Joanie · Fitness and weight

Eating to lose weight: the basics

“Best diet to lose weight”, “meal plan for weight loss”, “foods that burn fat”: people often look for a ready-made list. This guide starts instead from Canada's Food Guide and Obesity Canada's guidelines: what goes on the plate, what you drink, and how you eat. For a plan made for you, the right person is still a registered dietitian.

By Joanie Roussy — certified NOOM coach; certified Strong Nation™, Zumba®, Zumbini® and CIRCL Mobility™ instructor; Shinkyokushin black belt karateka, sempai and director of the dojo. Joanie is not a registered dietitian: this guide summarizes Canada's Food Guide and other official sources. Her story.

01The short answer

There is no single diet for losing weight: in its adult obesity guidelines, Obesity Canada asks that nutrition advice be personalized and recommends follow-up with a registered dietitian. The basics come from Canada's Food Guide: half the plate vegetables and fruits, a quarter protein foods, a quarter whole grains; water as the drink of choice; fewer highly processed foods. To get moving every week, Joanie Roussy's women's classes are at noon on Nuns' Island, and the first week is free.

02The Food Guide plate

Health Canada sums up the Food Guide as a plate: half vegetables and fruits, a quarter protein foods, a quarter whole grain foods. It is not a menu, it is a proportion; it works for a weekday lunch as well as a weeknight supper.

Canada's Dietary Guidelines add two more pointers. Choose protein foods that come from plants more often: beans, lentils, nuts, seeds. And limit highly processed foods; if you choose them, eat them less often and in small amounts. Protein and training looks at the protein quarter of the plate.

03What you drink counts too

The Food Guide makes water the drink of choice and advises replacing sugary drinks with water. Its list of sugary drinks is longer than people think: fruit juice, soft drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, flavoured waters with added sugars, sweetened milks like chocolate milk, sweetened teas and coffees, alcoholic beverages.

And drinks sold for weight loss? Keto, 1,200 calories, juice cleanses says what is known about juice cleanses.

04How you eat

The Food Guide says it plainly: healthy eating is more than the foods you eat, it is also about where, when, why and how you eat. Its advice is simple: take time to eat; notice when you are hungry and when you are full; cook more often; plan what you eat; eat meals with others, and enjoy your food.

None of this is about bans. Joanie also starts with habits; as a certified NOOM coach, she works in that spirit: small changes, followed closely.

05No single diet, no magic product

In the nutrition chapter of its obesity guidelines (2022), Obesity Canada is clear: there is no one-size-fits-all eating pattern for managing obesity, and no split between carbohydrates, fats and protein has reliably shown a meaningful advantage over another. Its guidelines recommend personalized follow-up with a registered dietitian instead.

The Food Guide, for its part, does not talk about foods that “burn fat”: it talks about a plate. As for products that promise to speed up your metabolism, Mayo Clinic advises against relying on supplements to lose weight, and notes that these products usually don't live up to their claims.

06The plate and movement, together

Food does not work alone. Joanie Roussy's women's classes, at noon on weekdays on Nuns' Island, give you fixed appointments: Strong Nation™, a 45-minute high-intensity workout set to music, with no equipment; Bootcamp, a circuit from station to station, with and without equipment; and Zumba®. Joanie also offers private, personalized 60-minute training sessions on request, with training plans available. For an eating plan, the right person is a registered dietitian. Adult karate, which is mixed, is open to everyone from age 14.

07From Atwater Market to rue Wellington

Filling half the plate can start at the market. In Le Sud-Ouest, in Saint-Henri, Atwater Market is a public market opened in 1933, near the Lachine Canal; in Verdun, rue Wellington is the main shopping street. From Saint-Henri or Verdun, getting to the dojo maps the way to 550 chemin du Golf, suite 010, on Nuns' Island; the schedule gives the class days.

Good to know. This guide informs; it does not replace your doctor's advice. For an eating plan made for you, see a registered dietitian; before taking a supplement or a medication, talk to your doctor or pharmacist.

Sources

  1. Health Canada, Canada's Food Guide, “Make healthy meals with the plate” (2026) — www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-guide/eating-support/cooking/make-healthy-meals-plate.html
  2. Health Canada, Canada's Dietary Guidelines, Appendix A (2026) — www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-guide/explore/dietary-guidelines/appendix-a-recommendations.html
  3. Health Canada, Canada's Food Guide, “Eat protein foods” (2026) — www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-guide/explore/healthy-eating-recommendations/eat-variety/eat-proteins.html
  4. Health Canada, Canada's Food Guide, “Sugary drinks” (2026) — www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-guide/explore/healthy-eating-recommendations/make-water-drink-choice/sugary-drinks.html
  5. Obesity Canada, guidelines, chapter “Medical Nutrition Therapy in Obesity Management” (2022) — obesitycanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Medical-Nutrition-Therapy_22_FINAL.pdf
  6. Mayo Clinic, “Metabolism and weight loss: How you burn calories” (2026) — mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/metabolism/art-20046508
  7. City of Montréal, MEM — Centre des mémoires montréalaises, “Le marché Atwater ou la persistance d'un lieu” — ville.montreal.qc.ca/memoiresdesmontrealais/le-marche-atwater-ou-la-persistance-dun-lieu

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