Adding a portion of rice to salmon and broccoli makes the meal more balanced and energizing.
bhofack2/Getty Images
Ciara, 28, submitted an average day of eating to be reviewed for Business Insider's Nutrition Clinic.
A nutritionist said eating more food, especially carbs, would help her.
If you'd like to have your diet reviewed by an expert, fill out this form.
Ciara, 28, submitted her eating routine to Business Insider's Nutrition Clinic, where qualified dietitians and registered nutritionists offer readers advice on their eating habits.
Ciara does five CrossFit sessions plus five cardio workout classes a week. She rests on Sundays, she said.
Rebecca Ward, a sports nutritionist and personal trainer, told BI that as Ciara uses so much energy, she needs to eat enough to fuel herself and help her body recover, even if she wants to lose weight.
"She would also benefit from taking a lighter training day on one of her days rather than having only one rest day per week," Ward said.
Building muscle requires enough rest and recovery time between workouts, Ward added.
"If she's sufficiently fueled through better, more optimal food choices, that is definitely achievable," she said, referring to building muscle and losing fat.
While strength training is essential for muscle building, exercise is not a prerequisite for fat loss. Moving more does contribute to a calorie deficit, but research suggests formal exercise makes up only about 5% to 10% of a person's overall daily calorie expenditure.
Overexercising without recovering sufficiently can put stress on the body, hinder progress, or be a symptom of an unhealthy relationship with exercise.
"When we overexercise, we often do it for the wrong reasons, believing we 'need to sweat every day to burn calories' or we 'need train cardio to lose weight,' when actually our bodies will benefit more from a mixture of exercise regimes," Hayley Madigan, a personal trainer, previously told BI.
Ciara eats a high-protein diet
Ciara doesn't eat until 3 p.m. when she has half a high-protein ready-meal consisting of rice and meat.
After working out, she has an egg-white omelet with mushrooms, onions, and cauliflower rice or salmon with broccoli and cauliflower rice.
Later in the day, she has a portion of protein pancakes, two packets of protein chips, and, if she's still hungry, a protein shake or bar.
Ciara estimates she eats 1,200 to 1,300 calories and 110 to 120 grams of protein a day.
By not eating till 3 p.m., Ciara creates a large fasting window from the evening before. While some people feel good while intermittent fasting, it doesn't suit everyone and isn't required for fat loss.
Jaclyn London, a registered dietitian, previously told BI she recommends people eat breakfast as it can form part of a healthy relationship with food and also "set the stage" for the day ahead.
Eat enough carbs to fuel and recover
Ward said it's great that Ciara is eating plenty of protein to help her maintain muscle mass, but she'll struggle to build muscle with such low overall food intake.
"Her diet is very low in calories given the energy expenditure she will have with 10 exercise sessions a week," she said. "It will be difficult for Ciara to recover from or fuel her workouts optimally."
It's true that a calorie deficit is required for fat loss, but dropping your intake too low can have negative consequences such as slowing the metabolism, fatigue, brain fog, muscle loss, and menstrual-cycle loss.
"I'd be intrigued as to how well she performs during workouts that are designed to hit her goal of increasing muscle mass," Ward said. "She would benefit from having more carbs in her diet to optimize performance in said workouts, to achieve higher intensity and volume."
Ward recommends Ciara eat more carbs with every meal and snack, perhaps starting by eating more fruit daily, which would provide fiber too.
Carbs not only provide energy for workouts but help replenish glycogen stores after exercise too, which aids recovery.
Don't forget healthy fats
Ciara's diet is also low in fat.
"Fats are essential for optimal health, are fuel for exercise at lower intensities, but also very important for recovery," Ward said. "So adding in a little oil, avocado, nuts, and seeds will help her recover from training and have greater vitality from fat-soluble vitamin absorption."
This means eating at maintenance calories or a slight surplus to fuel muscle growth for a few months and then dropping into a slight calorie deficit to lose body fat.
"Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time is possible, but is definitely sub-optimal and arguably better done in phases, i.e. maintenance and then a fat-loss phase," Ward said. "The exercise is more enjoyable too when at maintenance calories."
Kelly is aware that she should have been more careful when she signed up for a weight-loss medication online. She knows she should have looked into the company selling it, but, as she puts it, "desperate times call for desperate measures." She had gastric-bypass surgery in 2011, and that worked for a while, but then she started to gain the weight back after the "food noise" returned. "It's not like alcohol where you can abstain," she says. "You have to eat."
