24
Health & Wellbeing
No food is ‘free’!
A calorie deficit is needed to move the scales By Heather Smith
However you want to look at losing weight, one simple truth of any program which holds a chance of success is that a calorie deficit is required. There are a million ways to create a calorie deficit through either food or exercise, and there are a million ways to make it harder or easier through food choices and other habits. But the truth remains that a calorie deficit is required if you’re going to see the scales move. If you’re eating a diet full of processed food, a simple change to eating what is considered by some slimming clubs as ‘free food’ is almost guaranteed to lead to weight loss. It should easily create a natural calorie
deficit, show you how much better you can feel when you’re eating a less processed diet and hopefully lead to long term adherence. This is of course, excellent news, and is my preferred first-step for clients coming from a place of little knowledge of nutrition. Starting a weight loss plan when you already have a relatively healthy diet, however, needs a real life understanding of how these ‘free foods’ add up calorie wise. You could very easily already be eating mostly ‘free foods’ at the start of your weight loss plan, and this is when a true understanding of how to choose the right ‘free food’ becomes essential to unlocking further weight loss. No matter how healthy a food is, if you’re eating too many calories, you simply won’t lose weight. This said, losing weight should never become a game of simple calorie counting, it should also include getting as many nutrients from as many real foods as possible in order to assist long term progress, adherence and health. Heather Smith is a fat loss specialist Personal Trainer. Get in touch for a free five-day meal plan www.fitbiztraining.co.uk
