You’ve probably been told that if you want to lose weight, you have to eat a certain way.  But what if I told you that you could lose weight and eat whatever you want?

Have you ever tried a diet where the number one rule was to cut carbs?

And then you find yourself having wet dreams about a loaf of thinly sliced Italian bread?

Have you ever tried a low-fat diet?  And you go all week without eating cheese.

And then you find yourself in trance, wandering to the refrigerator, shoveling shredded cheese directly into your mouth, like a cheese goblin that just escaped from captivity, and wandered into a store that exclusively sells shredded cheese.

I get it, because I’ve lived it.

For the vast majority of people, elimination diets don’t work.

Because the moment that you tell yourself you can’t have something, it’s the only thing you want.

And then you tell yourself “No, I’m an adult.  I can have whatever I want.”  And since you’ve been restricting yourself of that one sweet thing you really want, it turns into an all out binge fest, because you then tell yourself this is the “last time” you’ll ever have it.

Pro Tip:  It won’t be the last time.

How To Lose Weight And Eat Whatever You Want

What Is Flexible Dieting?

Flexible dieting is a simple weight loss plan that allows foods that fit within your calorie budget.

If it fits your calories, you can eat it.

If it doesn’t… well, technically you can.  But it’s not going to be conducive to your weight loss goals.

So that means, if you really want a slice of pizza, and it fits your calories, you can eat pizza and lose weight.

So I Can Eat Whatever I Want?

Yes!  But that doesn’t mean you can eat however much of whatever you want.

Because you still have to stay within your calorie limit.

Fat loss works by being in a calorie deficit.

Which is when you give your body fewer calories than it uses.

And while this is the founding principle for weight loss, it doesn’t mean you should eat a diet consisting of solely Blueberry Pop-Tarts with butter smeared on the back.

Though believe it or not, this actually does work for weight loss.

The Twinkie Diet

For 10 weeks, Dr. Mark Haub, a nutrition professor at Kansas State University did something that become dubbed as “The Twinkie Diet”.

His diet consisted of mainly convenience store items.  Twinkies, snack cakes, Doritos.  He also included a multi-vitamin, and a protein shake.  So he wouldn’t… you know… die.

But the key, is that he limited himself to 1,800 calories.  Which for a man of his size, puts him in a calorie deficit.

And at the end of experiment, Dr. Haub dropped 27 pounds.

So with that being said, should you try the Twinkie Diet?

I want to be very clear here.

I do not think you should try the Twinkie Diet, and I do not recommend for this for any of my online coaching clients, nor anyone reading this article.

While it did work for Dr. Haub, this is a study with a sample size of one.

But it does illustrate the point, that you can eat whatever you want and lose weight.

How To Lose Weight And Eat Whatever You Want

Does Calorie Counting Work?

Calorie counting can be a great tool to know how much you’re actually eating.

And when you’re tracking accurately, it can be a great tool for fat loss, to make sure you have achieved a calorie deficit.

This is my online coaching client, and good friend Kate

After tracking her calories over the course of the time we’ve been wokring together, she’s lost 70 pounds.

And she didn’t have to give up any of her favorite foods.

She also refused to take off those stupid glasses.

My online coaching client Heidi, who lost 45 pounds working with me.

And while she did fight me every step of the way, through counting her calories, she was able to lose the weight she wanted.

And she was able to do it while eating pizza, completely guilt free.

So yes, calorie counting does work.

But for some, calorie counting can lead down a dark hole of obsessing about every gram of spinach, and if you go one calorie over your target, it triggers a complete breakdown.

The key is knowing which type you are.

So if you are the type of person that feels anxious by the idea of tracking their food intake, as to what it might do to your relationship with food, then this option might not be for you.  And that’s okay.

Good Calories Vs. Bad Calories?

Everyone knows that given the choice between blueberries, and brownies.  Blueberries is the more nutritious option.

