Sustainable Weight Loss
Results are never instant!
Weight gain doesn’t happen overnight, neither does weight loss. Slow and steady wins the race, which is why a slow and steady weight loss as part of a change in lifestyle and focusing on eating for health rather than weight loss can work well as a long term solution for weight control.
5 tips for sustainable weight loss
- Calculate your daily calorie intake and create a small deficit (250 to 500kcal)
- Be mindful of portion sizes
- Replace unhealthy foods with healthy options
- Wait 5 to 10 minutes before having a second helping
- Exercise regularly
Daily Calorie Intake
There are formulas available which will give an indication as to what our daily calorie intake should be. This is based on age, gender, height, weight and level of activity. Based on this, we then create a small to moderate calorie deficit of 250 to 500kcal a day.
What does 250kcal look like?
Two slices of wholemeal bread have in the region of 256kcal. No, this doesn’t mean you should eliminate bread from your diet, it just means that if instead of having two slices of bread, try to have one. A 25gr bag of Ready Salted crisps has in the region of 132kcal. So by eliminating one slice of bread and one small bag of crisps, you have now created a deficit of 260kcal. This is how small-a-change is required to go into calorie deficit and start losing weight!
Portion Size
Portion sizes tend to be what catches most people out. After all, do we know what 30gr of oats looks like? Or 80gr of dry pasta looks like? This is where most are caught out. Miscalculating what makes up a portion is where things can go a little off the rails. Some options for this are to use measuring cups or spoons or having a visual representation poster of what portion sizes look like, e.g a portion of pasta is approximately a fistful.
Replacing Unhealthy Foods for Healthier Versions
Replace unhealthy foods with healthier options
Don’t dig your grave with a knife and fork! This isn’t so much about weight loss, but rather about getting into the habit of reducing unhealthy foods and replacing them with a healthier version, for example switching from white pasta to wholemeal pasta, replacing white bread with wholemeal bread or replacing sweet carbonated drinks for home made fruit flavoured water.
Wait 5 to 10 minutes before having a second helping
Following a nice meal, many times we feel the urge to get up and top up the plate again because we are still “hungry” – but are we? Is it hunger or is it that food was so good, we just want more? Many times we don’t tend to stop when we are full and just have that tiny little bit more, quite often leaving the table feeling too full. You can avoid this by waiting a few minutes and letting the brain receive the signal in which it is told “I am full, time to stop”.
Exercise Regularly
I left exercise for last on purpose. Exercise IS important, but if your eating habits aren’t in sync, you can exercise all you want, but you won’t lose weight. You cannot out exercise poor eating habits. Exercise is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle as well as great for weight loss but it needs to be as part of a healthy and balanced diet.
The bottom line when it comes to losing weight is, eat healthily, have a variety of foods, don’t over eat, don’t go on crazy low calorie deficit diets which leaves you hungry all day long and don’t follow highly restrictive diets which are unsustainable long term. Think of the body as a car; an amazing car; the most sophisticated car ever. The fuel you put into this car will determine how well it will run…..or not as the case may be.
If you’d like to discuss any of the points above, please get in touch
