My honest opinion as an athlete and as a fitness professional? Weight-loss is really quite simple. We, people, make it complicated.
The human body was not born obese, nor it was programmed to be so. We were designed to move, to be healthy and lean, to run miles and miles to catch our dinner, or to run away from becoming one. We are hunter-gatherers. We are active beings.
No matter how inactive you are, you were born to move. If you only take care of enough movement and quality foods in your life, your body will do the rest. It will balance itself and without thinking much, you will reach your desired number on the scale. It seems simple, right? Then why do so many people still struggle with losing weight? Why do you keep trying and trying, and the numbers on the scale won't even twitch? There are a few ducks we should get in a row, but today we will focus on one only. Her name is Calorie Deficit.
Short Version:
Unless you have an underlying cause (e.g.hormone imbalance), an illness or you are currently taking medication that might trick your body into inhibiting the weight loss or encourage it to gain weight... The only thing you really need is a CALORIE DEFICIT. And if you think you eat less, and you're not getting your results, it means that you are NOT in a calorie deficit.
Long Version:
Looking back at my 10year career in fitness... I've realized that I have never asked a single client to follow a diet, I have never forced anyone to do exercises they do not like, I have never asked anyone to follow an unsustainable routine. And guess what? Some of my clients got great results. So one day I asked myself, why these clients were so successful while others were not?
I wasn't really surprised when I realized that the best results I saw were in clients who were 100% committed. They were committed to making themselves better every day. They listened to my advice and they did not cheat and lie to me. We worked together, and by simply finding a sustainable way of eating, exercising, and living, they kept getting results even after we stopped working together. THEY HAVE LEARNT HOW TO LIVE HEALTHY AND SUSTAINABLE LIFE. They have learned how to find balance with food, with movement, and with everything they do. And most of all, they enjoyed the process. They were not stressed because they missed their workout, they were not anxious about their food, and they didn't really care much about that piece of cake they had the other day. They learned how to listen to their bodies, so if they really wanted the cake, they would eat it knowing they won't be having it again tomorrow, or maybe in the next few weeks or months. Their body simply didn't ask for it. They managed to find the balance.
Going back to the Calorie Deficit.
I have always hated diets. I never really needed one, but I've tried to follow some just out of curiosity. I guess I also felt encouraged by all the supermodels' images surrounding us on a daily basis. The images which supposed to promote a healthy lifestyle somehow manage to lower our self-esteem and make us love ourselves less. Yet we fall for it again and again. We try to become someone else. Someone skinnier, someone prettier, someone who exists only on the poster. Because even the model from the magazine does not look like the model from the magazine.
Anyways, I have tried. And I have failed. And I felt awful. I thought the problem is with me. When it is really not. The problem is with the world, with marketing and advertising, and with all diets that have ever existed and emerged in front of our eyes.
The truth is... Diets do not work. They're full of unsustainable bullshit which no one can follow. Some of the diets pretend to work, like super famous keto, paleo, and other low-carb jokes. Do you want to know why? Because all of them ask you to CUT DOWN ON CRAP. Look at any diet you want, none of them ask you to stuff yourself with chocolate shakes, chips, fast foods, and sodas. Even keto which is based on lower carbohydrate intake and a higher percentage of fats focuses on "healthy fats" not just deep-fried chicken. So at the end of the day, if you are getting any results, it isn't most likely the diet you follow, but the deficit of calories you subconsciously created. (From cutting down on crap.)
The real problem starts when you get sick and tired of the way you eat, and you give up. Then you run to the supermarket and buy everything you were not allowed to eat over the past weeks or months. You binge, you eat whatever you want, and you are back to square one. Putting on weight and feeling like crap.
So what's the solution? There are a few, and I could probably write a book about them, but I will give you the main one. The one which pushed me to write this article. The calorie deficit, which is created consciously and not forcefully.
No, I am not asking you to count your calories. Don't ever do that. I will save you some time and sanity, and I will tell you that it does not work and it does not make sense, nor does it translate to your daily life.
What I am asking you to do, is to pay attention to WHAT you eat and HOW you eat. Here are the simple steps to follow (choose one, or all of them):
1. Track Your Food.
- Keep a Food Journal for a minimum of 7days, and write down EVERY SINGLE thing you eat and drink. Don't like paper pages? Use your laptop, excel spreadsheet, phone app, anything that works for you, and will help you to register the data. 2. The Moment of Truth.
- After 7 days, review your week and mark all the "bad stuff", e.g. processed food, sugars, sodas, everything that you think should not exist in a healthy diet.
3. Take Action.
- Pick one thing at a time, and try to eliminate it from your diet, or find a better, healthier substitute. (Chances are that the rice you love so much is not the greatest evil. Very often it's all the additives and sugars we don't pay attention to. Cut down on those heavily processed products, and I guarantee you will be losing weight even while still having your daily portion of rice.)
Examples:
If you drink a lot of coke, maybe you wanna substitute that with soda water with honey and lemon? Then the next step would be just soda water, then maybe plain still water.
If you drink coffee drinks with whipped cream and a dozen syrups, try to remove the whipped cream, or syrups, or any other sugary stuff. Don't go straight from fluffy creamy coffee to flat black. You will hate yourself and hate the coffee. Just scale it down, until you get used to it. Once you're ready, find a way to make it more healthy again. This is how eventually you will create a calorie deficit. By naturally eliminating the briefly mentioned "crap".
- Eat slowly, and don't read/watch anything while having your meal, avoid being rushed and distracted. (I will spare you the science behind it, but eating your food slowly and mindfully can really trick your brain into eating less.)
4. In It for The Long Run.
Be patient. You might not see results in the first few weeks, but if you don't give up, the number on the scale will eventually drop. Maybe in the most unexpected moment.
And if after a long time you are still not losing weight, it simply means the calorie deficit is not happening, and you need to go the extra mile. Remove another unhealthy product or find a better substitute.
Sound like a lot of work? Well, it really is not, and it should not be. That's the whole point. Every step you take should be super easy and doable. It should feel effortless. That will make it sustainable.
Will it take time? Yes. Definitely. And that's the whole point of the weigh-loss process. Any program that promises you 10kg less in two weeks is, to simply put, bullshit. And it is also unhealthy. A reasonable number you should aim for is 2-4kg per month. Anything more than that will surely bounce back and maybe even double.
Stop expecting instant results, and instead commit to tiny steps of self-improvement every single day. Ultimately you will start seeing results without even attempting to get them. Once you will find a way to eat better and move more you will create an adequate energy balance and you will not only lose weight but more importantly, you will maintain that healthy number on the scale for years, and hopefully for the rest of your life.
Play the long game, and I can promise you, it will be worth it.
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