The blueberries has a much healthier nutrient profile.  It’ll fill you for fewer calories, it has more vitamins, minerals, nutrients.

But if you have 100 calories of brownies, or 100 calories of blueberries.  It’s still 100 calories.

Calories are a unit of measurement for energy.

Just like a mile is a unit of measurement for distance.

If you run one mile, whether it’s on a flat road, through waist deep water, or at a 20 degree incline, it’s still a mile.

It may be harder for you to get through that mile based on the conditions, but it is still a mile.

It’s the same thing with a calorie.

The nutrients may change across different foods.

Which, depending on how many nutrients you get across your foods, may make hitting a calorie target more or less difficult, and energy levels may change based on the nutrient profiles you receive from food.

A calorie is still a calorie, whether it comes from blueberries or brownies.

And when it comes to fat loss.  Calories are what dictates whether or not you lose fat.

Not how many nutrients you get, not how many vitamins, minerals, or gallons of kale you force feed yourself.

It’s the relationship of how many calories you eat, versus how many calories you expend.

But, that doesn’t mean calories are the only thing that matters for your consistency.

Emphasize Nutritious Foods

For this whole flexible dieting thing to work, calories is number one.

Aside from that, is a heavy emphasis on food that will help you Feel Full In A Calorie Deficit.

Making sure that roughly 80% of your diet comes from things like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and protein, is going to go very far for you to be able to stick to being in a calorie deficit.

Because while going to McDonald’s is awesome, it doesn’t fill you up.

Think how much you’d have to eat at McDonald’s before you felt full.

I could easily eat two Big Macs, and 1,100 calories later, still reach for the fries.

Not because of gluttony, but because a Big Mac is not rich in nutrients, and is not a satiating food that fills you.

If I were to eat a salad, however.  Filled with lettuce, cucumbers, chicken, and other vegetables, it would make me feel a lot more full, for a lot less calories.

This is why, it’s so important to build a diet based mainly of nutrient dense foods.

A nutrient dense food is high in nutrients, and low in calories.

Satiety Vs. Satisfaction: The Balance of Nutritious Vs. Delicious Foods

Feeling full is important for being in a calorie deficit.  But what about foods that don’t make you feel full?

This article is titled How To Lose Weight And Eat Whatever You Want right?

Well, we as humans don’t always want chicken, rice, and broccoli.

We want to have ice cream, and tacos, and pizza.

Because these foods are satisfying to the palate.

While you might feel physically amazing eating broccoli, it can leave you wanting a little something extra.

So while it’s of the utmost importance to prioritize nutritious foods, I also believe it’s important to include some foods that you enjoy from time to time.

Because if you are eating nothing but nutrient dense foods all the time, you’re restricting yourself from all the things that you actually enjoy.

And what you restrict, is what you ultimately binge.

The key is, to include these foods as part of your calorie deficit.

If you are allowing room for delicious foods, and staying in a calorie deficit, you will lose weight.

How Many Calories To Eat To Lose Weight And Eat Whatever You Want?

In order to make losing weight stick for good, it’s crucial to make sure you’re eating less calories than you body burns.

But, it’s also crucial that you eat enough calories.

Because eating too few, even though you are in a calorie deficit, can have some serious negative effects.

If you’re calories are too low, you are not providing your body with enough energy to support its daily functions.

Which will leave you feeling exhausted, unenergetic, and so cranky your head might burst into flames.

It will also make it nearly impossible for you to stick to.  And you won’t have the flexibility to fit whatever you want into your day.

So you have to balance eating few enough calories that you are in a calorie deficit, but also enough calories so that you can stick to it long term.

In order to find that sustainable range, you can use my Free Fat Loss Calorie Calculator.

This way you can lose weight sustainably, and not rip your boss’s head off when you get an e-mail from them.

How To Lose Weight And Eat Whatever You Want: Final Thoughts

So yes, it is absolutely possible to lose weight and eat whatever you want.

