Balanced diet.
Everyone knows you need a balanced diet. The problem is that no one knows what a balanced diet is.
Once again, the only way to lose fat is to have an average daily calorie deficit. So why worry about balancing a diet? Just eat less and wait?
Well, you’ve probably heard of what that can do to your metabolism. For more details, make sure you read the pages on fake fat loss and you will know exactly why just eating less can start by fooling you into thinking you are losing fat, until you find yourself much less able to actually do that, with most of the fat you thought you had lost still on, stuck to you like glue.
Reading the page about hunger reveals more about how leptin secretion wanes with dieting, and hormones that are essential for curbing hunger need the right nutrients to be made and do their job (protein, but also vitamins).
Finally, there is a good chance you have a pre-diabetic condition if you have been gaining weight (resistance to insulin). This means glucose cannot make it into your body’s cells to be used as fuel, and fatigue replaces fat loss as a result of your efforts. If your diet isn’t “balanced”, chances are it will be too high in fast sugar (high glycemic index). If so, calorie deficit or not, you will be worsening that resistance, as well as addicition to sugar, and that means that calorie deficit will be short-lived at best.
So what is a balanced diet for fat loss?
You might have guessed it reading the above. A balanced diet is one that includes everything you need for your body to function well.
Essential amino acids (essential means that your body cannot store or synthesize them, meaning you need to include it in our diet daily, or as close to daily as possible), essential fatty acids (you’ve probably heard that some forms of fat are good, while others are bad), vitamins (some vitamins dissolve in water, others in fat), water (not enough water, less lipolysis, less fat loss), fiber (there are three types of fiber), and carbohydrates (the lower the glycemic index, the better).
Including everything you need in your diet and maintaining an average daily calorie deficit can be quite a challenge if you are going on instinct. Actually, judging from my experience, I would say that that is next to impossible.
This is why you need to understand fat loss, learn about the foods that will allow you to achieve it, how to control hunger, determine what kind of exercise will work best for you, build a plan or routine, decide to follow it and stay motivated.
I know that sounds complicated, but in the end, it isn’t. Honestly, since I did it, I can assure you you can too. Just give up on instinct, spend some time learning, and everything falls into place.
How fast? It depends. Actually, it doesn’t matter. Your plan will work if you stick to it. It may take up to a couple years to transform your body, but then again it probably took a couple decades (or more?) to put the weight on.
A 1000 average calorie deficit will make you burn about 8 lbs of fat a month, and that is stretching it close to the limit. For some, it goes beyond the limit (if you have a 1500 calorie deficit a day, a 1000 cal deficit is unrealistic).
But 8 lbs a month is close to 100 lbs a year. Even if it only goes half that fast, isn’t it worth it?