Dr Eric Helms, from the Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand, explains that from a physiological level, fat loss is quite simple.
“Fat loss comes from an energy deficit,” he says. “Consuming less calories than you need to maintain weight.”
However, you want to lose as much weight from fat as possible and as little weight from muscle as possible. For this, you need to:
Be in an energy deficitPerform progressive resistance exercisesEnsure appropriate deficit sizeConsume sufficient proteinPerform an appropriate volume of cardio
Ultimately, fat loss comes down to macros. However, there is some data to suggest that highly processed foods have a lower thermic effect, which means their energy output is lower. The way this affects your diet is that you’d have to lower your macros even more.
Additionally, you’ll have to set your priorities: do you want to make your fat loss journey easy to follow and not rebound, or do you just want to get lean for a set time period?
If the answer is the former, eating single-ingredient food items and reducing hyper-palatable foods will generally enhance satiety, preserve energy output and control hunger signals.
More than half of diets fail after their initial stage, with people putting on the same amount of weight, or even more, after losing it.
So how can you ensure you keep your weight off after losing it? Dietary adherence, which boils down to consistency and sustainability, is the determining factor to a diet’s success.
se these weight maintenance strategies from Dr. Layne Norton to stay lean:
Practice cognitive restraint (such as calorie counting, or time restricted eating)Get semi-regular feedback on your weightExercise regularlyFollow a structured program you can stick to long-termValue low recency (place more importance on long-term data than short-term data)Remember that, if your goal is to lose weight and get lean for life, your two-month transformation doesn’t matter unless it’s the same as your two-year transformation.
