When embarking on a weight loss journey it is important to keep balance and moderation in mind. By cutting too many calories your body will go into a starvation mode, which means it tries to hold onto the fat by slowing down the metabolism, thank our cavemen ancestors for that! Therefore making weight loss even more difficult. Your metabolism will generally start to slow down after a week of strict dieting. In order to lose a kilo a week you must cut 3500 calories per week from your diet. This can be divided into 500 cals per day. Either by cutting 500 cals out of your diet per day, or exercise which burns 500 cals, or even better cut 250 cals off your daily requirement and exercise which burns 250 cals.
So on the days you are not exercising you must cut 500 cals from your diet for that day. See below to work out your current daily requirement and then do the workings to work out your new daily requirement to lose a kilo per week. generally losing 1-2kgs is healthy, any more then that and you are mainly losing water and muscle. To help increase metabolism it's important to do weights, this helps to increase muscle which in turn chews through the fat, 1 pound of muscle will burn 50 calories at rest! so get those muscles pumping! Don't worry ladies, the most amount of muscle women can put on is about 2-4kgs. Men have the added benefit of testosterone to help increase their muscle size! If you are a woman and find you can put on muscle easily it is important to increase cardio such as running (best), walking and cross trainer, and perform high repetitions of 12-20reps for weight bearing exercises.
Simple ideas to lower your calorie intake:
cut white potato, eat only sweet potatocut all processed foods such as bread, cereal, biscuits, lollies, chocolate, ice cream (if it's in a packet it's usually processed)cut white rice and pastacut sugar (Just one tsp can lower your immune system for up to 4hrs!!!) use stevia instead (a natural sweetener from health food stores)
Eat mainly:
vegetablesfat trimmed meat: steak, fish, chicken (no skin), kangaroo, turkey (size of a deck of cards women roughly 150g and men 200g)eggsnatural low fat yoghurt, not vanilla!wholegrain muesli, or whole oats porridge with cinnamon and stevia for taste (not honey or sugar)2 pieces of fruit onlySome exercises which burn: (for a 70kg person, if you weigh less then you burn less, weigh more and you will burn more)
265 cals burnt during 35mins of light jogging420 cals burnt during 1hr of cycling330 cals burnt during 30mins of boxing450 cals burnt during 1hr of high intensity aerobics370 cals burnt during 30mins of skipping260 cals burnt during 30mins of moderate swimming110 cals burnt during 30mins of weights (remember this increases your metabolism so you end up burning more after you have done the work!)
To find out your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR):
Your weight in kilos x 24.2 (for a 20yr old woman)your weight in kilos x 24.2 - 2% (for a 30yr old woman)your weight in kilos x 24.2 - 2% - 2% (for a 40yr old woman) (for every decade minus another 2%)
For men:
Your weight in kilos x 26.2 and for every decade above 20yrs - 2%
ie: If you're a 40 yr old woman and weigh 70kg
70kg x 24.2 = 1694 - 2% = 1660
1660 - 2% = 1629 calories
1629 - 500 = 1129 calories on non exercise days
1629 - 250 = 1379 calories on exercise days - 250 calories burnt during exercise.
Do that every day for a week and you should lose 1kg.
note: 1kg of fat = 3500 calories!
