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5 Easy Ways To Do A Calorie Deficit Diet Without Working Out
I call these my Five Awesome Rules for Fat Loss Life.
They have been my guiding anchor for the entirety of my career.
And they haven’t ever let me down yet. Every single human that I have worked with has followed this plan and it is responsible for a lot of the results you see here.
Each and every one of the people that I work within my Online Coaching Program gets this as Lesson 1. It is a really simple, easy to follow set of actionable steps you can do every day that will ensure you start getting the results you truly want from your Weight Loss Journey.
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When it comes to the Calorie Deficit Diet there is one guiding principle that you must acknowledge before we go any further.
“A Calorie Deficit is simple, but its not easy”
I have written on the topic of what a Calorie Deficit is many times before.
Here in fact: What is a Calorie Deficit Diet Plan?
And you are welcome to read it…once you have finished with this story first.
I am sure I will write about a Calorie Deficit at least once a month for the rest of my life because it is that complex.
Now I need to cue some irony because I am going to try and make the Calorie Deficit as simple, as accessible, and as easy for you to follow as I possibly can.
But please remember this. When you get to the end of the article, you will be pumped, inspired, and excited to get started.
But this is still difficult to adhere to consistently and patiently to allow yourself the real-time that fat loss needs.
This is an amazing starting point, and this should be your constant solid foundation, your comfort blanket for Fat Loss results.
If you want the video version of, 5 Easy Ways To Do A Calorie Deficit Diet Without Working Out, you can grab that right here:
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Awesome Rule For Fat Loss Life #2 - Three Litres of Water A Day
Awesome Rule For Fat Loss Life #3 - Protein and Veggies At Every Meal
These are in no particular order of importance. They all require as much time and attention as the next one, and if you favor one over the other then you are very much cheating yourself out of success.
But first let me answer this:
Can You Lose Fat In A Calorie Deficit Without Exercise?
Yes.
In fact, whenever I work with a client online, and they have a weight loss goal, then I encourage them to not view their exercise as a tool to help make that happen.
When you only view exercise as a means to burn calories, you destroy your relationship with exercise, and it is a surefire way to lose all motivation for working out.
If you are trying to lose weight, please view the balance of exercise and diet his way:
You work out to get strong.
You eat to a calorie deficit
If you can do that, not only will your diet improve, but also your ability and desire to see movement for what it is in your life will improve dramatically too.
I don’t encourage clients to just lose weight without any movement, as there are drawbacks related to doing just that:
It could effect your metabolism.
You will lose strength.
You won’t feel empowered in your new body.
You will focus too much just on the scale.
You could effect your relationship with food negatively.
Exercise is a great tool to protect you from all of the above as well, and exercise does not often have to conform to the ideas you think it might to support your weight loss journey.
So please bear that in mind as well.
Now onto the Five Awesome Rules for Fat Loss Life:
Awesome Rule For Fat Loss Life #1
You need to be in a Caloric Deficit.
Every rule hereafter will help you be in a Calorie Deficit.
But you cannot lose body weight, burn body fat, and try to change that scale number if you are not being adherent to a Calorie Deficit.
So how do you know if you are indeed in said deficit?
The crucial understanding for this is the principle of Energy Balance.
This dictates the following:
Energy In = Energy Out = Calorie Maintence
Energy In < Energy Out = Weight Loss
Energy In > Energy Out = Weight Gain
Therefore by understanding this you can manipulate your Caloric Intake to make sure that you keep your calories where you want to achieve your goals.
Personally, I suggest tracking your calories each day using an app like MyFitness Pal.
However there a few considerations you need to have when using MyFitnessPal.
The Caloric Goal it will set you is too aggressive for long term sustainable weight loss. So please ignore it. Instead, use the following formula:
Goal Body Weight in LBS x 12 = Caloric Deficit
2. Calories are the most important for your goals.
3. Secondly its Protein, however, Protein doesn’t have to be your biggest Macro Nutrient. Yes, Protein is important, but that doesn’t mean it has to be the biggest part of your diet. Then your Carbohydrates and your Fats. These are all just targets. Not pass/fail markers. If you don’t manage to hit your targets, don’t worry as long as your Calories are still in the right place.
