Level 2: Nutrition for Weight Loss

"For effective weight loss, the ratio of food is simply higher than the ratio of exercise in terms of human metabolism."

Your desire for a better physique such as having 6 packs for male or a toned body for female, brings us to the next level: Nutrition for Weight Loss. At this level, you will have to take a more methodological approach to plan your nutrition and training, till it becomes a part of your lifestyle. 

Before you start, remember this:
Achieving Fitness requires conscious effort, time, discipline and sacrifices. Are you ready for it? 
For beginners, this is a simple pie chart in terms of what to focus on: 

This graph is a representation of what we employed and is by no means a scientific graph nor data.  There are however, growing evidence suggesting that nutrition plays a more prominent role in weight management as compared to exercise. Quote from obesity expert doctor Yoni Freedhoff: “Exercise has staggering health benefits, but it may not help much in the quest for weight loss.” For effective weight loss, the ratio of food is simply higher than the ratio of exercise in terms of human metabolism.

To understand more, first you must recognise the fact that our body changes according to energy balance. Newton’s first law of thermodynamic; Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only be transferred or change from one form to another. Our bodies are no exception as the food we consumed are merely converted into energy in the form of nutrients; Calories, Macronutrients, Micronutrients and Water.  

Ever wondered why there are nutrition labels on food items and the first line is Calories? Well for layman terms, it is to allow you to calculate how many calories you are taking in vs. expending out. Now, we are going to do a little math with Mary (fictional character). Mary is a 30 years-old working adult who wants to lose 5kg in 10weeks. 

1kg of fats in your body is approximately 7700 calories. In order to lose 1kg per 2 weeks, she would have to burn 7700 calories every two weeks or 7700/14 = 550 calories a day. With a body resting metabolism of 1400 calories, plus daily activity level of 400 calories, she is expending 1800 calories a day and in order to lose 1kg of fats in two weeks, she would have to go on a calorie’s deficit of 1800 – 550 = 1250 calories a day. That means she can only consume 1250 calories a day (which is not desirable by the way). Although this is a simplistic explanation, we hope that by showing you the concept, it would lead you to better food choices as mentioned in Food for Health. There are complicated situations as other factors such as sleep and stress can actually affect your body metabolism.

Fat loss or weight loss is not as straight-forward as when someone starve themselves for 2 weeks, they would lose 5kg. Body metabolism slows down to keep you alive. The body starts to conserve fats in order for you to survive, you may lose 5kg in 2 weeks, but gain back 6kg the next! Hence, there must be a good balance between your exercise and food intake, so that you can look decently fit and healthy, not skinny nor scrawny. 
​
Food is Smart, and so are you.
Our food has different macronutrients and our body converts them into different energy sources. 
Protein will be broken down into Amino Acids. Carbohydrates into Glucose. Fats into Triglycerides. 

Understanding how your body functions according to different macronutrients will be beneficial in achieving your desired results. Proteins are important but so are carbohydrates and fats, each serves a different role in the complexity of human bodies. Your job is to understand what’s the proportion of macronutrients you have to consume in order to optimise your fitness levels. You may then adopt an eating strategy such as: 

1. Portion Control
2. Macronutrients Counting
3. Food Logging
4. Food Cycling such as Intermittent Fasting
5. Macronutrients Cycling such as Carbohydrate Cycling 
6. Any other eating strategies that you may find comfortable

Bringing this all together, you can start out by checking out our go-to calculator by Precision Nutrition to know how many calories and macronutrients you are recommended to consume: https://www.precisionnutrition.com/nutrition-calculator. 

Do feel free to contact us should you need more information and we will be most happy to discuss with you.