If you tend to gain a few pounds over the winter months, it is officially time to let go of that extra baggage! Get after it before it gets out of control and becomes even harder to manage. Where to start? Here are 4 ways to help you take measures to lose that fat!
1) Know your body composition. There are some fairly priced and pretty accurate scales available. In order to set realistic goals, it’s helpful to have more than just your weight to work with. Knowing your muscle mass, fat mass, visceral fat and resting metabolic rate can help you better understand what is needed to achieve your healthiest you.
2) Record your calorie intake with an app like myfitnesspal. Apps like these are easy to use and give you information including caloric intake which is how much food energy you are eating. You will be surprised at where your calories come from. There may be a few things you can tweak to stop weight gain and provide weight loss.
3) Keep track of and record your caloric output. Quantifying your daily caloric output will give you an idea of how many calories you can intake in order to shed fat. I have linked up with other apple watch users and it’s helping many of us push harder toward our goals. Want to link up? Email coach@gumsaba.com to let me know and I’ll link to your watch.
4) Know your fat loss math. Here is an article I wrote for the newsletter a few months ago that you might find helpful.
Do The Fat Loss Math by Michelle Brown
No matter how clean you eat, you will still gain or maintain weight if you are not expending more calories than you are ingesting. I have some simple math to help you better understand what fat loss takes, should that be your goal. Here are some numbers to get familiar with.
Your RMR or Resting Metabolic Rate:
This is the number of calories your body burns at rest, without any exercise. Calculate your RMR HERE.
Your caloric burn:
Apple watch and other tracking devices help with this. Everyone is different. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories your body burns at any given time. Boot camp will burn between 250-600 calories depending on your current muscle mass and how intensely you work. To nail that down, you need a tracking device.
If fat loss is your goal, you need to put out more energy than you ingest. The trick is to do this sustainably, at a deficit of no more than 250-500 calories per day. The lower the deficit, the more sustainable the loss. I guide my clients to work toward a 250 caloric deficit each day. This means if their RMR is 1200 and they burn 400 calories with exercise, they will lose 1 pound per week if they ingest no more than 1350 calories in a day:
RMR: 1200 calories
Workout burn: 400 calories
Total caloric burn: 1600
Intake 1350 calories in one day
= 250 caloric deficit.
One pound is worth 3,500 calories. A caloric deficit of 250 per day for 7 days means a loss of 1lb of fat in one week. A deficit of 500 per day (though studies show this is not as sustainable) would yield 2 lbs of fat loss in one week.
Don’t push your luck. A deficit of more than 500 calories per day has been proven to backfire. Studies show caloric deficits over 500/day result in a rebound effect, with weight regain in 95% of those studied.
There are many theories on this, the Set Point Weight Theory being the most accepted. In short, if you change your habits too quickly, your body will not accept the new pattern, it will instead recognize it as a temporary condition from which it must soon recover.
If you are struggling with losing fat and maintaining it, I can help. As an ACE certified Health Coach I can give you the tools and information you need to have long term success. I only take one client per month in my Health Coaching business, so contact me soon to get started.
To your health, Coach Michelle