Fat loss is a highly familiar goal for our team of in-home and virtual personal trainers. We would argue that it’s one of the most popular reasons for our clients to begin a fitness journey. That said, despite its popularity, fat loss can be a difficult goal for many to achieve, especially in the long term.

If you’d like to lose some unnecessary weight that’s endangering your health or hindering your life, we have a few essential tips (that actually work) to put you on the right track.

THE BASICS

It’s no secret that carrying extra fat is bad for you. Being “overweight — even carrying as little as 10 pounds of excess fat — can make a difference in your health. It can cause changes in your body that may lead to serious medical issues. It can affect your self-esteem. And [being] overweight increases the chance you’ll develop obesity” (Cleveland Clinic, 2024). People who are overweight or obese are much more likely to develop high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, high blood sugar, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. Carrying extra pounds can also be harder on your joints as you age.

So how do you know if you’re overweight? Well, the old method was through a body mass index estimate known as a BMI calculation, which divides your weight in kilograms by your height in meters squared. However, this equation isn’t always correct, as it fails to account for the type of weight being divided. 

For example: if a person has a high percentage of muscle, they may be heavier than expected, because muscle is heavier than fat. On the other hand, if your BMI technically states you’re overweight but your doctor finds you to be in good health, then the extra weight isn’t really a problem – unless you feel uncomfortable in your skin.

THE ALL OR NOTHING MENTALITY

The most common problem our team encounters when working with clients who desire fat-loss is the all or nothing mentality. Many people fall into the trap of believing fat loss is a painstaking endeavour requiring a high frequency of specific, intense workouts and a boring, restrictive diet. This couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Yes, you will need to make some changes to your lifestyle in order to lose fat, but the most challenging part of this is building new habits. The workouts themselves can be moderate and you don’t need to cut any foods out of your life. You just need to exercise consistently and make informed choices about what you’re eating. You can lose a tremendous amount of fat by simply going for a brisk walk a few times a week and swapping out sugary snacks for choices higher in protein. In fact, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) advises 150-250 minutes per week of moderate physical exercise for people who want to lose weight. This amounts to roughly 30 to 50 minutes five times per week. 

IMPROPER FUELING

Aside from the obvious factor of making healthier food choices, it’s extremely important to eat the right amount of food to lose fat, and this doesn’t necessarily mean less. Smart meals that fuel strong workouts is a much more effective (and safe) strategy to lose fat than starving yourself and limping through exercise with no fuel in your tank. 

Furthermore, many recent studies have found that “diet-induced weight loss results in long-term changes in appetite gut hormones, postulated to favour increased appetite and weight regain” (National Library of Medicine, 2017). Restricting food over long periods of time can also reduce your metabolic rate, which will make it harder to lose weight in the future.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Despite what Instagram wants you to believe, there are no safe and natural short-cuts for fat loss. The bottom line of health always comes back to consistency; you won’t see changes every day, but in time they will come. If you’re struggling to remain consistent on your own, our in-home personal trainers in Toronto, Collingwood, London, Hamilton, and Ottawa (and virtual personal trainers everywhere) are here for support. Learn more about what we do at Nielsen Fitness, here.