If this article stuck out to you, chances are you have had an issue in the past or currently with fat loss. The “magical” remedy always being fed to the general public is “simple.” Eat less, cut carbs, do more cardio, do intermittent fasting…”. Blah blah blah.
The honest truth is there is no shortcut in any way, I know, tough pill to swallow.
The only way to truly lose fat off the body is to be in a calorie deficit.
What is that you ask?
The term means to expend more energy than you put into your body. Calories are measurements of energy. Therefore, you want to put in less calories than you are burning, making your energy negative.
The “HOW you do this” is extremely important.
In most cases with clients, they are not at a point that is possible to bring them to a calorie deficit. Typically I see clients eating far fewer calories than needed to drop them.
I always explain it to them like this:
If you are eating 1200 calories but your maintenance calories are supposed to be at 1500 plus you are working out a moderate amount (3x per week), you are already in a deficit.
They reply “Then why am I not losing weight?”.
The short answer is they’ve been at that deficit for too long.
As a health professional who studies nutrition and how to properly fuel a human body, I can not bring them lower than 1200 calories and it be safe for them. For most people.
The goal is to bring up that client’s food intake to at the very least their maintenance calories.
These calories are based on their age, height, weight, and activity level. Maintenance calories are exactly as they sound… to help you maintain that weight. I bring client’s to their maintenance and more times than not, in a surplus. This is giving them a little extra weight but a lot of extra energy.
In order to have space to lose weight, it’s important to get their body used to a higher amount of energy. So when the time comes and their metabolism is healthy we can take away calories very slowly to lose fat.
The first initial weight that is removed comes off fast, it is normally water weight.
When the weight loss slows down to around 2-.5 lbs. a week we are finally taking fat. As this process continues every so often more calories will need to be removed OR more activity needs to be added. The process is continued until the goal has been reached and the client is happy. Then we simply readjust their maintenance calories to their new stats and sit there until a new goal is desired.
Don’t let the process of it taking more time scare you off from trying. Think of all the years you’ve tried everything else for a “quick fix” and were unsuccessful. This is the scientifically proven method to lose weight, sustainably.
If you follow this method you will never have to cut a specific food group, kill yourself in the gym, or play into weight loss gimmicks again. Saving you time, money, and stress.
