WORKING OUT KCAL
A calorie deficit is the number of calories you need to eat in a day to lose weight compared to the calories to maintain your weight. You create a calorie deficit by either eating less calories, burning more calories (through exercise) or a combination of the two.
How to work out YOUR KCAL DEFICIT?
There are lots of different equations, formulas etc to work out daily kcal intake but best to keep things simple...
After taking measurements, attempt to create a kcal deficit over a 7 day period by tracking and counting kcals. After 1 week if you lost weight it is likely you are in a deficit, no change would indicate maintenance and weight gain would indicate kcal surplus.
Women aim for between 1500-1700kcals per day for the week. If you go with 1700kcals don’t stress if its 1679kcals. It is the consistent approach that wins.
Men aim for between 1800-2000kcals per day for the week
Remember, this is basic introduction to a simple approach and doesn’t consider individual differences, body weight, activity etc. The main reason there is a big range is because we have found that people become obsessive and try to get exact numbers. This is just unrealistic. Find the approach that works for you and work on doing that as best as you can around your job, family, social events and lifestyle. The team are here to help you if you are struggling.
This simple pyramid shows the approach and order we encourage at Fortius.
Work out your kcal deficit and stick to it consistently over time to see effective weight loss. Once we get comfortable tracking our food we can start to be more strategic with our macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, fats) micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), fibre and water intake. This allows us to then select food types that will either be used for more energy, help muscle growth and repair and general health.
A progression on from this could be looking at meal time and frequency. This is when we plan specific meals around our training, rest days and social events. Lastly, we focus on supplements which is only worth about 5-10%. If you can nail the first 2 things correctly then you are 80-90% on your way.
We normally find people obsess about supplements and shakes, meal timing but fail to nail the most important factors for weight-loss… Kcal Deficit and a rich nutrient dense balanced diet.
THE 80 / 20 RULE
At Fortius we like to use the 80:20 Rule.
If 80% of your nutrition is from nutrient dense foods like fresh fruit and vegetables, lean meats and fish, and grains, the other 20% isn’t going to affect you provided you remain in a calorie deficit. This is more realistic and easier to adhere to. Some of our clients go 90:10 but its difficult to stick to.
