How do I lose weight?
What is the best way to lose weight? What are the best exercises to lose weight? What should I eat to loose weight?
These are definitely some of the most common questions I get.
These are definitely some of the most common questions I get.
A few quick facts I will talk more about:
1. There is no magic answer, but the formula is simple - calories in vs. calories out. Keep in mind you don't have measure everything perfectly.
2. Eating well and regular exercise will send you in the right direction.
3. Everybody is different. What works for your friend may not work for you.
4. Weight loss TV shows are NOT a reasonable comparison to you - you live in the real world!
5. You will hit plateaus.
6. Weight loss will begin quickly but slow down over time.
7. Your genetics, metabolic rate, hormones, stress, sleep and muscle mass all play a part.
1. There is no magic answer, but the formula is simple - calories in vs. calories out. Keep in mind you don't have measure everything perfectly.
2. Eating well and regular exercise will send you in the right direction.
3. Everybody is different. What works for your friend may not work for you.
4. Weight loss TV shows are NOT a reasonable comparison to you - you live in the real world!
5. You will hit plateaus.
6. Weight loss will begin quickly but slow down over time.
7. Your genetics, metabolic rate, hormones, stress, sleep and muscle mass all play a part.
1. Changing your eating habits gradually
This is the simplest and most effective way to loose weight. First of all, cut back on takeaways or soda, and try to think about how much fat, sugar, salt and carbohydrate you have with what you eat. I say gradual changes, because it's very rare that someone can go from eating not so well to eating an extremely "clean diet" (lean protein, vegetable, non processed foods, etc.) without cravings and slip-ups. People often take an all or nothing approach to changing their eating habits - they try changing everything at once, maybe last a few weeks, and probably loose a few kgs. However, when it starts to get too hard and they give in to temptation, eating the takeaways that they have been craving, people often feel like they have failed, and give up entirely. Instead of giving up bad foods cold turkey, try lowering your intake one step at a time. For example, maybe you drink a litre of soda a day; instead of giving it up altogether, try lowering the intake to 500mls a day for the 1st week - didn't seem too hard, did it? Now lower it to a 250ml glass a day for the second week. You just dropped your calorie intake from soda down to 1/4 of what it was within 2 weeks. Try to apply this to anything you need to lower, eventually you can eliminate bad foods by consistently lowering the amount you have.
The reason I use the term "eating habits" rather than "diet" is because people usually think of dieting as "something I'm doing at the moment", to be given up when your goal is reached. I prefer my clients to look at changing their eating habits as a lifestyle change, to build up good lifelong eating habits, so that they can maintain all of their hard work and continue to be healthy. While "going on diets" (i.e. quite extreme changes to eating habits, often cutting out entire food groups) can be OK if you have a goal with a strict time frame, they are generally not sustainable long term, and may even result in eventual weight gain.
2. Eating well
Most people know what good and bad foods are; nearly all takeaways are bad, it's that simple. They come with large amounts of sugar, salt, fat and carbohydrate, and usually have very little good nutritional content. If you have to get takeaways, there are only very few better options; sandwiches and pita's, you know the ones.
Include a lot of green vegetables in your meals. They are the one thing you can pretty much eat as much as you like, and are a great way to fill yourself up without eating too much of the other food groups. Include lean protein into your meals, for example, chicken, fish, and very lean red meats, and make sure you drink plenty of water. Try to lower and eliminate the foods that you know to be bad, like takeaways, refined carbohydrates like white bread and pasta, etc. These are the easiest things you can do to get your eating habits moving in the right direction.
Exercise... That's it. Do it. Get moving. Do more than you do at the moment. Cardio or weight training, it doesn't matter - just get off the couch and get moving! Remember that every little bit helps - try walking instead of taking your car.
3. "My friend did this and it worked for him/her!"
