets move depending on where you're working toward. But the principle underneath it never changes.

The high protein, high fiber, high volume, high nutrient is, you know, what helped me get lean and also what helps me maintain. And so the goal really isn't a smaller plate and less food. The goal is a fuller plate of the right things to fuel your body, your activity level in a way that's aligned with what you are working to achieve And so let's get into a little bit of the science for just a second, um, 'cause I think this may be the part that can help kinda change how you look at your plate forever.

And there are three things that help drive how full you are after a meal, and that's protein, fiber, and water [00:05:00] content. So those are the three I'm talking about today. Protein is highly satiating, gram for gram, and it actually triggers hormones in your gut, like

GLP-1 and peptide YY, and those are the things that send a signal to your brain saying, "Hey, we- we're satisfied here.

We're good." Fiber adds bulk to your food without adding a lot of calories. So your stomach actually physically stretches and fills up without the calorie count going up very much at all. And then water-rich foods, they do something similar. Things like cucumbers, zucchini, broccoli, leafy greens. They're mostly water, which means that you can eat a bigger volume of them for very few calories.

So when you put those three together, protein, fiber, and water, that combination is exactly why you can have a really big plate of food that actually has fewer calories than a smaller plate of more processed [00:06:00] food, and it can also leave you full for longer, even with those less calories. Like, no willpower, no restrictive portion control.

The food itself is actually doing the bulk of the work, and that just makes it easier for you, and, you know, who doesn't love that? So, you know, let's talk a little bit about what actually goes on that plate, what it might look, what it might look like. I want you to think about, um, like, the components of a lean protein, like fiber-rich, colorful vegetables, and then complex carbohydrates.

And so thinking about having some sort of protein at every meal. You know, chicken, eggs, fish, Greek yogurt, those kind of things. Aim for about 25 to 35 grams per meal, and then fill up about half your plate with fibrous vegetables. So leafy greens, broccoli, zucchini, peppers. These are all the foods that are gonna do heavy [00:07:00] lifting for that volume.

And you wanna aim for, you know, about 8 to 10 grams of fiber per meal, working up to about 25 grams a day And then there's carpl- then there's complex carbohydrates, and those are whole grains, beans, sweet potatoes. These things are there to fuel your training and also help with recovery as well. It also, some of them will give you fiber, so get the fiber boost in there.

And this matters so much for the season of life that we're in, and, you know, it's not just about staying full and at a deficit, it's about getting those phytonutrients and those micronutrients that your body needs. Because when our estrogen declines, it speeds up bone loss. And if we're losing bone faster than we used to and losing weight at the same time, that actually puts your bones at more risk.

So that means calcium, vitamin D, vitamin K, magnesium. They're not just nice to have, you know, they're protective, especially while you [00:08:00] are in a little bit of a calorie deficit. Estrogen also has an anti-inflammatory effect, so when it drops, inflammation and cardiovascular risk tend to climb and so the micronutrients like magnesium, selenium, those kind of things can help counter that, as well as phytonutrients.

And phytonutrients are those plant compounds that are in fruits and vegetables that give them their color. Like you may have heard of things like polyphenols. And so this isn't just really a fat loss plate, it's a plate that's taking care of you on many different levels And so, um, that's not to say that I think processed foods are evil.

I don't. I do think we've been sold a story about them that isn't quite true or accurate. Processed diet foods or processed foods that are low in calorie were never meant to keep you full. They were meant to be low in calorie, [00:09:00] and low calorie generally means low volume. And so that's the trade-off that nobody really talks about.

Whole foods give you more food for the same amount of calories, plus they keep the fiber and the water content that the processed versions tend to strip out along with some of the nutrients. And so, you know, is it okay to grab a protein bar or have a protein shake? Absolutely, yes. But the whole foods, the high volume foods should be the default, not the backup plan, uh, you know?

So you don't want to, to have those processed foods as the bulk of your diet. All right, and so, um, this is a part that actually makes it sustainable though, instead of like, you know, one more diet or way of eating that you have to white-knuckle it for a couple of weeks and then abandon. And I just, I just follow the 90/10 rule.

