How much should you eat?
Prelude
“How much should I eat?”
I get this question all the time. A few things you should know before we jump on the answer train…
- A blanket recommendation can be dangerous. It doesn’t account for the genetic differences of the over 7 Billion people on the planet. It doesn’t account for the personal preferences nor the goals of those people either. If you understand this, you can see this as theory, and see how the theory may fit in your life.
- Finding the answer to this question starts with identifying your goals. Make sure that you go through the process fo goal setting well. Setting goals should be fun and easy and you can find the process for goal setting with our “Goal Setting 101” sheet here.
- Drastic changes are bad. If you feel like any of these recommendations can work for you(and your medical professional agrees) then small changes are the best. A complete overhaul of your diet is not only destined to NOT have staying power, but it can also have some unfavorable side effects. Understand concepts and seek coaching around those concepts.
Whew! We got the hard stuff out of the way!
Now on to bigger and better things.
If you went to the Goal Setting 101 sheet, you saw that step 1 starts to answer the question “How much should I eat?” by identifying what your goals are. Nutrition goals can be broken down into 3 categories:
- Aesthetics
- Performance
- Longevity
- DGAF(Don’t Give a F*#&. I threw this one in for fun. I am guessing that if you are reading this article then you do give a____.)
You could take those a step further with
1) Aesthetics
A) Weightloss
B) Weight gain
C) Weight maintenance with body composition shift(i.e. Less fat/more muscle)
2) Performance
A) Strength gains
B) Endurance gains
C) Cognitive function
3) Longevity
A) Avoid cognitive decline
B) Avoid cancer
C) Avoid heart disease
D) Avoid diabetes
E) The list goes on, and there is a lot of carryover in disease prevention diets.
a) If any of these disease preventions sound particularly interesting to you, I highly recommend some sort of genetic testing, like 23 and Me Health Ancestry report, and paired with Dr. Rhonda Patrick’s Genetics Report. This alone could add 10 years to your life and also drastically increase health span(health span is how self-sufficient you are; you can live to 130 but be too handicapped to enjoy it for 50 years. Increasing your health span should be a focus, too )
Plenty More To Come!!!
This prelude is just planting some ideas.
This post is to inform you of a few different ways you could look at how much you should eat. Individual posts will be coming out over the next week on different approaches for eating within these goals. There will be plenty more to read on eating for aesthetics, performance, and longevity soon.
Jordan Vance, M.B.A., PNL1
Jordan helps people reach their goals and break through massive barriers by making simple and easy to follow programs. He loves a great meal, a great coffee, and a great pint of something local. When he isn’t writing or walking his dog with his wife, he is either helping someone crush their goal, or creating a plan to help more goals be crushed.
