Lose Weight, Build Strength With Diet and Exercise Tweaks: Dietitian

Joanne Erstad, 57, is a public sector worker from Canada who wants to lose weight, and gain strength and flexibility.

She sent in an average day of eating, which the registered dietitian and personal trainer Kara Mockler assessed.

“I am fairly sedentary, with a desk job, but I work out for one hour two to three times a week (HIIT and Pilates), and I do like to walk, but don’t often get out as I work 10-hour days,” Erstad said.

She said she tries to eat healthily 90% of the time and typically gets seven hours’ sleep a night.

“I never really had a problem with my weight until I hit menopause, and I’ve put on over 20 pounds in the last couple of years,” Erstad said.

Erstad sent what she eats on an average day to Business Insider’s Nutrition Clinic. The registered dietitian and personal trainer Kara Mockler said that while her diet is high quality, reducing her portion sizes should help her hit her goals.

Erstad’s diet is nutritious

For breakfast, Erstad typically has half a cup of full-fat plain Greek yogurt with about a quarter cup of berries, half a cup of no-sugar-added granola, one to two teaspoons of dried cranberries, two teaspoons of pumpkin seeds, two teaspoons of walnuts, and one to two teaspoons of sunflower seeds.

Lunch is usually chicken breast with salad greens, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and feta cheese, with no dressing, Erstad said.

For dinner, she has a protein source — mostly chicken or fish, occasionally red meat — with either salad or vegetables such as broccoli or cauliflower.

Erstad snacks on celery with organic peanut butter and raisins, or nuts.

“I eat mostly organic non-GMO whole foods, and try to avoid sugar and UPFs, although I have a sweet tooth and like chocolate,” Erstad said. “I try to eat one square of good-quality chocolate if I want something sweet, and I do try to follow a keto-Mediterranean diet.”

She continued: “I never eat at fast food places, and if I do go out to eat, I try to eat as I would at home, but that is harder to do.”

Make small swaps to reduce calories

Mockler said that Erstad’s diet is “very nutritious” thanks to all the plants, quality proteins, and whole foods she eats.

“Since one of her goals is to lose weight, we have to look at the quantity of her calorie intake,” Mockler said via email. “Something I see quite often is people consuming a lot of healthy foods but forgetting that those foods contain calories, too, and can still be overeaten (in terms of weight management).”

At breakfast, for example, Erstad could consider eating one teaspoon each of seeds and nuts rather than two.

She could also swap dried fruit for fresh, which is more filling and higher volume for fewer calories.

Erstad’s go-to snacks are nutritious, but the quantity could be preventing her from losing weight, as peanut butter and nuts are energy-dense.

“Little decreases in her portions throughout the day at each meal can add up big time and reduce her overall calorie intake by 300-500 calories per day, which can lead to weight loss,” Mockler said.

Lift weights to build strength

Mockler said a few tweaks to Erstad’s fitness routine would help her achieve her fitness goals..

Strength training twice a week would be a good place to start — Mockler recommended swapping one hour of her HIIT or Pilates workouts for two 30-minute full-body lifting sessions.

“Including cardio (her HIIT workouts), pilates (great for flexibility), and lifting (strength) will give her a well-rounded workout routine,” Mockler said.

Ideally, Erstad would also try to move more in general, despite her sedentary job.

“Getting more steps or non-exercise movement would not only be good for her overall health but would likely help with her goal of weight loss as well,” Mockler said. “I’d recommend adding 2,000 steps to whatever her current daily step average is right now as a goal. Then in a few weeks, she can try to increase her step average again until she is around 7,000 to 10,000 steps per day.”

Creating habits like parking further away from your destination, getting up from your desk every hour, using stairs rather than elevators, and getting a walking pad can help, Mockler said.

“Overall, I think Joanne’s diet is very nutritious and her fitness routine is in a good place,” Mockler said. “With small tweaks to both (decreasing portion sizes, adding strength training, and increasing steps), she will be well on her way to her goals.”