The Ultimate Guide To Weight Loss

Over the past few months we’ve been summing up our knowledge on weight loss in our blog series. We’ve covered why people struggle to lose weight, why a calorie deficit is so important, and what a good amount of weight to lose each week is, but now we’re consolidating our top tips into one simple guide.

Many people come to EMS training because they want to improve fitness, tone up and ultimately lose a bit of weight. While this can be a great goal, often it’s not always the best thing to aim for.

At 20PerFit, we like to focus more on losing fat and building muscle, which gives you that toned up and strong physique that so many people yearn for. Weight loss as a goal isn’t always the most reliable or sustainable, while building strength and losing fat is a much healthier and accessible goal.

We’re not saying throw away the scales, but we ARE saying don’t get upset if the number on them isn’t changing as much as you’d like. There is so much more to fitness than just weight loss.

That said, as so many clients have ‘weight loss’ as their goal we’re pulling together our top tips. Take a look at this mega article on how to lose weight the right way and see results long into the future.

Weight loss is a short term thing, but fitness is a lifestyle

If you aimed to live in a calorie deficit for your whole life, you’d be pretty miserable. However, this is what so many people (especially women) end up doing. This will never be successful because ultimately your body always wants to be in balance. It wants to measure up the calories in with the calories out, so if you’re in a calorie deficit constantly, well, you’re probably actually not.

Your body will always seek to balance you, whether that is with a take away binge on a saturday or extra snacks here and there. It is very difficult to be in a calorie deficit for an extended period of time.

What we often see is clients who feel like they’ve been on a diet their whole life but have actually gained weight. This is because they have taken a more yo-yo diet approach, rather than an attempt to alter their lifestyle.

Many people end up overdoing the calories over an extended period of time and end up gaining weight. This is so normal in today’s society where overeating is the norm. With so many options, it’s hard not to overindulge.

This is where weight loss comes in as a tool to lose the unwanted lbs that have piled on over a matter of months and years. Weight loss and dieting is only really recommended as a short term phase, that is used to drop fat and overall body mass.

Once this phase is over, it is all about maintaining a healthy lifestyle that involves a good level of exercise and a balanced diet. Fitness is a lifestyle, so it is important to note that while you might lose some weight initially, the main goal is to have a healthier lifestyle, a more balanced diet and a better approach to health.

How To Lose Weight

Losing weight really is as simple as counting your calories and ensuring that you put in less than you expend. Figuring out your BMR and then adding any exercise or movement will give you a good idea of how many calories you need to survive day to day.

Then, you can subtract 500 calories from this number to ensure that you’re in a sustainable calorie deficit. You can use a BMR calculator to figure out the number of calories that you should never dip below and use this as a guide.

What is a calorie?

Scientifically speaking, a calorie is “the energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water through 1 °C”. But what does that actually mean?

It means that calories are a measure of energy that tells you how much energy is in a certain food. This in turn tells us how much energy is needed to burn off certain foods.

Each body has a basal metabolic rate or BMR, which is the base number of calories your body will burn each day just from being alive. You need to eat these calories in order to stay healthy, and you will probably be surprised at how high that number is.

Eating in a calorie deficit (i.e. less than your BMR) will enable you to lose weight, and eating in a calorie surplus (i.e. more than your BMR) will enable you to put on weight. In this sense, counting calories can be very helpful to allow you to understand whether you are going to be putting on, or losing weight.

Top Ways To Get Into A Calorie Deficit

First of all, losing more weight than 1kg per week is considered unhealthy and unsustainable, due to the fact that you will likely have to be in a severe calorie deficit. As such, we always recommend a slower calorie deficit.

An extreme calorie deficit is not healthy, and will have negative consequences that will make it harder for you to lose weight in future. With a lowered metabolism and increased sensitivity to certain food, if you do undertake an extreme calorie deficit you will likely put the weight back on very easily. This process is known as yo-yo dieting and is the enemy of healthy weight loss.