90% of your [00:10:00] m- meals follow everything we just talked about, protein, water, fiber-rich foods, complex carbohydrates, a full plate every meal. 10% of the time, you eat the fun foods. You have the chocolate, you have the treat, you go and have a meal out with the people that you love, whatever fun food means for you.

And so thinking about like 90/10, I wanna make it a little bit more concrete by giving you some specific examples 'cause it kinda sounds pretty abstract. So let's say you're eating three meals a day plus a snack. So that's four eating occasions a day, and then seven days in a week, so that's 28 eating occasions over the course of a week.

10% of 28 is roughly two to three. And so that's not 10% of every single day. It's about two or three slots, eating occasions, across your whole week where the fun [00:11:00] food fits in. And so, like, what does that look like? Sometimes it's just like an add-on, like, uh, a dessert, having a couple of squares of a really good dark chocolate after dinner, or having a glass of wine when you're out with friends.

Sometimes it's a meal in itself, like pizza night or like brunch with a mimosa instead of your usual protein-forward breakfast And so, um, sometimes it can even be just, like, changing up your snack with a delicious cookie instead of your usual Greek gr- yogurt. Like, none of this is bad, but what you need to keep in mind is the other 25 eating occasions, like, that is where you are having that protein, fiber, complex carbohydrate, water-rich foods, a full plate, and then you have two to three fun ones, you know, that fit in in the overall week.

And then I... And really, if you wanna give this a try, I'd encourage you, decide, to decide what [00:12:00] those times are at the beginning of your week, like pre-decide rather than waiting to decide in the moment. 'Cause if you wait until you're standing in front of a dessert table, um, w- you know, it's really easy to tell yourself, "Oh, I've earned it because I've had a really hard day," or, "I've earned it 'cause I've been really good all week," or, "I'll make up for this tomorrow."

Like, that's bargaining, and that bargaining turns back into that restrict, binge, crash cycle that we talked about earlier. And so deciding ahead of time takes that bargaining out of it completely. You already know pizza night is Friday night. There's nothing to earn back. There's nothing to make up for, right?

And here's the point of that 10%. It's not cheating. All foods can fit, so you're not white-knuckling anything. You're not relying on willpower, 'cause nothing is forbidden. So let's go back where we started. You know those women in the '90s that I watched live on Lean Cuisine and SlimFast, [00:13:00] they had zero flexibility and 100% restriction, and that's exactly why it never lasted for them.

And the women who actually keep the weight, the weight off long term aren't the ones who are perfect with an iron will or have some special metabolism, right? They're the ones who built in room for real life, because real life happens. And so we started with why eating less alone backfires, especially when it's built on low volume and processed foods.

We talked about three things that actually make food filling: protein, fiber, water. And then we built out a plate together, like lean protein, fibrous vegetables, complex carbohydrates. We talked about why whole food should be your default, and then we closed with that 90/10 rule, which really is what makes all of this something you can actually [00:14:00] live with and not just survive for a couple of weeks.

And that's because body transformation or body recomposition, which is building and maintaining muscle while losing fat, it really isn't necessarily about eating less, right? It's about creating a small calorie deficit, but it's also eating more of the right things so that you are in a small deficit, but you don't feel starved all the time, and you're getting enough nutrients.

So I got lean enough to step on a competition stage, and I've kept it off because I built my plan around volume and satisfaction, not deprivation and, and, you know, forbidden, forbidding certain kinds of foods. And so that's not just, you know, a lucky exception. It, it's just the actual mac- mechanism of it all, and I trusted the process [00:15:00] so that...

And I stuck with it long enough to get the results that I was after. And so here's the one thing for you to try in the next twenty-four hours if you're up to it, and that is at your very next meal, look at your plate and then ask yourself, "Where is my protein on the plate? Where is my fiber? And, and how much water-rich food do I have on here?"

And just notice it. That's it. That single check-in starts building that awareness, and that's what makes this whole approach of high volume, high protein eating become automatic over time. So if you want the full framework laid out for you, this is what's in my Lean and Strong Checklist. The link is in the description.

So it's free, so go grab it if you haven't already. And until next time, get out there and keep your mojo rising.