Is eating healthily enough to lose weight?
Yesterday I took a consultation call for someone wanting to reduce body fat, and she was confused as to why she wasn’t seeing any results because she is very active, hits the gym and focusses on eating a healthy diet full of whole foods but doesn’t track her calories.
I said to her “that’s great, you’ve made a fantastic start with all the right habits.”
Of course it is very important to ensure our diets are full of whole foods, have a balance of carbs, fats and proteins, and provide our bodies with the energy and nutrients they need.
When we program our clients diets, we encourage the 80-20 rule where 80% of your daily food intake is coming from whole, unprocessed foods. This does not ensure fat loss for our clients, but it does improve the quality of their calorie intake, improves their energy levels, training, recovery and digestion.
So then I told her this…
“In order to reduce body fat, we do need to be a bit more specific with calories. You can definitely see some positive changes from making healthy habit adjustments. However, for the majority of people real visual results won’t come from guesstimating.”
Having a structured approach, and monitoring the progress of that approach, is how coaches help to ensure their clients to get the results.
So no.
Eating healthily isn’t usually enough to get results…
The best way to ensure results is to be eating in a calorie deficit, and consistently.
Here’s how you can find your own calorie deficit:
Establish your maintenance calories. This can be done using this equation:
BMR = (10x weight in kg) + (6.25x height in cm) - (5 x age) - 161
Then multiply your BMR by your level of activity…
Little or no exercise 1.2
Moderately active (3-5 workouts a week) 1.55
Very active (5-6 workouts a week) 1.725
2. Now you have your maintenance calorie number, deduct 200-300 calories and this is your calorie deficit.
3. To be consistent you need to track these calories every day, weekends too!
If you need more personalised help with your dieting journey, then it would be best to speak to one of our experienced coaches. You can find us on instagram, chat to us in our free Femme Society, or reach out via the website!