But the key is to above all, be in a calorie deficit.

Include plenty of highly nutritious foods, and save some room for the delicious foods when you want them.

I hope this has helped you, and if you have any questions, leave them in the comments below.

Much love,

Nick

Former desk jockey turned online fitness coach here.  I know how hard it can be to lose weight working a desk job, and the cubical walls start closing in.

But I’m here to tell you it’s possible, because I’ve done it.

And I’m going to tell you how to lose weight working a 9-5 desk job too.

In the picture on the left, I was going out to lunch basically every day.

Sometimes it’d be a liquid lunch with a few pints of beer, and other times, straight up McDonald’s.

As the stress of the job piled on, so did the pounds.

And then I said enough is enough, so I learned how to lose weight working a desk job.

And I executed on it.

Not only did I do it for myself, I helped my online coaching clients do it too.

Like Christine, who works both from home and in an office setting.

Or Heidi, who lost 40 pounds working with me, and working behind a desk.

And they all did it by sticking to a few basic principles.

Which I am going to outline for you below.

If you want to learn to lose weight while reading e-mails that say things like “let’s touch base”, or “the ball is in your court”.

Then read on.

All I ask is for you to read every single word, and every single Michael Scott reference.

Don’t skim it, like you do to the e-mails from your boss.

I don’t want to have to send you an e-mail that starts with “Per my last e-mail…”

Deal?

Good.

Let’s Lose Weight Working A Desk Job

How Does Weight Loss Happen?

If you want to learn how to lose weight working a desk job, you’ll have to understand how weight loss works.

I know Cathy in accounting might tell you all about how cutting carbohydrates made her niece lose 150 pounds in a week.

And Vicky from HR swears by the ketogenic diet.

But these people work in accounting and HR, and are not qualified to give out nutrition advice.

Weight loss happens when you eat fewer calories than your body burns.

This is called being in a calorie deficit.

I won’t touch too much on what a calorie deficit is, but if you don’t know, you can find out right here.

The important part you need to know, is that your body loses fat if and only if you are in a calorie deficit.

No calorie deficit, no fat loss.

We can create a calorie deficit by taking in less calories than we put out.

So what are some simple ways to do that?

How to manage calories in for weight loss at your desk job

The easiest way to create a calorie deficit is by focusing on the calories you are taking in.

Which can be quite a struggle while working a desk job.

So let’s highlight a few simple strategies to balance calorie intake.

Strategy #1: Start your day with a big breakfast

At first glance this may seem counterintuitive.

In a world where health and fitness magazines tell us we should be eating 1,200 calories every single day, eating a large meal seems like it would be a bad strategy.

First and foremost, I want to tell you that you should not eat 1,200 calories unless you happen to be a 50 pound labradoodle.  And here’s why.

When you start your day with a big breakfast, you help fill yourself up with lots of nutrients to have the energy to take on the day, and whatever crap your boss is about to give you in a harshly worded e-mail.

This is also going to keep you full throughout the day.

Later on, we will get into some other morning strategies, but starting your day off on the right foot is going to be crucial to your success.

Because it sets the tone for the rest of the day.

Imagine yourself skipping breakfast.  Then you sit around starving, staring at the clock over the water cooler waiting for it to hit 12:00.

Since you’re so hungry, you’ll go out to lunch and overeat.

Then you’ll probably go home and do the same, since you’re not well fed enough.

You want to avoid this scenario at all costs, because it’s the easiest way to fall off track, by starting your day off on the wrong foot.

Something like oatmeal or eggs go a long way in the morning.  They keep you full for quite some time.

You’ll definitely want to be eating foods that Keep You Full In A Calorie Deficit.

Strategy #2: Bring lunch with you

Starting this section off with a warning.

Don’t you dare put fish in the office microwave.

Now that that’s out of the way.

Bringing lunch to work with you is a great way to help you cut back on unnecessary calories that you might get from going out.