4. Ignore Calories Burned from exercise. MYFP will take into account the calories you are expending from exercise, and then it will encourage you to add that against your calorie targets. Please do not do this. The whole point of your movement is to help you get into a Caloric Deficit, if you eat it all back…then what are you gaining if you are after Fat Loss? Added to that MYFP pulls in that Data from your smartwatch and these have been proven time and time again not be very accurate at calculating calories burned from aerobic exercise.
5. Remember you will never get it right. It is quite literally your best guess. All the time. Breaking down your homemade meals is a pain and it can become time-consuming and frustrating. Bear in mind you are using it as best guess, that its never going to be perfect will help take the pressure off you.
6. You only have to do it for a month — six weeks. This isn’t, and nor should it be a lifelong sentence for you to track your calories. All you need is to get yourself more calorie educated in two departments: Portion Control and Calories in your favorite foods. Once you have spent time educating yourself on these things then you will have a much better idea of where your calories are at each day.
7. It will take time out of your day. But don’t forget the big picture. 10 minutes a day for 6 weeks is little time invested compared to years of half arsing it and struggling along because you haven’t taken a moment to get educated and understand the process enough.
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Awesome Rule For Fat Loss Life #2
3 Litres of Water A Day
Water has zero calories in it. As does Diet Soda.
The reason I am saying to you to drink more water is not because of the nonexistent calories in there.
It’s because Water will help you with a number of “negatives” that you might get when you start a Calorie Deficit.
Being in a Calorie can and will cause hunger as well as ever so slightly lowered energy levels.
Being hydrated will without a doubt help you curb your hunger, which in turn helps you stay adherent to a Calorie Deficit.
But it will also give you energy. The difference between you being hydrated and not being hydrated will become clear…when you become hydrated. A lot of people think that 3 litres is too much water, and can find it hard, to begin with. I understand that, so build up to it. Take it steady, and add 500ml of water each day as you build slowly until you hit your 3 litres.
I had a client once who told me she would drown if she drank 3 litres of water a day. She also told me that she would get water intoxication.
I bargained with her. It will feel like a huge change and a large amount of liquid. But you will always look for reasons to not do something. You will always fight drastic measures to a degree. And you are right to do so. But in my 5 years of working with people…I have never had anyone say to me that this is a negative aspect of their work.
I told my client to give it a go, build slowly, and see what happens. She went on to lose 10kgs working with me, and she drank her water.
It's not a magic number. Everybody is different, and everybody is different. But it’s a good baseline. It’s a number that is high enough to make you increase where you are currently at, it’s a good amount so you can get the benefits from it, and is achievable.
Here are some tips to help you get that water intake up:
Start early. Wake up and get 500ml into your system from the off.
Get a water bottle you enjoy drinking from and is at least 750ml big.
Build slowly.
Drink clear water on top of other liquids throughout the day. Don’t include Coffee, Tea, Juice as part of your 3L.
And here is the best bit.
You will be drinking more. Which means you will be going to the loo more.
When this happens and interrupts work etc…
Just remember Elmo…
Awesome Rule For Fat Loss Life #3
Protein and Veggies at every meal
In truth, I don’t care what you eat if you are working on a Calorie Deficit, as long as you are sticking to your numbers.
But…and this is a big wallopping Kim Kardashian “but”
What you eat will make your life on a Calorie Deficit either a lot easier…or a hell of a lot harder.
There’s a fantastically huge amount of people out there who will set your deficit too low, tell you to eat Mars Bars and Donuts, and still lose weight.
Sell you the perfect dream.
You will lose weight, and they will get some great Work In Process Pictures from you. But they quite simply are not caring for your needs, and if you are willing to submit yourself to such torture, then you aren’t caring for your needs either. All these trainers want is a great photo of you, so they can move onto someone else based on your hard work.
Then once it is all done, and the 12 weeks are over…well…they don’t care about how much you have binged, or how you feel mentally or physically. They got your photo that proves they got you a result.
Not quite such a perfect dream is it?
This is why I don’t ever dictate to clients what foods they should be eating…but ask them to stick to some guidelines. And one of these guidelines is the following: Protein and Veggies at every meal.
Build your plate wisely.
I want you to feel the best you can whilst trying to lose weight, both mentally and physically.
