Simple Rules to Help With Weight Loss
Here are some very simple to understand rules that when followed really help you meet your weight loss goals and help cut through a lot of the bad advice that is promoted on social media.
These are the rules that have really helped me in the past and I will be using again.
TL;DR Summary
You can read about each of the rules in more detail but if you are short on time then here is quick list.
- You must be in a calorie deficit to lose weight
- Weight loss is seven days a week
- Calories are King but Composition is Queen
- Alcohol inhibits weight loss
- Focus on the scales in the kitchen not the bathroom
- There are no free foods
- What you eat and drink will influence your weight loss significant more than exercise
- Planning your food is planning to succeed
- Log it when you swallow it
- Nutrition labels over apps
- Grams not cups
- Manage your moments
- Walk, don’t run
- Be active
- Rest well
You must be in a calorie deficit to lose weight
There is no getting around this, your body must be in a calorie deficit to lose weight. There is no special tea that will burn fat off, or some special exercise that means you can eat what you want and still lose weight. You must consume less calories than your body will burn to live and move.
The reason for this is that the human body is actually brilliant at storing energy, in the form of fat (and other forms), and is also efficient in protecting that energy store.
It does this because as humans developed there were many times when food was very scarce. Therefore, we evolved to hold onto those stores of energy and to only use them when we really had to.
Now, we live in an age where you can simply spend five minutes on your phone and twenty minutes later a banquet is delivered to your door. So, we don’t have that scarcity problem, we have the opposite, but our bodies are still built for scarce times and therefore still efficiently stores excess energy (fat) and will only let it go when it really has to.
As a result, for the body to access and burn that energy (fat) it must be in a sustained calorie deficit.
Weight Loss is Seven Days a Week
Cheat days are reserved for athletes, people who train at an elite level and eat a very bland, boring, calculated diet to help them reach their peak in pursuit of a goal like an Olympic Medal or Mr Universe Title. They exist as a psychological support to those athletes to alleviate the boredom of their very strict regime.
You, and me, are not elite athletes. Plus, to maintain good momemntum in weight loss you need a sustained calorie deficit. This means staying in that deficit for more than one day, and in fact for best results you stay in that deficit for seven days a week.
If you fall for the trap of having a cheat day during your weight loss period, you will stall that momentum and it will take time to build it up again and start to burn fat.
Just think of it like driving up a hill. Once you get going you can coast up the hill at a steady speed making good progress. However, if you stop or stall on the hill it will take signifcantly more power and effort to get going again. Plus, it is very easy to roll back down the hill at this point reversing your progress.
Weight loss is the same. Keep up the momentum seven days a week and it will be easy and your body will give up the weight more easily.
Don’t fall for the cheat day trap.
Calories are King but Composition is Queen
While Calories are the thing that matter most with weight loss, the composition of your food comes in a close second and can make a significant difference.
Let me explain what i mean by composition. Food composition is really the quality of the food you are consuming and whether it is natural, processed or ultra processed.
Now, you can eat only ultra processed food and as long as you maintain a calorie deficit you will lose weight. But, it will be harder to sustain and you will feel worse in yourself. This is becuase the food does not satiate you as your body needs, in fact it is designed not to so you keep eating (and buying), and therefore food cravings will be higher. Also, it will provide zero nutritional support to your body so you won’t feel great and will be more suseptical to illness and being unwell which often leads back to overeating.
Conversely, real food with good nutrition will satitate your body preventing food cravings, and provide a number of the nurtrients helping you feel more energised and fight off bugs.
Alcohol inhibits weight loss
As well as being full of empty calories alcohol also has the double whammy of prohibiting weight loss.
It does this because despite how nice it tastes going in….alcohol is poison….and your body knows this. It recognises that it is poison and diverts resources to removing the poison from your body as quickly as it can. This will include stopping other processes like burning fat.
Additionally, alcohol lowers inhibitions and controls which can lead to overeating or at the very least making poor food choices.
Therefore, to keep your weight loss moving in the right direction – cut out the booze.
Remember, a weight loss phase isn’t forever so you are only cutting out items until you reach your goal.
Focus on the scales in the kitchen not the bathroom
Being accurate with the amount you eat and tracking your calories correctly is key to being able to ensure your body gets to, and stays in, a caloric deficit.
Therefore, if you focus on the kitchen scales then the result of the bathroom scales will take care of itself.
There are no free foods
The internet is crammed full of useful information. However, it is also full of incorrect and misleading information and this is especially true when it comes to weight loss and fitness.
And one common myth is that one food or another is “free” and won’t impact your diet. This is total rubbish. All ediable food will have a calorie value and it is important that you track it.
What you eat and drink will influence your weight loss significantly more than exercise
Remember this saying, “You can’t outrun your fork”.