It’s also going to save you a lot of money.

I’m not telling you to bring chicken broccoli and rice to work every single day.

I’m telling you to bring a nutritious meal, that’s going to make you feel good for the rest of your workday.

Something that’s going to be a bit more nutritious than the pastrami on rye that you’re ordering from the sandwich shop next door.

I’m also not telling you to bring an entire family size chicken pot pie to work.

But something that’s going to fill you up for the rest of your day, ideally has some vegetables in there, and is something you actually enjoy.

Strategy #3: Keep track of your calorie intake

This one can seem daunting.

It’s a skill that takes just a little bit of practice.

To do it, pull out your phone and download an app called MyFitnessPal.

First and foremost, do not use the calorie range it gives you, since it was probably 1,200.  We already talked about why not to do that.

What I want you to do instead is grab this free fat loss calorie calculator, and use that number for your calorie intake.

Use this and keep track of everything that goes into your mouth. Everything you have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Every snack.  Every piece of candy Gail, the office manager brings in. If you’re new to calorie tracking, you can use this free resource to help get started

How to manage calories out for weight loss at your desk job.

Strategy #1: Exercise before work.

Get your workout done before your work day starts.

I’m not saying you have to get up at 4 AM, and be the first one in the gym.

But before your work day starts, go get into the gym, lift some weights, and start your day on that positive note.

This one isn’t a “non-negotiable”, if you really can’t get into the gym before your work day, that’s fine. There’s no wrong time to work out.

The right time to work out is the time you can be most consistent with.

However, before work is probably that time for most people.

What happens when you save your workout for after work?

You dread it the whole day, and as you’re dreading it throughout your work day, your brain will find hundreds and thousands of excuses to not go.

The old “Oh, I’m too tired from the work day now.”

Or “Wellll I have to cook dinner, and then go to the post office and then bathe my parakeet.” Your parakeet is fine.  Go to the gym.

Seriously though, things come up throughout the day, and they actually become valid excuses.

When you go in the morning, it’s out of the way early.

You don’t have time to build up the excuses, no time for dread, and no time for anything to come up that will prevent you from getting it done.

The world isn’t awake yet, it’s just you vs. the gym.

The e-mails haven’t rolled in yet, and your annoying co-worker who talks too loudly on the phone isn’t there to distract you.

You go in, you feel like a badass, get a nice little endorphin rush before work starts.

Now, in order to get up a little earlier, you’re going to have to go to bed a little earlier. If you want to get up for 6:30, get in the gym by 7, get out by 8 and at work to 9 (holy crap that was a lot of numbers), you’ll have to go to bed by 10:30.

I certainly don’t want you staying up until 1AM, getting up at 6, and running off of 5 hours of sleep.

That’s not going to do anything positive for your fat loss or your career. Don’t burn yourself out.

I also want to state that you don’t have to go to the gym every single day. 3-4 days a week of strength training is going to be massively beneficial for your fat loss, your health, and your posture. If you’re not sure where to start on strength training, you can grab my Free Beginner’s Guide.

Strategy #2: Take a short walk every couple hours

If you’re getting 2,000 steps a day because you’re glued to your desk, it’s going to make things a lot harder.

Getting up and moving more, is not only going to be beneficial for your weight loss, but for your overall health.

First I want to discuss why walking is so important for losing weight working a desk job.

And to do that I’m going to give you a quick lesson on metabolism.

Metabolism is a very misunderstood process.

I’ll break it down nice and simple.

Your metabolism is the rate that your body burns calories to keep you alive.

Above is an image of how your metabolism is split up.

This is a picture of your total daily energy expenditure.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to know all of this, we are only going to discuss the first two, BMR and NEAT.

BMR stands for Basal Metabolic Rate, which is a fancy way of saying the rate your body burns calories just to keep your body functioning.  This is through the processes that keep your brain functioning, your heart beating, your lungs contracting, etc.  And it accounts for 70% of calorie burn.