This means eating protein because protein is satiating, it will help you preserve muscle and is always a good thing to eat.
There are many theories out there on “how much” protein you need. With this, like everything, do your best.
Whether its 1g per lb of bodyweight. Or 2g per lg of bodyweight.
Don’t lose sleep over it. Just remember, a lot like getting in 3L of water a day, we need you to aim for something more than you are currently doing, and whatever you achieve will be great. The percentage of Protein in your Diet will very rarely be higher than your Carbohydrate intake — that's ok.
Then let's add Vegetables. A good solid source of Carbohydrates, they are extremely nutrient-dense and don’t carry with them lots of calories.
From there…I always say that Carbs can come long for the ride. You can sprinkle in some rice, bulgur wheat, couscous, pasta, bread, or whatever. Sprinkle it in once you have your plate built with Protein and Veggies first. This way you will really give yourself a big tick in terms of portion control.
Awesome Rule For Fat Loss Life #4
10,000 steps a day.
Good old FitBit. Good old activity trackers. Good old 10k steps a day.
I’m sure you are starting to see a theme here.
10k steps a day is not a magic number. If all you do right now is 1k steps a day…then getting you to 10x that is wholly unrealistic.
But the benefits of increasing that are still huge.
The technical reason this is in there is known as your NEAT; your Non-Exercise Thermogenesis. This basically means all movement you do which isn’t prescribed training. Which isn’t lifting weights.
This is the part of your Metabolism that you have the most control over…and is part of your Metabolism that many people don’t pay enough attention to.
For more information on your Metabolism and whether or not it is “broken”. Then read this article of mine that has helped 100s of people understand what to do in order to keep their metabolism burning body fat: https://www.thegymstarter.com/blog/is-your-metabolism-broken
I want you to move more. I want you to allow movement to become part of your life. Whether that means doing the gardening, climbing the stairs at work or parking further away at the Grocery Store…if you do all of them then you are well on your way to increasing your NEAT.
Don’t feel defeated if you don’t hit the magic 10k.
As long as you are increasing and building this up from the moment you started your Calorie Deficit from where it was before…you are winning.
Awesome Rule For Fat Loss Life #5
7–8 Hours Sleep A Night
Sleep. The final frontier.
If you fail to make Sleep something you are willing to focus on when trying to lose weight, then you are basically doing the following to your success:
I fully appreciate and understand that sleep is harder to come by for some people due to little children and young families.
And I empathize. I really do.
But if you want to make Fat Loss as easy as possible then you need to understand that making sleep a priority is really really important.
Without the re-charge. Without the deep NREM sleep that you can achieve you aren’t going to wake up with enough energy for the next day.
And that energy isn’t just to workout.
It comes down to your willpower.
A tired person is a hungry person.
A tired person is a caffeine reliant person.
A tired person is a more stressed person.
A tired person is a person who’s calories will increase.
That's the be-all and end-all.
If you are tired. Your calories will increase.
So how do we manage your tiredness? Well like most things, prevention is better than reaction, and improving your Sleep Hygiene will be a huge win in your column.
I am going to write a list of optimal behaviors for your sleep. You don’t have to follow them all…but again, that's up to you. If you do follow them all you will be in a much more advantageous position than if not. But I’m not here to tell you what to do. I’m here to empower you to make the best choices for yourself.
Electronics off at least 60mins before bedtime.
Dim the lights of an evening
No caffeine after midday.
Meditate Daily
Listen to a Sleep Story
Try to get to sleep before midnight
Don’t drink alcohol
Exercise during the day
Get the sun on the skin
To be able to sleep you need to inspire your body to send Melatonin through your body. This comes from the Pineal Gland and is sent through the bloodstream. Melatonin is released when the body realizes it is indeed bedtime, and there are many cues that can occur for that. Having a pattern of behavior really helps your body sense the signals to release Melatonin into your system.
This is why bedtime habits are really important, and in your day defining the difference between Night and Day really helps.
If you start implementing some better habits around your bedtime then you will start to sleep like a baby.
Conclusion
This is it. Five ways to make your Calorie Deficit Diet easy without working out.
And, just because you can lose weight without working out doesn’t mean you should.
