Transcription
These two people ate the exact same calories, the same exact protein, the same carbs and fat. One of them lost weight, had energy all day, and felt incredible. The other one was exhausted by noon, bloated, and the scale didn't move in 3 months. Same calories, same macros, completely different results. How is that even possible?
Well, early on in my health journey, I decided to log every single bite of food I ate. Not just the calories and protein, I'm talking everything. Every vitamin and mineral. And what I found completely knocked me off of my chair. Because at the time, I thought I was eating healthy. I thought I was doing pretty well. And yet, what the data showed me made a lightbulb go off in my head. I'm telling y'all, I never looked at food the same way after learning this, and losing weight and feeling great became effortless and easy once I had this lightbulb.
And so today, I am going to give you mine. My name is Lily. I'm a certified nutrition health coach, and today we're covering why most people never crack the weight loss code, no matter how hard they try. What I personally discovered after years of struggling that finally made losing weight feel almost effortless. And exactly what to eat to make sure your body has what it actually needs to finally let go of the weight. If you're new here, don't be silly, subscribe to Lily, and let's get into it. This is the lightbulb moment. If you can learn this, oh, you are going to be set for weight loss and having energy and everything.
People often care most about what should my calories be? How much protein should I eat? And then when I mention micronutrients, people are like, "Ugh, you're boring, Lily. I don't want to know about these micronutrients." But you've got to. Nutrients fall into two main categories: macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients are proteins, carbs, and fats. Micronutrients include vitamins like vitamin A, B vitamins, C, D, E, and K, and minerals like calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, and a whole bunch of other ones.
Weight loss is a hormonal process, and so if your hormones are out of whack, it's going to be much harder to lose weight. And what helps put our hormones into balance? These vitamins and minerals. This is part of the weight loss code most people never crack.
If calories are the only thing that matters, well, I want to show you this. I'm 5 ft 2 in tall, I'm 115 lb, and I want to log what an actual day of eating looks like for me. Yesterday, I had three eggs cooked in a tablespoon of butter with 160 g of 85/15 ground beef, an orange, vitamin D3 K2, and some beef organ capsules.
For lunch, I had 200 g of 85/15 ground beef and an orange. For dinner, I had 130 g of ground pork, 120 g of sweet potato, 2 tbsp of butter, and magnesium. For dessert, you already know, a cup of yogurt and a cup of blueberries. So, you can see I had around 2,300 calories, 165 g of protein, 75 g of carbs, and 140-ish grams of fat.
Now, if calories are the only thing that matters, then I could eat the way I used to eat in the past where I was gaining weight and not feeling good. I was eating what I thought was pretty healthy, and honestly, this is a day of eating that most people in America likely eat. Many people may start their morning with some oatmeal and peanut butter mixed inside with a banana for breakfast. On the way to work, people may grab a Starbucks Frappuccino, and for lunch they packed a turkey sandwich. So, two slices of bread, mayonnaise, mustard, turkey, tomato, lettuce, and on the side an apple, even a protein shake. For dinner, when they come home, they put together a salad with lettuce, beets, radishes, carrots, cheese, and some chicken breast that they cooked in canola oil, topped with balsamic vinegar and all of oil dressing, and then a couple of Texas toast slices on the side with a Sprite. And for dessert, four Oreos.
And then, tada, we've got very similar calories from the day of eating I currently eat and from a standard American diet. And I don't even feel like that standard American day of eating sounds that unhealthy. The person's not eating tons of chips, fast food, McDonald's, drinking alcohol. That standard American day of eating included salad, fruits and veggies. And yet, if we look at the micronutrient count, that person would have been low in vitamin B1, B2, B5, B12, choline, folate, vitamin A, C, D, E, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc. And honestly, the chicken breast is carrying the team. Because if I remove that chicken breast, ooh, things are going to look a lot worse. And I know people think that salads are super nutritious, but I want you to see what the salad has in it without the chicken breast. Okay, not a ton going on with the salad, even with all those veggies. Now, I'm not saying salads are bad or unhealthy, I just want to really show people how much nutritional value is in the foods they're having.