In May, she signed up for a subscription with Zealthy, a telehealth company she found through Google. It seemed simple enough: She was charged a subscription fee and a fee for the medication she ordered, semaglutide, which is basically generic Ozempic. She quickly noticed her food cravings and appetite had decreased. About six weeks later, she noticed she was losing weight. But then the billing got weird. Screenshots of the company's billing portal show that in September she was charged three times for one medication on top of the subscription fee and a separate "manual entry" charge of nearly $400. In October, her medication never arrived; the company blamed shipping delays on hurricanes in Florida. She tried to resolve the problem through the company's chat service and emails, trying to get the medication or a refund, but eventually, she gave up after failing to make progress on either front. She canceled the card she had on the account to prevent further charges. After filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, Kelly, which is a pseudonym, has gotten some of her money back, but she's still out hundreds of dollars. Zealthy didn't respond to a request for comment.
The topic of embarrassment came up throughout our conversation. Kelly has been overweight her whole life, and many people aren't particularly nice about it — they don't understand why she can't manage with just diet and exercise. "My pants don't fit if I so much as look at a cookie," she says. The experience with Zealthy only added to this sense of ostracism. Kelly's ashamed that she gained the weight back, that she let her guard down, and that she was taken for a ride.
But Kelly isn't alone: The explosion of new weight-loss medications has opened the door for all sorts of questionable business practitioners and outright scams. Drugs promising to help people lose weight are everywhere, and the fact that society prizes being thin — and punishes those who aren't — makes vulnerable people susceptible to tricks.
The diabetes and weight-loss drugs semaglutide and tirzepatide — which are generally referred to as GLP-1s and which you probably know by the names Ozempic or Wegovy, made by Novo Nordisk, and Mounjaro or Zepbound, made by Eli Lilly — have been game changers in obesity treatment and management. For people struggling with their weight, these drugs can seem like a miracle. But because the brand-name medications are so expensive and difficult to get, many people, like Kelly, are turning to other sources, buying copycats from online telehealth companies and sellers that have very little, if any, oversight.
Compounded versions of the drugs have been effective for many people, even if the Food and Drug Administration doesn't approve them and has warned against taking them. But not everyone has been so lucky. In Kelly's case, she's out a chunk of money. (She's not the only one with issues with Zealthy: The federal government has sued the company, alleging unfair and deceptive conduct including billing customers for things they didn't knowingly agree to and misleading people about their subscriptions.) For others, the consequences are not only financial but medical. Poison-control centers reported an enormous jump in semaglutide-related calls last year. One recent study looking at websites advertising semaglutide without a prescription found that 42% of the sites belonging to online pharmacies were part of illegal operations.
"We're a little bit in the Wild West," said John Hertig, an associate professor at Butler University's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. "It's just exploded so fast. There's so much money to be made here."
The marketplace is awash in companies trying to ride the Ozempic wave by selling compounded semaglutide, knockoff drugs, and similar-sounding supplements. Last year NBC News found that there were more ads on Instagram and Facebook mentioning semaglutide than there were ads for Viagra on the platforms. Semaglutide content is all over TikTok, much of it dubious. Phishing scams that use the medications as the hook have increased, as have other schemes designed to get people's data or payment information with the promise of access to the drugs. Reddit and the Better Business Bureau's website are filled with complaints about telehealth companies offering GLP-1 products — people describe unwittingly signing up for pricey subscriptions, never receiving medication, or finding it impossible to quit. It can be hard to discern a safe, legitimate offer from a dupe. Complicating things is that the FDA hasn't clearly established what's OK here, leaving consumers to figure things out for themselves. Even big-name telehealth companies are sending medications to patients without a lot of supervision.
It's very clear that there are still a lot of people who — medical issues aside — really want to be thin.
"Every medication carries a risk, and they don't affect everyone equally," said Jessica Bartfield, a clinical associate professor at Wake Forest University's Bariatric and Weight Management Center. "So when you see these images and testimonials and stories about people who are on it for maybe inappropriate purposes or who are losing tremendous weight or who aren't being monitored the right way, then it normalizes it, and people think that that's OK."
The body-positive movement has spread the message over the past decade or two that you can and should love your body at any size and that health and beauty are not synonymous with thinness. That movement isn't necessarily a failure, but the rush to get semaglutide shows that American culture's preference toward skinny never went away, said Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a history professor at The New School who wrote the book "Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession."
