When committing to a weight loss journey, there are many things that need to be taken into account to ensure that we succeed. Outlined below are 5 key things we at K.C believe to be truly imperative!

Plan

You’ve probably heard the saying ‘if you fail to plan, you plant to fail’ and this couldn’t be truer when it comes to weight loss. Sitting down and coming up with a plan of attack as to your weekly training volume as well as diet and calculating how many calories you need to ingest per day to stay within a calorie deficit is imperative for success here. When writing up a plan for our weight loss goal it is crucial that we address the S.M.A.R.T factors:

• specificity, how much weight
• measurable, when are we going to measure along the way to track changes
• attainable, what is realistic
• relevant, actions in plan align with the goal
• time, the deadline to achieve by

Handy features in this process can include, physically writing up your plan with details such as your ultimate goal and why you want it as well as weekly process goals in the form of a checklist that serve as a roadmap that we need to achieve and progress along to reach the ultimate.

Calorie Deficit

The one golden rule of weight loss, reiterated by K.C time and time again, here it is for another and by no means the last time. In order to achieve weight loss, we scientifically proven HAVE to be in a calorie deficit, simple, trackable and with a little bit of effort, easily achievable. Thanks to your above planning, you’ve calculated the numbers and know the window of energy you can ingest and now can easily measure this and track it as you progress. For more info on Calorie deficits, check out our earlier blogs outlining what it is & how to successfully do it!

Eat & Drink Quality

Okay so we know now that quantity can play a major effect on weight loss, but lets take a minute to talk about the quality of the things we put into our body and how crucial this notion actually is. Essentially, as humans we eat to obtain different nutrients that fuel the body and make us work. Each of these different nutrients have different roles and when we’re lacking some of them many counterproductive to weight loss things can happen i.e. our metabolism can slow down meaning we aren’t burning off this fuel as efficiently as well as getting food cravings whereby our body is searching to eat more of the nutrient it needs which if you’ve already reached your calorie window can now make you go over. C.R.A.P food & drinks (Calorie.Rich.And.Processed) are dense in energy meaning they’re loaded with lots of calories for how small they are, thence taking up more of your limited calorie intake space and not making you feel full due to their absence of nutrients as stripped in processing and the relative portion sizing.

Consistency

..is key! It’s all well and good to be doing everything right, but if only maintained for a small while, nothing will eventuate. It’s crucial to maintain good habits for a sustained time period as set out initially in your plan so that you can edge towards your goal one step at a time, just like walking up a staircase. This isn’t a trend, it’s a life-style and more specifically, it’s YOUR life, what do you want it to look like?

Eating for Fuel Not Fun

An error that commonly leads to overeating and ingesting excess calories that tip the deficit into a maintenance or worst case scenario a surplus is the notion of eating because you want to, not because your body needs the fuel. It’s necessary to rewire your relationship with food when on a weight loss journey to be that of eating in order to obtain nutrients and fuel and not one of eating because it’s a fun experience and overindulgence. Ask yourself the questions, have I eaten a nutritionally balanced intake of calories today? How do I feel energy wise right now, how many calories have I had so far, do I need the fuel? Is my tummy full or do I just want to taste more food?

So there you have it “5 Must Do’s” to write down & tick off to make sure you actually achieve your weight loss goal; plan, calorie deficit, food/drink quality, consistency & eating for fuel not fun.