How to Lose Weight: A Sustainable Approach to Weight Loss

I don't know a single human being who doesn't want to be at a healthy weight, feel good, live a meaningful and energetic lifestyle.

There is a nor shortage of information on how to get there but...

Just like anything; some are good and some aren't so good. Of course what is good and not good is largely subjective as well.

The truth is that much of these programs are simply different marketing tactics that wrap up the same concepts and ideas in a different way. There is nothing actually wrong with this. I would argue that there are very few original ideas anymore. Except that it confuses everyone into thinking that it is more complicated than it really is.

So if you are looking to lose weight and have a hard time weeding through the info then keep reading.

Dropping Body Fat Demands a Caloric Deficit. Not too Much, Not too Little.

Where to start?

To note, I have personally had great success using this same formula and outline in my own fat loss goals. It works.

 

212 lbs. vs 178 lbs.

Start with your bodyweight x 10.

Lets say you weigh 200 lbs and want to drop 25 lbs to get to a healthy bodyfat range (25-30% for women, 15-20% for men.)

200x10=2000 calories per day.

This is how we solve the not too little, not too much approach. This is your starting spot.

Protein

We've all heard that protein is important for gaining muscle but what many fail to realize is that protein is actually crucial component for your fat loss. Protein is the hardest to break down meaning it will actually burn more calories to digest. It also aids in preserving muscle as you are trying to lose fat. This is important because losing muscle is one of the most costly things for your metabolism, so skipping out on protein when trying to create a healthy body composition is one of the worst things you can do. It also the most filling. No brainer to consume this as the foundation of your eating habits.

We are going to do 1g per lb of bodyweight in protein. In this example that'd mean 200g of protein per day. Protein has 4 calories per gram meaning that these 200g of protein have 800 calories.

Carbs

Carbs are your bodies main energy source. You NEED them to function. The popularity of cutting them out to insanely low levels is the exact reason so many people fail at dieting. Imagine trying to drive your car on very low levels of gas and expecting it to just keep running without breaking down. Its ridiculous. Lower your carbs and you lower your energy. Lower your energy and you lower your ambition, discipline and willpower.

It's a losing battle to drop carbs to extremely low levels for a long time.

The key is knowing what's too much vs too little.

In this case we want carbs to be about 30% of overall calories so the breakdown looks like this:

30% of 2000 calories = 600 calories/4g per carb= 150g of carbs per day.

So far we've got 800 calories of protein (200g) + 600 calories of carbs (150g)=1400 calories out of the 2000 you're shooting for.

Its easy to understand why carbs get most of the hate when it comes to losing weight or gaining weight. Carbs in general very highly palatable and trigger the reward centers in the brain to want more. This is what makes them such a slippery slope for most people. 

For some it can be helpful to break distinguish the 2 types.  Simple carbs are the ones that tend to be highly processed, sugary and are easily over consumed. Complex carbs are generally fruits, veggies, whole grains.

Think of the simple ones as the ones that you have to satisfy your brain while the complex ones are the ones you consume to satisfy your body. BOTH can be a part of your diet and in fact should be for sustainability.

It'd be worth going through and labeling them as either buffer or trigger foods. Buffer foods will be the ones you can consume and feel satisfied while trigger will be the ones that open the flood gates of wanting more and more. 

The tricky thing here is that they affect us all differently when it comes to hunger and cravings. It is your job to figure out which ones will lead to overeating and which ones you are satisfied with but wont overeat. 

REMEMBER: THEY  ALL HAVE 4 CALORIES PER GRAM.

So in this sense, there are NO good or bad carbs.

AGAIN. No good or bad, just watch how many.

Fat

This is another one that gets a brunt of the hate but it is crucial in managing a healthy bodyweight. It manages energy much like carbs do and also manages hormone levels and responses. It is also important in the absorption of minerals and nutrients from the foods you are eating.

They are also very calorie dense ( 1 gram=9 calories) so you must manage the amount here as well. A little goes a long way.

If we stick to the example we've been using, then with the amount of protein and carbs we have(1400 calories total) then we simply use the remaining calories for fat. In this case it'd be 600 calories.

600 calories/9 calories per gram= 66.6 or 67 grams of fat per day

So there we have it.

2000 calories per day
200g protein per day
150g carbs per day
67g of fat per day.

I suggest redoing these calculations every 5 pounds of fat loss or if your weight loss has stalled altogether.

You will then want to monitor 2 things when applying this.
1. Your weight on the scale. You can expect 1 or 2 lbs. of weight loss per week without much damage to metabolism.
2. Biofeedback.

Biofeedback are the hormonal responses your body will give you in real time, each day that will tell you if what you are doing each day is healthy and sustainable long term.

The most common ways to assess are to monitor your
-sleep
-hunger
-energy
-mood
-cravings

If/when these things are chronically off (you may notice varying degrees of fluctuation in a day) then you need to reassess either your calories, macros, exercise frequency/intensity, stress or all of them.

What many will do is double down on lowering calories or increasing exercise but this will backfire 100% of the time.

You must find the proper balance between all (food, exercise, stress management.) if you are going to have a shot long term.

Use this as a starting spot and adjust as you need to. I realize this is only a tip of the iceberg and there are lots of nuances when it comes to these things but give this a shot to start and be willing to adjust over time.