The benefits of looking after yourself physically in this manner are far too plentiful for it to be ignored.
If you want the best results possible, then combine this list of Rules with a very well-thought-out Strength Programme.
Stick to what I have outlined in this article and you will do really well.
But remember these five rules aren’t really rules.
They’re more like guidelines…
Did You Find This Useful?
Well, I am an Online Coach who has helped thousands of people work through the challenges in this article.
And it would be my pleasure to help you too.
My program, which is personal one-to-one online training called the Strong & Confident Program.
If you have ever wanted to achieve the following:
✅ Escape the constant dread of dieting?
✅ Release the guilt you attach to eating certain types of food?
✅ Learn to stop worrying about “the pesky last few pounds” and focus on all your body can do?
✅ Become truly happy with what your body is and what is capable of?
✅ Enjoy the feeling of being stronger and fitter as opposed to trying to reduce your size all the time?
✅ Achieve all of this and still lose body fat at the same time without huge restrictions and slavery to a fitness regime?
✅ Do it all on your own schedule, in your own way, with a program specifically designed for you?
Then please click on the button below and fill out an application form to start working with me.
I have plenty more articles about weight loss for females on this website.
Here is a selection I think would make great further reading for you:
Thank you so much for reading my work, and good luck on your weight loss journey.
I cannot wait to see how you go!
Coach Adam
Why You Don’t Have To Earn Your Calories In The Gym…
I chose this photo for this blog post for many reasons. Number one its what the world is doing…or at least its what the world wants you to do. Run away from the food you have eaten..or more…try and banish the food you have eaten from your body. Secondly, she has a smile on her face. This smile could mean two things:
She has realised that she doesn’t need to run anymore from the cake and ice cream, and banishing the calories you have eaten through exercise is a daft thing to suggest.
She is just enjoying movement because the movement is there to make us happy.
I fear I am being overly optimistic about the photo. I think the photo in truth was designed to promote the banishing of calories from your body.
This article arose from a TV Programme that was aired here in the UK. It was called Horizon. The tag line for this show is the following:
“Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you’ve never seen before”
This particular episode was focussing on “The Restaurant that Burns Off Calories”. All you need to know at this point is that a Doctor and a Restuarant Owner teamed up and built a restaurant full of the UK’s “favourite dishes” and built a gym behind the restaurant where there were about 40 Gym Bunnies all ready on Cardio Machines to burn off all the calories that were consumed in one service in the restaurant. The whole menu had been calorie counted, and then the figures were totalled up, and those on Rowing Machines, Treadmills and Exercise Bikes saw this figure ever-increasing and had to keep working towards the final of total of, 45,687 calories.
The show came into much criticism on Social Media as it is promoting the idea that you “have to earn your food in the gym”. Which you simply do not. And anything that promotes this notion is going to be criticised for helping push people towards very real and dangerous eating disorders.
In this article, my aim is to move your mind away from the very worrying and potentially damaging thought that you have to “earn your food”. I would also like to say right from the start, I have never had an eating disorder, and I am also not an eating disorder professional. Throughout the article, I have cited where I have got my information from, and the sources that I believe to be very credible.
My sole purpose in this article is to try and show you how all food including, cakes, donuts, crisps, alcohol, sweets and ice cream as well as exercise and training play two very important roles in maintaining both your physical and mental health. And above all…why you do not have to earn your calories.
If you have found this article, and are suffering from an eating disorder please stop reading, and seek professional and medical advice right here: https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/support-services
We will go through the following:
The Dangers of “earing your calories”.
The Dangers of overtraining.
Why did the BBC Produce this TV Show? and the problems within it.
The best foot forward…
THE DANGERS OF “EARNING YOUR CALORIES IN THE GYM”
This article arose from a TV Programme that was aired here in the UK. It was called Horizon. The tag line for this show is the following:
“Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you’ve never seen before”
This particular episode was focussing on “The Restaurant that Burns Off Calories”. All you need to know at this point is that a Doctor and a Restuarant Owner teamed up and built a restaurant full of the UK's “favourite dishes” and built a gym behind the restaurant where there were about 40 Gym Bunnies all ready on Cardio Machines to burn off all the calories that were consumed in one service in the restaurant. The whole menu had been calorie counted, and then the figures were totalled up, and those on Rowing Machines, Treadmills and Exercise Bikes saw this figure ever-increasing and had to keep working towards the final of total of, 45,687 calories.
