Losing weight is a simple yet difficult process. At its simplest form, losing weight is a matter of consuming fewer calories than you’re expending and repeating that process until you’ve reached your body's set weight point. This notion is easy to follow in theory but can be tricky when you add all the variables that life has to offer. Believe me, I had tried to lose weight multiple times before finding a method that finally stuck with me.
When an individual decides to lose weight I will often see them attempt to go from a predominantly high sugar/high fat diet into an ultra constrictive diet consisting of salads and lean proteins. The all or nothing approach.
This approach sets you up for failure. I find that trying to be perfect with diet sets you up for inconsistent perfection rather than trying to be consistently good.
Let me explain what I mean by being consistently good. Being consistently good means that you’re consistently eating foods packed with essential vitamins and minerals, however, you’re also allowing yourself to indulge the occasional treat, so long as it’s not an over-indulgence.
When I first started losing weight I was recommended to use the TDEE calculator. TDEE is your total daily energy expenditure and will calculate how many calories you need to expend in correlation to how many calories you are consuming. Calorie counting is meticulous but can be an incredibly helpful starting point for your diet. The TDEE calculator can be found with a quick google search. For me it was the best tool I could utilise to help me on my journey. I managed to lose weight by ensuring that my energy expended was slightly above my energy consumed most days of the year.
To put this into a practical example, My starting height and weight was 172 cm and 100 kg. I was exercising moderately which set my TDEE to just over 3000 calories per day. As a result I attempted to eat anywhere between 2000-3000 calories per day to achieve weight loss.
There are four main components that are calculated with energy expenditure, those being:
BMR or basal metabolic rate which is the calories you expend whilst at rest. This will comprise the majority of your energy expended throughout the day, even for people who exercise most days. Unless you’re an athlete your BMR will generally make up at least 60% of your daily expenditure and sometimes as much as 80% in sedentary individuals.
NEAT or non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which is unplanned bodily movements including fidgeting, bouncing your leg, typing at a laptop or washing the dishes. Basically any form of movement above resting but not planned exericse. This will generally make up around 10% of your energy expenditure
TED or Thermic effect of food is the process of digestion. When you’re digesting food your body will need to use additional energy. This varies from each individual macronutrient. The macronutrient that expends that most energy is protein, followed by carbohydrates and then fats. This also accounts for around 10% of your TDEE.
EAT or Exercise activity thermogenesis is the last component of energy expenditure. EAT is your planned exercise such as a planned walk, a gym session or playing sport. For sedentary individuals this could essentially makeup none of their daily energy expenditure or for professional athletes this could be making up more than 50% in a single day for those performing several hours of rigorous activity.
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The TDEE tool is merely a guideline and is subject to slight inaccuracies with calorie calculations. For example you may be under/overestimating any one of the fields mentioned above. You may be underestimating or not accounting for every last calorie you are consuming. If you're finding that you’re not losing any weight using the TDEE guidelines you can simply remove a small meal or snack from your daily eating to recalibrate your daily totals. Otherwise you can add in some more light exercise to create additional expenditure.
You may be wondering why it’s necessary to consume slightly less calories than expenditure? Why not just eat as few calories as possible in order to maximise your weight loss?
There’s a few key reasons why this is not only unsustainable but completely impractical:
Highly restrictive diets can lead to malnutrition, not only in a key macronutrient but also can lead to vitamin and mineral deficiencies. This can also lead to hormonal imbalances as a side effect from those deficiencies. These hormonal imbalances can blunt the effect of weight loss, providing an adverse effect.
Heavy restriction can lead to extreme hunger and binge eating. This could mean eating 1000 calories a day for 3 days then eating 7000 in a binge on the 4th day, essentially meaning you’re eating 10000 calories over 4 days at an average of 2500 calories per day. For arguments sake let’s say your TDEE is 2300 calories per day. 1800-2000 calories a day from complex carbohydrates, lean protein and a good balance of omega 3 and omega 6 fats is far more achievable in the long run as it allows your body to feel satiety.
