Eating for your needs- how I help my clients nail their individual nutrition strategies
You’ve done the diets, counted the calories, and spent countless Google searches trying to figure out why in the world you’re “eating clean” and “doing everything right” but not seeing results. You ready for the truth?
Your needs are constantly changing.
Yup- you heard that right. There’s really NOT a way to “put your finger on” your exact needs. The truth is that we all need something specific to us, our needs constantly fluctuate, and unless you know how to adjust your needs with the ebs and flows of your body and life, you’ll just stay stuck.
So how do you figure it out? How do you utilize nutrition to push fat loss or health change? Is calorie tracking worth it? Do macros matter?
Let’s dive into the 3 main factors I use to determine what my clients need, and then I’ll tell you exactly HOW I help my clients nail their own nutrition strategies for their goals.
Factor 1: Current activity level and type of activity
One of the trickiest factors I have to consider as a coach is your current activity level. While it sounds simple, it’s not as black and white as you might think. If you’ve ever tried to have your calorie and macro needs estimated, you’ll know that one of the first questions you’re asked is some variation of “how active are you on a daily basis- sedentary, slightly active, moderately active, or very active?” The problem with this question is that we don’t know the standard for what “active” means. I have seen people who average 3,000 steps a day look at their lifestyle, think about their daily housework and taking care of their toddler and think that keeps them pretty active according to their own standards, and mark “lightly active,” while another indivual who averages 9,000-12,000 steps a day based on the season, strength trains for 45-60 minutes twice a week, takes a 30 minute walk daily, and spends most of their weekends out at the park, camping, or doing other generally active activities mark “lightly active” as well. Guess which one TECHNICALLY meets the clinical criteria for '“lightly active?” The second one. TEHCNICALLY, the first person would be considered LESS than “sedentary” according to the clinical criteria. What does that mean for the first person? It means that modern-day formulas we use to calculate their needs may not accurately be able to estimate their calorie needs properly. YIKES- that’s a hard place to be since they really want results but it’s not quite so simple to figure out the best starting point or to know what it will take to get them where they want to be.
Now what about activity type? Do people need different calorie and macro needs if they long distance run versus doing HIIT? What about Strength Training? Do those people need more or less? The answer- it depends. But generally speaking, type of activity usually helps me determine what macronutrient ratios you may need more or less of, while calories are more determined by the amount and intensity of the physical activity. For instance, if you are running 30+ miles a week and primarily favoring endurance-based cardio for your structured exercise, you’re likely going to need way more carbs in your diet than someone who JUST strength trains. If you JUST strength train 3-4 times per week, you probably don’t need anything super special macro wise. However, if you strength train 3-4 times per week AND you want to lose fat to tone up, we can use macros to encourage body composition change. But I’ll get into that more next.
Moral of the story: activity level and activity type are two HUGE determining factors of what you need nutritionally. In the same breath, these things fluctuate or may change based on your goals that ALSO change based on the season of life and with your goals. So if it’s not so black and white or if it’s constantly changing, what do you do?? I’ll get to that in a minute too.
Factor 2: Your goals
The very amazing thing about our bodies is that they are super resilient, crafty, and flexible. Did you know our bodies can increase their caloric expenditure as a result of a day where we overcosumed in calories so that it doesn’t store as much fat? Or that without you realizing it, the body tries to decrease its caloric needs by decreasing your physical activity (even in little ways like the number of times you blink or fidgit) on days you ate too little? Yup. Your body is an efficiency machine! But I think I know what you’re thinking:
“Brenna, if the body is so adaptable, why are so many overweight? Why can’t I reach my goals if MOST days I feel like I eat really well and move a lot?”
Ah yes…fair questions! The answer: your body is constantly subconsciously trying it’s very best to adapt to stay the exact same that it currently is.
Even if you’re currently overweight.
Even if you’re currently underweight.
Even if you’re currently unhealthy and stuck.
Your body fights change. It just wants to keep the calories in versus calories out equation at zero. And it’s VERY, very good at that job. This means that most peoples’ efforts to “move more, eat less” to lose weight are sobotaged often enough by their own nervous systems! It’s not that you’re not “doing all the right things,” it’s that without you consciously controlling your intake to drive physical changes, your body will succeed in making sure you stay the same most of the time. In the same breath, this is why weight gain usually happens gradually over months and years, rather than weeks. An extra 50 calories a day is .5 a pound of weight gained per month. While the body is really good at staying the same, it’s also REALLY easy to gradually eat enough excess calories- even in a “clean” diet- that you gain 5-10 pounds a year without “eating poorly.”
