He specialises in working with people that have busy lives and don't necessarily have time to exercise and cook complex nutritious meals. Having had a 9-5 desk-job, Joe understands the struggles of juggling a hectic life with trying to maintain a good physique.
Joe has helped over 100 professionals lose weight and feel better about themselves using simple, repeatable daily habits and an easy-to-use spreadsheet to track everything.
Joe has also been quoted on several respected sites including Nike, Live Science and Health.com.
While Joe mainly works online these days, he also offers 1-2-1 personal training sessions across Sussex and Surrey.
If you want to know more, check out the about page, or get in touch
- How Much Weight Can You Realistically Lose in 3 Months? - January 14, 2024
- How To Lose 1kg a Week (Guaranteed) - August 20, 2023
- How To Count Calories (or Estimate) and Stay on Track When Eating Out at Restaurants - July 25, 2023
I speak a lot about methods vs principles in my blog post, emails and on social media.
A method of dieting is âKetoâ, or âVeganâ for example, but a principle is calories in vs calories out. While you can use whatever method you like for dieting, the underlying principle that will dictate whether youâll actually lose weight is that youâre eating fewer calories than you use on a daily basis.
You can do Keto if you like, but if youâre not eating fewer calories than you use, you wonât lose weight. So, the principle always trumps the method.
Now there are hundreds of methods, but very few principles. If weight loss is the goal everyone needs to start off with âcalories in vs calories outâ as both the principle and the method, i.e. you need to start counting calories to truly appreciate how this principle works.
But this doesnât mean you need to count calories forever.
In fact, those who have experience with losing weight by counting calories can eventually transition away from tracking by adopting initiative eating and intuitive fasting.
WHAT IS INTUITIVE EATING?
Intuitive eating put simply, is a method of eating whereby you allow your intuition to dictate when you eat, how much you eat, and what you eat, rather than a rigid plan put in place by a coach or trainer.
For example, rather than sticking to the rigid rule of eating breakfast every morning, if you are intuitively eating, you may decide to skip breakfast entirely on the mornings when youâre not hungry.
By the same token, if you know you are going to be doing some physical activity that day; letâs say you are commuting into the city to work which means a lot of walking and climbing stairs, then you might have some carbs with breakfast, for example; Scrambled Eggs with toast. If you know youâre working from home that day, you might have a lighter carb-free breakfast like yogurt with fruit.
Intuitive eating is all about listening to hunger signals your body is giving you in order to make decisions about what and when to eat. But itâs also about preempting when hunger is going to occur and acting accordingly to limit your calorie intake. This 2020 study found that âIntuitive eating was linked to greater weight stabilityâ in men and women when compared to very rigid or very flexible eating patterns
In my opinion, Successful intuitive eating is only really possible after a long period of tracking calories. Tracking calories gives you the solid background context you need about the number of calories certain foods actually contain, allowing you to make intelligent decisions when you remove the âguidewheelsâ of calorie tracking
WHAT IS INTUITIVE FASTING?
Intuitive fasting is similar as a concept to intuitive eating, but itâs more about knowing when NOT to eat. This is just as important as knowing when to eat.
One example might be if youâve had a big meal and lots of drinks on a Saturday night. Before you started tracking calories you might well have just got on with your Sunday eating schedule âas normalâ, i.e. getting up and having breakfast without even thinking.
When working within the intuitive fasting framework, however, rather than just blindly eating without thinking, you might recognize that youâre not hungry on Sunday morning, so you skip breakfast entirely.
DOES INTUITIVE EATING WORK FOR EVERYONE?
Definitely not.
In my experience, intuitive eating will only work well for people who have prior experience of calorie tracking and calorie restriction. These people have effectively already taken the âred pillâ and seen exactly how calorie intake (and calorie output) affects body weight.
This pilot study carried out in 2012 compared the effectiveness of intuitive eating to calorie restriction for two groups of obese adults. The study showed that calorie restriction was actually more effective for weight loss than intuitive eating, with the calorie restriction group losing weight consistently throughout the duration of the study.
This is likely because the participants were obese, and had no prior experience with eating in accordance with their hunger levels, most likely eating ad libitum, while the calorie restriction group had much firmer guidelines.
