What first comes to mind when talking about weight is to start working out in a gym, start making changes in the diet, or start skipping a meal. Ideally, when talking about weight loss, I recommend my patients that they should understand how weight loss works and what are the things that need to be considered when planning a weight loss journey.
All food you eat has some calories in it. These calories help the body with the energy we require to perform the daily activities. When talking about weight loss the Energy (Caloric) intake has to be less than the Energy expenditure.
When talking about weight loss, BMR plays an important role too. BMR, the Basal Metabolic rate, is the energy the body requires to perform the involuntary functions in the body. This is the minimal energy that the body requires even when the body is at rest. Many factors affect the BMR. To lose weight, the daily caloric consumption must be less than the BMR with an increase in the activity levels. Ideally, a healthy weight loss is losing ½ kg – 1 kg in a week. To achieve this, there has to be a proper caloric deficit diet plan that needs to be followed.
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Ways to achieve calorie deficit
1. Eat fewer calories than the daily activity levels.
How many calories should you ideally eat in a day? Of course this varies with the makeup of your body and your Body Mass Index. Although, the general recommended dose of calories for women is 2,000 calories.
2. Burn more calories through the activity than what you eat in a day.
How much exercise is too much exercise? The general limit of exercise you should aim to achieve is approximately 30 minutes per day. Listen to your body and decide your intensity according to your fitness levels, of course.
Factors that affect weight loss
This is the basic thing one needs to understand before choosing the road to weight loss. Other than this there are other factors too that affect the weight loss. These factors are :
1. Gender
For women, periods, for example, are synonymous with bloating and wishing you were eating all the chocolate in the world, or not eating anything at all. These hormonal fluctuations also reflect in your weight.
2. Lifestyle
If you are busy and do not have the time to look up from your laptop to eat a wholesome meal. On the other hand, if you stuff yourself with fast food due to stress or lack of time, it could affect your weight drastically.
3. Medical issues
Diabetes, for example, conditions like PCOS have adverse effects on your weight if not kept in check.
4. Heredity
If your family history isn’t on your side and low metabolism runs in your family- you will have to put in the work to lose that extra weight.
5. Activity levels
Intertwined with the earlier point- your heredity affects your metabolism and your metabolism affects your activity levels.
6. Sleep
Getting adequate sleep and being well rested can help you be more active and burn calories throughout your day, without getting fatigued.
7. Age
Everybody’s body changes with age and while it is natural- you can always keep age-related weight loss in check by exercising according to your individual capacity.
Weight loss is not just the change in the number when you stand on the machine but it needs to be a proper fat loss rather than muscle loss. Losing weight involves a proper lifestyle change and one needs to follow a proper diet and exercise routine to lose weight.
