You may need to eat more.

How often do you hear you need to eat less and diet more?

There is always a new diet or cleanse to try. One that maybe didn't work last time but could be your answer this time.

Today, I'm going to take a different approach for you to consider.

I have worked with countless woman and their answer 9/10 times is that they haven't been eating enough. I worked with a lady and she was down 20 pounds after 12 weeks. She had been doing weight watchers and doing different diets for years. Once she started adding food in the fat started to come off.

Why does this happen? As we get into this dieting cycle we tend to do what we know or are familiar with.

So we eat less and less....until there is nothing else we can do because we're already eating so little.

A lot of times what happens in this scenario is two things

1. We eat less and less during the week but than on the weekends loose control and end up majorly over eating. Sometimes to the point of binging.

2. Another thing that could happen is that we just get stuck eating so little, energy so low and nothing left to try. So we stay stuck.

Our bodies are amazing. They adapt to what they're given. So if you drop your calories so drastically your body will adapt. Same if you increase your calories. your body will adapt.

Then there is a factor of your metabolism. Simply put you need to be feeding your metabolism or it will slow down.

Your body needs a certain amount of carbs, fat and protein. Carbs gives your body the energy it needs. Fat regulates hormones. Protein maintains or builds your muscle. So what that means is if you're not getting enough protein in. You could lose weight, sure, but it doesn't necessarily mean fat.

A way you can start is by focusing on one thing. Eating enough protein.

Yes, you could go by calories but I have found protein to be such a huge factor I think its a great starting point.

So, how do you know how much protein you should be eating? On average. Your body weight in grams is an adequate amount of protein. But, you can also multiply your body weight from .6-1.2 . Now, how do you know what range you should shoot for? If you have 30+ pounds to lose you should shoot for closer to .6. If you are looking to build muscle you should gravitate towards 1.2.

For example. I am looking to build muscle. I weigh 140 pounds. So I am shooting for 150 grams of protein. Now I could technically go to 154 but I'm shooting for 150 right now because thats more realistic for me.

So what I encourage you to do is figure out how much protein you should be eating, then calculate how much you're currently eating. You can manually track this or plug it into a macro tracking app like myfitnesspal. If you are way off from your protein goal, Let's say you should be eating 100 grams and you're only eating 50 on average. Start by eating 60 grams consistently, then work your way up. This makes it sustainable and realistic.

So a take away from this is, Sometimes more food is the answer. And if you've exhausted all other options why not give it a try. and a great place to start is protein