The “Mindless Margin”, is the margin or zone, where we can slightly overeat or under-eat without feeling a difference.
When you overeat and consume 500+ more calories than normal, you will feel it. Your body may feel sluggish, your belly gets stretched, uncomfortable and full. It’s the classic feeling of wanting to unbutton your jeans because you now have a food baby and can tell that you ate too much. In the same vein, when we vastly under-eat below our maintenance calories we can feel light headed, lethargic and very low energy. Your body can tell when you really overeat or under-eat, but The Mindless Margin is usually a 200-300 calorie range at which you are unable to detect the difference in nutrition intake.
This Mindless Margin is where you feel fine and are unaware of small differences, the additional 200 calories above or below your maintenance can easily go undetected. But over the course of a year, this mindless margin would either cause us to lose ten pounds, or to gain ten pounds. It takes 3,500 extra calories to equal one pound. It does not matter if we eat these extra 3,500 calories in one week, or gradually over the entire year. They will all add up to one pound. This is how weight gain can slowly creep up on us. It’s how you look up one day and suddenly you’re 20lbs heavier than you were just 2 years ago! This experience is incredibly common and many people who gain weight in this way don’t recall changing anything about their eating or exercise patterns. The extra eating was mindless, and the weight gain that happened went largely unnoticed.
You may have heard that your metabolism will drastically slow down once you’re near 30 years of age. That there is something about this magic number, where your body just packs on the pounds and where it’s also more difficult to lose weight. Fortunately for all of us, studies have shown that this is NOT TRUE. Metabolism does not really shift and slow down until age 50-60s. There is a common trend of weight gain around 30 years of age, because of The Mindless Margin and changing lifestyles. Whether you’re consuming an extra 200 calories by drinking a cream filled cup of coffee daily, or because you’re working a new office job, are a new mom or wife, and find yourself living a more sedentary lifestyle (and not moving as much as you used to when you were walking across your college campus) there are reasons for the slow weight gain that likely have nothing to do with your metabolism.
Use this knowledge to your advantage!
By being aware of the mindless margin you can equip yourself to avoid that slow weight gain over time
and instead aim to mindlessly eat less.
Make small daily decisions and healthy choices that will have a profound impact on your health over time.
‼️ To lose -20 lbs in a year only takes a daily deduction of 200 calories ‼️
‼️ Conversely, to gain 20lbs in a year only takes an extra 200 calories above your maintenance‼️
200 calories is that can of soda you decide to have at dinner every night. It’s the bag of chips you like to snack on your drive home from work.
An extra 200 calorie treat ever so often may be nothing, but that 200 calorie treat on a daily basis will make a big difference.
The small changes really matter over time.
Many of our decisions surrounding food are mindless. You finished that popcorn while watching tv without even noticing until you hit the bottom of the bucket. You scarfed down that candy bar without even remembering tasting it, and you’re just left with an empty wrapper in your hand. What you eat and how much you eat is heavily influenced by your environment and not by your body actually being hungry.
Take the time to notice your surroundings and how they impact your food choices:
1) What’s in your cupboards? What snacks do you make readily accessible to yourself?
2) Who are you hanging out with, what kind of food choices do they make? Do you eat, drink, or make different food choices when they are around?
3) Are there any days of the week that change how you eat and your relationship with food?
4) How were you feeling before you decided to order our, or grab a second serving on your plate?
Our emotions, and our surroundings play huge parts in what we eat, and how much we eat.
So make sure your surroundings work for you, and not against you.
We all know what it’s like to desire change. We want to lose the weight, or regularly hit the gym, but simply wanting to make a change doesn’t guarantee that it will happen. Wishful thinking is fine and dandy but it will continue to just be a wish, until you are ready to actually make some tangible and physical changes to aid in the behavior change.
Modify your environment so that the behavior change you wish to see, is the easier thing to do.
Think about your surroundings, what’s tempting you in your cupboards? Can you identify any external factors that impact your food choices? Maybe on the drive home from work you find yourself tempted to snack on something you know isn’t helping you hit your goals? Maybe you eat with your husband or partner, who can consume more calories than you, so you find yourself eating more when you’re with them. Maybe your roommate guilts you into eating with her because she doesn’t like to eat alone, or your sibling always offers you a second plate even after you insist you aren’t hungry. Think about your surroundings and how they help or hinder the choices you make, and the lifestyle habits you are trying to build. During our next weekly check in, I will ask you how your surroundings/ relationships/ and emotions contribute to your relationship with food and what you can do to make sure your environment is set up in a way to support your lifestyle change.
Schedule your weekly check-in