The more you take care of your body by living a healthy lifestyle, the better you will look and feel.
There is so much healthy goodness for your body when you proactively choose to double down on a healthier version of yourself, the benefits will not disappoint.
However, we need to be careful not to harm ourselves in the process because it’s easy to get carried away. You may want to lose weight for personal reasons, lose weight to improve your health or to feel good, either way the benefits are on your side.
A person who is dead set on results may wind up forming unhealthy habits, according to personal trainer Mandilakhe Mzamane, so adjusting your meals, exercising, and getting tips to keep you on track like what not to do, is crucial if your objective is to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.
“Tracking progress is normal, but progress is most effective when you combine your efforts with a common goal, such as how much you need to eat and exercise to get your desired results. Which is where most people get frustrated because nutrition can be tricky,” he told IOL Lifestyle.
I have this belief that to lose weight I need to hit the gym and watch what I eat. True! But there’s more, things like your weight, height, and day-to-day activities factor in to determine how much food your body needs to function optimally.
Your body requires energy to function. Anything we eat has energy in which case it has a certain number of calories. A calorie is nothing more than the measurement of a unit of energy.
“For humans calories are burned during activity even during rest hence we have the bodily function called metabolism. Metabolism is the rate of the ability to break down energy and other nutritious compounds in our bodies.”
Mzamane says if your body can burn 2 000 calories then it means that your set metabolism rate is at 2 000. You are at a deficit when you ingest fewer calories than that 2 000-calorie threshold, which means you’re eating less than your body can digest.
“In most cases, people who do this are attempting to lose weight. They do so by following a calorie-restricted diet,” he said.
Essentially three things happen if you go on a calorie-surplus diet: you’re either at a deficit, maintaining calories, or surplus calories(you are overconsuming). Meaning when you’re at calorie maintenance you consume what the body needs not less or more which the body needs to maintain healthy bodily function.
“When you’re at a surplus: you’re consuming more or an extra amount of calories than the body needs. Sometimes it can be indirect for example people who eat too much not to gain weight but naturally just eat a lot end up picking up extra weight because they are continuously at a surplus. Sometimes some people are out on diets that are calorie surplus for them to gain weight. So whether it’s any type of food or a specific type of food will determine whether you’re at a deficit or surplus or maintenance.”
Our dietary and lifestyle habits influence our calorie/maintenance, surplus, or deficit range.
By changing our lifestyle habits when it comes to food, “as the rule goes it is 70% what you eat and 30% exercise, so yes exercise also does influence whether you go on to a deficit or surplus,” he said.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that when you exercise, your body uses up more calories (energy) — about under 1 000 KJ if you exercise for an hour roughly. This is an estimate that would place your daily calorie intake at 3000kj calories to meet your body’s demands, including exercise, Mzamane said.
He says if you want to lose weight, a calorie-deficit diet will burn through the extra fat in your body. “To do this, the body goes through a process known as ketosis, which is when fat in the body is naturally burned for energy.”
If you are on a calorie surplus diet, consuming more calories than your set metabolism rate even though you are exercising you might not be able to lose weight.
Stay away from “empty calorie foods” which refers to foods that have little to low nutrients. They often have high fat or sugar content. Alcoholic drinks are considered to be empty calories, Mzamane says.
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