The show came into much criticism on Social Media as it is promoting the idea that you “have to earn your food in the gym”. Which you simply do not. And anything that promotes this notion is going to be criticised for helping push people towards very real and dangerous eating disorders.
When we equate the food we eat in a direct correlation to the amount of exercise we have to do to burn it off…it is a battle we will always lose, because you cannot exercise that much. Or if you do…it will likely lead you towards very excessive behaviour patterns and destroy your relationship with what exercise is, and what your food is.
When you adopt purging behaviours (verb. to physically remove or expel (something) completely) you are treading a very very dangerous line between both your mental health and your physical health.
Here some infographics I once made:
From @thegymstarter on Instagram
As you can see from the infographics…it is merely impossible to:
Do 239 minutes of running at 6mph every time you have a Pizza.
Do 526 minutes of walking, just because you ate Christmas Dinner.
Do 24 minutes of walking every time you consume a Glass of Red Wine.
The sheer thought that you might think, when you sit down on December 25th to enjoy your Christmas Dinner that you will then be faced with nearly 4 hours of walking (depending on your weight) will suck out all enjoyment of that dinner and the true meaning of Christmas. Despite the fact, I don’t know many people that will willingly engage in that much time on a Treadmill (I ran a half marathon on a treadmill once…I do not recommend it).
So what is the other option…you purge the food away.
Every time you do this you are setting up a neurological behaviour that equates food with pain. We all need to eat food. We all need calories to survive. Without them, we will die. This is a fact of life.
And when you become overwhelmed with the idea of how much exercise you will have to do in order to banish the food from your body you will look for the shortcut…which will then lead you into directions such as:
Avoiding social situations.
Living with a feeling of shame.
Relating food enjoyment to painful behaviours.
Changing your brains chemistry to a reward system for these behaviours (1).
Engaging in compensatory behaviours can become addictive. Self-induced vomiting can actually change an individual’s brain chemistry, affecting serotonin levels and releasing endorphins.
This can result in a high that those with purging disorder might strive to recreate following a meal. Similarly, it can be difficult to cease laxative use if an individual’s body has become reliant on them to produce bowel movements (1)
Studies have shown that living on a Very Low-Calorie Diet typically less than 800kcal a day, but can be as little as 1000kcal a day it can have the same physiologically as total starvation (2).
CAN THAT MUCH EXERCISE BE DANGEROUS AS WELL?
Overtraining is a serious subject as well…and if you start walking down the path of “earning your calories” you will have to engage in copious amounts of exercise to compensate.
As I mentioned above, I once ran a Half Marathon on a Treadmill, and it was not a good decision. It took me 2 hours. And yeah…it left its mark. So much so I wasn’t able to train for 4–5 days. But that was a one off stupid incident during marathon training from someone who was very well versed in the ability to run. If I did that day in and day out over a long period of time other issues will begin to arise such as:
Increase in weight
Heavy mood swings
Constant muscle aches (different to DOMS)
Overstressing of muscles leading to frequent injuries
Fatigue and exhaustion
Sleep quality has decreased
In order to actually create a change in the body through training, it must be backed up with a very disciplined regime of sleep and nutrition. Without these two things, you will not build that body you want, and therefore you will always be chasing your tail. If you are considering your food as something you have to burn off, and you educate yourself on the calories contained in foods, then you will be moving towards poorer nutritional choices (ie too few calories), combined with a tendency to overtraining.
According to a study in May 2002, approximately 80 percent of patients with anorexia nervosa and 55 percent of patients with bulimia nervosa compulsively exercise. Female eating disorder patients who exercise report higher levels of psychological distress and psychopathological traits than non-exercisers (3).
Therefore you can see how it will begin to affect both mental and physical health.
WHY DID THE BBC PRODUCE THIS SHOW AND THE PROBLEMS WITHIN IT
A piece of research came out in 2019 from Loughborough University that stated when people know how much exercise they will have to do to burn off their food, as displayed on a food label (knowns as PACE labelling) they are likely to reduce their caloric intake by 103kcals a day (4)
An NHS Blog post (5) states this as the conclusion:
Researchers found:
1. people were less likely to buy a sugary soft drink if it was labelled with PACE information, compared to no label.
