Weight Loss Tips With Our Advanced Sports Dietitian

Ever felt a little hopeless during a body transformation journey, like progress is too far out of reach? There are some simple tweaks to your nutrition that could change the game. 

Embarking on any long-term weight loss journey will impact your physical health and fitness immensely. But when you’ve dragged yourself to the gym every morning for months, fuelling your body with kale smoothies and sugar-free snacks, a lack of results can have you wanting to throw in the towel. 

When supporting your body’s transformation with nutrition, it’s easy to gravitate towards quick-fix diets and meal plans inspired by restriction and portion control. However, this method of nutritional control can often have an adverse impact on your weight loss results. 

How does calorie and macronutrient intake impact our weight loss efforts?

From a science perspective, weight loss sounds simple. Calories in vs calories out. Yet research shows that up to 80% of those who lose weight will regain it after 5 years. So why does this occur?

Losing weight too quickly through Very Low Calorie Diets (VLCD) can cause rapid weight gain through insatiable appetites once cease. Ensuring calorie intakes are planned correctly and calculated by a health professional can be key to ensuring you start your weight loss journey with the right approach.

Macronutrients can help to make this long-term shift more reasonable through consuming higher amounts of protein and complex carbohydrate foods more frequently throughout the day to keep you feeling satiated during those hunger windows which generally ht towards the afternoon and evening.

Consistency is always the key with both of these, so the more consistent you are over a period of time, the better your results will be.

How should we calculate our calorie intake?

With calorie amounts per day. This may not be the answer you're looking for but from my experience, it works best. See a health professional such as a dietitian to help tailor your calorie intake to the activity of each day across the week. This will ensure you have a personalised approach that reflects your expenditure.

If you can't see a dietitian, most fitness apps and activity trackers these days give you a guide that you can start with. For the recommended calorie budget, aim for your protein intake to be 1.6-2.0g/kg body weight per day (9 calories/gram) with carbohydrates making up the rest.

How unproductive are "cheat days" for weight loss?

It's about how you approach them, To keep asking one whole day to "cheat" seems to undo most people's hard work. Even one meal can be quite detrimental to your progress but the key is the consistency of the weight loss approach and ensuring indulging in one meal within reason can give you the break you need from your weight loss plan to ensure you're consistent and eat healthy foods on a regular basis.

Generally, weight loss is achieved when consuming around 500 fewer calories per day over a period of time so ensuring a 'cheat' meal is not too high in calories and con fits within your daily intake is the key to staying mentally fresh and still achieving success.

If you're looking for a way to take the guesswork out of your weight loss journey try our Weight Loss Meal Plan. It's a tailored approach to nutrition that aligns with your goals, ensuring you're nourished, satisfied, and on track for the transformative results you're working towards.