Now, some people may say, "Wait, Lily, you're not doing a fair comparison with your current day of eating and the standard American diet day of eating because you only kept calories the same, but the macros are different." Clearly, the person eating the standard American diet is not going to be feeling as good or losing as much weight because they have a lot less protein and a lot more carbohydrates and sugar. Okay, well, wait. I could eat 26 oz of chicken breast, 11 Tbsp of butter, and 4.5 Tbsp of honey to get very similar calories, proteins, carbs, and fats as in my current day of eating. However, with the chicken butter honey diet, I would still be very low in so many different vitamins and minerals and not be giving my body all of the raw materials it needs to grow hair, to balance hormones, see weight loss, to sleep, have energy.
And so, some people may say, "Well, of course, with the butter honey chicken diet, you're going to be low in things because you don't have enough variety." Well, like I mentioned with the other standard American day of eating, there was a ton of variety and yet it was still low in lots of vitamins and minerals. All of these vitamins and minerals play different roles in the body. Zinc is required to produce testosterone. Magnesium is involved in blood sugar regulation. Iron is needed to create energy. Vitamin D supports your immune function and metabolism. Often, I have coaching clients who are like, "Okay, but Lily, which one of these vitamins and minerals doesn't matter?" And I'm like, "Well, what do you want? Brain fog, acne, joint pain, headaches? You just let me know what you're willing to have and I'll let you know which vitamin and mineral doesn't matter because they've all got their role."
Now, to be fair, even with my current day of eating, I struggle to get all the vitamins and minerals I need from food alone. In particular, vitamin D, I just it's really hard to get from food alone. The best way to get it is from the sun. And when some people tell me that they spend time in the sun because they're gardening, well, if you're wearing jeans and a t-shirt and maybe like your forearms are getting sun, unfortunately, that's typically not enough. You really want to have your as much of your body exposed as you can. And about 20-ish minutes should be enough for most people, but a lot of people were spending our time indoors, and so I find most people tend to be deficient in vitamin D, and that's one thing that I supplement with, non-negotiable.
The other thing is magnesium, just because nowadays, due our soil health, our soil isn't as rich in minerals like magnesium as it used to be in the past, and so the crops and the animals eating the crops tend to be lower in magnesium. So, I also do supplement with BiOptimizers Magnesium Breakthrough, who is today's video sponsor. Magnesium is so stinking important. It's responsible for over 300 processes in our body, including helping with our sleep, our hormones, our mood, depression, anxiety, muscle cramps, fatigue, brain fog. I mean, it is so stinking critical, and most people tend to be deficient in it. And Magnesium Breakthrough contains all seven clinically studied forms of magnesium in one formula. Most supplement brands only contain one or two forms, which means your body's only using a fraction of what it actually needs. Whereas again, BiOptimizers has seven forms of magnesium in it that your body can actually use and absorb properly. I personally take it at night, and the difference in my sleep quality has been genuinely noticeable. And so, if you'd like to start filling in your micronutrient gaps and help support this channel, you can get 15% off your order with discount code Lily Kane or by going to the link in the video description, bioptimizers.com/lillykane.
Okay, now back to more micronutrient talk. I mean, who's having fun here, okay? This is like my favorite topic to talk about with coaching clients one-on-one, And so, I think this is going to be even more crazy is when I show you the singular food highest in vitamin A is beef liver. Vitamin C, camu camu berry. Vitamin D, wild-caught salmon. Vitamin E, wheat germ. Vitamin K, collard greens. B1, nutritional yeast. B2, beef liver. B3, nutritional yeast with beef liver second. B5, nutritional yeast with beef liver second. B6, nutritional yeast with beef liver second. B7, egg yolks. B12, beef liver. Folate, beef liver. Calcium, Parmesan. Copper, beef liver. Choline, chicken liver. Iodine, seaweed and shellfish. Iron, goose liver with duck and beef liver next in line. Magnesium, pumpkin seeds. Manganese, mussels. Phosphorus, Parmesan. Potassium, spinach. Selenium, wild-caught salmon. Sulfur, eggs and zinc, oysters.
Now, did you notice something interesting? Almost all of the foods listed were some form of animal foods. Whether that's liver, cheese, eggs, salmon, oysters. And what's interesting is a lot of us have been told that we need to fill our plates with healthy whole grains, bread, pasta, more vegetables, salads, more fruits. Meanwhile, animal foods tend to deliver the most micronutrients.
