When it comes to weight and fat, we are talking about 2 totally different things.
Weight is comprised of a lot of different factors, like muscle mass, body fat, bone density, water, food/waste, plus more. When we’re talking about fat, we’re talking about body fat that is directly caused by the food we eat and the lifestyle we live.
In short, a calorie deficit refers to consuming less calories than your body is burning. If you’re not losing weight, you’re simply not in deficit. You are likely in a perceived deficit, or what you believe to be less calories than you burn. Without the proper calculation, it’s simply guesswork.
By using a macro calculator, or even better, getting a body scan to detect how much lean muscle mass you have on your body for example, this will allow you to work out the right calorie intake for you to maintain your body composition. If you want to change it, you need to track it.
For the majority, simply eating better foods more frequently will be enough. For your next step, it takes more than that. Once you hit your “happy place”, you will be able to back off the peddle a bit, as your 90% of diet is spot on, then you can enjoy your 10% more.
Calorie deficits can range from small deficits to larger ones depending on the person and their desired outcome. If your goal is to lose upwards of 20kgs, then you’re probably eating well over your expenditure anyway, so you can cut a higher amount of calories out of your diet. This can be performed over a 6-12 week period to ensure you don’t crash and burn, and your body can adjust to the new lower calorie numbers. Your body will also get the chance to adjust to the lower calories and you’ll have a far better chance at keeping the fat loss off long term.
Once you reach your desired fat loss outcome, then you can begin to eat to build lean muscle and begin to slowly increase calorie intake back up.
But in the short term, it’s about making better choices.
YES, this means you can’t drink wine every damn night!
YES! This means you can’t go out for take-away every week!
YES, this means you can’t eat chocolate every night after your cheese toastie!
BUT! You will be happier, healthier, have more confidence, look and feel better, so sorry about that!
You need to start by eating better foods, that still make up the correct calorie intake numbers.
It’s time to make the decision. Does your desire to look or feel a certain way outweigh your desire to continue doing the above? If you answered YES, then stop doing it. It’s pretty simple.
The reason why some people achieve great results compared to others not, is because they do what you don’t. They cut out luxuries, they make better choices, they prepare and plan meals and they don’t stray! No, they’re not “lucky” or have good “genetics”. They followed the process, and now enjoy the rewards.
So, if you would like to make progress, and achieve at least some of the results that you want, then you need to actually start doing something different to what you normally do.
Don’t force feed yourself all the BS about you having a “busy social life”, because you know my response for that! Some of my friends with the best physiques, have a very active social life, they just want it more. It’s plain and simple really.
What stops you eating ice-cream with Nutella at night is your WHY, not your will power. Will power will help you choose not to, but if you have “CONFIDENCE”, “EMPOWERMENT”, and “SELF LOVE” written on paper inside your pantry door, you literally have to ignore your goals to get to the Nutella, so now you can’t blame anyone else.
Your outcome is up to you, just depends how bad you want it.