Hey,

It's time for another instalment of the Vitamin––the weekly fitness newsletter that helps you be healthier, stronger, and leaner while navigating fitness bullshit.

Quick note: This email is taken from my new fat loss program, Acceler8, which will launch in the next few weeks.

150 people have already signed up for the prelaunch and will get access to the program before everyone else at a discounted price.

If you want to learn how to eat and train in a way that maximises fat loss without doing all the weird shit you see on the internet and save money––well, sign up for the prelaunch, kiddo.

Here's the link.

--> AC8 Prelaunch registration​

6 tips for dealing with hunger

(that go beyond "EaAaAat MoOoAR pROOteEin.")

At some point during a diet, you'll need to contend with hunger. In fact, hunger is arguably the biggest challenge someone who wants to lose fat will face. In this lesson, we'll look at six strategies you can use to keep hunger at bay and improve diet adherence.

1. Accept you're going to feel some hunger

Let's get this out of the way first: While the following tips can help minimise hunger, you're going to experience some degree of hunger at some point on a diet. It's as inevitable as Kanye West saying some dumb shit any chance he gets.

This is just par for the course. Instead of constantly trying to avoid hunger, learning to accept the feeling and leaning into it while acknowledging that you don't have to act on it immediately can help you better deal with hunger instead of letting it control you. You won't die if you don't eat for a few hours.

2. Increase fiber intake

Fibre adds 'bulk' to the diet, which can help increase feelings of fullness. It also slows digestion, which can help keep you satiated for longer. Some research suggests fiber can promote weight loss independent of calorie intake. [1]

The table below shows the fiber content per 100g of different foods.

3. Opt for foods lower in caloric density

Calorie density measures how many calories are contained in a gram of food, expressed as calories/gram.

For example, a medium-sized apple (about 100g) contains roughly 50 Calories, while a 50g Snickers bar has 250 Calories.

The Snickers bar is significantly more calorie-dense than the apple.

Why should you give a fuck? Foods with low-calorie density (like fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins) provide fewer calories for a larger volume of food––i.e. you can eat more food for the same number of calories, which can increase satiety.

To illustrate using the apple and Snickers bar: You would need to eat five medium-sized apples to consume the same number of calories (250 kcals) in one Snickers bar.

4. Minimise your intake of ultra-processed foods

Leading on from the last point, the types of foods that tend to be calorically dense are ultra-processed foods designed to be as tasty as possible.

When you combine these two factors (very tasty + high in calories), it’s not hard to see why it’s easy to eat an entire pizza compared to eating, say, a meal that consists of grilled chicken breast and broccoli.

Multiple studies have investigated the extent to which a food is processed (i.e., going from minimally processed to ultra-processed) and the number of calories people eat, and they all seem to suggest the same thing: People eat more when the diet is ultra-processed compared to a minimally processed diet.

For example, a 2019 study found people consumed 500 more calories on the ultra-processed diet and gained more weight compared to the unprocessed diet. While the researchers didn’t explore the exact mechanism, they hypothesised one reason for the higher intake was the ultra-processed diet was easier to eat, causing an increase in caloric intake. [2]

Fast-forward to 2020, another group of researchers decided to investigate this further and examined five studies measuring eating rate and caloric intake in ‘different degrees of food processing'.

They found when people went from an unprocessed diet (fresh meat, seafood, vegetables, eggs, legumes, etc.) to a processed diet (cheese, salted or smoked ham, salted or sugared nuts, beer and wine, etc.) to an ultra-processed diet (cereals, cakes, fries, soft drinks, ice creams, etc.), the average energy intake increased from 35.5 kcals/min (unprocessed) to 53.7 kcals/min (processed) to 69.4 kcals/min (ultra-processed). [3]

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Finally, a more recent study also found that “Energy density, eating rate and hyper-palatable foods were consistently positively related to meal energy intake across all diets.” [4]

So, if we know ultra-processed foods can increase the chances you’ll eat more, the best thing you can do during a fat-loss diet is greatly minimise your intake of these foods.

If your home is filled with high-calorie, hyper-palatable foods, you’re likely to eat them even if you have healthier alternatives. Conversely, if your kitchen is filled with healthy, low-calorie alternatives like fruit and vegetables, you’re more likely to eat those.

What could this look like in practice?

Let's say your nutrition targets are 1700 kcals, 160g protein, and 25g fiber, and you're eating four meals (breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner):

The example above hits all of the previous points. The diet comprises minimally processed foods that are low in caloric density and high in fiber. Each meal has a lean(ish) source of protein, a healthy carb source, and veggies or fruits. None of the meals contain obscure, super-expensive foods or ingredients that are difficult to find.

5. Slow the fuck down

Eating speed also seems to influence satiety. Eating slowly––for example, eating the same meal over 20 mins versus 5 mins––can increase levels of fullness hormones, which can lead to earlier satiety in a meal and result in fewer calories consumed while also increasing the enjoyability of the meal. [5] [6]

One way to slow down your eating is to practice mindful eating. Specifically:

• Sit down with a meal and remove any distractions – no TV, no internet, no emails, etc. You want to focus on eating and nothing else. If you're eating while your mind is focusing on an email from work or what’s happening on the TV, you're not going to be able to focus on your hunger and satiety signals – which is the whole point of this exercise.
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• Take a bite, put down the fork, and focus on chewing the food. Chew slowly and deliberately, meaning: Don't scarf that shit down. The food's not going anywhere, chill.
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• When you 'feel' like you're getting full, stop eating and put the food away for later. If you're still hungry after 15-20 minutes, repeat the above with the leftover food. However, you don't need to eat if you’re not hungry after waiting it out.

This is a great way to start practising mindful eating while also learning about how much you're eating.

One point worth mentioning is that eating slowly is closely related to minimizing the consumption of heavily processed foods.

Generally, heavily processed foods are easier and faster to consume than their minimally processed counterparts.

For example, drinking a fruit smoothie is quicker than eating a big bowl of fruit, and eating a hamburger patty usually takes less time than consuming a steak. This difference seems to be linked to the texture of the foods—soft versus hard. Research has shown the texture of food significantly influences how much we eat. [7]

Foods that are harder to chew, like minimally processed foods, tend to be eaten more slowly and are associated with lower calorie intake, compared to softer, ultra-processed foods, which are consumed quickly and tend to lead to higher calorie consumption.

6. Avoid boredom

If you’re sitting around brooding about food because you’re dieting and calories are low, there’s a good chance you’ll resort to eating to combat boredom. So, don’t sit around. Do something. If you’re at home on the weekends and find yourself getting hungry, leave the house and go for a walk.

In sum, if you want to optimise hunger during a fat-loss diet where you invariably will be eating fewer calories, you should:

• Accept some degree of hunger is par for the course when dieting. Instead of being a slave to your impulses, learning to sit with the feeling can help you realise you won’t die if you don’t for a few hours.
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• Increase your fiber intake.
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• Opt for foods that are lower in caloric density.
  ​
• Minimise intakes of ultra-processed foods.
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• Eat slowly and mindfully, take more chews, and pay attention to the taste and experience of eating the food, not just shovelling it all down your throat.

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–Aa

P.S. Don't forget to register for the prelaunch of my new fat loss program, Acceler8, which will launch in the next few weeks. Acceler8 will help you lose up to 10 lbs and 7 cm off your waist (based on the average change from >1000 people who have done the previous version of the program) over 8 weeks, all while educating you on the right way to eat and train so you finally stop fucking around.

Here's the link to register:

--> AC8 Prelaunch registration​