Warning: You are about to find out a couple of weight loss tips not many people know about. Read at the risk of dropping all that weight you’ve been dying to lose. Compliments of Beyond Fitness Personal Training.
Secrets that will help you lose weight.
Almost everyone throughout their lives are worried about how they look. This isn’t a bad thing, but if you get too obsessive about it you may actually be doing more harm than good.
Weight loss is a simple equation but will not work the same for everyone, so knowing a few great tips to boost your knowledge and give you the right tools to feel better about yourself.
TIP #1. Eat more, exercise less
This one may seem a little strange because generally you hear “eat less, exercise more!”. But don’t worry, I’ll fill you in about why this could help you. This tip will help – but only if you are not correctly balancing your routine already.
- Are you struggling to even lose 0.5kgs?
- Do you find yourself stuck in a rut of training for hours and hours a week?
- Are you limiting yourself to 1200 calories a day (because that’s the magic weight loss number that your friend told you about)?
If you answered yes to most or all of these questions, then this is a perfect tip for you!
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that to lose weight, you have to burn more than you eat. So you would think that by eating 1200 calories, you must burn at least 1200 daily to lose weight. This is where people generally go wrong – this is definitely not something you should be doing.
Burning as much as you eat will lower your metabolism and make it extremely hard to lose weight.
Why?
Your body thinks it will not get enough energy throughout the day, so anything you eat will be stored away as fat just in case.
To figure eat how much to eat, you should first calculate your BMR (Basal metabolic rate) – this rate helps you work out how much you should eat if you literally did nothing all day except sleep. Anything extra you do, requires more energy – and more calories.
Once you have calculated your BMR then you work out your weekly activity level, and with a quick calculation you will have a rough idea of how much you should be eating to maintain your weight.
How much should you be eating?
Here are 3 easy steps to help you figure out how much you should eat to lose weight…
(or to gain or maintain your weight).
Step 1: Work out your BMR
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate): The amount of calories your body burns just from being alive.
Women
655 + (4.35 x Weight in pounds)+(4.7 x Height in inches) – (4.7x Age in years)= BMR
Men
66+(6.23 x Weight in pounds) + (12.7 x Height in inches) – ( 6.8 Age in years)= BMR
Step 2: Take that number and multiply by your activity level
- 1.2 Sedentary (little to no exercise)
- 1.375 Lightly Active (1-3 days a week)
- 1.55 Moderately Active (3-5 days a week)
- 1.7 Very Active (6-7 days a week)
Step 3
LOSE weight: Subtract 500.
MAINTAIN weight: Keep the number the same.
GAIN weight: Add 500.
The end number may seem quite high, but that is only because it’s not a figure you are used to – give it a try and feel the difference.
TIP #2 – Include HIIT 2 times per week
Cardio is a very popular form of exercise for people who want to lose weight or tone up. There are various forms of cardio, but the most used amongst dieters is LISS (Low Intensity Steady State). An example of this type of cardio is jogging, bike riding, and walking.
This form of cardio is ok to do maybe once or twice a week for a short period of time. However if you do it for 6-7 times per week for over an hour, you will end up losing more muscle than fat – and end up with that “skinny fat” look that you may have seen before.
HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) does the complete opposite of this – you will lose fat and get stronger. Best of all, you’ll only need to train twice each week for twenty minutes a session!
Examples of HIIT
Do these 20 times
- 30 seconds moderate pace running
- 30 seconds sprinting
Or
Do these 10 times
- 1 minute moderate pace bike riding
- 1 minute very fast pace bike riding.
There are many different ways to incorporate HIIT into your routine so feel free ask us or have a look around on the internet for more ideas. For a first try don’t be afraid to give any one of these a go!
Contact us if you have any questions or need a trainer to help with HITT.