Counting points and measuring your food sucks when you’re trying to lose weight so let’s just address that elephant in the room. The Scandi Sense diet is the newest in a long list of magic bullet weight loss programs and has been dubbed the “simplest diet in the world.”
What is The Scandi Sense Diet?
The Scandi Sense Diet involves using your hands to measure out your meal portions. Two handfuls of vegetables, one handful of protein, one handful of carbohydrate, plus one tablespoon of fats like nuts, seeds, olive oil and avocado. That pretty much sums it up.
If you cut your carb portion on your plate during the day you’re allowed to have a glass of wine or enjoy dessert. The diet was created by Suzy Wengel, a Danish dietitian and author of the book, The Scandi Sense Diet. In an interview with Business Insider she advised that she’s lost 88 pounds in 10 months by following these simple rules. She says the handful plan translates to roughly to 1,500 calories a day for women and 2,000 for men.
A quick peak on Instagram using the hashtag #sensekost will show you what the Scandi Sense Diet meals look like.
What I Love About the Scandi Sense Diet
I love that it’s similar to the beliefs that I teach my clients {you can book a free call with me here!}. in that it doesn’t involve counting calories or restricting yourself. It’s also focussed on whole foods and not eliminating any foods, important since restricting yourself is one of the surest ways to fail at losing weight. The Scandi Sense Diet as well as my 1:1 coaching will help you with portion control which is one of the major keys to losing weight.
Does the Scandi Sense Diet Work?
It’s early days as the book was only recently released, but what I will say is that I don’t think this program is any different that what experts in the weight loss industry like Dr. Mark Hyman, Jillian Michaels myself and others have been preaching for years – EAT MORE WHOLE FOODS and keep an eye on portion sizes!
So How Do You Control Portion Sizes When Losing Weight?
So you may be wondering, ‘what are the right portions I should be eating to lose weight?’ Great question. This is one of my fav cheat sheets.
Portion Control Benefits
Portion control can sound daunting at first but the benefit is that you condition your body to require less food to feel full. When I was losing weight it took me a minute to figure out the right portion sizes that moved the needle but once I did it became easier and easier – and I never felt deprived. You also feel better and have more energy when you don’t overeat gigantic portions.
One quick tip I teach with my 1:1 clients is to practice Hara Hachi Bu which is basically just eating until you are 80% full. Once you begin to feel any stomach pressure you are at the “80 percent full” stage. Eat until you are no longer hungry, instead of eating until you are full. That’s it!
Why Popular Diet Programs DON’T WORK for Lasting Weight Loss
If you want to lose weight, just eat less calories and exercise more. Ugh, when I hear this it drives me crazy! This theory is stuck in the dark ages right along with Fred and Wilma.
The research that this is based on is weak at best and few people actually experience sustained weight loss with this method. It’s time to think of dieting in a COMPLETELY different way.
While it’s important to not eat too much of any particular type of food by managing your portion sizes, it’s also equally important to avoid eating too little or starving yourself. That can actually cause you to GAIN WEIGHT. When you cut calories the body rebels by increasing your hunger and slowing down your metabolism. Calorie restrictive diets is one of the major reasons why people’s metabolism slows down. It’s important to eat the right amount of foods to ensure that your body is fully nourished and not depleted of nutrients that can actually help you to lose weight.
It is possible to manage your calorie intake without driving yourself completely bonkers.
Calories are important. But it isn’t the amount of calories so much as the type of foods you consume that makes a difference when it comes to your health and losing weight. Taken from Dr Mark Hyman’s website, “The calories you eat are absorbed at different rates, have different amounts of fiber, carbohydrates, protein, fat, and nutrients – all of which translate into different complex metabolic signals that control your weight. You may not be able to see, taste, or smell your metabolism…but it has an impact on how calories are consumed in your body just the same.”
Bottom line the foods that you eat that enter your bloodstream more quickly like refined carbs [white flour, white rice, soda] cause you to gain weight and those that enter your bloodstream more steadily like protein, and high fiber foods like beans, cause you to LOSE weight. The KINDS of calories you consume have a big impact on how much weight you gain, because different types of food are metabolized in different ways.
Simply put, metabolism is the process by which your body converts what you eat and drink into energy. It’s your body’s process of transforming food into energy, or muscle or fat. The types of food you eat has a big impact on what your body tells your metabolism to do and how it metabolizes food. It can send instructions to your body to either store or release fat.
Think about it for a moment….
What information are you giving your body by the foods that you’re eating?
When starting any weight loss program it needs to be realistic in order to be effective and sustainable. That’s how I was able to lose 30lbs and keep it off for 5 years, and those are the habits and lifestyle shifts that I teach my clients {you can book a free call with me here!} It isn’t just a diet, it’s a lifestyle change that makes the weight STAY OFF.
A BIG part of why I’ve been successful with keeping it off is because I made sure that I lost it in a sustainable way. The foods that I ate and the tactics I used became a lifestyle and along the way I built healthier habits. This is what I want people to keep in mind before embarking on yet another fad or gimmicky diet.
Nothing that is truly worthwhile is easy and let’s face it, weight loss is not a walk in the park. You know this as well as I do. It took years of trial and error for me to finally figure out what worked. I want to remove that barrier for you with my 1:1 coaching. If you need some clarity when it comes to your health and need some help with your health goals, you can book a free call with me here.
The best part, about the way that I lost weight is that I never felt deprived or hungry and actually enjoyed all of the food that I was eating. The amazing thing about this plan is that by keeping your metabolism guessing, which is what we’ll do to reset your metabolism on this plan, you’ll get it working faster. This isn’t just a theory, it’s scientific fact.
Plus, by switching up what you’re eating every few days, you’ll get to enjoy a greater variety of foods, so your palate will never feel bored or deprived.