This view, of course is largely dependent on your political persuasion. Those to the right will likely agree, those to the left will cite a global banking crisis as the cause of the deficit. For the sake of argument (and If I am being honest to give me a more attention catching headline) I am going to say that Gordon Brown was responsible for the deficit.
Doubtless there are some of you reading this that have read
diet books which tell you that calories are not important, that you can lose
weight without reducing the amount of calories you consume. Sorry to be the
harbinger of bad news but this is simply not true. Granted there are many diets
out there which do not blatantly ask you focus on calorie counting, but instead
ask you to eat more or less of a certain type of food or ask you to not eat
certain foods at certain times of the day, but these are tricks. They are the David Blaine’s of the
diet world.
In a roundabout way all of these diets lead you to consume less calories, hence the weight loss. This ‘tricking’ is not necessarily a bad thing especially when you think how hard it can be psychologically to lose weight. All I am saying is, essentially to lose fat you must use more calories than you consume and there are various ways we can do this.
In a roundabout way all of these diets lead you to consume less calories, hence the weight loss. This ‘tricking’ is not necessarily a bad thing especially when you think how hard it can be psychologically to lose weight. All I am saying is, essentially to lose fat you must use more calories than you consume and there are various ways we can do this.
CREATING THE DEFICIT
We know a fundamental part of any fat loss diet is creating
a calorie deficit - we must use more calories than we consume. This can be done
in three ways:
1.
You consume fewer calories (you eat less).
2.
You use more calories (you move and exercise
more).
3.
You consume fewer calories (by eating less) and
use more calories (by doing more physical work).
The most effective option being the 3rd, as
combing exercise along with a diet means you will not lose as much lean tissue
as you would if you were to just solely diet alone. This will leave your body
feeling and looking 'tighter'.HOW TO CONSUME FEWER CALORIES
So how do we go about consuming fewer calories? Firstly you do not have to necessarily count every calorie you consume. You can if you like but you do not have to. Simply being mindful of your old eating habits and then altering them appropriately is often suffice to create a calorie deficit.Below are some of the more popular, least intrusive and easy to follow methods which have worked with my clients. (Please be aware that the list is by no means exhaustive. There are a lot more scientific and accurate methods which I use with some clients to create a more accurate bespoke calorie deficit. For more information on this please drop me an email matt@mlrpt.co.uk).
·
USE A SMALLER PLATE. You do not have to change
the types of food you are eating, merely because the plate is smaller, the
portions are smaller hence fewer calories.
·
EAT WHEN HUNGRY, NOT STARVING. STOP WHEN FULL,
NOT STUFFED. Once again you do not have to change what you are eating just stop
eating before you are stuffed – do not be afraid to leave food on your plate.
·
EAT PROTEIN WITH EVERY MEAL. This will involve
changing your food choices slightly but it will be worth it. Every time you eat
try to include some lean protein in your meal. Protein leaves you feeling
fuller for longer meaning less chance of hunger and cravings later in the day.
HOW TO USE MORE CALORIES
Granted, this is stating the obvious but one the easiest ways to burn more calories is to exercise and for my clients this involves training with me where I am able to motivate them; however alongside this I ask them to perform their own independent exercise. Below I am going to share with you some of the methods I have used with my clients to increase their physical activity levels when we are not training together.
·
GET A PEDOMETER. Get yourself a pedometer and
record how far you normally walk each day for one week. In the second week try
to increase the number steps you done in the previous week by 10%. Continue you
this week by week until you get to 8000 – 10000 steps per day.
·
LAY DOWN THE ANCHOR. Get yourself an anchor
point which will trigger you to do some physical activity/exercise. For example
you may enjoy watching Coronation Street, in this scenario your anchor could be
the commercial break. When the adverts start that will be your trigger to do 5
squats. Start small and get bigger, begin with 5 squats and build to 10, 15
until eventually your squatting for the entirety of the whole commercial break.
As time goes on try to build in as many anchor points as you can in different
parts of your life. For example every time you walk up your stairs at home
perform 20 step ups! Sorry if you live in a bungalow!
·
ENTER THE LONDON MARATHON, THE MALDON MUD RUN OR
WHATEVER. Well it does not have to be a marathon but enter yourself into some
sort of exercise event, that way it will give your training some focus and
hopefully motivate you to exercise.
DEALING WITH THE DEFICIT
We know that eating less and doing more creates a calorie deficit and much like the biggest issue facing any Chancellor of the Exchequer of the present or future…how are we going to deal with this deficit?Ask anyone in society paying the bedroom tax and they will tell you dealing with the deficit is tough. And in many ways dealing with your own calorie deficit is going to be tough too!
At some point on your diet you will be hungry, for some people these feelings will very frequent for others less so, but at some point you will definitely feel hungry. After all a fat loss diet does involve consuming fewer calories than you are using!
THE CARROT OR CHOCOLATE TEST
It is at these times you have to decide whether you are hungry or just craving. One method I use for dealing with this is what I call the ‘Carrot or Chocolate Test’. When you are feeling hungry ask yourself this, could you eat a carrot? (Feel free to substitute the imaginary a carrot with any other vegetable of your choice) If you could eat the carrot you are obviously hungry and not craving, feel free to eat something making a sensible food choice. If you feel you could eat the chocolate but not the carrot you are more than likely just craving. You must do your best to deal with this craving by distracting your thoughts from it. These feelings can last around twenty minutes and ways getting rid of these cravings include reading, going for walk, brushing your teeth and a more novel way is to perhaps tap your forehead. Recently I read a research article on this which said it had some success and who knows it may work for you!
If you really cannot get rid of the cravings and absolutely have to succumb to them, do so but do it sensibly. If it’s a Mars bar your craving have a fun size bar not a normal size bar! But most importantly of all once you have treated yourself to the fun size Mars bar please, please, please do not think all is lost and jack in your diet completely. Once you ‘fall of the horse’ you must get back on straight away and as Marvin Gaye so succinctly put it, you must ‘keep on keeping on’.
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