She eats probably better than I do. Whole-wheat everything! But her snacking was completely off base. She heard on some podcast that eating nuts is a great source of protein and makes for the perfect snack between meals. She told me what kind (peanut bt-dubs are not the kind of nuts you should snack on. Too much salt and very fattening. Rather eat almonds, cashews, or pistachios) and how much she was eating and I showed her that she was eating almost 800 calories in nuts per day in addition to her other meals. All-in-all she was eating an excess of 600 calories more than what she needed to maintain her weight, never mind lose weight. She was shocked and couldn't understand how that was possible while eating "healthy" foods.


So, Lauren, this is how to break down weight loss/management into a scientific formula.
What does this mean? BMI is a measure that most people can use to check if their weight is healthy for their height. For most adults, an ideal BMI is in the range 18.5 to 24.9. If your BMI is 25 or more, you're over the ideal weight for your height. If your BMI is less than 18.5, you're under the ideal weight for your height.

Muscle weighs more than fat. Very muscular people, such as heavyweight boxers, weight trainers and athletes, may be a healthy weight even though their BMI is classed as obese. But since this doesn't apply to the 99 percentile, we'll work on the widely accepted numbers.

Here is a link to a website that can help you figure out how many calories you need to either lose weight, maintain weight or gain weight. This site works on pounds so take your weight in KGs and times by 2.2.

So if I wanted to lose weight at a healthy level, I need to eat 1300 calories (including snacks). To maintain my weight it's closer to 1800. You shouldn't be on a low calorie diet forever. Once you reach your weight goal, increase it to maintenance diet. 

If you aren't sure about how many calories you consume and you have a smart device then I really recommend the free myfitnesspal app. It's really amazing at working out how many calories you need to eat based on your weight loss goals and then you can scan your packets or search for the food you're eating and capture it. You can capture your exercise so it'll offset that against what your calorie allowance for the day is. It's free. Get it :)

To lose 1 KG you have to have a calorie deficit of 7500! So for instance, if I wanted to lose 1/2 kg per week I'd have to have a weekly deficit of 3750. 

If I eat 1200 calories, then there's 500 calories per day times that by a week. If I go to gym and on average burn 400 calories x say 3 times per week (I try for more but let's take an average), that's a further 1200 calories per week. 1200 + 3500 = 4700. Boom! I will lose more than half a KG per week.

Another interesting fact is that while cardio helps you lose immediate calories, weights have a longer after-burn rate so you'll continue to be in a higher fat-burning condition for up to 48 hours depending on the work out. This is why it's important to have a cardio day (for over-all fitness and health) and a weights day for muscle toning and faster fat burning results. I like to mix them up every time I work out but with less emphasis on one than the other on that day.

I don't think that any diet/exercise plan will work. I believe that if you change your lifestyle you'll have the results you want and it'll actually last. For me to say that I want to lose 1kg, that implies and end-date. Once I reach that, then what? 

Have a look at your life and what you can change and change it. Before I ate junk food 3 times a week. Now it's probably once but with an emphasis on exercise on the day I do. I actually go to gym and built it into my weekly list of stuff that I have to do. Drink more water. Just do it. Have a look at the meals you cook/consume. What benefit is it to your body? Is this breakfast going to taste great but give my body no fibre or energy past 20 minutes? Drink less alcohol. It is full of calories and you generally drink a few that dehydrate you. Eat dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. If you can stand it, have an espresso instead of a cafe late. 

There are literally hundreds of small changes you can make over time that will make a huge difference in the long run. Don't do everything at once because you're setting yourself up for failure in the long run. First get used to one thing before taking on another. It takes up to 22 days for your brain to accept changes so give it the time to accept it. Of course I'd rather sit on the couch when I get home from a long day at work and guzzle down junk food and then go sleep. It's not good enough for me anymore and that's why I changed. Find your motivation and concentrate on it. As long as you're doing it for yourself and it's healthy, there's no reason you can't do it.

Best of luck. As always, if you have questions, email me.

And, Lauren, see you at the gym ;)

LLAP