So when I have a client come in to have me help them with nutrition, this is why I need to make sure I understand your goals as if they were my own. Without full understanding and clarity on your goals- what you want to accomplish, how soon you want to accomplish it, what you’re willing to do to achieve it, and more- there is a high likelyhood we miss critical pieces to the puzzle that will produce what you’re after. For example, if you tell me you want to lose weight but you REFUSE to accurately track your calories and macros, I can’t promise you results for the reason mentioned above: your body will be fighting us the whole way, and I have no way to help you overcome that subconscious system. However, if you tell me your primary goal is to build muscle and improve your health, that’s way easier to do without calorie tracking but impossible to do without true Strength Training. So if you tell me you will work out but you refuse to get within 1-3 reps of muscular failure…muscle growth will be slow if not non-existent after a point. Different goals and timelines also determine things like what macronutrient ratios would work best. The truth is that there is flexibility in how you eat and how we navigate the process in most cases. But exactly how flexible or urgent we need to be determines largely on the goals + needs YOU have. So a HUGE factor I spend months unpacking and sorting through with each client includes so many different factors that relate to what exactly you want to accomplish and what you are willing and able to do to achieve it. Which leads me to Factor 3.
Factor 3: Your current skills, accessibility to tools and resources, and your willingness to work
I lump skills, accessibility, and willingness together because these three often go hand-in-hand. For instance:
If someone has tracked calories and macros before, they have the skills. But if they’re not willing to do that again- we’re still stuck.
If someone is willing to learn how to track calories and macros, but they don’t have access to heavy weights- that makes things hard.
If someone has access to heavy weights and is willing to do all the physical work necessary, but isn’t willing to deal with their own lack of self-accountability and their perfectionistic mindset…well that’s going to be a different kind of hard too.
As a coach, I can put together the most perfect exercise, habit, and nutrition plan but if the client lacks the skills, accessibility, and/or willingness to see it through, that plan is as good as a plastic spork at a butcher.
Factor 4: Monitoring changes to body composition along the way
Probably the biggest thing that sets coaching with me apart from coaching elsewhere is I require my fat loss clients to consistently check their body composition, or the breakdown of how much fat, muscle, bone, and water they have in their body, rather than just their weight. The reason I do this is because you can lose “weight” and not just “fat” and when this happens, I find people usually are losing fat AND MUSCLE at the same rate, or even losing more muscle than fat. When this happens, our metabolism goes down, aging accelerates, and we lose that chance at looking more “toned",” since muscle mass is what give the body that preferred shape and aesthetic most of us want. If I can see month to month what mass my clients are losing and/or gaining and at what rate, it gives me a peep-hole-sized glimpse into how their bodies are responding to the habits, training, and nutrition we’re giving it. This further informs me on how best to adjust our goals and strategies to client’s needs. For instance, if someone IS losing as much muscle as fat and they’re in a 500 or less calorie deficit, that tells me either their protein is too low, their carbs are too low, or both. This is a much more personalized approach than many take, but it saves everyone stress, time, and energy since we’re making incredibly informed decisions with each month that passes.
Ok, so now that we’ve covered the 4 main factors I take into consideration when calculating someones estimated needs, let’s circle back to the question from earlier:
If your calorie and macro needs are constantly changing and the body is constantly upregulating and downregulating its intake and expenditure, what do you do?? How do you know what to eat at any given time to push your results?
When I have a client come in and we start the process of figuring out what they need, here’s the process we follow:
Step 1: I calculate their Estimated Needs Ranges or the range of calories, range of protein, range of carbs, and range of fats that they COULD need to stay the same they currently are.
Step 2: Based on their needs, goals, skills, mindset, activity level, training plan (that I constructed for them based on their goals, needs, accessibility, skills, and physical assessments), and current willingness, I give us a starting goal range for calories and macros and IDEALLY we set out to “test” this calorie and macro target through calorie and macro tracking for the most efficient results.
****However, some people look at their estimated needs and their brand new training and habit plan and determine that they’re not willing or ready to start calorie and macro tracking. So to make sure my clients know ALL their options, as well as how efficient each option is likely to be for their goals, I make sure to include the big factors to consider for their goals as well as a range of options for moving forward. In light of this, I call these guides Suggested Nutrition Action Plans.
Step 3: We get a baseline body composition assessment before new nutrition or training habits begin to get a breakdown for our starting point.
Step 4: We test the calorie and macro target against the training and habit routine that- coupled with the right nutrition goals- should prompt the body to change in the desired way (ex: fat loss) by consistently hitting those nutrition targets while following the training and habit program.
Step 5: We retest body composition to see if anything changed- ideally 4-6 weeks later. Based on the changes we did or didn’t see, we either stick with the current plan or tweak it as needed. Ideally, we retest at least once a month so we can continue to fine-tune our strategy as their body tells us what it needs along the way.
This process sums up the format we follow in 1-on-1 Fat Loss Coaching: I give them goals, a training plan, and options. We choose a plan forward. We do the plan together. We consistently check in and assess if the plan is working. We adjust as neccessary, and repeat. No winging it. No doing it alone. No shooting in the dark- just facts-based, professionally guided, gradual steps from goal to SUCCESS. That’s coaching in a nutshell!
Join my 1:1 Coaching Waitlist here:
