Losing weight or getting rid of your belly sounds easy. Ask most people and they’ll tell you they know the basics; reducing the body fat percentage (belly) means eating less, moving more and making healthier food choices. Yet here at Delta Fitness we come across many people still struggling to achieve this simple goal. A lot of this is down to the amount of confusing and sometimes conflicting information out there. In this post, we discuss the calorie deficit.
So, in this article, our Head Trainer Laszlo Baritz who has been a Personal Trainer in Canary Wharf for the past 7 years shares his 4 main tips for people who have struggled or are currently struggling to make progress in their fight against the flab.
It’s surprising how many people underestimate the importance of this critical aspect of fat loss. Quite simply this is absolutely essential. Without putting your body in a calorie deficit, it cannot burn more calories to lose fat. So what exactly is a calorie deficit?
A calorie deficit is defined as any shortage in the number of calories consumed through food and drink relative to the number of calories your body requires to maintain its current weight. Your body needs the calories you consume for every function it performs. From keeping your heart beating to powering your brain and getting you moving. If the number of calories consumed is equal to the number of calories expended then your weight will stay the same.
To lose fat you create a calorie deficit. Either by eating less or moving more. Therefore burning more energy from a diet high in calories. In our experience, it’s best to combine both for the fastest results. Something we also focus on is remembering that at times it’s not possible to create a calorie deficit every day. However, as long as you maintain the deficit over a longer period of weeks and months then you’re guaranteed to lose fat.
Over the years, many of the people who have come through the door to our Canary Wharf training studio have not defined a starting point for themselves. This means they did not have a record of where their fat loss journey started and so they do not know what progress, if any, they have made during their attempted journey.
Having a clear starting point is a vital component and it means you can regularly check and track progress. For example by weighing yourself first thing on a Monday morning before breakfast. Or getting a body composition check done at your local gym or by having photographs taken to compare to.
Being able to track the changes, in turn, helps you stay motivated. We’ve found a snowball effect where once a little progress is visible, people put more effort in and are even more determined to keep progressing. After all, everyone gets motivated by seeing the results of their hard work and this is certainly true of seeing the fat disappear.
Each journey at Delta Fitness starts with a consultation where we understand what you want to achieve and what your past experiences have been. An overwhelming number of people who come to us have tried various types of diets and workout plans. Unfortunately from unqualified online sources on Google or even YouTube and often with limited success.
It can be overwhelming with so much information put out by the fitness industry. And then there are many competing or even contradicting views out there. The majority of people try one thing after another without a proper focus on the fundamentals of basic nutrition and exercise. It can be the search for a quick fix or the attraction of some before and after photos that leads to frustration and a lack of understanding of why the results don’t match up to the goal.
It’s a good idea to seek out professional guidance, which is invaluable in these cases. Seek out a fitness professional and be sure to find someone who specialises in fat loss with a great track record. Look for the experience they can share with you. Not only will a good qualified Personal Trainer help educate you on nutrition and training techniques to help you lose fat. Far, more importantly, they are there on the journey for motivation and to make you accountable.
Motivation and accountability go hand in hand. Having a PT on hand to give you advice on your food choices greatly increases your chances of sticking to your plan. Whether you’re at a client lunch or a family dinner. Sticking to your plan and maintaining the calorie deficit we described earlier for a sufficient period of time will lead you to achieve your fat loss goals every time.
Most of us are aware that to lose fat we need to exercise. The majority of people straight away think of cardio/aerobic exercises and usually walking, jogging or running is the first one we try. This is understandable as you don’t need any assistance to get going, however, this limits progress more than you would expect.
Lifting weights or weight training, on the other hand, is a great way to not only strengthen our bodies but increase bone density and build muscles. It’s also a highly effective way to burn fat mass while building lean muscle tissue.
This has a compound benefit as not only are you burning energy while exercising but in building muscle you’re creating an active tissue. The more muscle you have the more calories you’ll burn even when you’re not actively exercising.
Lastly, those people who focus on cardio only, they do lose fat but the result they see in the mirror is often not what they expected as they become what is termed “skinny fat”. The cherry on top with weight training is that as the fat disappears, it reveals a healthy, toned and athletic appearance!
So these are the 4 most crucial mistakes our Head Trainer has seen people tending to make when they set out on their fat loss journey. If you are just at the beginning of your journey and you aren’t sure where to start and need some assistance, by all means, book a free consultation through our website and we will be in touch with you to help you get you started.