2. people selected on average 64.9 fewer calories if food or drink was PACE labelled, compared to no label or other labelling (95% confidence interval (CI) -103.2 to -26.6)
3. people ate on average 80.4 fewer calories if food or drink was PACE labelled, compared to no label or other labelling (95% CI -136.7 to -24.2)
I remember when this story broke as I was invited to talk about it on BBC Radio 5 Live. I was merely approaching it from the relationship of PACE labelling and weight loss. I didn’t really see the relationship this would then have with eating disorders until I looked into it more.
The premise is a fair one. Let's get that out the way right now. The idea that anything that reduces our caloric intake could be a win-win is always going to be a “good idea” especially when we are facing huge increases in obesity globally. But I would like to think that the first half of this article has made you realise the very serious consequences labelling food like this can have.
The show itself was very lukewarm on two fronts. One, its dietary information and the message it tried to get across, and two its understanding of the role exercise plays in our metabolism.
I could pull the show apart, trust me, I made enough notes on how sensationalist it was at times throughout the programme. But also just how sensationalist the whole premise was. Having 40 or so people, all who were not a cross-section of society in terms of their exercise habits, their age and weight working out on Cardio Machines to burn off food others had eaten is simply sensationalism. And the fitness industry has dabbled in sensationalism far too much. This is one reason why eating disorders are on the rise (6) because of Diet Culture and unrealistic expectations of what is achievable being spouted left right and centre to everyone.
Other issues I noticed with the show was that there was no given metric as to how they were monitoring how much exercise the subjects had to do. They didn’t look to me like they were wearing heart rate monitors or were going through a VO2 Max Test as they were doing it to determine truly how many calories they were actually burning.
The lack of information about how the exercise subjects output was being monitored might lead some people to jump on a treadmill and take the numbers that the machine gives you as fact. The numbers of calories burned on a Treadmill, Exercise Bike or Rowing Machine are to be disregarded at all times. They are wildly inaccurate and will nearly always give a higher reading close to 15–20% than what you actually did.
This is important to know because you will be giving it your all on a Cardio Machine, tracking that number…not seeing results that you think you deserve and then you will want to give up again.
I also felt that nearly every shot of the exercise subjects you saw, they looked downtrodden, deflated and absolutely exhausted. I mean…who wouldn't be? Having to do that much exercise.
The meals that the restaurant were serving might have been “typical” to the UK, but they are only typical to the UK when we are eating out. Something that we do not do all day every day. So to directly correlate the very stark image of that many people, looking that hot and sweaty, because of food that someone has eaten, is falsifying the truth. Home Cooked Food vs Restaurant Cooked Food is always going to have big variances in the Caloric value due to things like Oil, Salt and other flavourings that are used in the food.
One of the hosts gave a very simplified version of how your Metabolism worked, and she followed this statement up with “you can’t do much to influence your BMR”, again, which is not giving you the full truth. Which is what makes this programme so very wrong indeed. The sheer fact that the programme is telling you only what you can and cannot do in one exercise session to burn away your calories is very misguided.
The show took in no regard for what happens over long periods of time when you add muscle to your body, and how that helps you maintain your weight. The show gave reference to the fact that Muscle requires more calories to maintain than body fat…but it didn’t look into that any further — which again is giving a very imbalanced view.
It also didn’t mention EPOC (Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). EPOC is responsible for the continuation of burning calories post-exercise. It occurs both in Cardio work and Resistance Training. However, it occurs to a greater degree in resistance training (7), although the studies I could find do say it is a small difference, and it is an incremental difference over long periods of time.
One last point on the show which I think sums the whole thing up. There was a moment when Angela a middle-aged woman who was enjoying a meal ordered a dessert. The waiter then showed her the PACE labelling for the item she ordered. Angela changed her mind to a different less calorific dessert. However the look on her face would have suggested that she was neither happy about choosing ice cream, and she seemed even less impressed that she felt guilt-tripped into having it.
She also says as her husband is eating the Cheesecake “I have pudding envy. I really wanted the cheesecake”. She was out having a nice meal and has now had her dinner somewhat spoiled by the fact that she now knows she saved 335kcals on her meal.
