Everyone will have their own idea about weight loss. “Just stop eating rice,” says your coworker. “Do sits-ups every day,” says your uncle, with absolute confidence in his folksy wisdom. Others will tell you that this or that supplement will have you shedding fat in no time. Then there are the various diets and eating techniques: Atkins, Paleo, Ketogenic and Intermittent Fasting—the list goes on.
Friends will have rave reviews about yoga, Pilates, cycling, pole-dancing, swimming, running, home exercises, and an endless list of suggestions that will have your mind spinning until you realize you’ve tired yourself out just thinking about it.
Successfully shedding weight—body fat in particular—will have one common denominator. Whether it is due to exercise, diet, or a combination of both, weight loss is achievedonly when there is a calorie deficit. Repeat the words with me: calorie deficit. In simple terms, a calorie deficit is when your body burns off more than what you consume. If for instance, you consume 2,000 calories in one day and burn 2,200 calories. This equates to a 200-calorie deficit, which, if accumulated over a long period of time, will lead to significant weight loss.
Is it possible to eat sweets and fatty foods everyday and still lose weight? Theoretically, the answer is yes, so long as the quantities are not large enough that you are unable to burn them off. However, we must take note that some foods have a higher caloric content than others, without having the needed nutrients. Likewise, it is also very possible to exercise two hours a day and still not lose—or even gain—weight. This happens in a regime where we are unable to exercise away a high-calorie diet.
The first step to effective weight loss is to first determine our Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR. There are various BMR calculators online that can do this for you just by inputting your personal data. For instance, a 5-foot-8male weighing 150 lbs will have a BMR of 1660 calories. BMR represents the total number of calories you need in a day to live, and for your organs to function, without having to do anything. Think just lying in bed all day without having to get up. Now, of course, none of us would like to just lie around all day and get bed sores when the world is buzzing with activity. So next we would need to compute our Total Daily Energy Expenditure, or TDEE. This represents the amount of calories we consume going about our daily activities. Again, there are various TDEE calculators available online. The same male individual described above, assuming he has a sedentary office desk job, will have a TDEE of 1,942. Let’s say that this same person does light daily exercises, then his TDEE goes up to 2,225.
Now, once we have determined our BMR, and more important our TDEE, the next step, if weight loss is the goal,is to make sure that our daily caloric intake will be less than our TDEE. Once we establish a regular pattern of doing this, only then can weight loss and the shedding of fat take place.
Yes, we do have to count calories and range this against our physical activities if we want to do things in a systematic and scientific manner. Again, various resources are available online for the specific calorie content of various food items. A cup of cooked, white rice for instance, contains 200 calories, a slice of chocolate cake has approximately 400 calories. To lose one pound of body weight, we need to burn 3,500 calories. Therefore, a calorie deficit of 500 a day will lead to a loss of one pound per week. This is a rather safe rate of losing weight. Ideally, a calorie deficit ought to be reached not only through diet, but by exercising, as well. Armed with this knowledge, we can select the path to losing that unwanted bulge.
Keep in mind that those who have successfully lost weight, may it be through Keto, Intermittent Fasting or working out and attending exercise classes every day—whether they realized it or not—achieved a systematic calorie deficit that led to their weight loss. By recognizing the value of a calorie deficit in your weight-loss program, and understanding the basic underlying principles behind it, we can now execute our plans in a systematic manner and set ourselves up for success.
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2 comments
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