Weight loss rules (and myths)

Weight loss rules (and myths): 

Weight loss is 75% portion control and 25% exercise. 

Correct! You restrict your calorie intake to lose fat and perform exercise for cardiovascular health and to retain lean muscle mass. Remember, hours and hours of cardio will just make you sad.

Eating 3500 calories less per week = 1lb of weight loss. 

So, to lose 1lb a week, you must eat 500 calories per day less than your ‘maintenance’ goal. EXAMPLE. If you need 2000 calories a day to maintain your current weight, you must eat 1500* calories a day to lose a pound a week. 

It doesn’t really matter what type of food you eat - as long as you hit your goal. So no restrictive ‘diets’, just eat what you would normally, just less of it. Some foods (protein especially) can keep you feeling full for longer. Find out what these are for you. *EG - if I have a tin of tuna and 3 scrambled eggs I stay full for hours. If I have rice or chips, I’m hungry again within the hour.

*IMPORTANT - If you restrict calories too much then you risk lean muscle loss and health issues - you also run the risk of ‘binging’ through hunger. Slow and steady wins the race.

You need INFORMATION to lose weight sustainably. 

Measuring your weight loss

This means you should record:

Your starting weight. Get on the scales and make a note of current weight then weigh yourself on the same day - same scales - each week. I recommend weighing every Friday morning, after a ‘movement’ and in the buff. (A Friday weigh-in counteracts any weekend overeating/drinking that might bump the scale up). 

*Your weight can fluctuate by as much as 3lbs a day due to water increases, salt/sodium intake (mostly from junk/processed food and restaurant meals), time of month and if you’ve changed your exercise routine.These normally settle down over time and if you record them every week, you eventually have data that you can look back on to spot patterns. (If I have pizza and a beer I can weigh 2lbs more for the next 2 days then it drops off again). 

Your body measurements. Sometimes the scale will stay the same for a couple of weeks but your clothes may feel a bit looser. If you log your body *measurements at the same time as you do your weigh-in, then you can see where the weight is coming off. This information helps you find out where you store your fat primarily (ie where it goes on first and comes off last!) 

*I’ve included a spreadsheet in your Google Docs folder that lets you log: 

• Body Weight

• Body measurements

• Calorie goal for the week

• Weight lifting max

• Notes (useful if you had a cold, injury, birthday feast, changed workout routines etc.) 

Your CALORIE intake. I strongly recommend you use Under Armour’s ‘MyFitnessPal’ app on your phone or laptop. The benefits of using this app are:

• You can track your weight loss over time. 

• You can log your body measurements

• It will work out a calorie goal for you based on the information you input when you set it up. 

• You can record your exercise times. This will give an approx calorie burn 

• You can *ACCURATELY record how many calories you are eating per day

• *Providing you invest approx £10 in a digital food scale

Under Armour MFP > https://www.myfitnesspal.com/

You need SLEEP! Most of our fat burning is done at night whilst we’re fast asleep. Our body also repairs the damage done by exercise so good, uninterrupted sleep is vital for health and weight loss. Try to make a note of how much sleep you are getting. 

You need water. The brain can not always differentiate between hunger and thirst signals so you may need water but you misinterpret it as food - and eat. Staying hydrated should lessen the chance of this - and a myriad other health benefits. Recommended amount varies but shoot for approx 2 litres a day and go from there. *Water from tea and coffee still counts.

You can’t spot reduce fat. Sadly, fat deposits only come off in different areas as part of overall weight loss - and each of us are different. Performing thousands of tricep pushdowns will NOT get rid of  ‘bingo wings’ if that is where your body chooses to store fat. An overall reduction in body weight will gradually reduce any problem areas but you may have to get to a low bodyfat percentage to remove them completely. This is why it is important to maintain/increase lean muscle mass so that you don’t end up with that ‘skinny fat’ look where you are at an acceptable weight for your height and build, but you have very little muscle. 

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day...” 

This saying was dreamed up by the marketing department at Kellogs to sell more cereal but has stuck with us for years. However, a traditional ‘healthy’ breakfast is most likely laden with added sugar and sodium and does nothing more than allow you to pack in more calories than you need by starting your eating cycle for the day nice and early. *People are all different and some can’t function without Coco Pops but, in my experience, unless you have to paddle a canoe to work and fight off bears along the way, you don’t necessarily need those 400-500 calories until later on.

I don’t personally subscribe to the ‘breakfast kick starts your metabolism so aids fat burning’ belief either. Breakfast is the first meal of the day - whenever you choose to eat it. A light snack at 10:30 to tide you over until lunch works well for many people - even better if it contains protein or the specific food types that keep you fuller for longer. Fat burning comes from eating less than you burn - eating more just doesn’t make sense :-) *The benefits of eating later are that you reduce the risk of bedtime snacking and may find it easier to hit your calorie goals for the day. 

Follow the simple rules above and, providing your information is accurate, you will achieve a slow but sustainable loss in body weight. You can lose weight using calorie restriction/portion control on its own but this may result in you reaching your target weight and not being happy with your body shape - due to the inevitable loss in lean muscle mass that goes with weight reduction. If you incorporate a ‘progressive resistance’ program into your exercise routine then you can slow this loss considerably and ‘tone’ the underlying muscle. BE AWARE - Muscle building programs can affect scale weight which is why I recommend you also take body measurements and regular photos. *For more information, see the separate document on exercise. 

The most important thing to remember is that you are NOT going on a ‘diet’. You are slowly making changes to your eating and exercise routines that should carry on for the rest of your life. As you progress you will learn a lot about foods and how they affect you. Once you reach your initial target weight you will learn how to maintain that loss using the information you have recorded. This means that eventually, you do not have to track calorie intake and expenditure (although you should still weigh yourself once a week) as you can feel any differences.