Have you ever noticed people are different shapes and sizes? Or that your friend eats rubbish all the time and never gains weight? Maybe you try to eat well but seem to gain weight anyway. Unfortunately some people are just lucky, and have a great metabolism. They are able to eat virtually anything they want and seem never to gain weight. Another very important difference between peoples weight loss is the way they train. "My friend runs every day and looks great, so I started running every day too, but I hate running so I stopped." The problem here is pretty obvious... You don't like running, so don't do it! Exercises must be suited to the person. Going back to one of my most common questions; "what are the best exercises to loose weight?" the answer - What do you like doing? Running is great for weight loss, and I could tell you to go running, but if you hate it you won't push yourself to do it. This means that running is not an effective way for YOU to loose weight, even though it might suit your friend really well. Training programmes must be personalised, and made so that you enjoy them. If you enjoy them, you are much more likely to stick with them.
4. Weight loss T.V. shows: OK, this is a big one...
First of all, don't try to learn exercise technique or form from these shows - most of the time it is bad, and you will have a high chance of injuring yourself, (as lots of contestants do, although it's usually not shown on camera, of course). See a professional and get them to show you how to do these exercises so that you can get the most out of them without hurting yourself. Another point to consider is that the time frames on these shows often aren't real - we are told "this week you lost..." but in actual fact, they are taping 10 or more days between weigh-ins. The magic of television! The type of weight the contestants loose varies, as well. 10-15 pounds of fat in a week? That's impressive... and also not possible. They are loosing water weight, muscle or tissue as well. Your body can only burn a certain amount of fat each week, as it is a process that takes time. If they were measuring fat loss percentage only, the result would show a much smaller loss. The last thing I want you to think about when watching these TV shows and getting upset that your body doesn't want to shed weight the way that the contestants can is this; the exercise routines they are doing are not realistic when you're living in the real world! I don't know about you, but I certainly don't have time to train seven or eight hours a day. The body adjusts to the training and the strict diet, so when the contestants leave the show and enter the real world where you and I live, they will stop training all day every day, and the weight often comes back on, and fast.
5. Plateaus - you WILL hit them.
This is not your body saying "you can't do it, give up" - It's saying "I'm used to this now" or "this isn't quite right, try something else". Plateaus are hit for many reasons, and everyone goes through them at some stage in their weight loss journey. You just have to try something different - mix up your training routine, or try eating a bit differently for a while. The main thing is to be aware that plateaus happen, and not to be discouraged when you hit one. Just push on through it.
6. Your weight loss will begin quickly, but slow down over time.
When you change exercise or eating habits, you will usually notice that your body responds very quickly, like loosing a bunch of weight in the first few weeks. Water weight is dropped quickly, and you will be thinking "this is fantastic!" However, after a few weeks it will get slower, and many people are discouraged by this. Don't be disheartened! just like plateaus, the most important thing is to know to expect this. Once excess water weight is gone and your body starts to adapt to the new routine it will slow down. If it gets very slow, try changing things just like you would with a plateau. The other thing to be aware of, is the more weight you have, the more you can loose. If you are at 30% body fat, you will find it easier to loose weight faster than someone at 20% body fat. This is to say that the more weight you loose, the slower your progress may get.
7. Genetics, metabolic rate, hormones, stress, sleep and muscle mass.
Genetics, metabolic rate, "luck" (some people just have bodies that can adapt easier) all play a part in weight loss. You can look more into body types (ectomorph, mesomorph, plyomorph) to help you figure out what you need to do for weight management. Stress hormones (cortisol), can impair your ability to loose weight - look for ways to manage your stress levels. Try to get 8 hours of sleep a night, as limited sleep slows leptin production, which is the hormone that tells you when you are full. For every kg of muscle you have, you will burn about 70 calories per day. Muscle = free fat burning, so don't skimp on the weight training!
Lastly, there are a few other things that will help with your weight loss:
Having a friend or buddy trying to accomplish similar goals will help encourage and motivate you, but keep in mind you are both different - try not to compare yourself to your friends.
While you don't want to limit yourself totally and you should be able to have treats now and then, you shouldn't use events or parties as excuses to eat things that you normally would try to avoid. If you do like to splurge on special occasions, have a think about just how any there are throughout the year, and how often this will result in you eating badly. Weddings, Christmas, Easter, birthdays, Friday nights, school holidays - the occasions are endless, and so will be the excuses! The holidays and events will always be there, the best thing you can do is learn to enjoy them without eating badly.