Your body composition will suffer. When losing weight quickly your body will opt to discard a large portion of muscle mass as well as fatty tissue. Lower muscle mass equals a lower basal metabolic rate. In layman's terms that means your resting metabolism will be lower and you will burn much fewer calories at rest than someone with greater muscle mass even if you are the same height and weight as that person.
You will experience fatigue, lethargy and moodiness. The brain cannot function optimally without sufficient nutrition. Your food is your fuel and you can’t run your vehicle without a sufficient fuel source. It’s imperative to get enough fuel to sufficiently fuel your brain and body whilst restricting enough to allow for weight loss.
TDEE and calorie counting in general are not necessary for losing weight. It is the method that worked for me personally which is why I am endorsing it in this blog. Yes you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight but you can utilise different methods without having to adhere to the meticulous nature of calorie counting. Some of those may include:
Adding a palm sized portion of protein to each major meal you have.
Eradicating foods high in added sugars and trans fats such as candy bars, cookies and fried foods.
Eating quality carbohydrate sources and fibrous sources to increase satiety.
Cut down or quit alcohol, or if you drink stick to no sugar alcoholic alternatives.
Removing all “unhealthy” foods from your pantry and fridge.
Meal prepping to ensure you have easy, healthy and convenient food ready to go rather than a convenient processed snack.
The point is when you’re starting to change your diet, try to eliminate those foods that we all know offer little to no nutritional value whilst staying below your daily calorie needs. If you’ve eliminated those bad foods and you’re still not losing weight then you need to look at portion sizes to determine if you need to change your food macronutrient ratios, e.g. more protein and carbohydrates and less fats as fats are over 2 times more calorie dense than protein and carbohydrates. You may also look into low GL (Glycemic load) carbohydrates which induce a gradual blood sugar release (oats, grains such as brown rice and quinoa and legumes such as chickpeas and lentils) over higher GL carbohydrates (refined sugars, white bread, instant noodles) which induce a sudden blood sugar spike and often cause you to feel hungry again shortly after.
In order to adhere to a calorie deficit, I needed to implement many changes to my routine.
I had several mantras that I implemented when I first started my diet:
Plan for the long term and not the short term. The goal isn’t to lose a great deal of weight in a short period of time. The goal is to transition into your new way of eating. You want to find eating habits that you can implement for the rest of your life.
Slowly chip away at bad habits. Think of the example from the previous chapter. You have to lay down the foundation before you can start to build yourself up. Get rid of the foods that you know are not good for you, whether that be greasy take away food, high sugar treats or foods high in trans fats. Replace those with alternatives that are better for you. Even a store bought ham and cheese sandwich is a better alternative to a fast food burger. Once you lay down that foundation you are ready to start your framework. It takes considerable time to build yourself up, slowly change habits one by one. Once you have successfully eliminated poor food choices you will be ready to move onto the next phase of your journey.
Eliminate as much added sugar as you can. Refined sugars are high GI foods that will quickly infiltrate your bloodstream. This means that they will cause a sharp spike then sharp dip in your blood sugars, then they will leave you feeling hungry again after that initial spike wears off. Refined sugars essentially have no value in your diet and overconsumption can lead to diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers. I’m not saying you should never treat yourself to refined sugars, but you should limit how often you should indulge in a sugary treat.
Make sure your “convenient foods” are good options. Too often our pantries and fridges are filled with high sugar, highly processed snacks such as chips, candy bars, ice creams etc that are far too easy to consume as a quick snack. I would say, at least for the first stage of your weight loss journey, remove those items from your house. Your new “convenient foods” can be something like a piece of fruit, no added-sugar yoghurts or a small quantity of healthy nuts.
Limit liquid calories as much as you can. I would completely cut out drinks with added sugars. Milky drinks are fine but they can also add calories very quickly which is something to be mindful of. Drink plenty of water or low calorie teas and coffees when possible.
