Most nutrition advice is either too complicated or tied to selling you something. The basics that actually make a difference are simpler than the industry wants you to think: eat enough protein, don't restrict too aggressively, eat mostly whole foods, and find an approach you can maintain long-term. That's most of it.
Nutrition is where I see the most confusion — and the most unnecessary suffering.
People come to me having tried no-carb diets, meal replacement shakes, juice cleanses, intermittent fasting, calorie counting to the decimal. Some of them lost weight on these approaches. Almost none of them kept it off. And most of them were miserable while doing it.
The fitness and diet industry has a vested interest in making nutrition complicated. If it's complicated, you need experts. You need plans. You need supplements and programmes and 12-week challenges. If it's simple, you don't need any of that.
It's mostly simple.
What Actually Matters
1. Protein
If there's one thing I'd ask most people to focus on, it's eating more protein.
Protein keeps you full. It preserves muscle when you're in a calorie deficit. It has a higher thermic effect than carbs or fat, meaning your body burns slightly more calories digesting it. And most people eating a typical Western diet are eating too little of it.
A rough target: 1.6–2g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day. For a 75kg person, that's roughly 120–150g of protein. Not a precise prescription — an approximate goal. Eggs, chicken, fish, Greek yoghurt, cottage cheese, legumes, protein shakes if needed. Spread across the day.
You don't need to count everything obsessively. Just make protein a deliberate part of every meal, and your overall intake will increase.
2. Don't restrict too aggressively
This is the one that surprises people most.
Most people trying to lose weight eat too little, not too much. They cut calories dramatically, lose weight quickly for a few weeks, then their body adapts — hunger increases, energy drops, metabolism slows — and they either plateau or fall off entirely.
A sustainable deficit is roughly 300–500 calories below your maintenance. Enough to lose about half a kilogram a week. Slow? Yes. But sustainable over months, which is where actual results come from.
Extreme restriction also destroys muscle tissue alongside fat, which means even if the scales move, you're not composing your body the way you want to. Combine a modest deficit with the protein target above and resistance training, and you'll lose fat while preserving (or gaining) muscle.
3. Mostly whole foods
I'm not going to tell you to never eat biscuits. That's not realistic and it's not necessary.
But if the majority of what you eat comes from foods in roughly their natural form — meat, fish, eggs, dairy, vegetables, fruit, whole grains — your body will sort out a lot of the rest. These foods are more satiating, more nutrient-dense, and less likely to trigger the kind of overconsumption that processed food is specifically engineered to cause.
The 80/20 approach works for most people. Eat well 80% of the time. Don't stress the other 20%.
4. Consistency beats perfection
The best diet is the one you can actually maintain.
A 90% adherence to a modest approach beats a 50% adherence to a perfect approach every single time. People fail diets not because the diet is wrong but because it's unsustainable. If you're hungry all the time, you'll eventually eat. If you're socially restricted, you'll eventually give up.
Build an approach you could follow for a year. Not a twelve-week blitz followed by a rebound.
What You Can Ignore
You don't need to worry about eating carbs at night. Or whether to eat before or after training. Or cutting gluten unless you have coeliac disease. Or buying protein shakes from a specific brand. Or detoxes of any kind — your liver does that for free.
Most nutrition marketing is noise. Focus on the fundamentals above and you'll be ahead of 90% of people.
What I Actually Do With Clients
I'm not a registered dietitian. My role is nutritional guidance alongside training, not clinical dietary advice. But what I do with clients is practical and it works.
We talk through what they're currently eating, identify the obvious gaps, set a simple protein target, and look at where habits can improve without making their life miserable. No food scales required. No cutting out entire food groups.
Most clients see meaningful changes within a few weeks of applying these basics consistently — and they do it without feeling deprived.
Want straightforward guidance alongside your training?
Book a free consultation at PT Factory in Denton. We'll talk through your current habits and work out a simple approach that actually fits your life.
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