Losing weight is a goal a lot of us strive for, before starting first we need to remind ourselves that we did not gain huge amounts of weight in such a short time. For many of us we slowly gained weight over months and in some cases over years, so we cannot expect to lose it all within days or weeks. Be patient, give yourself time to take it slow, and allow your body time to adjust to changes is the healthiest way. Of course, you can also undergo programs that are harsher and can lead to minor issues down the line, remember the fast road isn't always the best one. Losing weight too fast not only may cause problems, but it is also very easy to slip up and as a result, you might get a so-called yo-yo effect. However, if you want to lose weight efficiently and safely it is safe to assume you want to keep it off long-term! And doing it slowly is the best way to maintain the figure of your dreams in the long term.
So what exactly can you do to lose weight? Well, during the day while our body functions it produces energy that we then use to undergo any sort of activity. Be it mental or physical, as our body uses up this energy the byproduct "waste" is calories, how much energy a person uses varies from person to person. Yet under today's circumstances for a moderately active adult, we can average it to around 2000kcal for women and 2500kcal for men per day. Why is this important? I'm sure you are familiar with calories all too well, they are in everything as food is what is necessary for us to create energy and thus calories.
To lose weight efficiently, we need to understand what we use these calories for and how can we manipulate them to our benefit. Every single person has a basic baseline of how many calories they burn during the day, which is the absolute bare minimum for your body to survive. That is what we call your BMR (basal metabolic rate) and it's something you can't control. However there are other aspects that we can control and those are your NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), TEF (thermic effect of feeding) & EAT (exercise activity thermogenesis) those 4 components make up your daily calories burnt.
70% BMR
15% NEAT
10% TEF
5% EAT
What exactly does each do and how can we influence them to maximise our calorie burning for the day? Well, let's start with NEAT. That's all that you do outside of training, and you can influence it by making healthier options in your day-to-day life, such as walking or cycling rather than taking the car, walking up the stairs rather than taking the elevator and the list goes on. Maximising your NEAT is crucial in losing and keeping the weight off.
Next, we have TEF the thermic effect of feeding. Each time we eat we start a process in our body that needs the energy to function, your whole digestive system is a factory that runs on food. Think of it like starting a fire that takes way more out of you rather than just throwing in logs once it's going right? The same thing is in your body each time you eat your body works that little bit more to break down everything. To maximise TEF try to cut down portion sizes and increase meal regularity so that instead of eating once or twice a day but big meals eat 3 or 4 times a day half the size of your original meals.
EAT which is exercise activity thermogenesis, is the smallest of the bunch. But, don't think it is the least important as keep in mind that this is only 1-2 hours of the day, exercise has extreme pros to it however that is for another post! All you need to know is that exercising is a great way to increase your daily calorie count, 300-400 for weight training, 350-500 for spinning and other H.I.I.T related classes such as circuits.
This takes us to what form of training is the best for losing weight. A lot of people may find it surprising as there is a huge misconception that cardio loses weight. No, cardio is great and is amazing for cardiovascular health, However, it isn't the best form of training to lose weight. The best is actually weight training and the reason why cardio isn't on here is that during cardio, you burn carbs & sugars stored in your body, not fats as carbs and sugars are the preferred and easier to burn compared to fats, for your body to efficiently burn fat it needs to stay at 50-80 percent your max heart rate. Try to stay in that range for an hour for 3-4 times a week and you are on the right track!
Now that we are maximising our energy output, we can safely say that we are active adults. An active male burns around 2500 calories, and an active female burns around 2000 calories, make sure to find out how much you burn before taking this step. Knowing how many calories we burn you can now manipulate your diet to suit your goal. As a professional I recommend you to stay in the "golden" zone, what exactly is the golden zone? It's where you should be!! Let's say we burn 2000 calories, to lose weight you should subtract 300-500 calories from 2000, I always ask my clients to drop it by 500 because that gives you wiggle room for a healthy snack.
In conclusion, stay active, note to maximise your NEAT, train weights 3-4 times a week and if you want to increase that you can train cardio in between the weight days, drop your calorie intake by 500kcal and be patient. Patience is key give yourself time and don't look at the scales, see how you feel and come back to us in a few months!