Find foods that you genuinely enjoy eating. I think there’s a slight misconception that the only way to lose weight is to consume salads, or chicken and rice. If you genuinely don’t enjoy those foods don’t eat them!
Find lower calorie alternatives for foods that you enjoy. For example, I would use a low calorie sauce such as hot sauce in place of a higher calorie dressing such as mayonnaise when adding flavour to meals. I remember dowsing my veggies in hot sauces in order to add more flavour. Another big one for me was to drink no sugar alternatives for carbonated drinks. I don’t drink them that often but when I do I will choose the no/ultra low calorie alternative.
Track what you’re eating to begin with. If you’re not losing weight then find small ways to further limit your calorie intake. This may be by altering a meal to use a lower calorie alternative within your meal or even by switching to a black coffee over a milky one.
Stuff ups happen. Sometimes we overindulge and eat a little (or a lot) more than we anticipate. Don’t feel as though you need to work off all that extra food. What’s done is done. Move on and continue your diet as per normal. Occasionally you can get away with eating less food the next day as your body may intuitively attempt to restrict your intake the day after overconsumption.
The main purpose of these mantras isn’t to completely reinvent the wheel when it comes to your eating habits. Most of the time we can make slight adjustments to our diets which can lead to a big change in body weight over a long period of time.
I understand that these changes can seem as though they’re an oversimplification of a complex topic but any forward momentum should yield results when you’re beginning. Even if those results are just that you feel a bit better than you did yesterday. Weight loss is the goal but I would say feeling better about yourself, both physically and mentally is a far more important outcome.
Work on some foundational habits, maybe implement one or two small changes to begin with, then gradually work another good habit into your lifestyle once you have successfully implemented the first habit. For example, your first challenge may be to eliminate or significantly limit sugary soft drinks from your diet. Once you have successfully implemented that change you may be able to add another change, such as eliminating candy from your diet. Small changes implemented regularly add up to a large sustained result rather than changing everything all at once.
To put this into a practical example you may find that you’re consuming 1 litre of carbonated soft drink in one day on average. This amounts to almost 400 extra calories and a whopping 94 grams of sugar that could be immediately eliminated by switching to an artificial sweetener alternative. Better still you may be able to replace 2/3rds of that intake with water and only consume 1 can of diet soft drink per day. This would be a fantastic starting point for someone looking to make small, yet substantial changes to their daily caloric intake.
There’s many changes we can implement into our lives in order to improve health and wellbeing. One change I managed to make, which albeit was unintentional, was to increase my protein intake. Limiting your calorie intake is the foundational way to lose weight, but after conducting more research I would absolutely suggest combining that with ensuring your protein intake is adequate. I will explain how much protein is required for you in the next section.
In conjunction with dietary changes, I would highly recommend adding physical activity (both cardiovascular and resistance training) for best results, especially with your body composition. Physical activity is also imperative to your mental health and was and still is a large driving factor in my continued dedication to health and fitness.
Consistency is king. As I said earlier, aim to be consistently good over being inconsistently perfect. Adherence is incredibly difficult if you’re striving for perfection. Unless you’re training to become a professional athlete I would always choose to live life in a balanced way in order to achieve sustained success.
Far too often we’re caught up in being perfect, yet we can all abide by the 80/20 rule. This means 80% adherence with foods that we know are nutritious for us and 20% of whatever else you feel like eating. I’m a big believer in treating yourself from time to time. I play local football and after training on a Thursday night I will always have dessert, maybe even a second serving. Why? It’s because it’s a rare treat for me to enjoy guilt free. You don’t have to implement a treat into your dietary plan but don’t be afraid to do this if you think it will add to the sustainability of your long term strategy.
Changing your diet can seem like a daunting prospect but it doesn’t have to be. Slowly chip away, build yourself up and work towards the person you would want to be.
