The Fit Life Parenting Blog
1/11/2022
"How do I lose the extra fat in my lower belly?"
This is a question I got recently...
I could just say "a calorie deficit" like most people do online... but that doesn't help you much.
Losing weight and reaching your body composition goals is about MUCH more than just creating a calorie deficit.
Sure... a deficit is the first part of any fat-loss equation.
Without it, you're unlikely to lose anything at all.
However, it's HOW you go about that deficit that determines not only you getting to that goal body/weight, but also how long you can actually sustain it afterward (without regaining what you lost)....
Today, I'm going to teach you about the three main diet components of a deficit...
They're your guiding compass when dieting.
Showing you how hard, how long & how often you should diet.
Let's get right into it...
The 3 main components you need to focus on when dieting...
Length
How long do you want to diet for?
Most diets range from 8 weeks all the way to 6 months (which depends on how much weight there is to lose).
Intensity
Meaning, how aggressive you want your fat loss to be.
The intensity portion goes hand in hand with the length of the diet. The more you turn up the intensity, the shorter your diet will be.
But, this isn't always a good thing. In order to increase the intensity, you need to increase your calorie deficit or increase exercise output to experience faster fat loss.
This means you'll get to your goal faster, but you'll also be eating less food and pushing your body harder. Which could result in being burnt out or weight gain rebounding after the diet is complete.
Frequency
Are you dieting non-stop until you reach your perfect body fat percentage or shape?
Or are you going to take diet breaks/cycle your approach so it isn't as aggressive?
Both will work. Dieting straight through will get you to your goals faster. This is a typical 6-12 week diet for most people.
But it's a tough gig... You have to be on point every week or it won't be worth it.
Calorie cycling and diet breaks can be great too, they just take longer because there are days or weeks where you're not technically dieting at all.
You're eating at maintenance... Meaning you're not losing or gaining weight, just holding steady.
This can come in many forms:
Diet for 3 weeks and take a week break...
Diet for one week, take one week off...
Diet for 5 days, take the weekends off...
All of these approaches can work. It depends on what works for you.
Here's an example of how they work together...
Let's say we have a client whose name is Jane. Jane weighs 170 lbs and wants to diet down to 155 lbs.
15 pounds total.
She also wants to diet for the shortest amount of weeks possible (length), while being aggressive (intensity) and not taking breaks (frequency).
Plain and simple, Jane wants to lose 15 lbs and she wants to lose it NOW.
Her vacation to the Bahamas is only 3 months away. There's no time to dilly dally.
Simple enough.
A good rate of weight loss progress per week is anywhere from 0.5 - 1.5 lbs per week.
Since Jane wants to be aggressive, she should try to at least lose 1.5 lbs per week to meet her goal.
So the goal is to have Jane lose 15 lbs in just 10 weeks.
1.5 lbs lost per week x 10 weeks = 15 lbs.
Make sense?
Now, that's a very aggressive approach for many people. It means Jane will need to remove a lot of calories and be strict with her diet.
If she didn't care about her vacation, the length, intensity, and frequency could be dialed back to allow a slower, more sustainable approach.
But maybe I'll cover that second dieting scenario in the next post...
This one has gotten too long as is.
Hopefully, you can see how the three diet components play into each other.
I suggest learning them if you want to structure successful diets that help you retain your results.
All three need to be considered before you start losing weight.
Saying, "I want to lose 20 lbs simply isn't enough"...
You need to know the length, intensity & frequency of your diet approach in order to get there.
Without it, you have no plan of action or target to hit.
Which means you're shooting in the dark when the first step is knowing where to aim.
Till next time,
Keith