CREATING A CALORIE DEFECIT
This is the crucial step in controlling your weight.
The Trick
To give the body slightly less than it needs to encourage it to burn fat, if you cut your calories by too much your body will activate its starvation response which is to say it will start holding onto body fat and start burning muscle instead.
Our bodies don’t realise that we are trying to look the best that we can all it knows is that all of a sudden there is no longer enough calories to match the number of calories needed during the day. Your metabolism starts slowing down so that you are burning calories at a slower rate and since fat is the bodies favourite fuel source its going to hold onto it.
The way you encourage your body to burn fat, is to feed it what it needs give it slightly less calories than it needs and it will burn fat.
When creating a calorie deficit you want to decrease your calorie intake by 10-20%, the body will recognize this and react by burning more fat to produce the energy it needs. If you cut your calories more drastically you will not shed fat any faster, instead it will cause your body to lower its metabolic rate in attempt to conserve energy. In addition to this it will start burning muscle to produce the energy needed therefore if there is less muscle you will have a lower metabolic rate and more fat storage, this will lead to loss of muscle, low energy levels and extreme hunger.
So first you need to know what your resting metabolic rate is.
Then you multiply resting metabolic rate by how active you are this will give your maintenance level
English BMR Formula
Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )
Metric BMR Formula Women: BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kilos ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) - ( 6.8 x age in years )
Sedentary BMR x 1.2 less than an hour a week
Lightly active BMR x 1.375=1-3days exercise
Mod active BMR x 1.55=3-5 days exercise
Very active BMR x 1.725=5-7days
Extreme active BME x 1.9=8+times a week
Once you have done this in order to create a deficit you take between 10-20% of your calories away from your maintenance level this will create a small energy crisis causing your body to burn more fat to make up for the shortage in energy without affecting your metabolism.
Weigh yourself each week if there is no change takes another 100-200kcal out of your diet keep repeating this until you start loosing weight 1-2 pounds of weight loss a week is ideal any more than this and you run the risk of burning lean tissue ie muscle.
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