"It's very clear that there are still a lot of people who — medical issues aside — really want to be thin," she said.
As much as the FDA and doctors might tell people that off-brand semaglutide and other products are risky, people aren't necessarily deterred from seeking them out. They see others getting results, and they want the same.
"You don't see this with cancer treatment. You don't see this with blood-pressure medications. You don't see this with antibiotics," Bartfield said. "This is a very unique field, and I can appreciate the appeal."
The rush of gray-market semaglutide and scams riffing on the desire for the drugs are a confluence of market need and market want — some people who really do need to lose weight for medical reasons are turning to alternative methods because they can't get or afford the "official" stuff, while others are using the medications more out of vanity. After all, the pursuit of dubious miracle products in the name of being thin and attractive has existed forever.
"I mean, Jane Fonda tells stories of mailing away for tapeworms," Mehlman Petrzela said. "In the '90s — and this is an approved thing — Olestra was a fat substitute, and the warning was anal leakage. And people were like, 'OK, whatever, if it makes you skinny.'"
The promise of being thin is an incredibly effective marketing tactic and one that's hard to resist, especially with this new class of drugs. My Instagram feed is filled with nearly indistinguishable ads for weight-loss medications that show a little vial of some clear substance, list facts and figures about weight loss, and mention how expensive the real stuff is. Sometimes it takes me a second to realize I'm looking at an ad, because it's just a person talking to the camera. Mehlman Petrzela told me she often sees ads for supplements promising to be "nature's Ozempic" on her feed. An acquaintance recently mentioned that after seeing all the ads, she signed up with a telehealth company to see if she qualified to get compounded semaglutide. After a consultation, she was denied. (She's quite thin and pretty clearly didn't need them.) But then, months later, she noticed the company had been quietly withdrawing $30 from her bank account each month. She'd missed it because the purchases were categorized as "groceries."
Eric Feinberg has researched Ozempic scams on TikTok in his role as vice president of content moderation at the Coalition for a Safer Web. He told me the social-media platform's algorithm is good at sending people down a "rabbit hole" of content once it figures out they might be interested in losing weight. "I'm not searching TikTok videos on Ozempic; it's coming right through my feed," he said. "That's the danger."
Fraudsters are very attuned to cultural moments and what is attractive to consumers.
As part of his research, Feinberg engages with people purporting to be selling Ozempic or some version of it on TikTok. He sent screenshots of one of his recent exchanges with an account called Ozempicweightloos0 where the seller sent over a list of prices ranging from $90 for 0.25 milligrams of Ozempic to $110 for 1 mg. (For comparison, Novo Nordisk's website lists the price of 1 mg of Ozempic as $968.52.) The account stopped responding after he asked where the medication shipped from. It's a type of conversation he's had often — and alerted lawmakers and TikTok to.
Michael Jabbara, a senior vice president and global head of fraud services at Visa, said it saw a huge spike in chatter on the dark web about weight-loss scams in May and June. He posited that it was tied to the World Health Organization's warning around that time about fake semaglutide: The WHO noticed enough nefarious activity to issue an alert, triggering more conversations among bad actors about how well the scams are working. He said they realize that "this is a successful fraud scheme that is yielding a good return on investment for us, so we're going to continue to pursue it."
May and June are also the start of beach season, when people are looking to get their summer bodies — and maybe realizing it's too late unless they take some extreme measures. "Fraudsters are very attuned to cultural moments and what is attractive to consumers," Jabbara said. "They're very keen marketers."
One can't paint all the operators in the compounded-semaglutide and GLP-1 markets with a broad brush, because there's a lot of variation. There's a difference between major telehealth companies like Ro or Hims doling out prescribed medication and illegal pharmacies and scammers on WhatsApp or Telegram sending medications willy-nilly, if at all. But the reality is that everyone is operating in a bit of a gray area.
Except for the really sketchy stuff, compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide are generally coming from compounding pharmacies that make customized medications. Most of the time these pharmacies make medications for people with unique needs: You have an allergy to a certain dye usually used in the name-brand drug, so they make the drug without it for you. But when there's a shortage of the drugs — as there has been for GLP-1 drugs — the rules for compounding get a little looser, and the FDA allows copying.
There are some confusing wrinkles. For one thing, shortages don't last forever, and when they end, the copying is supposed to stop. The FDA took tirzepatide off its shortage list in the fall, which should have meant no more compounding. But after a compounding trade group sued the FDA over the decision, it said it would reevaluate.
