Eat more to lose weight, says fitness influencer

'Don’t skip meals, make food your friend not your enemy and remember, eating more is the key to losing more and looking better'

Nessa Sphere (Instagram)

When trying to slim down and lose fat, all too often we think we need to be avoiding food and trying not to eat. But it really isn’t as simple as that, as one fitness influencer has explained.

Luxembourg-based Instagram star Nessa Sphere is on a mission to make clear that sometimes you need to eat more to lose weight.

“Food is your friend not your enemy,” she says.

After four years in the finance industry, prioritising her work not her health, Nessa had gained weight. But she then embarked on a new healthy lifestyle, started documenting it on Instagram, and now has 358,000 followers.

“Most of us, when it comes to eating healthy, think about a bowl of salad with grilled chicken. But is it enough to reach your goals? Definitely not,” she wrote on a recent post.

“Unknown to most people, one of the biggest reasons they don’t get results they aim for, is simply NOT eating enough.”

She explains that many people embarking on a fitness regime do tons of cardio and drastically cut their calories in the quest for quick results. But this often does more harm than good.

“When you’re not eating enough, [your body] sort of panics and you can send it into a starvation mode,” Nessa explains. “Your metabolism slows down because it doesn’t know when and where its next round of calories is coming from.”

Your body then stops burning fat, and upon seeing a plateau in progress, this often leads to people cutting their calories even more.

“There are many physical actions your body takes when you’re not eating enough calories but there are also mental ones,” Nessa says.

“Eating less usually means feeling frustrated, you’re hungry, you lose your motivation and simply give up.”

Nessa has transformed her body but says that she started to see her first results when she changed her food routine to include five to six balanced meals a day, a calorie intake of 2,000 to 2,200 and meal prep.

She also exercised five times a week, doing a mix of weights and cardio.

“I turned on my metabolism, I constantly progress, I look leaner although I gained weight, I am stronger and I feel great,” she says. “My body knows it gets healthy food every three hours and do not need to conserve energy.

“Building muscle, weight loss or body recomposition is a patience game. It takes time and consistency to make it work. Don’t skip meals, make food your friend not your enemy and remember, eating more is the key to losing more and looking better.”