WHY FAT LOSS IS NOT JUST ABOUT A CALORIE DEFICIT
Losing weight after 40 plus can be challenging. We have a host of hormonal factors we need to consider, and the nutritional advice out there can be confusing.
You’ll no doubt have seen various influencers banging on about calorie deficit and that being the be all and end all of weight loss.
Well, they’re only half right.
Calories ingested and calories expended have the biggest impact on your weight. If you consistently eat more calories than you burn, you’ll put weight on (usually body fat).
If you consistently burn more calories than you consume you’ll lose weight.
However it’s way more nuanced than that, so while calorie deficit is a good basic approach, it’s just that… basic.
We’ve always worked with our clients on a number of other factors that make fat loss easier, more sustainable, and and all together easier experience, and now new research backs our methodology.
Specifically, when you eat also impacts your weight loss, as does meal frequency and timing.
Findings based on a review of 250 studies presented at the European Congress on Obesity showed that both time restricted eating (aka intermittent fasting) and front loading calories in the day have a significant effect on weight loss.
If you want to drill into the detail, then not eating after 3pm was the best way to lose weight.
However that’s not practical for most people, so the additional finding that a 15 hour fast is also effective is the one that you can utilise fairly easily – and there are ways you can “hack” this too if you’re schedule doesn’t allow for a 15 hour fast.
We coach our clients to eat dinner as early as will fit with their lifestyle, and push breakfast as late as they can, but we can also “hack” the window by utilising other factors, which is what we do.
Interestingly fasting for 14 – 16 hours has additional health benefits including reduced blood pressure and a reduction in oxidative stress.
We also encourage clients to front load their calories in the day, and the research found that dieters who consumed bigger meals early were most likely to achieve significant weight loss.
One study found that a cohort of subjects on a calorie-controlled diets for 12 weeks who ate most of their meals early in the day lost on average 11lbs more than a cohort eating the same calories spread over the day.
Of course, this is just meal timing and frequency, but there are so many other factors you can, and should be working with for easy effective fat loss.
So the next time an “expert” tells you it’s just about calories, maybe look elsewhere for your advice.
If you’d like to know more about this, reach out.