GYMCADDY's Advice
On Losing Weight
The GYMCADDY team is made up of multiple lifters with various backgrounds. We've all gone through multiple cuts and bulks to achieve our fitness goals. We have also tried different dieting techniques and plans to find out which ones actually work. We have found that intermittent fasting truly is a great tool for getting lean. Checkout our article on Intermittent fasting HERE. Also remember to pick up your GYMCADDY™ HERE.
Losing weight… its usually everyones first goal when they first join the gym. People either want to lose weight because its their New Years Resolution, summer is right around the corner, or because their doctor suggested it. If you do a Google Search for “losing weight”, “how to lose weight”, or “best diet to lose weight” you're going to end up with a lot of search results. And lots of them will contradict each other. Some will even say they have “The Secret to Losing Weight”. Well the GYMCADDY™ team can tell you that there is no such secret to losing weight.
Losing Weight is nothing more than being in caloric deficit for an extended period of time, and consistency. Being in a caloric deficit means you take in less calories per day than your body needs to maintain its current body weight. We have also found consistency in your eating habits and workout routine is key to losing weight.
So How Do You Know If You're in a Caloric Deficit
In order to lose weight you need to be in a consistent caloric deficit for some period of time. But how do we even know if you're in a caloric deficit at all? First we need to determine your maintenance, or the amount of daily calories you need to consume to keep your weight constant. First we recommend you use a calorie tracker to help you calculate how many calories you're eating per day. We suggest you use MyFitnessPal. This is a great tool that has a large database of foods and helps you keep track of consumed calories. Once you have set up your MyFitnessPal account you will do the following process over the course of 7 days.
Weigh yourself first thing in the morning after you've used the bathroom and before you shower, eat or drink anything. Go about your day and add all foods eaten into your diary on MyFitnessPal. Try to keep your caloric intake constant over the course of a week. We recommend you try to stay around 2200 calories (for healthy males). Go about your daily routine and workout schedule.
After 7 days of consistently eating the same amount of calories, check to see where your weight is now. Did it stay the same? Great! You've found your maintenance. Did it go up? Do the process again with slightly less calories, try 2000 calories this time. Did it go down? Well that means this is a good number to start working with to lose weight.
Ok I Have My Maintenance, What Now?
Once you have your maintenance it should be smooth sailing from here. We recommend you go into a 200 caloric deficit for awhile until you no longer continue to lose weight. Once you stop losing wight at a 200 calorie deficit you can do one of two things. You can increase your deficit by 100 calories to be in a 300 calorie deficit or you can add some cardio to your workout regiment. You'd be surprise how much of a change an additional 100 caloric deficit can make. If you decide to add some cardio to your workout we recommend you start off easy, like 200 calories per workout on the treadmill or stepper.
Consistency is Key
Consistency is key to losing weight. Having consistency in your caloric intake and consistency at the gym is what causes weight loss. Not special pills or fad diets. One of the easiest ways to add consistency to your weight loss journey is to constantly eat the same meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It may become annoying and repetitious, but it will surly help you lose wight. We also recommend you measure and weigh your food on a food scale. It might seem extreme at first, but having precision when logging your food into MyFitnessPal will be invaluable in the long run. Finally, honesty is just as important to losing weight as consistency. You need to be honest with yourself and make sure you're tracking all of your calories. You need to be honest with yourself and stick to your workout regiment and nutrition plan. Honesty in this case is truly the best policy.