Now, I'm not saying you have to eat liver every day. My husband and I did make liver for years. You've seen it on the channel so many times. We get a pound of liver from my local farmer. Then, using a cast iron pan, we wait till the pan is on high heat and cook the liver in either some bacon fat or beef tallow on medium to high heat for about 1 minute per side and leave the liver inside pretty raw. As we find, if we overcook liver, it becomes very tough and rubbery and chewy like a hockey puck. And frankly, even though you've seen for years us making liver on the channel, we probably haven't made it in our home for over a year, maybe 2 years, because my husband doesn't really enjoy the taste of it every time. And honestly, it's just kind of a pain in the butt to have bacon splatter and beef tallow splatter all over our kitchen and have to clean that all up. Plus, the house will smell like liver for a while. So, we tend to just do like the beef liver capsules.
Often, people will ask me, "Well, Lily, can I just take a multivitamin to hit all these micronutrients?" And honestly, like for me, a multivitamin is typically made with like more synthetic vitamins and minerals, whereas we just saw beef liver or just organs in general are so nutritious. So, I would skip the synthetic multivitamin and just do like beef liver supplement capsules. We use the One Earth Health brand. I know typically people hear of like the more popular brands, but this is a more affordable brand. And I'll put a link and a discount code in the description. But, people don't even have to have liver if they don't want it. I think what they really need the most is these micronutrients. And so, if someone's struggling with weight loss, typically they think they need to cut their calories more. When they may not need to cut their calories, they may be able to keep calories the same, just swap some of those calories for more nutritious, vitamin and mineral-rich foods that support hormones and their bodies better. And I do have some clients who are eating like 1,000 calories a day right now, even if they're eating healthy. They're eating eggs and liver and beef and salmon, and yet they're only eating like 1,000 calories in a day. Well, still, they're going to be missing some of these vitamins and minerals and be very deficient in a lot of things, because it's nearly impossible to get all of your vitamins and minerals without supplementation if you're eating 1,000 calories a day.
So, here would be my game plan for losing weight. First, eat more animals. It's my cheat code for eating more nutritious foods. And so, you may not need to track everything you're eating as long as you know that you're eating more animals than you were eating in the past. The second thing then is to, yes, track your food in Cronometer for a week. And I specifically mean Cronometer. You can try other tracking apps, but as far as I know, I haven't seen other ones that break down the vitamins and minerals, which again, so staking important. So, if we were to track our food for a week, actually, don't even change how you eat. Eat how you typically eat for 7 days, and then you'll be able to see what vitamins and minerals you're getting out of the food that you're having. And then, what's cool about Cronometer is you can just hover your cursor over the nutrients and it will tell you what other foods are high in that micronutrient, so you can start incorporating more of those foods in your weekly meal rotation. I will also say that if you track your food in Cronometer on the phone, it doesn't break down the vitamins and minerals as easily in comparison to the laptop. So, I would log it in the laptop so you can see the full nutrient breakdown. And the third thing I do is to start adding before you start cutting. Again, most people's instinct when they want to lose weight is to eat less. But, if you have a deficiency in one of these nutrients, then you're just making the deficiency even worse. And so, I would start by adding and filling in the gaps with these vitamins and minerals, and then you may be surprised with how your body now has the materials it needs to start balancing its hormones, losing weight, sleeping better, having more energy, growing hair, and feeling like a million bucks.
So, I hope this was your light bulb moment, and I'm sure some people are thinking right now, "What? Food just got a whole lot more complicated." But, let me reassure you that when I first was learning how to drive a car, I thought, "What? I have to look in the rearview mirror while also paying attention to the road while using the windshield wiper while turning on a blinker and doing all of these things all at once. But now it's second nature. It's easy. It's intuitive. And so I wish back in elementary school we were all taught about health and nutrition, but we weren't. And so now is the best day to start learning. And if you're unsure how to log your food, I made a video showing how to log your food in Cronometer. I'll put that video right here and in the video description. If you found value in this video, please let's give the little some love and with a like and don't be silly, subscribe to Lily. I hope you guys have a happy, nutritious, healthy day.