This number is directly linked to how much lean muscle mass you have.  Remember earlier when I talked about strength training?  This is why.

The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns just by doing basically nothing.  Which is important, because while you are at your desk all day, you want to be burning more calories.

The next is NEAT, which stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.  Which is a fancy way of saying how many calories your body burns moving around naturally.

This is why walking is going to be so important for you.  It’s one of the easiest and most accessible ways to burn a few extra calories.

I want to stress here, I’m not asking you to go walk for your entire work day, and I’m not asking you to ditch meetings to go for a walk.

But what you can do, is step away from your desk for 10 minutes every few hours or so.

Get outside, get some sunlight, get away from your desk and take a little walk.

This is going to help improve your metabolic rate, help you get a little more movement in, and rejuvenate you to carry on with the rest of the day.

For me, I’m a person who’s very much into my work, and once I get going, it’s hard to pull me out of this.

So when I first tried to implement this strategy, I was skeptical.

But actually stepping away for a bit, and taking a small break really refreshed me to continue on with the rest of my day, and avoid that 3:00 slump.

Final Thoughts On How To Lose Weight At Your Desk Job

So there you have it.

You did a great job not skimming this, and I don’t need to send you an angry follow up e-mail.

You now have a few solid action items to implement into your life to help you lose weight right from your desk.

Except it won’t all be from your desk, because you’re going to get up and move a bit more.

But you might be having a few extra from your desk lunches.  Which is okay, because they’re going to be nice and nutritious and even have some vegetables in there.

I hope this has helped you understand what exactly it is you need to do.

But if it hasn’t, and you still have uncertainties.  E-mail me, [email protected], and I will be more than happy to help you.

Much love,

Nick

If you’ve been eating 1,200 calories

And you aren’t losing weight.

I’m going to help you figure out why.

But more importantly, I’m going to tell you exactly what to do to fix it.

If you’re new here, my name is Nick.

I’m kind of a goof who makes too many dad jokes (and I’m not even a dad), and I also like lifting weights and drinking too much iced coffee (even in the winter).

But aside from that, I’m a normal (well, semi-normal) person, just like you.

A normal person who in my early adult life, gained a lot of weight.

And tried everything in the world to try and get it off.

Including eating 1,200 calories.

And just like you, I wasn’t losing weight on it.

Until through years of trial and error, and extensive research.  I learned how to fix it.

Then I lost the weight for myself.

From there, I helped my online coaching clients learn how to do it too

Like Heidi,

Who lost 45 pounds working with me.

So if you want to learn how to fix the problem

And want to learn why you aren’t losing weight eating 1,200 calories.

Read on.

But don’t skip around.

Read the whole damn thing.

Every word, every bad joke (there will be a few for sure).

Deal?

Good, let’s go.

How Fat Loss Happens

Fat loss occurs when you eat less calories than your body expends.

This is called a calorie deficit.

And it is the only way your body loses fat.

A calorie is a unit of measurement for energy.

Your body uses energy to support it’s daily functions, and keep you alive and thriving.

And when your body gets less energy than it needs to support these functions, that’s when your body burns fat.

So logically, at 1,200 calories you’d be in a pretty severe calorie deficit.

And since you’d be in such a heavy calorie deficit, you’d lose weight very quickly right?

Well, there’s a few problems with that.

Okay, so weight loss is hard, right?

You know what’s really hard?

Eating 1,200 calories consistently.

That’s why the number one cause of not losing weight on a 1,200 calorie diet is sticking to it.

Most people require more than 1,200 calories to actually feel full in a calorie deficit.

And 1,200 happens to be the minimum amount required to keep your body alive and functioning.

How much energy do you think your body is going to have when it’s running off the minimum amount required?

Your energy levels are going to be extraordinarily low.

By a certain point, your body will tell you enough is enough.

