Losing weight can be incredibly difficult for various reasons. Whether you have a sedentary job and lifestyle to mental aspects, losing weight is a challenge.
To examine ways to reduce weight, that’s first examine how we expend energy:
Basal metabolic rate (BMR) – the amount of calories needed to sustain life (60-70% of total calories).
Thermic effect (TE) – the amount of energy needed more digestion (10% of total calories)
Non exercise thermogenesis (NEAT) – energy expended for everything that’s not sleeping or sporting activity (15% of total calories
Exercise – the amount expended through exercise (5-10% of total calories)
1. Creating a calorie deficit
A calorie deficit means that you consume less that calories that you need. For example if a man’s maintenance calories is 2500, he’ll need to lower it to 2300 calories and so forth. The key is to reduce your calories slower over a period of time while maintaining a balanced diet. The first step is to work out your calorie maintenance. Then you can reduce this over time, which you will see improvements in body weight.
To workout maintenance calories go to:
https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator
2. Balanced diet
A balanced diet is essential for your health and to lose weight. Firstly, protein which is vital in weight loss to maintain muscle mass, especially if your goal is to become lean. The recommended amount of protein is 0.8g/kg a day or around 15% of total calories. Secondly carbohydrates, which is the prominent fuel source in the body. The recommended carbohydrate intake is 4.3g/kg a day or about 60% of total calories. Another macronutrient is fat which is essential. Although you may think you want to reduce this as much as possible. However, healthy fat low in saturated fat are critical for several body functions. The recommended amount of fat is 1.4g/kg a day which equates to 15-25% of total calories. However, these statistics will vary depending on training goals and the individual.
3. Exercise
It’s well documented that exercise is good for weight loss. Although we expend around 10% of our calories from exercise. Therefore, if you hate the treadill or cardio it may not be the end of the world. Let me explain, we expend more calories through non exercise thermogenesis. This means simple tasks through the day, we burn more calories than you would (on average) doing cardio. Therefore, we can focus on increasing NEAT by making small choice swaps. For example, taking the stairs instead of the lift or walking to the shops instead of using the car.
However, for cardiovascular health cardio is incredibly useful. In terms of weight loss it’s not essential.