If you do slip up, like eating something you think you shouldn't have, or missing a workout, don't stop trying! There will be days when everything seems to go wrong and you feel like you've made all the wrong choices. Don't beat yourself up about it, and don't give up. Just accept that it happened, and move on. Get back on track, learn from it, don't dwell on it.
Finally, DON'T PUT IT OFF. If you have already started a plan, stick with it! If not, you have just dedicated time to read through this, so now is the perfect time to get up and go for a walk! Do some exercises - squats, push-ups, dips, skipping - anything you like!
If you still have questions, or want advice or help creating a training programme, contact me!
This is the simplest and most effective way to loose weight. First of all, cut back on takeaways or soda, and try to think about how much fat, sugar, salt and carbohydrate you have with what you eat. I say gradual changes, because it's very rare that someone can go from eating not so well to eating an extremely "clean diet" (lean protein, vegetable, non processed foods, etc.) without cravings and slip-ups. People often take an all or nothing approach to changing their eating habits - they try changing everything at once, maybe last a few weeks, and probably loose a few kgs. However, when it starts to get too hard and they give in to temptation, eating the takeaways that they have been craving, people often feel like they have failed, and give up entirely. Instead of giving up bad foods cold turkey, try lowering your intake one step at a time. For example, maybe you drink a litre of soda a day; instead of giving it up altogether, try lowering the intake to 500mls a day for the 1st week - didn't seem too hard, did it? Now lower it to a 250ml glass a day for the second week. You just dropped your calorie intake from soda down to 1/4 of what it was within 2 weeks. Try to apply this to anything you need to lower, eventually you can eliminate bad foods by consistently lowering the amount you have.
The reason I use the term "eating habits" rather than "diet" is because people usually think of dieting as "something I'm doing at the moment", to be given up when your goal is reached. I prefer my clients to look at changing their eating habits as a lifestyle change, to build up good lifelong eating habits, so that they can maintain all of their hard work and continue to be healthy. While "going on diets" (i.e. quite extreme changes to eating habits, often cutting out entire food groups) can be OK if you have a goal with a strict time frame, they are generally not sustainable long term, and may even result in eventual weight gain.
2. Eating well
Most people know what good and bad foods are; nearly all takeaways are bad, it's that simple. They come with large amounts of sugar, salt, fat and carbohydrate, and usually have very little good nutritional content. If you have to get takeaways, there are only very few better options; sandwiches and pita's, you know the ones.
Include a lot of green vegetables in your meals. They are the one thing you can pretty much eat as much as you like, and are a great way to fill yourself up without eating too much of the other food groups. Include lean protein into your meals, for example, chicken, fish, and very lean red meats, and make sure you drink plenty of water. Try to lower and eliminate the foods that you know to be bad, like takeaways, refined carbohydrates like white bread and pasta, etc. These are the easiest things you can do to get your eating habits moving in the right direction.
Exercise... That's it. Do it. Get moving. Do more than you do at the moment. Cardio or weight training, it doesn't matter - just get off the couch and get moving! Remember that every little bit helps - try walking instead of taking your car.
3. "My friend did this and it worked for him/her!"
Have you ever noticed people are different shapes and sizes? Or that your friend eats rubbish all the time and never gains weight? Maybe you try to eat well but seem to gain weight anyway. Unfortunately some people are just lucky, and have a great metabolism. They are able to eat virtually anything they want and seem never to gain weight. Another very important difference between peoples weight loss is the way they train. "My friend runs every day and looks great, so I started running every day too, but I hate running so I stopped." The problem here is pretty obvious... You don't like running, so don't do it! Exercises must be suited to the person. Going back to one of my most common questions; "what are the best exercises to loose weight?" the answer - What do you like doing? Running is great for weight loss, and I could tell you to go running, but if you hate it you won't push yourself to do it. This means that running is not an effective way for YOU to loose weight, even though it might suit your friend really well. Training programmes must be personalised, and made so that you enjoy them. If you enjoy them, you are much more likely to stick with them.