You’ll reach a point where you’re constantly daydreaming about food,

Then suddenly, through no fault of your own, you find your body listlessly dragging it’s way into the kitchen, with your mind completely out of the equation.

And then an hour later you find yourself covered in cheese doodles with your fingers caked in orange powder, with little to no memory of the preceding events.

And then what has happened?

Well, you definitely aren’t at 1,200 calories anymore.

And you are no longer in a calorie deficit, because you ate 1,400 calories worth of cheese doodles that weren’t even that good.

So by playing detective here, we can analyze these situations and begin to see why you aren’t losing weight on 1,200 calories.

Because you aren’t actually eating 1,200 calories.

Your week probably looks like:

Monday: 1,200 calories, feeling great!

Tuesday: 1,200 calories, this is easy!

Wednesday: 1,200 calories, I’m hungry.

Thursday: 1,200 calories, I can do it.

Friday: 3,500 calories, oops I ate a single cheese doodle and then the entire bag.

Saturday: 3,500 calories, well yesterday was ruined, so why not today too?

Sunday: 3,500 calories, I’ll get back on track tomorrow.

And the cycle repeats anew.

And if we do some quick math here, we see that your weekly intake is closer to 2,200 calories.

Obviously this is just an example, and this isn’t probably exactly what you’re doing.

But I’d guess if you found this article, the shoe fits in some way.

Okay, so maybe you aren’t going crazy in the cupboards at the end of the night on 1,200 calories.

Well, my dear friend.

If you aren’t, well then you probably aren’t actually eating 1,200 calories.

You may be eating much more.

If you’ve ever weighed out a serving of peanut butter, then you’ll understand what I mean.

If you haven’t, here’s an exercise for you.

You’ll need a food scale for this, you can usually get one for about $12, and it’s a solid investment if you’re trying to lose body fat.

So grab your food scale, place a jar of peanut butter on top.

Turn on the scale, and set it to grams.

With the jar on top, it should read zero gram (if it doesn’t, tare it).

Now grab a spoon, and take out enough peanut butter until it says -32 grams (one serving).

Surprised by how little peanut butter there is?

So if you’re convinced you’re eating 1,200 calories.  I want you to actually find out.

Use the food scale, weigh everything out.

Track every bite, lick and taste that goes into your mouth.

Find out if it’s accurate.

Like I said earlier, 1,200 calories is really hard to stick to.

You may do great with it for the first week, then decide it’s too hard, and go back to it.

Over and over again.

Truth be told, I don’t blame you.

It’s a road I’ve been down, and many others before you.

It looks something like this:

Week 1: 1,200 calories

Week 2: This is too hard, going to take a break

Week 3: I’ll get back on track next week

Week 4: 1,200 calories.

This pattern is taking you out of a calorie deficit.

And the point I’m really trying to hammer home here is:

You need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight.

You’ve just learned the most important thing above.

The reason why you aren’t losing weight eating 1,200 calories is because you aren’t actually eating 1,200 calories.

So how do you fix it?

Should you be more strict?

Should you buckle down harder?

Surprisingly, the answer is no.

The answer is to eat more calories.

Because more calories will help sustain you better, and you’ll be much more likely to adhere to it.

So here’s your action item for the day:

Go grab this Free Fat Loss Calorie Calculator

Input your numbers directly into this.

I want you to ruthlessly stick to the calorie range given for 60 days.

Track your consistency.

Go out and get a calendar, a black marker, and a red marker.

Every day you are within your calorie target, draw a big red X on the calendar for that day.

Every day that you are over your calorie target, draw a big black O on the calendar for that day.

If at the end of the 60 days, you have less than 12 Os (which is 80% consistency), and you haven’t lost weight, go back to the paragraph on inaccurate tracking.

Need help further than that?

E-mail me – [email protected].

I am always willing to help.

So remember,

Sustainable calories matter

Track everything ruthlessly

Don‘t give up.

Much love,

Nick