- Benji Xavier tried to lose weight on fad diets, but he ended up gaining it all back.
- He was able to 100 pounds sustainably by changing his lifestyle.
- His weight loss tips include meal prepping and not drinking your calories.
but felt miserable.
that he now describes as unsustainable, leaving him with an unhealthy relationship with food.
“I was kind of falling victim to that toxic diet culture,” Xavier, 28, told Business .
because of how our bodies are wired.
“It becomes an obsession because you’re constantly thinking about what you can’t have. And when you do allow yourself to have it, you have too much of it,” Xavier, who is a content creator based in New Jersey, said.
A few years later, he ended up gaining the weight back.
. But this time, he was determined not to restrict himself.
.
,” features recipes that helped him lose weight.
“I was just sick of it. I’m like, no, I can’t do this. I can’t torture myself anymore. I’m just going to try to eat healthier. And it worked,” he said. “You can still have foods that you enjoy and lose weight.”
while eating his favorite foods.
Meal prep
.
“Fast food is just so high in calories and high in fat that it would really just be detrimental to a weight loss journey at times,” he said.
helped him stay on track.
He would go to the grocery store on Saturdays and spend time on Sundays preparing healthy meals for the week ahead.
“I would just meal prep in the morning and have everything ready to go for the week,” he said.
Eat high-volume meals
, which means burning off more calories than you consume. But that doesn’t mean you have to eat tiny portions or be restrictive.
.
“You eat more for less calories,” Xavier said.
Although he’s not a big snacker, when he does want a snack, he eats something like popcorn, which he can eat to his heart’s content because it contains very few calories.
, which contains around 300 calories per pint.
recommends eating nutrient-dense foods from all food groups and limiting added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium while staying within calorie limits.
that feature high fiber, nutritious foods, with BI.
Don’t drink your calories
To leave space for delicious food, Xavier prefers to not drink his calories.
like soda tend to be high in calories and very low in nutrients. A 20 fluid ounce serving of Coca-Cola, for example, contains 240 calories, which is more than 10% of the FDA recommendation of 2,000 calories per day.
This doesn’t mean Xavier will never drink them, but he generally avoids getting too many calories from drinks. “I do break that rule occasionally, but that’s something that really helps,” he said.
on Microsoft Start.
