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NL Allon Melchers 3 Tips for losing weight
Nutrition is a difficult term to understand. It encompasses many different factors, each of which affects how our bodies respond to it. Some people want to lose weight and feel like they have done everything they can with no results. Others feel too thin and try to eat themselves as full as possible, again to no avail. So how can we take control of our bodies and hence the number on the scales? Here are some tips that can help you.
Of course, these tips do not apply to everyone. Some people have underlying symptoms that cause us to hold on to, or let go of, a lot of weight. For example, an illness, or a malfunctioning thyroid gland. If you have or think you have some underlying complaints, I recommend you visit your GP first.
My name is Allon. I have been in the business for several years now and often come across the same problems. This is very understandable because there is a lot of disinformation being spread on social media, among others. I would love to help you get your weight under control.
Track your nutrition, know what you eat
We are often unaware of the amount of calories that go into our bodies every day. What we often encounter is that overweight people think they are eating very little (but in reality when counting, it is too much), and underweight people think they are eating like crap (in reality, it is simply too little). Everyone reacts differently to a certain amount of calories, however, it has been randomly shown through research that there is a trend in the ratio of weight versus calories required for weight maintenance. The basic rule is that we need to eat less than we burn to lose weight, and we need to eat more than we burn to add weight. The outcome on the equation (e.g. 2500=2500) must be zero to remain stable.
Awareness starts by looking at the nutritional values of a product. Next time we go shopping, we will have to look at what exactly is in the products that we purchase to consume. At home, you can scan and track every product using various applications on your phone. The only thing left to do then is to weigh up. Exactly how much do we eat? Of course, weighing out does not have to take forever; slowly we become aware of our diet and learn to deal with it.
Although, it's still good to weigh out and fill in what we eat a week or so later in the journey, just to check! Know what you eat; do you understand how nutrition works? Then get your body weight under control.
My metabolism is slow
A statement that often comes up to determine why someone is overweight is ''my metabolism is slower than yours''. Of course, it is true that not everyone processes food at the same speed, however, there is a strong trend in the average, shown in a pie chart (see below).
Krieger, James. "The Metabolism Myth." lts.fi, 2019, https://www.lts.fi/media/lts_kuntotestaus/ktp19/ktp19_james_krieger_sunnuntai_esitys1_materiaalikansio.pdf.
The biggest consumer of energy on an average day is the 'basic metabolic rate', or BMR. We can briefly summarise this in all the bodily functions of the body that keep us going. The 'TEF' stands for Thermic Effect of Food, or the thermal effect that food has on our body when we consume it (aka processing food). Then there is Physical Activity, also known as all the movements we do in a day (sports, work, shopping, etc). Because the BMR has such a large impact on the total burn of the day, it seems the statement could be true. However if we dig a little deeper into research, we can quickly see, that the BMR will not endlessly travel with us when we lose or gain weight. On average at a weight loss of 10% of total body weight, we see a decrease of about 4 calories per kilogram of fat-free mass. A further decrease to 20% sees on average (in research) a decrease of about 0.1 calories per kilogram of fat-free mass. So the decrease is not linear. To make a long story short, research shows that our metabolism tends to stabilise. There will not be much gain to be made from this.
NEAT
In the end, it always comes down to nutrition. Our diet helps determine how much energy we can spend in a day. We can then spend this energy on exercise, both during sports and everyday life (ADL). From here on, it becomes a grey area. Earlier we could see that BMR decreases slightly when we lose weight, until it stabilises. What will happen next is that our energy level will start to drop. A simple equation; we consume little energy, so we don't have much to spend. This then results in a lower amount of daily exercise. This hinders not only ADL, but also our sports performance. We are less likely to get up from the chair and feel increasingly tired. In other words, our 'Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis' drops (NEAT). This can lead to a difference of 150 to as many as 600 calories in a day (average from research). A big choice then follows: are we going to eat even less to compensate? When the diet consists of around 1,200 calories, there is little to no room for calorie reduction. As a result, the energy balance remains zero! Now comes a piece of experience. What we want to do next is to increase our energy level without gaining weight. By increasing our energy level, the opportunity for more NEAT increases. This will give the opportunity for more weight loss.
These are my three tips that can help you get your weight under control. Do you have more questions or are you still looking for help on this? Send me an email, to contact@ironchurchprogram.nl.
