Eat More for Weight Loss

You’re struggling to lose weight. You’re down to plain protein and loads of vegetables and a little fruit but you still can’t lose weight. I know. Been there, seen it, done it and worn that t-shirt. It took me years to realise that I had to eat more to lose weight.

The body gets used to us not eating enough and our metabolism ends up slowing down. Your body conserves your energy by holding on to whatever fat you have. You think you’re doing a great job reducing calories. Your body thinks you are starving it.

This is a vicious cycle I see women go through again and again and it’s hard to get your head around eating more to lose weight. Your body is smart. You need to outsmart it.

Want to know how much you should be eating? Head over to the macro calculator and put in your details. Just a word, most of us are sedentary or light activity for our daily routine. This is our general lifestyle as opposed to the exercise we do.

In summary……..you need to eat carbs. I get my carbs from veggies, rice and OATS!

I love oats.  Oats any way.

I’ve eaten a completely grain free diet in the past but the one thing I craved, even more than chocolate (and that’s saying a lot), was oats. I’m a Scot. I grew up on them. I credit my brains and good looks to them. I feed them to my kids and my sassenach (English) husband. I’ll happily eat them in the morning, when I’m stuck for a snack or when I’m sitting up late working. I often whip up bars using dates and nuts but most times, I just eat them boiled in water with cinnamon.  When I cook my oats in the morning, I add things like chopped apple, cinnamon, coconut, bee pollen, seeds.

Not happy with just eating this concoction for breakfast, I decided to turn it into a snack bar! This is a seriously good energy bar and way low on sugar. Excellent with a cup of green tea or in my case, with a scoop of vegan protein and collagen.

Apple Pie Protein Bar

Ingredients

• 100g of oats
• 45g of unsweetened coconut (I used flaked)
• 30g of ground flax seeds
• 50g of chopped walnuts
• 60g of pumpkin seeds
• 50g of sliced almonds
• 50g of coconut oil or nut oil such as macadamia oil
• 4 eggs (beaten)
• 1 grated apple (keep skin on)
• 2 scoops (60g) of protein powder
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)

Method

• Heat your oven to 350 degrees.

• Toast the oats, coconut, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and sliced almonds in a hot pan for a few minutes. Allow to cool in a bowl and then add the remaining dry ingredients.

• Combine the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine.

• Line a 9’ by 9’ baking tray with parchment paper and add the mixture to the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool and slice into 12 or 16 pieces.

Options – oh so many! Thought I’d take a close up for you of my bar with melted dark chocolate….drool drool!

1. Don’t want protein powder, omit the protein powder and 1 of the eggs and substitute with 30g of almond meal/flour.
2. Add 30g of honey or maple syrup for a little added sweetness.
3. Omit the oats and replace with 30g of almond meal, 30g of mixed seeds such as sesame, hemp and chia and 50g of dried fruit such as cranberries and raisins.
4. Replace the oil with melted unsalted butter.
5. Add more oats and cut back on some or all of the nuts.
6. Add 60g of dried fruit or replace the nuts with dried fruit.
7. Omit the eggs and substitute with 2 large or 3 small mashed ripe bananas.
8. Replace an egg with a tablespoon of apple sauce.
9. Add toppings – melt 100g of dark chocolate and drizzle on top (YUM!) or some plain yoghurt
10. drizzle 50g of honey or maple syrup on top of the mix for the last 15 minutes of baking. It makes a delicious glaze.

Notes

1. If it lasts that long, it should be good for up to 4 days kept in the fridge.

• I added an apple with the skin. I’m an apple a day kind of girl. I like mine with peanut butter and I always eat my apple skins. In fact, when I’m making applesauce, I keep the skins, dehydrate them and add them to my power bars. Apple skins contain large quantities of ursolic acid. Current research suggests that ursolic acid may increase muscle mass and brown fat. As we get older, muscle mass is definitely an issue so I’m keeping up my intake of apple skins.

• Approximate nutritional info per 1/16^th of a bar using the recipe specified with no options included:

Calories (180), Fat (12), Carbs (8), Sugars (less than 1g) & Protein (10g)