THE GOLDEN RULES FOR INTUITIVE EATING
While intuitive eating doesnât need a heavily structured approach, it does pay to have some ground rules in place.
Youâll likely learn many of these on your calorie tracking journey anyway, this certainly isnât an exhaustive list, but these are the measures I put in place to make eating intuitively easy and effortless.
- TRACK YOUR WEIGHT
So you might not be tracking calories anymore, but you should definitely track your weight.
Calorie tracking can be time-consuming and invasive for some, but tracking your weight certainly doesnât require the same time commitment, it takes as little as 5 seconds each morning and simply requires standing on the scales.
The advantage of doing this is that youâll get a constant feedback loop as to whether your need to adjust anything, or even temporarily revert back to calorie tracking for a short period to get back on track.
Itâs far better to weigh yourself daily and spot that your weight is trending up, rather than to weigh yourself once a month only to learn youâve put on 5-10lbs without even realizing.
- LISTEN TO YOUR BODY
Your body is pretty good at telling you when you need to eat and when you donât.
There are a couple of different hormones that regulate hunger levels, i.e. Leptin and Ghrelin. When you need to eat, the body secretes Leptin, which is the âhunger hormoneâ and will increase your drive to eat. Conversely, Ghrelin will be produced when youâre full and no longer need to eat.
In the absence of calorie tracking, itâs even more important to listen to these hormones.
When you feel yourself getting hungry, eat a moderate amount, this will stop becoming ravenous and over-consuming calories.
When youâre full, stop eating. Or just donât eat in the first place, which leads me on to my next tipâŚ
- ABANDON SOCIAL CONSTRUCTS
I genuinely believe that lots of people struggle to lose weight because they are tied to the Western social construct of âthree square meals a dayâ.
This isnât a physiological requirement, but rather a trend thatâs become part of our environment; you eat breakfast lunch and dinner, right? Thatâs how youâve always done it, so why change?
Well, because you donât necessarily need 3 meals each day.
Some days, you might only need 2, or even 1.
The number of meals you âneedâ depends on your activity levels, but donât be afraid to skip a meal or even have one meal a day if you donât feel you need it or you arenât hungry.
- PLAN AHEAD
If you know youâre going out for a big meal out in the evening, donât blindly eat your regular breakfast and lunch.
The likelihood youâll end up with more daily calories than usual if you do that is high. Instead, eat much smaller portions than you normally would at breakfast and lunch to compensate for the amount youâll be eating at dinner.
- CREATE CALORIE âBUFFERSâ
The idea of a calorie âbufferâ is similar to what Iâve just described above, but these can be used before or after the âeventâ.
So, if youâve had a bout of high-calorie intake and you haven’t eaten lighter leading up to as a preventative measure, you can always create the buffer afterward.
So, after a big meal on a Saturday night, you might fast on Sunday to compensate for the unusually high-calorie intake
- EAT LOW CALORIE DENSE FOODS
Low calorie dense foods are foods that will fill you up, but without packing too many calories. Doing this will drastically improve your chances of maintaining your weight because you will be more full, more of the time, so youâll feel less drive to reach for high-calorie foods.
Low-calorie dense foods are typically vegetables, fruit, low-fat dairy and certain cuts of lean meats. Some examples might be;
- Spinach
- Kale
- Broccoli
- Berries
- Apples
- Sweet Potatoes
- Turkey breast
- White fish
- Low fat yogurt
- Low fat milk
If you ensure that these types of foods make up the bulk of your diet, youâll struggle to overeat on calories and youâll always feel full and satisfied
- SNACK ON PROTEIN
Mindless snacking is an easy way to rack up the calories quickly, so if you are going to snack you need to ensure that what youâre eating is going to be filling and healthy.
High protein snacks are the way to go. Protein is good for weight loss and weight maintenance for all kinds of reasons, but one of the main reasons is that it can help to keep you full.
You also burn more calories digesting protein than you do carbs or fat.
2-0 to protein!
So, if youâre going to snack, prioritize, high protein, low-calorie options, some examples are;
- Boiled eggs
- Beef Jerky/Biltong
- Cottage Cheese
- Whey protein shakes
- Protein bars
- Low fat yogurts
- Low fat milk
- MAKE THE MOST OF LOW HUNGER
We already know that you need to listen to your bodyâs hunger signals so you know how much to eat, but what if youâre not hungry at all?
