I've written a lot about fat loss in the past, but today I'm going to help you prioritize your efforts for a realistic look at fat loss and body composition.
Most people concentrate on the wrong things for fat loss, or on things that aren't really important. It's also not our fault. People trying to sell us things bombard us with bad diet advice.
New diet trends, health products, fat burners, and workout routines
We buy what they sell. Why?
We like shortcuts, new shiny promises, and things that make life easier.
We don't like being told we need to improve; we prefer quick fixes.
We don't want to blame ourselves; we want to blame something else, such as refined foods, carbs, fats, sugar, insulin, metabolism, time, work, food timing, and so on.
We then buy into the things that support this, such as keto, IF, paleo, and so on.
While all of this is going on, we begin to lose sight of the fundamentals. The really important stuff. So, today, I'd like to take a step back and return to basics.
Calorie Deficit
Consume fewer calories than you expend. Everything else is interesting and can help you achieve your goal, but nothing deviates from this rule.
There is no bread.
In terms of calories, see the section above. Consume bread in moderation to lose weight. You will not if you eat bread and exceed your calorie intake.
Garlic bread dipped in mayo, on the other hand, will undoubtedly make achieving a deficit more difficult.
Cardio
If you do a cardio workout, you will burn slightly more calories than if you do not.
If your BMR is 2000 calories (BMR = calories burned to function while resting), you will burn 166 calories per hour on average throughout the day. You will actually burn slightly more than this because you burn more when you are awake than when you are asleep; when you sleep, you burn approximately 15% less.
If you go for a 30-minute run and burn 400 calories, you burned about 200 calories more than you would have at rest.
What is the equivalent to
Nuts (mixed) – 33 g (a small handful of nuts is 30-50g)
125 grams avocado (average avocado is 170g)
41 gram Snickers Chocolate Bar (snickers is 48g)
"Wait a minute, but my fitness tracker says I burn 1000 calories in an hour..."
Fitness tracker apps and gadgets are notoriously unreliable, frequently overestimating the number of calories burned by up to 50%.
This should demonstrate that trying to outburn your intake is difficult.
I always tell people to train for things like improved health, strength, fitness, muscle gain or maintenance, better movement, and enjoyment, and then manage their calorie intake for fat loss.
Weights
If you only evaluate the effectiveness of your weight training sessions based on the number of calories burned during a session, you will miss out on all of the other advantages that weight training provides.
"When cardio burns more calories than weights, why not do cardio?"
If you do 30 minutes of cardio instead of weights, you may burn 400 calories instead of 300 (numbers only), but as previously demonstrated, this is only 200 or 100 more than you would at rest.
This is only a difference of 100 calories between the two, which is –
16.5 gram Mixed Nuts (a small handful of nuts is 30-50g)
62.5 gram avocado (average avocado is 170g)
20.5 gram
Snickers Chocolate Bar (snickers is 48g)
Which you'd probably agree can be easily managed with proper nutrition.
Adding weights will benefit you in far more ways than simply increasing your calorie expenditure.
You will gain muscle and improve your body composition.
During recovery, you will burn more calories.
Because you have more muscle, your metabolic rate will be marginally higher.
Lift some weights, do some cardio, and watch your calorie intake for the best results.
Tricks for losing weight
Dieting without an understanding of energy balance leaves your progress entirely up to chance, regardless of how strict you are or how much you sweat.
They are missing the point if they do not concentrate on energy balance.
They will get you halfway there if they help you manage your calories and keep them under control.
They will assist you if they ensure you eat what you require for fat loss.
If you don't enjoy the way you eat, if you can't sustain the way you eat, and if you don't see results from the way you eat, it's time to reconsider.
You don't need any special tricks, and if you keep your calorie intake in check, you can still see results with foods you enjoy.
Eating healthily
Fat loss foods are not healthy foods.
To be healthy, you should eat mostly healthy foods. Healthy foods, on the other hand, are not fat loss foods. There are no such things as fat-loss foods. Healthy foods aren't healthy if they're causing you to gain weight.
It is easiest to meet your calorie requirements by eating low calorie healthy foods such as green vegetables, berries, low fat meats, and white fish, as these foods fill you up without consuming many calories.
Some of the healthiest foods, such as nuts, seeds, fruit, eggs, and oily fish, are actually quite high in calories.
This is not to say that you should avoid these foods, as they contain many essential vitamins and minerals that your body needs to stay healthy.
However, such foods (like any other) should be consumed in moderation in order to meet your calorie requirements for fat loss.
Summary
The simplest way to force yourself into a calorie deficit is to reduce the number of calories you consume. You can achieve this by eating less food (which can be difficult) or by eating healthier, less calorie dense, less processed food (which I think is easier, but it really depends on you).
The second most straightforward thing you can do is move around more. I'm not referring to strenuous exercise. I'm talking about taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking to the store instead of driving, taking a 5-minute break from work every hour for a quick leg stretch, or using your lunch break to eat quickly followed by a walk rather than sitting in the canteen.
The third and simplest thing you can do is to increase your physical activity. Including some low- or high-intensity exercise in your weekly routine will encourage your body to burn off some of its fat reserves, but only if you don't eat more to compensate for the exercise. You will not lose weight if you start eating cake because you've 'earned it.'
The best option is to do a little bit of all three.
