No More Diets

How can you count the calories you are burning?

Good luck if you are trying to lose weight by counting calories! Most people get this completely wrong by underestimating what they are eating and overestimating how much they are burning. If you can be reasonably accurate then it’s a great way to lose weight - aim for a 500 calorie a day deficit to lose a steady 1lb a week without too much deprivation or trouble.

Here is a calculation tool for finding out how many calories you are burning with a whole list of different activities. You enter your weight in pounds and the duration of your activity in minutes and then get an estimate of the number of calories you used for the list of activities.

Calorie calculator

Remember that these calories are not EXTRA calories you are burning on top of the calories you would use just by sitting around - they are instead of - so you need to subtract the calories you would use just by existing to get an a picture of how much you have helped your weight loss goals.

Remember too that we all burn up calories at a slightly different rate depending on metabolism and body composition so this is an estimate at best.

I believe you can get monitors which measure more accurately how many calories you are burning but I have no personal experience with these as I don’t usually advise the calorie counting method for weight loss. Could anyone else recommend one?

I have read so many diets which all propose different calorie amounts. How many calories should I be eating to lose weight?

The simplest calculation for the number of calories you need to maintain your weight is to take your weight in pounds and multiply by 12. (Remember, there are 2.2lbs in a kilogram if you weight yourself in kilos.)

If you weigh 10 stone (or 140 pounds) that’s 1680 calories daily just to stay the same.

To safely lose weight, subtract no more than about 250 calories from that and then make sure you get active to the tune of 250 calories a day. That doesn’t have to be formal exercise - it can be doing gardening, housework, cycling or walking - anything active.

This will give you a 500 calorie a day deficit, and should result in you losing about a pound a week.

Actually I’m not that fond of calorie counting because it’s too easy to underestimate the amount you are eating or to forget to add something in and too easy to overestimate the number of calories you are burning. And even if you manage to lose weight by being meticulous in your calculations, who wants to keep calorie counting forever? When you stop counting the weight piles back on.

To my mind it’s better to forget about counting calories and to train yourself to eat sensible portions of delicious healthy food and to change how you interact with food so that you have good habits and a slim body for the rest of your life - and so that’s what I teach in my 8 week weight loss coaching program.

Does it make a difference what time of day you eat?

From a pure physical point of view it doesn’t really make much difference when you eat calories - a calorie is a calorie. I have never seen any evidence worth writing home about that says 200 calories eaten at midday are different from 200 calories eaten at midnight.

If you’re talking about a whole day’s food however, it does make sense to spread your calories throughout the day - as this keeps your metabolism firing on all cylinders burning up your food and prevents you getting over-hungry and shovelling down whatever is to hand.

And eating a good breakfast has long been thought to prevent unhealthy snacking mid-morning and is one of the factors that have been shown to help people who have lost weight stay at their target weight.

But it’s really a matter for personal choice. Do you find you eat more or less overall by eating at particular times of the day? Let that be your guide. If you can’t face breakfast, take a healthy snack with you if you have to go out so you’re not tempted by junk mid-morning. If you eat too much at dinner and go to bed uncomfortable if you eat late then eat your dinner earlier and don’t eat anything after 7pm. It’s just a case of seeing what works for your own circumstances and getting into good habits.

What is the best way to eat the “right” number of calories without having to go so obsessive?

Actually even if you are obsessive it’s difficult to get calorie counting right without being wired up to scientific measuring equipment.

Sure, there are calculations you can do where you input your age, your sex, your height, your weight and your level of activity but it will all still depend on your own metabolism (rate of burning calories).

And of course the amount you need changes (gets less) as you lose weight - and also changes day to day with the activities you do.

So it’s best that none of us get obsessive about calories - though it sometimes helps to have an idea of the rough amount you use each day if only to help put you off eating mega amounts of fast food or a big plate of cakes.

If you follow a few simple guidelines you can usually forget about calories altogether and still lose weight

a) eat your calories rather than drinking them - it’s quite easy to drink a whole day’s worth of calories in an evening out or throughout the day and not feel like you’ve had anything to eat (you haven’t)

b) eat only when you are physically hungry - not just because food is there or because you feel like nibbling something

c) stop eating before you are full - once you are full you have eaten too much. As a guideline serve lean protein about the size of the palm of your hand, a handful of carbohydrate (pasta, rice or potatoes) and fill up on veggies or salad

d) choose healthy food (low fat, whole grain, fruit) over unhealthy (fried, white bread/pasta/rice, dessert)

e) eat unhealthy food (chocolate, snacks) in very small doses - and no more than once a day

f) move your body whenever you can - if it needs doing, do it, if an errand needs to be run, run it, if a dog needs to be walked, you walk it…I’m sure you get the idea

I don’t generally advise low-calorie substitutes for foods - to my mind you are better eating smaller quantities of real foods and enjoying them than eating chemicals or even poor substitutes in terms of taste. But if you’re happy with that it’s one other way to reduce calories without counting.

How Do I Lose 15kgs?

If you have weight to lose - whether it’s 10lbs or a hundred - there’s only one way to do it - one ounce or one gram at a time.

It’s all about creating a deficit in the calories you eat compared to the calories you use up each day. If you eat 100 calories less than you use every day you will lose a pound of fat in 35 days - and it will take you 1155 days to lose 15kgs.

If you want to lose weight faster than that you need to do more - by eating fewer calories and moving more to create a greater deficit - just be aware that a deficit of more than 500 - 1000 calories a day is not recommended by most weight loss experts (and most recommend 500 giving a weight loss of 1lb a week). More than this and your metabolism tends to slow down.

Now you can create this deficit and lose weight the hard way by going on a strict diet and exercise regime and STICKING TO IT - you will find these types of weight loss programs in every book store and all over the internet. Look for one which suits your lifestyle and/or preferences so that you have the best possible chance of sticking with it.

I don’t like diets - although they may work for some and do a good job on a temporary basis.

I don’t like them simply because they don’t work forever. Unless there is a maintenance option, they don’t teach you to permanently modify your eating habits - and even when there is a maintenance option are you prepared to live with that kind of restriction forever?

In any case we tend to see diets as temporary. We go on a diet, and then we come off it and put all the weight back on by going back to “normal” eating and activity levels. At least the statistics show that 95% of us do - and they are not good odds.

What to do instead?

Examine the habits which made you 15kgs overweight. What do you do which slimmer friends do not? And what do they do which you don’t? What do you eat? How much? How often? What do you drink? How much? How often? What kind of exercises do you take? What are you doing differently to them? What do you need to change?

Gradually change your “fat habits” one by one at a rate which is comfortable for you. Change those which are easiest for you to change first before tackling the ones which are more difficult. Lose weight by starting to live a healthier lifestyle one small step at a time.

Even if you insist on dieting work on your habits too - each small habit you change permanently will reduce the rate of weight gain after you stop dieting.