3 Most EFFECTIVE WAYS TO LOSE WEIGHT

Hey everyone, Tom here with Train at Platinum Fitness.  I want to talk about the most effective ways to lose weight today. I am going to try to break it down into 3 pieces that can help you out along this path. But, at the end of the day there’s really only one way to lose weight and that is to create a caloric deficit.  We have to ingest less calories than the amount we are going to burn.  So we will talk about the 3 most important parts, each of these will overlap and you’ll find that you need to take into consideration how one does holding up with one as they address another.

 

First and foremost we have the ever important, unavoidable component- you’ve guessed it, Nutrition.  Your meal planning component is going to be the most impactful way of addressing losing weight.  Let’s start with the formula for that. We all burn a certain amount of calories each day, which is called our daily energy expenditures.  We estimate what that number is for each of us, and it is different just as we all are different.  Creating a calorie deficit is the only way to lose weight as I mentioned, despite what some other people may tell you.  If it were easy and without sacrifice to lose weight and to be thin, then everyone would do it.  So let’s start with Nutrition.  Meal planning and Nutrition are paramount.  

The 3 factors that make up these today daily energy expenditures are your Activity Level, what you do all day long, what you do for a living, could impact this number. Then of course your Exercise, the specific time that you dedicate to your exercising. And finally your BMR, your Basal Metabolic Rate. The BMR is based on your genetics, age, sex, and then muscle mass or your body composition. Besides the body composition or body mass, the first 3 things that make this number up are what they are ok? But, with the muscle or body mass we can dictate what that level is for each of us within reason. We simply enter these vitals into our software along with your average daily activity and exercise as I had mentioned, to come up with your total energy expenditure.  From there we determine the deficit and use that as a caloric target for each day.

A useful method to help remember this is to consider that there is 3500 calories in a pound of fat. To lose one pound a week the math would say that you need to decrease your caloric intake by 3500 calories in that week. So by dividing that 3500 calories for the week by 7 days in a week, you need to cut 500 calories a day to lose that pound. Another way to look at it would be if one’s total energy expenditures was 2500 calories per day (what they burned) and that person consumed 2000 calories per day, they would succeed in losing one pound per week.  While the math is the basis for this formula, the goal is to build the targeted daily calories in a balanced and nutritious manner.  Everyone’s schedule is different, but we recommend eating at least 3 times a day, and up to 6 times per day.   The more times you eat obviously less calories per meal.  Your meal should have a healthy balance of lean proteins, complex unrefined carbs, and healthy unsaturated fats. Of course if you have an allergy or are unable to metabolize carbs efficiently, then you can adjust accordingly.  Remember, at the end of the day we’re just looking for a caloric deficit.  But, we are championing the healthy choices that we make for our foods when we can.  All your food choices should be natural, absent of any refinements and processing.  Calorie counting can be annoying at first, but if you want to take guesswork out of the equation, then it should become a part of your everyday routine.  For many people, including myself, it becomes a lifestyle.  If that lifestyle and routine is consistent, you’ll begin to memorize the calories in your food choices and will become second nature.  For those of you that have access to our branded app, you can link your My Fitness Pal which will make this even easier to start tracking your food intake and calorie expenditures.

 

Next up is your cardio training.  This part is important not only to burn additional calories, but for heart and vascular health as well.    As you begin to understand how many calories you naturally burn each day, you’ll soon realize that adding in a cardio regimen can boost the number of calories you burn each day. If in the earlier example you realize you are going over your 2000 calorie target, you can counteract it with an appropriate amount of cardio.  A good cardio baseline is at least 30 minutes of activity at least 3 to 4 days per week.  Again, with exercise there are many platforms available that you can just plug in your exercise to determine approximately how many calories you burn each time you complete your cardio. With this cardio, we not recommending any specific mode. It’s very important that you choose something that you like to do, or that you like to do more than other options. Something that will continue to keep you motivated, in sync and in a groove.   

 

The third piece of the puzzle is strength training.  Of course you burn calories while you lift weights, which is beneficial, what may be overlooked however is the benefit of increasing your lean muscle mass. If you remember in my opening I talked about your BMR, which is your Basal Metabolic Rate, or how many calories your body burn each day on its own.  Part of this calculation is your body composition, or your lean muscle. It’s the only piece of your BMR that you really can control. You can’t control what gender you are, or how old you are.  Muscle burns fat efficiently, so the more muscle you have the more calories you’ll burn each day everything else being equal.  

A healthy, realistic, and consistent balance of these 3 components, with an emphasis on caloric and nutrition management- you’ll begin to see weight loss results.  Remember, I cannot emphasize enough that at the end of the day you have to create a caloric deficit in order to lose weight.

Thanks.