Weight Loss
To see if you are overweight for your height visit our Body Mass Index page to calculate your BMI. Bear in mind however that BMI is a rough guide to the assessment of optimal body composition, so if you disagree with the results from our BMI calculator you can discuss your weight with your GP or a qualified nutritionist for further advice.
In order to lose weight you must expend more energy through physical activity than you consume through food. This is called achieving a negative energy balance. However, to do this safely you should pay attention to the following key points.
Establish your goals and baseline
Realistic goals and pitfalls
Set realistic goals aiming to lose no more than 0.5 kg/week and beware of the problems associated with wanting to lose weight to solve emotional or body image problems. If you are worried about these issues or find that during a weight loss programme your eating habits become disturbed, we would suggest you speak to a trained psychologist before proceeding further with your programme.
Monitor body composition
Monitor body composition changes using a combination of girth measurements of chest, waist, hips, thighs, calves and upper arms. If you also have access to skin-fold callipers, skin-fold thickness is one of the best measurements for monitoring changes to body fat composition.
Food diary
Whilst eating your normal diet, keep a food diary for a least one week, noting down and weighing if possible everything you eat and drink. This will help you to identify the principal macroingredients - carbohydrate, protein and fat - present in your diet. It will also help you to identify the Glycaemic Index (GI) of the carbohydrates you eat, the saturated fat content of your diet, your fibre intake and the timing of your meals and snacks.
Reduce total calorie intake
Reduce your total calorie intake by a maximum of 15% to achieve a safe gradual reduction in weight. It is really important not to attempt to restrict calories beyond this safe limit as you risk kicking the body into ’starvation mode’ whereby your resting metabolic rate (RMR) actually falls as the body attempts to conserve energy. This is counterproductive as you want to be raising your RMR to expend more energy not less. To calculate your calorie requirements for a weight loss programme and to find out your daily requirements for carbohydrate, protein and fat visit our calorie calculator page.
Cardiorespiratory fitness
Establish a basic level of aerobic cardiorespiratory fitness at 60-70% of your maximum heart rate and then progress as soon as possible to regular High Intensity Interval Training - HIIT - sessions as this is the most effective form of exercise for achieving weight loss; you should aim for at least three 20-30 minute HIIT sessions per week. HIIT works by causing an increase in EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) as the body catches up on the oxygen deficit accrued during intense exercise. This ‘after burn’ results in a raised RMR causing your body to consume more energy and break down fat even when you are not exercising!
Resistance training
Perform resistance training according to the endurance category of the FITT guidelines at least twice a week. It is really important to do some resistance training during a weight loss programme as without this component the body can respond to calorie restriction by losing protein from muscles (lean mass) rather than by losing fat which again is counterproductive for your goal. Resistance training also has the added benefit of increasing your resting metabolic rate.
Did you know that you lose 0.25 Kg of muscle mass every year after the age of 25 and with this, your RMR drops by 2% every decade, so you burn fewer and fewer calories as you get older? This age related loss of muscle mass and drop in RMR can be counteracted by twice weekly resistance training.
For detailed nutritional guidance relating to weight loss, click here.
