Regardless of what diet I
have seen people do there is one very common trend that I see, and that’s
people thinking they need to really severely restrict their food & calorie
intake to make themselves lose weight?
If this sounds like you –
firstly, it’s an easy assumption to come to, however you may actually be eating
much less than what you should be to lose weight safely, effectively and for
keeping it off.
With so many people telling
different ways to work out what you need to eat in terms of food types,
amounts, portions, calories – many of whom are just general information as
opposed to personalised info for YOU, it can be detrimental to your goals to
follow some of the online plans. Now in
saying that, equally there are some top quality online consultations offering
brilliant services too.
So how should you approach
this? Well in my opinion a good place to start is by trying to work out what
your Resting Metabolic Rate it (RMR).
Your RMR is defined as: is the energy required to perform
vital body function – so this means for your body to carry out its normal
functions on a daily basis. Sometimes you may also hear of BMR - RMR and BMR ( Basal Metabolic Rate ) are closely related however testing conditions are slightly different.
Once you know your resting metabolic rate, you can then estimate
how many calories your body needs a day based on your average activity levels.
For example if you are someone who is extremely active on your
feet walking all day you would probably burn more calories than someone who has
a very sedentary job such as sitting at a desk or in a car all day.
Once you know your RMR and your average activity levels you can
then go about working out how many calories a day you actually need.
A good resource online to do this can be found here:
Now be honest! Make sure you don’t under / over estimate you
energy levels in the calculator. Once
you have this figure and with an aim of weight loss I would look to reduce your
daily calorie needs by 10-20% to assist with weight loss.
Eg a man has an average daily calorie need of 2800, you could aim to
reduce this by 20% which is 560 cals meaning their new daily target is 2260
cals a day from food.
This reduction of approx. 500 a day should equate to roughly 1lb
a weight loss a week through food.
Eg 2 a lady has an average daily calorie need of 2200, reducing this by 20% would give a new daily target of 1760
To further support the weight loss you would then look to burn
additional calories through activity, so for example if you did 5 focused activity sessions in the week and burned 700 or so in each this should equate
to roughly another 1lb of weight loss from exercise. Activity may include walking, jogging, gym, wii fit - anything to get you more active than you normally are. Again you may decide to do two smaller session in a day such as jogging in a morning and gym 3 / 4 times to help work towards your goal of burning around 3000 - 4000 through activity. Keeping in mind that exercises involving resistance / weight training can provide ongoing calorie burn for many hours after your workout.
So your combined calorie deficit and exercise plan will assist
with losing upto 2lbs.
Now as with everything, these results can very much vary from
person to person – and of course the types of food you eat will play a very big
part in how you body reacts to your weigh loss goals. Unfortunately, in my opinion, a calorie isn’t
a calorie in all instances as various foods can have different effects on your
body. Sugary processed foods for example could cause you to have a very
different result on the scale – even if you are finishing each day with a
calorie deficit.
Whilst I don’t expect people to live by counting calorie’s it
definitely can be a worthwhile task to do for a week or two simply just to give
you an idea of how much you are eating etc.
Also to stress I wouldn’t ever encourage people to solely go on
what a scales says, as things such as your body measurements, how your body
changes visibly in the mirror, how you feel, fitness levels etc are all just as
if not more important too – think of it as a jigsaw with the scales only being
one part.
Finally – you will see people saying that you can go lower than
the 20% figure reduction and indeed you probably could – however, keep in mind that
smaller adjustments will make it more manageable for you to actually stick to
you your plan without feeling like you are having to eat huge amount less or
feeling deprived.
Start out with the 20% see what the results are like and then as and when, adjust when needed.
I have no doubt, different fitness professionals will have
differing opinions to the above – and this article is aimed at the normal
everyday person simply looking to slim down as opposed to the hardcore body
builder etc etc.
Remember, the longest of journeys starts with one small step in the right direction.