Take advantage of it.
Not hungry at breakfast? Skip breakfast.
Not hungry at lunch? Skip lunch
You get the idea⌠This is essentially whatâs called âintuitive fastingâ.
Think about it. You are not doing yourself any favours by eating when youâre not hungry, but by not doing so, youâre saving yourself however many calories you were going to eat.
That could be 200 calories or 2,000 calories.
If you skip a couple of meals per week, thatâs a LOT of calories.
- PLAN FEASTS AROUND EVENTS
Eating a ton of calories is usually a lot more fun at social events; BBQs, Weddings, Work nights out.
At events like this, the booze will usually be flowing and theyâll often be near-limitless supplies of food. If youâre not careful you could end up eating (and drinking) 1,000s of extra calories. This doesnât need to be a problem as long as youâre not doing this on a regular basis at home as well.
Think about it⌠Is sitting at home on your own eating a huge pizza then feeling bloated for days afterwards really that fun? No? Then stop doing it.
A simple rule is to eat light and eat when youâre at home on your own, and save the calorie-blowouts for fun, social occasions.
- DONâT BUY CALORIE DENSE FOODS
Tip number 6 was about sticking to low-calorie dense foods.
It should therefore come as little surprise that the opposite of that tip is to avoid calorie-dense foods. Calorie dense foods are generally foods that are high in fat, these include;
- Cooking oil
- Butter
- Nuts
- Nut Butters (e.g. Peanut butter)
- Chocolate
- Cream and Full fat milk
- Any foods containing one or more of these elements
All of these foods will contain lots of calories, so avoiding them will help you naturally keep a lid on your calorie intake.
Now, Iâm not telling you to âeat cleanâ or anything, far from it, but what I would recommend is not buying these sorts of calorie-dense foods when you do your weekly/monthly grocery shop. If you want to grab a Chocolate Peanut butter brownie when you grab a coffee now and again, great, but if you donât have these foods in your cupboards, you canât eat them on a regular basis, simple.
HOW TO TRANSITION AWAY FROM CALORIE TRACKING
Itâs all very well knowing how to eat and fast intuitively, but what if youâre not there yet? What if youâre still tracking calories daily and worried about removing the guide rails?
To reiterate, you should only be looking to transition to intuitive eating and intuitive fasting if youâve been tracking calories successfully (i.e. using it to achieve your goal; probably weight loss) for a 12 month period.
But when youâve been doing that, what should be your next steps?
- Track every other day
Donât just stop tracking one day. Start tracking every other day, youâll probably be nervous about doing this, but youâll still be tracking your weight, so yourâ safety wheelsâ are well and truly on. Worst case scenario, you can always just go back to tracking daily.
The idea is however that your habits will be so ingrained that for the days you donât track, your calories should fall within your normal daily calorie intake figures anyway.
Track everyday other day for a month
- Track 3 days per week
Next, transition to 3 days per week.
Make sure that ONE of these days is a weekend day, the reason for this is that youâre much more likely to overeat on weekend days, so by tracking on at least one day, youâll be keeping yourself in check.
Track 3 days a week for 2 weeks.
- Stop tracking altogether (but still weigh yourself everyday)
After 6 weeks of intermittent calorie tracking, just stop.
Itâll be scary, but you need to do it at some point.
Remember; the world is going to end, youâll still be weighing yourself on a daily basis, so if anything goes drastically wrong, youâre going to know about it pretty quickly.
Providing you continue to weigh yourself, and stick to all the good habits youâve ingrained throughout your diet, as well as sticking to these intuitive eating golden rules, thereâs no reason why you canât maintain your weight for the long term, without yo-yo dieting or tracking calories ever again.
SUMMARY
For me, intuitive eating and intuitive fasting should be the endgame for anyone looking to maintain the weight theyâve lost on their diet.
Most people need to be very careful about âjumping the gunâ with intuitive eating however because itâs virtually impossible to eat intuitively unless you have the background context of calorie tracking for at least 12 months.
Without this context, youâll just intuitively eat an amount of food that will prevent you from losing weight.
REFERENCES
Intuitive eating is connected to self-reported weight stability in community women and men: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30821648/
Assessing the effectiveness of intuitive eating for weight loss – pilot study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23139388/
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