They went on to ask her about this and she said that she has a goal in mind to fit into a dress for a wedding…and this choice will get her one day closer to getting into that dress.
Which is a nice thought? But it won't help her. It won’t help her because she is encouraging herself to move away from the enjoyment of her food and into a place where she is having to avoid things she enjoys, simply because she is viewing her food as like for like exchange for calories, and weight. She also states later in the programme that “she isn't careful about the food she eats”.
Which brings me to my last point in this section. You can’t build good habits with food if you are building it on a foundation of sand. Shocking people into better choices will not work, because an awful lot more goes into why people chose the foods they eat each day. It's down to their emotional behaviours, their environmental factors and their relationship with themselves.
Not their relationship with their food labels.
THE BEST FOOT FORWARD AND CONCLUSION
So what should we do? If PACE labelling isn’t the answer what should we do instead?
Like with most things two words spring to mind.
Education and Balance.
The education required would be to acknowledge that Exercise is responsible for just 5% of your Daily Metabolic burn.
Read that again.
Exercise is responsible for just 5% of your Daily Metabolic burn.
Above is your Metabolism each day set out as percentages. And you can see Exercise Activity is responsible for just 5% of that.
So I ask the question…why was the show expecting people to burn off 100% of their meals?
Energy In vs Energy Out is what it is important here. And that bar in my infographic is 100% of your energy out. Therefore a keener focus on the big sections of the bar would be useful.
You can improve your BMR by lifting weights, maintaining muscle mass, sleeping better, eating more protein and enjoying the compound effect of these lifestyle changes over a long period of time will help improve your metabolism.
Increase your NEAT. This is your Daily Movement. Fidgeting, Standing, Climbing Stairs, Walking, Gardening, Dancing and everything in between.
We can even increase our Thermic Effect of Food due to making sure the food we eat has a higher Protein focus.
Add all that up and you are increasing 95% of your Metabolism. Yes, it will take time but this isn’t nor should it ever be a like for like situation. Your metabolism is a lot more complex than Exercise = Calories, and the sooner we can understand that the sooner you will start protecting your future self from increased weight gain.
If you want to lose weight and don’t want to spend all day on the treadmill just because you ate a burger …then you can need to do the above.
I would also suggest that you get yourself Calorie Educated. Spend time learning what calories are in your food, and learning how that can work into your numbers for each day. I repeat:
You do not have to earn your calories eaten in the gym.
I have a system called the Five Awesome Rules For Fat Loss Life which I outline in this video which will be a great place to start your understanding of how this all weaves together and why not equating calories eaten to time spent on a Rowing Machine is a good idea.
Did you find this useful?
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And above all remember this…for as long as you are trying your best no one can ask for more from you.
Coach Adam
References:
1.Ekern, B., 2020. Purging Disorder: Signs, Symptoms — You Need To Be Aware Of This. [online] Eating Disorder Hope. Available at: <https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/blog/purging-disorder-signs-and-symptoms> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
2. Uclahealth.org. 2020. Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD) Plan : RFO Weight Loss Program | UCLA Center For Human Nutrition. [online] Available at: <https://www.uclahealth.org/clinicalnutrition/vlcd> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
3. Eating Disorder Hope. 2020. Exercising And Eating: What Are The Risks And Effects Of Over-Exercising. [online] Available at: <https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/information/orthorexia-excessive-exercise/risks-over-exercising> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
4. Davis, N., 2020. Exercise Advice On Food Labels Could Help To Tackle The Obesity Crisis. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/10/exercise-advice-on-food-labels-could-help-to-tackle-the-obesity-crisis> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
5. nhs.uk. 2020. Exercise Advice On Food Labels Could ‘Change Eating Habits’. [online] Available at: <https://www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/exercise-advice-food-labels-could-change-eating-habits/> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
6. Marsh, S., 2020. Hospital Admissions For Eating Disorders Surge To Highest In Eight Years. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/15/hospital-admissions-for-eating-disorders-surge-to-highest-in-eight-years> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
7. Unm.edu. 2020. Resistance Training And EPOC. [online] Available at: <https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/epoc.html> [Accessed 23 April 2020].