Some Of The Best Ways To Get Into A Calorie Deficit Are:

• Increasing calories burned by exercise (e.g. EMS training)
• Decreasing calorie intake by replacing calorie dense foods with healthier alternatives
• Increasing the amounts of whole foods in your diet
• Increasing protein intake
• Get a good amount of sleep and rest
• Look at your routine as a long term play not a 6-8 week plan
• Not restricting ‘bad’ foods, but encouraging them as a treat instead of the norm
• Following the 80:20 rule, that 80% of the time your diet and exercise will be impeccable while the other 20% will be off plan and flexible
• Adding a variety of exercise to your routine including EMS training, strength training and HIIT as well as fat burning cardio like walking
• Drinking up to 4L of water a day in order to stay hydrated

Why Is EMS Training Good For Weight Loss?

One of the main reasons that EMS is good for weight loss is that the workout helps to create a calorie deficit, which is the main way that you’re able to lose weight.

A calorie deficit essentially means burning more calories than you consume. You can achieve this by cutting calories in your diet, exercising to burn more calories or a combination of both. By opting for a workout like EMS, you’re able to enter into a calorie deficit at a lower impact and for a shorter duration than other workouts.

EMS technology is especially effective for those who find it hard to enter into a calorie deficit due to its low impact nature. For example, if you’re someone who struggles to exercise because you’re elderly or overweight, entering into a calorie deficit will be harder since the emphasis will mainly be on dietary changes. EMS can help those individuals exercise safely and effectively, leading them to burn a high amount of calories.

EMS also promotes weight loss by building muscle, which in turn helps to boost your metabolism and burn fat. Weight loss with EMS training is most effective when combined with a healthy, balanced diet which promotes the calorie deficit.

Why People Don’t Lose Weight

The main reasons that people don’t lose weight are obvious. However, often people are reluctant to accept them. Weight loss is really as simple as calories in vs calories out. It is science.

Some of the most common reasons people can’t lose weight are:

• Not being in a calorie deficit

If you’re in a calorie deficit you will lose weight. If you’re not in a calorie deficit, you won’t. Ultimately, the main reason that most people don’t lose weight is because they don’t burn more calories than they consume. As such, their weight stays the same or goes up.

• Not giving it enough time

Often one of the key reasons that people think they can’t lose weight is that they haven’t been in a dieting phase for very long. To lose weight sustainably you need to aim to lose about 05.kg per week, so if you started a diet a week ago and are looking for instant results, think again. Give it more time and you will likely see results so long as you are in a calorie deficit.

• Overestimating calories burned during exercise

Calorie tracking apps and fitness trackers can be unhelpful as they overestimate the number of calories we burn during a workout. This means that people eat the calories that they think they burned only to find that they are in a calorie surplus. This is a key reason people might feel that they are exercising and eating right but not losing weight.

• Not adjusting their calories as they lose weight

Many people find that they can lose the initial weight that they have quite easily, however when it comes to the last 5-10kg of weight that they want to lose, they just can’t shift it. This is often caused by a plateau in weight loss.

When you lose weight, your overall body weight goes down. This means that you are smaller and therefore need less food to power your body and stay alive. Your BMR or basal metabolic rate goes down normally when you lose weight, however most people don’t account for this change and keep eating the same amount of calories.

When you lose weight you need to readjust your calorie intake and in most cases eat less calories in order to sustain the weight loss that you achieved before. Working with a trainer will allow you to stay on track with this kind of thing and keep on top of your next steps on your fitness journey.

Weight Loss Isn’t The Be All And End All

One key thing that we want you to take from this article is that weight loss isn’t the be all and end all. It is so much better to see your fitness journey as a lifestyle change as opposed to a short term fix.

There are SO many more important benefits of a healthy lifestyle than just weight loss and external aesthetics. These include:

• Improved mental health
• A more positive outlook on life
• A healthier internal body (organs, blood, brain etc.)
• Improved concentration
• Better body image
• More energy

The list goes on!

EMS Training is a great way to kickstart a healthier lifestyle and commit to something more long term. With small group training and a dedicated PT on your side, you’ll feel motivated, supported and excited to kick your goals.

For more information check out our membership options, or head over to our blog for more healthy lifestyle tips.