It's a simple, two-part equation: move more and eat less..
At the end of last year I delivered a workshop to the personal training teams at Virgin Active Angel and Essex Road on how to put together a nutrition strategy for their clients. At the end of the session I was bombarded with questions on novelty supplements and complex dietary protocols. I explained to the trainers, that before focusing on supplementing vitamin and mineral deficiencies, concerning themselves about the frequency or timing of meals, or deciding “low-carb” is the solution, the priority should be creating an energy deficit.
Its a simple, two-part equation: move more and eat less.
First you need to establish your Total Energy Expenditure (TEE), in other words, your Daily Calorie Requirements (DCR). Any trainer with a rudimentary grasp of nutrition should be able to calculate that for you using the most relevant formula. Then you need to shave a few calories off that figure to create your energy deficit.
You can use an app like myfitnesspal to count calories, but to minimise the margin of error you could do what some of my clients and I do and just pay a food prep company to prepare and measure your food according to your calorie (and macronutrient) requirements. Bonus points if you also track your movement through something like Fitbit.
Eating as little as possible for as long as possible would be counter-productive in numerous ways I’m not going to get into here. It’s about finding the sweet spot. But unless you’ve calculated exactlyhow many calories you are supposed to be consuming vs how many you actually are, it’s pure speculation. And multiple food diary studies have shown participants to be guilty of underreporting what they are actually consuming. But if you truly are in an energy deficit, you cannot fail to lose fat. It really is that simple.
Coming next: Liquid calories