Can you really eat more and lose weight?
You’ve heard it - ‘eat more and lose weight!’.
Who knew the secret solution to your fat loss goals had been that you simply weren’t eating enough thai sweet chilli sensations?
As far as attention-grabbing soundbites go, I’ll admit this one is pretty appealing. But if it sounds too good to be true, you’d be forgiven for raising the question. Context is regularly overlooked in the fitness industry - because nuance is boring, right?
So can you actually eat more and lose weight - or is it just a pipe dream?
Eating More (Calories)
Start eating more calories in your diet and you’ll likely end up in a calorie surplus and over time, gain weight. Logic therefore suggests, to lose weight you must do the opposite of ‘eat more’ and deduct calories from your diet. Calories in, calories out (CICO).
However, this assumes your current eating habits are already causing you to maintain or even gain weight. What if you’re ok with the losing weight bit, but have a tough time keeping it off? Studies show as little as 20% of overweight individuals are successful at long-term weight loss.
Eating More (If you’re not eating enough)
There’s a widespread notion that diet = suffering. Yoni Freedhoff aptly describes this as ‘die’ with a ‘t’. Contrary to popular belief, you probably shouldn’t try to starve yourself on a diet - in fact you should do as much as you can to make it enjoyable.
Why?
To sustain weight loss the methods must be, erm, sustainable and by definition, eating as little as possible is not.
Also, your body is clever. When you slash caloric intake, it recognises what’s happening and makes compensatory changes to energy expenditure (known as ‘metabolic adaption’). This happens for a number of reasons:
There’s less of you which means there’s less energy required to move
You have less energy, feel lethargic and thus move less anyway
Your resting metabolic rate adapts
In essence, your body recognises it has less energy to draw from and so adjusts how much it uses:
In this case, it might make sense to eat a bit more (assuming a calorie deficit is still achieved) to regulate the impact of metabolic adaption. That said, alternating between a larger calorie deficit and taking a break every 2 weeks has shown similar weight loss results over the course of 16 weeks.
Eat More (Energy Density)
So, we’ve established eating a bit more might be better for long-term weight loss if you’re currently eating too little.
What if you’re eating just enough to lose a little bit of weight, but you get so hungry it doesn’t feel doable for any significant time period?
The energy density of a food or drink appears to have the most impact on hunger. This is what I believe most people who claim you can ‘eat more and lose weight’ really mean.
Studies have shown people tend to consume about the same weight of food each day, but not necessarily the same amount of calories. By choosing the lower energy density option, you get to eat a lot more food for the same number of calories:
A glaring omission here, is the enjoyment food brings. But this is’t an all or nothing scenario - more an option to explore should you find yourself hungry and unable to adhere to your calorie deficit.
Great, but ‘what counts as a low energy density food?’ I hear you ask.
Strictly speaking, it's the amount of energy a food or drink contains per unit weight (calories per gram).
Think of it as a continuum - every food and drink sits on it somewhere. The left side includes items typically higher in water content and on the right, there’s items higher in fat:
Eat More (Eat Less?)
What if you felt like you were eating more but actually, you were eating less?
Bare with me - I promise I’m not going sound-bitey on you.
We know eating more low energy density items helps ward off hunger, but they could also mean you eat less total calories. A study found consuming a pre meal low energy dense soup significantly reduced total meal energy intake.
There’s also evidence higher protein intake decreases hunger compared to diets lower in protein which also suggests high protein meals lead to a reduced subsequent energy intake.
From personal experience, the tastiness of a food or drink can be influential here too. The more bland a food - think broccoli or brown rice - the more likely I am to feel full quicker and eat less as a result. Typically these foods have a higher fibre content.
It might seem paradoxical, but it’s quite possible that eating less (overall) can be achieved by eating more.
Eat More (Sometimes more, sometimes less)
Ever tried to eat light through the day, only to find yourself ravenous by the evening? No-one likes a hangry you, so eating a bit more throughout the day might mean you stand a better chance at achieving your calorie deficit (and less chance of annoying your colleagues/family!).
Also give consideration to when and how hard you exercise. There’s evidence that suggests when we eat is of less importance than we once thought, but I know a lot of people who experience elevated hunger post exercise. If you know this applies to you, planning to eat more after exercise will likely suit you better.
What’s important is to factor in your individual lifestyle and preferences because again - it’s a very important component to the continuing success (sustainability) of your efforts. This goes some way to explaining why diet templates and meal plans aren’t that useful, but I’ll save that for another article.
Summary
In some cases eating more is a very credible means to losing weight. After all, your diet should be as tolerable as possible (I’m yet to meet someone who enjoys forcefully under-eating).
In case you need a reminder, here’s what you need to take away in 5 concise bullet points:
‘Eat more and lose weight’ does not mean you can blindly add calories to your diet and expect to lose an inch from your waist.
If you’re already in a calorie deficit, the aim should not be to starve yourself. Eating a bit more might mean you lose weight slower - but you’ll preserve more muscle and increase the likelihood of sustaining your desired body composition.
‘Eat more and lose weight’ does mean eating more foods with a low energy density will likely help you feel more full - which has the potential to reduce total caloric intake.
Eating more protein has been shown to have hunger reducing effects and can also lead to a reduced subsequent energy intake.
Account for your personal preferences - this might mean eating more at certain parts of the day before you get ravenous.