Exercise is great for increasing fitness, toning up, moving better and feeling better about yourself (through the release of endorphins). But, it won’t undo bad food choices. The calories burned from exercise won’t make a huge difference in creating a calorie deficit.
Don’t get me wrong, it will help and you should include exercise in your fitness routine. But food choices and calories tracking make the biggest difference.
Focus on food first and exercise second.
Planning your food is planning to succeed
Meal planning and subsequently shopping planning can really help you succeed in your weight loss journey.
The reason is because by planning your meals you will remove in the moment decisions at meal times that leads to (easy) bad choices. Also, a good meal plan can translate to a good food shopping plan which again helps you avoid having to decide on what to buy when you shop and again making bad choices.
Log it when you swallow it
It can be tempting to delay logging your calories and food until the end of the day or other key times. Don’t, the likelihood is that your will get it wrong. Instead, log it as you swallow it so you can be sure it is accurate.
It doesn’t take long and if you want proof then just give our daily calorie tracker a try.
Nutrition labels over apps
While there are some great apps available to support your weight loss journey and I do think they can help, you have to be very careful with the data they have and how it is presented.
Fundementally, there are two issues.
The first is that the data might be wrong as it will be based on input from other users.
The second is that it can present portions as a serving and it is too easy to assume your portion is a serving when in actuality it is two or even three servings. It is much better to use an actual measure such as grams.
Now, an app can be useful as a guide, especially when you don’t have a nutrition label and that is why we have added our own food lookup tool to help you. This tool is linked to the Open Food Facts database which is one of the largest food databases in the world.
But, always use the nutrition lable when you can.
Grams not cups
Building on the above it is risky to use generic mesures like cups as you can struggle to get an accurate measure.
Instead, use grams as it is the measure used on nurtrition labels, is easy to use and is supported by most kitchen scales and our collection of weightloss apps.
Manage your moments
Planning can be tremendously helpful with weight loss. But, the real key is how you handle the individual moments. Like a lot of things in life it all comes down to managing your moments and making the right decision and taking the correct action at the time.
To make this easier you may want to think ahead to some challenging moments and come up with a management plan or avoid them altogether. This could be saying no to a night out with friends or working away from the office on cake day.
Remember, it isn’t forever and once you have reached your weight loss goals you can have that night out with friends and look great on it.
Walk, don’t run
Walking provide a myriad of health benefits as well as being a great choice for getting you into the fat burning zone and helping with weight loss.
Running, can provide the same benefits but carries an increase risk of injury – especially if you are overweight.
Therefore, resist the temptation to become the next Mo Farah or Paula Radcliffe and instead focus on getting in a good, brisk, 45 minutes to 1 hour walk each day.
Be active
Being active is great for weight loss and weight maintenance. But, being active isn’t about rock climbing, kayaking and fencing all in the same day. It is simply about moving more than sitting, and getting stuff done. As a side benefit, you will be amazed when you take an active approach to life at just how much stuff you can get done.
Also, you won’t miss all that time sitting down.
Rest well
Getting a good nights sleep is something I’ve really struggled with. Whether this is due to stress, being neurodiverse, or many others things I don’t know. But, I do know that it is a major reason while I can struggle to control my eating and science can now explain this.
When you get a good nights sleep your mind and body helps to lower stress and manage two key hormones that impact weight loss.
The first one is Leptin. A good nights sleep helps raise your leptin levels which is the hormone linked to feeling satiated which stops you from overeating.
The second one is Ghrelin. A good nights sleep helps reduce your ghrelin levels, ghrelin is the hormone that makes your feel hungry.
Both are very important to keep your healthy. But, at the wrong levels, due to lack of sleep, they will play havoc with your eating.
Just think back to those times when you have been up all night, like a long flight, and how you find yourself just devouring snacks for no obvious reason. This is because your leptin is low and your ghrelin is high.
So, take some steps to ensure you get a good nights sleep. This might be a wind down routine, using something like Calm and even taking a sleeping aid. Find what works for you and then keep it up.
I will write more about this topic in the future but for now, if you are interested in learning more about the benefits of sleep for weight loss then check out this scientific piece from UCLA Health.
In Conculsion
In conclusion, these simple rules will really help you on your weight loss journey and they can easily be built into your daily routines.
Additionally, to help make this even easier, we have created a number of tools based around these rules to help you.
Also, as I said in the beginning of this post,I will be following these rules and using these tools myself on my own weight loss and fitness journey.
Please, give them a go and let us know how you get on and if you would like any improvment in the advice or tools. The best way to do this is by joining the Travelbetter Community below. This is also the best way to learn about the latest updates and new apps we build to help you live and travel better. Exploring More and Worrying Less.