Is your focus in the right place for your weight loss goal?
If you are wanting to lose weight, what are you primarily working on; is it a new diet you saw on your go to website, a de-tox, a vegan approach or paleo?
I call any weight loss diet that pushes your attention toward an “enemy” (carbs, grains, meats, insert fad diet tag line here) a five percenter.
Why? Because it is missing 95% of the point.
Are you missing the woods for the trees?
95% of the physical results for weight loss come from energy balance. Energy in versus energy out. In other words: calories.
Calories are the single most important element of your weight loss diet. Whether the food you take in is considered healthy or not is of no consequence for weight loss.
If all we needed to do were to eat healthy foods to stay lean or shed fat then we’d have lots less over fat people, suffering. Plenty of people eat healthy foods and still struggle with weight.
Feeling more vibrant, energised and performing to a high standard is better produced with healthier foods ( and that’s another blog for another day) but weight loss, doesn’t care.
Weight loss/body mass is down to energy in versus energy out, the same way your bank account is money in versus money out.
You have more money going in your account than out and your bank account gets fat, whoop. Conversely, less money going in than you do out….your account gets skinny…boooo.
Would you rely on betting or hoping with your bank account or would you run the numbers and focus on what we know works, the 95% (earning it) versus the 5% (hoping without thinking too much)?
Yes, some diets that eliminate certain foods will work as they make it difficult for most people to over eat on them (for a while, until adaptations occurs). This still is an energy balance affect. Some people win the lottery too but I know which route is more likely to succeed.
Some studies show that certain approaches yield slightly better results than others and many entrepreneurs seize that and create new diets based on that. It is not wrong but again, misses the most important point.
Worth considering:
if you can’t count a few numbers, do you really want the body you say?
Take away message: Make sure you focus on what is going to give you the greatest results, not what you hope will work.
Focus on what counts
Yes, counting calories can be time consuming at first but it is simple and works. Try it for two weeks and see how you go. Besides which, if you can’t be bothered to count a few numbers, do you really deserve the body you want?
P.S. weigh yourself first and then again two weeks later and see what happens when you simply start to take note of how many calories you actually take in…make a plan from there. Remember to log your calories as you eat them, not at the end of the day. We are reliably awful at recounting with accuracy what we have eaten earlier in the day…up 50% inaccurate!
If you want help with your diet or training goals then feel free to drop me a line and maybe you’ll end up Personal Training with me in Epsom, Surrey or London!