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly both have patents on their drugs, and they're not eager to give up their secret sauce — meaning it's not clear how close the compounded concoctions are to the real stuff. And though the FDA has warned people that all the compounded drugs are risky, it's at the same time somewhat greenlighting them, people are being inundated with ads for them, and people are trying them out. The cat's already out of the bag.
"We're in somewhat of a no-man's-land in terms of no clear regulation, reduced government oversight, and a straight lab-to-lap delivery model," said Anthony Mahajan, a founding partner at the Health Law Alliance, a healthcare-focused law firm.
He added that telehealth and direct-to-consumer GLP-1 sales circumvent many of the checkpoints in traditional prescribing. Because these prescriptions aren't covered by insurers and are instead paid for directly by the consumer, there's no inspection by the government or insurers reviewing whether a drug is medically necessary and deciding whether to authorize payment. Compounds are also generally exempt from a federal law meant to stop harmful drugs from getting into the US's supply chain, meaning checkpoints for product sourcing and supply-chain integrity are missing. "Oversight agencies are cut out," he said.
It's tough to blame consumers or the companies distributing compounded semaglutide for getting into this business, given how expensive and difficult it is to get the name-brand drugs. Insurers generally won't cover Ozempic or Mounjaro unless a patient has diabetes, meaning that to get the medications, people who want to use them for weight loss have to cough up thousands of dollars a year. That's assuming their doctors will prescribe them, which, some won't.
"If you don't price it appropriately, if you don't have enough supply, then people are always going to find another way to get it," Hertig said. "And sometimes that other way to get it is safe, but in many examples it's not."
To ward off telehealth companies, Eli Lilly cut the price of Zepbound for certain patients who order directly from the company, though the drug is still pricey.
To some extent, this is a tale as old as time: People want to be thin and will go to great lengths to achieve that, and businesses are happy to oblige. But GLP-1 medications do seem to have put this dynamic into overdrive. These drugs really are everywhere — in commercials, on social media, in the news, in conversations. And everyone's getting into the semaglutide game: diet companies, gyms, even grocery stores.
We turn a blind eye to the risks.
Maybe this will all turn out fine. The regular versions of the drugs will become more available, and the generic ones will, by and large, work fine. Sure, there will be scams; that's true of everything. But that's not the only possible outcome. Many people may wind up not only losing money but also harming their bodies by injecting medications that aren't safe. And these medications are so new that it's hard not to worry that in five or 10 years we'll wonder why we allowed online companies to send compounded injected drugs around the country to people who were prescribed a medication after completing a five-minute survey.
Hertig said he expects tighter and clearer regulations on GLP-1s in the years ahead, which is good, though it doesn't help people trying to sort things out now. In the meantime, the miracle drug has people looking for miracles everywhere, including in places they shouldn't.
When people fall for traps or scams, they're often hesitant to admit it or advertise it. That's especially true for weight-loss products — the message American culture sends is that you're supposed to be thin and fit but you're not supposed to talk about how you do it. Society often treats being overweight as a moral failure and using a medication to take off pounds as cheating.
Kelly hasn't given up on semaglutide altogether. She's switched providers — she's now getting her medication from Hers — and continues to shed weight. The experience is "night and day." Her mom is nervous about her taking medication and worries about the unknowns, but that hasn't deterred Kelly. She hasn't told many people about the Zealthy experience, and she doesn't advertise that she's taking a weight-loss drug, though she'll be honest if people ask. Her doctor has been reluctant to prescribe her a GLP-1 medication, meaning she's still paying out of pocket. She thinks the reluctance was part of what landed her in a bad spot in the first place.
"That makes patients like myself especially vulnerable for fraud in the telemedicine world. We want and need to lose weight, have tried everything, and this is working for so many people," she said. "So we turn a blind eye to the risks."
Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.
Volunteer firefighter Clark Valery before and after his weight loss of 140 pounds.
Courtesy of Clark Valery
At 360 pounds, Clark Valery felt less efficient in his role as a volunteer firefighter.
The 38-year-old was motivated to lose weight after the death of a friend from a heart attack.
He shed 140 pounds and is in much better shape to tackle fires in his town.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Clark Valery, 38, an assistant manager at a pharmacy chain and volunteer firefighter from New York. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Since I lost 140 pounds, people have not recognized me. They're shocked because they've seen me as super heavy, and now, within the space of a year, I'm much thinner.
