It could be a lotion, a new diet or an exercise regime. There is always the next big ‘weight loss secret’ that promises to transform your physique in just a few simple steps, in just a matter of weeks. The truth is, there are weight loss secrets and they are available everywhere if you know where to look. They are just as simple to follow, but not quite as easy as some of the more outlandish claims made by these diet fads.
The reasons that people don’t tend to listen to these secrets is because they are too obvious. It has to be more complex, right? Wrong. There must be an easier way? Wrong again. There is a simple way, it is the ONLY way, and it is not easy but that doesn’t mean it has to be hard as many people often make it.
Quite simply, to lose weight, you need to be in a caloric deficit. This can be achieved in one of three ways, either you can A) reduce your calorie intake directly from food or B) do more exercise and be more active or C) a little from A and a little from B!
That’s it! One simple, not so secret, secret! There must be more to it, right? Well, for weight loss, no, but we can influence where we lose weight from, we want it to be as healthy as possible, ensuring we protect muscle tissue. We have to provide enough protein to ‘spare’ muscle and have a balanced diet, of mostly whole foods to provide the vitamins and minerals to support health. Whole foods are typically more filling and therefore help prevent hunger and cravings. You can have a little treat each day if you choose as long as you are in a caloric deficit.
If you are not losing weight, or more specifically body fat, then you are still eating too many calories. Slow metabolism or not, that is the case, so you may just have to work a little bit harder, eat a little bit less and move a little bit more to get the results you want. Be consistent and persistent in reaching your goal.
Many people struggle to actually account for the amount of food they eat, or don’t count picking at foods as part of their food intake, either consciously or subconsciously. In any case, the body doesn’t care and these things add up and can be the reason behind why people don’t get the results they want and that the rest of their efforts deserve. One very important and effective tool to create accountability to a diet and to really understand how much food we eat, including everything, is to log foods using a food tracking app. This will tell you exactly what you eat each day and from what sources. For most people this can be an eye opener to the calorie content of apparent healthy foods and to identify how much grazing can impact on their daily energy intake.
Once we are aware of our calorie intake, we can then start to create small decreases in intake until we start to cause fat loss. Remember, slow and steady wins the race, once weight loss has occurred it is more likely to be sustained. Going too aggressive with a diet can make it difficult to stick to it in the long term, it can put muscle at risk and very rapidly bring you straight back to square one. Many of these secret diets or exercise programs rely on energy restriction or increasing energy output. If you are struggling to control your calorie intake, there are diet supplements that can help with appetite suppression such as most fat burners or even green tea extract.
Finally, once you have controlled your diet and are in the calorie deficit zone, there are some diet supplements that can help to maintain mental and physical performance when dieting. Which can help keep energy levels up when exercising. Remember if you are not in energy/caloric deficit, you will not be losing weight.
Paul Rimmer (BSc, MSc, PhD)
