This is a typical problem I see in a lot of people. Both can cause frustration especially when someone is trying to incorporate new habits so they can become healthier in which both of them require different solutions. Here are a couple of examples:
Person
#1: Starting a healthier habit by adding more fruits and
vegetables to their diet but continues to get frustrated because the weight scale isn’t changing.
Solution:
No matter what you eat, in order to lose weight you need to be in a calorie deficit. This means you need to expend more calories than you consume. You could eat 3,000 calories of broccoli and you wouldn’t lose a pound. It doesn’t matter. The amount of calories you eat is what really matters.
Person
#2: They start cutting out a lot of calories because they
realize they are eating way too much. They lose some weight in the beginning but then hit a lasting plateau.
Solution:
You do need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight BUT, it’s only recommended to be in a 200-300 calorie deficit per day. This causes the body to go in starvation mode and ultimately your metabolism suffers along with that which makes it more difficult to lose weight.
There are other components to a successful diet such as calculating the macronutrients percentages and balancing that out but the amount of calories you actually eat and finding out what your optimal calorie intake is more important than that when it comes to weight loss. The easiest route to find your optimal amount of calories is to find out what your Basal Metabolic Rate(how many calories you burn with no physical activity) and measure how many calories you burn a day. BMR calculators are all over the internet so
you can use that to find out what your basal metabolic rate is and then add in the calories you burn everyday. This will give you the amount of calories you need to consume in order to maintain your current weight. So if you are trying to lose weight and your BMR is 1,800 calories and you burn 600 calories throughout the day. This means you burn 2,400 calories a day so you would need to eat anywhere between 2,100-2,200 calories per day to lose weight optimally to start. As you continue to lose weight your BMR will also go down so you will need to continue to cut calories in order to lose weight.
This should give you a heads start to your weight loss journey and if you would like further help, you know where to reach me.
Dedicated
to Your Success,
Coach
Evan