One person only realized it was me when I started talking, and they recognized my voice.
My weight loss has changed my life. I am healthier and happier. Best of all, I feel more energetic and effective as a volunteer firefighter.
I didn't have weight issues growing up. In high school, I was active in football, wrestling, and track. But as I got older, I became bigger and bigger.
I didn't pay much attention to it. Still, looking back, I had unhealthy habits like eating late at night and piling my plate.
I had shortness of breath
My mom did most of the cooking — she'd make things like pasta and rice and beans — and I overate. Then, after she died from dementia in 2012, I began to eat fast food from McDonalds and KFC.
I'd order two Big Macs, 20-piece chicken nuggets, two large fries, and a soda. I'd go to my favorite Mexican restaurant and eat eight tacos. The portions could have fed four people.
My excess weight caused shortness of breath and a sense of being uncomfortable with myself. Nevertheless, in 2018, I felt motivated enough to volunteer as a firefighter in my town.
Valery weighed 360 pounds at his heaviest.
Courtesy of Clark Valery
There was no judgment at the firehouse. They accepted me as who I was. I'd workout with the other members when we met twice a week, but my heart wasn't really in it. Still, I knew I was a good firefighter because of my endurance skills.
However, as time went by, I began to think I wasn't contributing enough. My biggest downfall was climbing ladders. I'd get to the ladder, and it would say the weight limit was 250 pounds. I knew I exceeded that.
I was concerned about a scenario in which I got stranded in a fire, and the guys wouldn't be able to pull out a 400-pound person. It wasn't fair to put them in danger.
The wake-up call came in 2023 when a friend died of a heart attack. Other people who seemed to be in good shape told me they had heart conditions. I looked at myself in the mirror. My family had suffered enough with the death of my mom. I had to change my lifestyle.
I eat healthier now
Thankfully, a friend introduced me to WeightWatchers. At 5ft 8in tall, I weighed 360 pounds. My friend motivated me by saying we could lose weight together.
We went to meetings every week. I was religious about it. I wanted to learn and educate myself. The point system was a major key for me. I realized I'd been eating the equivalent of all my daily points in just one meal.
I completely changed my diet. For breakfast, I'd have scrambled eggs on a whole-grain English muffin with a small piece of sausage.
Valery's weight is now down to just over 220 pounds.
Courtesy of Clark Valery
Lunch and dinner would be something like grilled chicken with salad or vegetables. The best thing I did was substitute cauliflower rice for regular rice. I also stopped drinking alcohol.
My body adapted, and the weight came off. I recently started doing a full-body workout five times a week at the gym. I'll do at least 45 minutes of cardio, followed by weights.
I was delighted when I hit just over 220 pounds. It took 11 months to get to my current weight. My shortness of breath doesn't happen anymore. I feel more involved and impactful as a firefighter. I'm no longer scared by the ladder. The guys seem to respect me more because I take a bigger role.
My waist size has gone from 50 inches to 36 inches. I was a 5X, but now I fit a large. I'm still going to WeightWatchers with my friend. It's improved my social life because I've got to know other people in the group.
My weight loss has opened up a lot of opportunities for me. I'm a new man.
Do you have an interesting story to share with Business Insider about weight loss? Please contact this reporter at [email protected].
GLP-1 medications like semaglutide (sold as Ozempic and Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro and Zepbound) have been a game-changer for weight management in recent years. Recent evidence also shows they may help prevent serious health threats like heart attacks and stroke.
They can influence appetite and the types of foods you might crave, but there's no reason they should dampen your holiday cheer, said Dr. Caroline Apovian, co-director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
"These drugs seem to alter what kinds of foods you're attracted to, but you still have pleasure with the food that you have an appetite for," she told Business Insider.
To stay on track and enjoy the season, avoid these misunderstandings about GLP-1 medications that arise around food-related holidays.
Don't stop taking medications or change your dose
It doesn't make sense to skip a dose of GLP-1 medication or take less over the holidays, Apovian said — you wouldn't do so with other prescribed medications.
The drugs work by acting on hormones that influence appetite and digestion, helping to lower what's known as your weight set point. That influences your hunger and metabolism.
As a result, it's a bad idea to try to tweak your dose or schedule without talking to your doctors.
"These drugs are not meant to be manipulated like that," Apovian said.
Don't feel like you're going to miss out on holiday fun
Taking a GLP-1 over the holidays won't prevent you from enjoying the festivities.
