a little about my weight loss philosophy

I must have tried every diet "trick" in the book in my short 23 years on this earth, including some very unhealthy, drastically low calorie variations. Finally however, I've learnt what actually works, and as it turns out, it's actually quite simple.

The weight loss formula:

Calories In < Calories Out

Now, you may be thinking that you've heard this all before, but SO many magazines and websites tell women that the only way to lose weight is to eat a certain amount of calories (regardless of your lifestyle/physical statistics) and your diet may only consist of certain foods - which more often than not is low fat or low carb.

In terms of how much one should be eating, it comes down to a formula. First, is to workout how many calories you burn through out the day. This will include your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) which determines how many calories your body needs when sedentry to keep you alive, and also take into account your level of activity. Here is a formula I found on bodybuilding.com which was very useful for me

It is also crucial to work out the number of macronutrients you need. This is how many grams of protein, fats and carbohydrates that will make up your diet. Aim for at least 1g of Protein per kg of bodyweight (0.5g per lbs), if you can do 1.5-2g that's even better! For your fats, it's ok to have 1-2g per kg body weight (0.45-1g per lbs). 

Now that you know how many calories you need in a day, you need to eat less than this in order to lose fat. As an average rule, unless you are only aiming to lose a very small amount of weight, a 500 calorie deficit will be efficient in losing 0.5kg/1lbs per week. Exercise will add to this deficit and lead to more fat loss.

The number of calories you eat in a day can technically be made up of anything. If you stuck to a diet of chocolate chip cookies, but only ate 1200 calories worth of cookies per day, you would without a doubt lose weight. The problem would be, the composition of this weight. You may be losing muscle as well, and you want to hang onto that to stay strong and healthy!

This is why it's important to meet your macronutrient requirements for protein and fat. Getting adequate amounts of both will allow you to retain as much muscle as possible whilst losing fat.

Now, the most important part. The key to fat loss is counting your calories.

This might seem like a drag, but really it's quite easy with online personal calorie counters, there are even apps for it on your phone! Myfitnesspal and Calorie King are the two I use to track. I especially like these, because you can monitor your macronutrients. After a few weeks of counting everything every day (and when I say everything, i mean every little thing), you will have a good idea about how many calories are in the things you eat, and you may only need to track every now and then. When counting, it's important you're measuring correctly, so keep a set of scales handy.

I think that is enough for now, I hope I was able to teach you something new, or help you on your road to fat loss!

Lucy xx