4. Weight loss T.V. shows: OK, this is a big one...
First of all, don't try to learn exercise technique or form from these shows - most of the time it is bad, and you will have a high chance of injuring yourself, (as lots of contestants do, although it's usually not shown on camera, of course). See a professional and get them to show you how to do these exercises so that you can get the most out of them without hurting yourself. Another point to consider is that the time frames on these shows often aren't real - we are told "this week you lost..." but in actual fact, they are taping 10 or more days between weigh-ins. The magic of television! The type of weight the contestants loose varies, as well. 10-15 pounds of fat in a week? That's impressive... and also not possible. They are loosing water weight, muscle or tissue as well. Your body can only burn a certain amount of fat each week, as it is a process that takes time. If they were measuring fat loss percentage only, the result would show a much smaller loss. The last thing I want you to think about when watching these TV shows and getting upset that your body doesn't want to shed weight the way that the contestants can is this; the exercise routines they are doing are not realistic when you're living in the real world! I don't know about you, but I certainly don't have time to train seven or eight hours a day. The body adjusts to the training and the strict diet, so when the contestants leave the show and enter the real world where you and I live, they will stop training all day every day, and the weight often comes back on, and fast.
5. Plateaus - you WILL hit them.
This is not your body saying "you can't do it, give up" - It's saying "I'm used to this now" or "this isn't quite right, try something else". Plateaus are hit for many reasons, and everyone goes through them at some stage in their weight loss journey. You just have to try something different - mix up your training routine, or try eating a bit differently for a while. The main thing is to be aware that plateaus happen, and not to be discouraged when you hit one. Just push on through it.
6. Your weight loss will begin quickly, but slow down over time.
When you change exercise or eating habits, you will usually notice that your body responds very quickly, like loosing a bunch of weight in the first few weeks. Water weight is dropped quickly, and you will be thinking "this is fantastic!" However, after a few weeks it will get slower, and many people are discouraged by this. Don't be disheartened! just like plateaus, the most important thing is to know to expect this. Once excess water weight is gone and your body starts to adapt to the new routine it will slow down. If it gets very slow, try changing things just like you would with a plateau. The other thing to be aware of, is the more weight you have, the more you can loose. If you are at 30% body fat, you will find it easier to loose weight faster than someone at 20% body fat. This is to say that the more weight you loose, the slower your progress may get.
7. Genetics, metabolic rate, hormones, stress, sleep and muscle mass.
Genetics, metabolic rate, "luck" (some people just have bodies that can adapt easier) all play a part in weight loss. You can look more into body types (ectomorph, mesomorph, plyomorph) to help you figure out what you need to do for weight management. Stress hormones (cortisol), can impair your ability to loose weight - look for ways to manage your stress levels. Try to get 8 hours of sleep a night, as limited sleep slows leptin production, which is the hormone that tells you when you are full. For every kg of muscle you have, you will burn about 70 calories per day. Muscle = free fat burning, so don't skimp on the weight training!
Lastly, there are a few other things that will help with your weight loss:
Having a friend or buddy trying to accomplish similar goals will help encourage and motivate you, but keep in mind you are both different - try not to compare yourself to your friends.
While you don't want to limit yourself totally and you should be able to have treats now and then, you shouldn't use events or parties as excuses to eat things that you normally would try to avoid. If you do like to splurge on special occasions, have a think about just how any there are throughout the year, and how often this will result in you eating badly. Weddings, Christmas, Easter, birthdays, Friday nights, school holidays - the occasions are endless, and so will be the excuses! The holidays and events will always be there, the best thing you can do is learn to enjoy them without eating badly.
If you do slip up, like eating something you think you shouldn't have, or missing a workout, don't stop trying! There will be days when everything seems to go wrong and you feel like you've made all the wrong choices. Don't beat yourself up about it, and don't give up. Just accept that it happened, and move on. Get back on track, learn from it, don't dwell on it.
Finally, DON'T PUT IT OFF. If you have already started a plan, stick with it! If not, you have just dedicated time to read through this, so now is the perfect time to get up and go for a walk! Do some exercises - squats, push-ups, dips, skipping - anything you like!
If you still have questions, or want advice or help creating a training programme, contact me!