"It doesn't mean that you have no appetite. It doesn't mean that you're not going to want to eat turkey and the foods you'll have over the holidays. You're just going to probably want to eat less of them," she said.
Smaller portions are key — don't forget you can look forward to leftovers. It can also be helpful to slow down and savor your food so you can tell when you're starting to feel full.
And you may not feel hungry for another helping of dessert or may be more inclined to pass on that extra glass of wine.
If you miss a dose by accident, don't panic
While it's a bad idea to skip doses on purpose, it's not a crisis if you forget to pack it or forget to take it on time. The best course of action is to resume your normal weekly dosing routine as soon as you can.
"You just take it in the next time you have it. Nothing bad will happen," Apovian said.
If it's been more than five days since you were supposed to take it, move on to your next weekly dose. Don't double up.
Don't worry about refrigerating medications while you travel
GLP-1 medications like Wegovy and Mounjaro should be stored in the fridge, but will be just fine for a day of travel as long as they're not exposed to heat, according to Apovian.
"It's OK. All you have to do is not keep it at 100 degrees," she said.
Remember, this is not a quick fix
It's a mistake to think that weight loss medications can temporarily prevent weight gain over the holidays, or reverse it for New Year's resolutions.
Like any other medications for chronic conditions, GLP-1s are prescribed to people long-term.
"This a not a short-term anything, You're changing your metabolism," she said. "If you stop taking it, your metabolism will go back to where it was and defend that higher body weight."
People are sometimes hesitant to think of staying on GLP-1s forever, in part because of ongoing stigma around weight. However, they shouldn't be treated differently than drugs for other chronic conditions like high blood pressure.
"I think the stigma is affecting our understanding of the disease. That understanding will continue to expand. We'll get there," Apovian said.
A turkey sandwich is a substantial lunch that can prevent afternoon cravings.
LauriPatterson/Getty Images
Jessica, 40, submitted an average day of eating to be reviewed for BI's Nutrition Clinic.
A dietitian said that eating more substantial meals would reduce the urge to binge on snacks.
If you'd like to have your diet reviewed by an expert, fill out this form.
Jessica, 40, submitted her eating routine to Business Insider's Nutrition Clinic, where qualified dietitians and registered nutritionists offer advice on readers' eating habits.
Jessica has four daughters aged five to 12 and works a full-time remote job. Her husband leaves for work at 6:30 a.m., so Jessica gets the girls to school before starting work.
"I love the idea of working out but struggle with motivation," she said. "I have a Peloton next to my desk but rarely find time for it. I will go on streaks for about four weeks, then fizzle out for another month before I work out again."
Jessica said she would love to lose 30 pounds and be back at her wedding weight by her next anniversary, but she struggles with snacking throughout the afternoon.
Dietitian Alix Turoff told Business Insider that Jessica's eating pattern is common among busy moms but there are a few key things she can change to achieve her goals.
Tip 1: Eat a substantial breakfast
Jessica starts the day with a cup of coffee with creamer, and mid-morning she drinks a protein shake mixed with water and powdered peanut butter.
"I usually skip lunch because I'm not hungry because of my shake," Jessica said.
Turoff said that not eating anything substantial for breakfast or lunch will likely contribute to overeating later.
"Between her coffee and her morning shake, she's probably taking in a maximum of 200 calories until her kids come home which is when she's struggling with binge eating foods that aren't making her feel good," Turoff said. "This lack of substantial food intake during the earlier part of the day can lead your body to feel deprived, triggering overeating."
If Jessica wants to stick with a shake, she could add some frozen fruit and nut butter, or keep the shake the same but add a slice of wholegrain toast with butter or nut butter, Turoff said.
Tip 2: Eat meals with protein, carbs, fat, and fiber
Mid-afternoon, Jessica hits the snack cupboard.
"I binge eat all the snacks when my kids come home — chips, granola bars, handfuls of chocolate chips," she said. "Seriously, everything that could be bad for me, I eat it."
Jessica said she prefers whole foods over processed but frequently binges on the latter when she's stressed (which is often).
If Jessica doesn't feel too hungry at lunchtime, she doesn't have to have a huge meal, but it should still be balanced. For example, she could have a salad with lean protein (such as chicken, tofu, or shrimp) and beans, or a turkey sandwich on wholegrain bread, Turoff said.
