ANNIE DEADMAN IS HERE TO HELP YOU, THE EASY WAY!
Feel great
Before we get stuck into this topic, a quick reminder. Three reminders, actually:
1 When we want to get into shape and lose weight, it’s actually fat we want to lose. That’s the stuff making us feel ‘meh’ about ourselves.
2 Think less about using the scales (eg, what you weigh) as a means to check your progress, instead use the fit of your clothes or a tape measure.
3 We can only lose fat if we operate in a calorie deficit. That means eating fewer calories than our body needs so that it makes up the shortfall from our fat stores (I hope you’re all chanting that, because that sentence appears quite often in this column!). But, it doesn’t mean eating crispbreads all day! If you eat too little, your body won’t function. It will slow down. You’ll be lethargic, moody, tired, your muscles will lose their density and you’ll be tempted to binge eat purely out of sheer restriction. What sort of life is that?!
My clients are pretty surprised at how much they need to eat in order to lose fat correctly (fat, not weight). In fact, they feel stuffed!
Protein is key here to keep you full and ease that sweet tooth. Add to that piles of vegetables, good quality complex carbs and plenty of fluids, and you have volume. Volume keeps you full and feeds our gut with lovely fibre, too. Gone are the days of 1,000 calories for everyone!
How much food we need to lose fat will depend on our age, gender and size. As an example, let’s imagine a woman aged 55, 5ft 6ins, weighing 80 kilos (12st 8lb), who wants to lose fat. Assuming she can do some exercise, say, a 30-minute strength training workout three times a week and keep active by walking, then her calories will be around 1,550