"She'll be better able to stabilize her blood sugar levels which will not only provide sustained energy but will also significantly decrease her cravings for carbs and sugar," Turoff said.
Tip 3: Plan snacks in advance
Having more substantial meals should decrease Jessica's desire to snack come the afternoon, but Turoff also recommends planning more nutritious snacks in advance.
"I would encourage her to pick three different snacks that she could rotate on a daily basis so that she knows what her options are and doesn't have to make too many decisions," Turoff said.
She recommends popcorn with string cheese, nuts with a piece of fruit, or a protein bar.
Tip 4: Eat carbs at dinner
Jessica's husband cooks dinner and they usually eat lean meat with two or three vegetables.
"Many nights we eat out due to our busy schedules," Jessica said. "I usually don't eat much at dinner because I've binged so much after school."
Turoff recommends adding a carb like a baked sweet potato, rice, grains, or pasta to dinner to make the meals more balanced. Once Jessica is snacking less in the afternoon, she should be more hungry for dinner.
Tip 5: Calories are king for fat loss
When it comes to weight loss, a calorie deficit (consuming less energy than you're burning over the course of the day) is essential. You don't have to count calories, but it can be a useful way to work out portion size.
"Her calorie goal will depend on her current height, weight, and activity level, but if she wants to get a better idea of how many calories to aim for at her meals, she could use the rough calculation of multiplying her goal weight in pounds by 12," Turoff said.
She added: "This will give her a rough sense of how many calories she should consume each day to lose weight. From there, divide those calories up by breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to know how many calories to target at each meal."
Tip 6: Build up to exercise
Exercise plays a smaller role in fat loss than many people think, so Turoff recommends Jessica tackle her food first.
"I find that people become more motivated once they start to see the weight start to come off and that might give her the push she needs to start exercising more consistently," Turoff said.
If Jessica doesn't actually enjoy using her Peloton she should try different classes or gyms to find a form of exercise she likes.
While any movement is good, Jessica will need to incorporate strength training into her regime to gain muscle. Turoff recommends two to three sessions a week.
In an interview with Men's Health published on Tuesday, the comedian opened up about his weight loss.
"I've always been kind of a compulsive eater," he said in the magazine's "Eat Like" video segment. "The whole concept of eating healthy and living healthy is very foreign to me. It took a while for me to kind of climb on board that," he added.
Gaffigan, 58, said he decided to live healthier when he noticed his metabolism slowing.
"Big thing that made me eat healthier is I started gardening," he added. "That was a big change. Now I love it. I can achieve some fitness goals, believe it or not, puttering around the garden."
Gardening has also encouraged him to eat better. "Growing vegetables makes you more interested in consuming those vegetables, which makes you healthier, which makes you kind of look at what you're consuming, which makes fast food look like the crap that it is," he said.
Gaffigan posts his gardening projects on Instagram. In a July post, he gives his followers a tour of his garden, where he grows onions, cucumbers, beans, and artichokes.
Gaffigan, whose stand-up special "The Skinny" is out on Friday, also said heuses Mounjaro to help him lose weight. Mounjaro is the brand name for Tirzepatide, a prescription drug used to treat type 2 diabetes and manage weight loss.
"Most of our lives we've been told, Just control your appetite. Just stop being a fucking pig," he said. "The reality is, we can't. Maybe our brains are a little wonky or whatever. I think that in some ways, the appetite suppressants are this justification for people who have compulsive eating, that they're not weak — that some of it can be fixed."
Since his doctor suggested taking the drug two years ago, Gaffigan has lost 50 pounds. "I feel good," he told People. "I'm just grateful because it's such a better life."
A representative for Gaffigan did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
Sneaking more greens in your diet
A way to sneak more greens into your diet is to try the 80/20 rule, where 80% of your food is healthy, and you can be more flexible with the other 20%.
BI's Rebecca Harrington tried the rule on her salad in August last year. She sneaked treats like rice, potato chips, cheese, and breadcrumbs into her salad bowl.
"It's hard to eat perfectly all the time, but trying to make the vast majority of foods that you eat nutrient-dense, whole ones is generally going to be effective," she wrote.
Naomi Whittel, a nutrition expert and author of the wellness book "Glow15," previously told Business Insider that another hack to increase vegetable intake is to add a handful of spinach when you're heating up leftovers or making a smoothie.
"As vegetables increase in the diet, happiness might be a change that is noticed before specific physical changes in the body, so I always tell people to consider eating vegetables an investment in happiness," she said.
