Don’t forget this one principle in your fat burning diet plan

When planning a fat burning diet plan people tend to make it more complicated than it really should be.  How much of this should I eat, when should I eat, what are the best foods to eat?  However I think as a starting point for trying to lose fat you should actually just look at how many calories you consume and then reduce them. Now of course you need to be eating the right type of foods and I will touch on that in a minute but you can simply lose weight eating what you want so long as you are not consuming too much of it ie you are taking in more calories than you burn off.

Now I know this is a little simplistic and there are other factors too losing fat but I think it is often overlooked by a lot of people especially those who have lost weight already but have hit a bit of a plateau.

So Autumn is here and it can be difficult to stick to any form of diet plan as we start to crave more comfort type foods and start to spend more time at home. However I think if you use the right strategy you can still enjoy the foods you want but keep the weight from piling on. Eat Stop Eat is the diet strategy I use to maintain my weight all year round while still eating the foods I like.

So if your struggling to lose fat or have hit a point where the it won’t seem to budge then reducing your calories may just be the trick to get things moving again.

So to do this properly we first have to figure out how many calories you burn in an average day.

The specific amount of calories that you use up, without taking into consideration any additional physical activity, is known as your Basic Metabolic Rate, or BMR. The best way to get this figure is to take your total body weight and multiply it by 10. Having this figure is important when knowing what calories intake you need to apply on you fat loss diet.  You can get an even more accurate figure by using a BMR calculator online.

The second step is to reduce the total amount of calories that you consume in a day.

Once you have a figure to work with it becomes much easier to know how many calories you can safely consume. Now to reduce you calories I think the best way is to start by just reducing the amount you eat by small amount and then look at your results. If nothing is changing then reduce again by say another 10% then see what effect this has. Keep repeating this until you hit the level where the fat starts to reduce consistently. I have found with many people if they cut out too much all at once they don’t stick with it whereas if you just keep changing things on a smaller scale they can more easily cope with this and remain consistent which is crucial

The easiest way to reduce calories slowly is to either cut out certain types of foods or replace some foods with others in your meals. People can get a little preoccupied by worrying  about how many carbs, fats or proteins they should consume at each meal. Instead of focusing on what foods you are eating what we need to look at is how many calories are in the meal.

Now I don’t know about you but I can’t be bothered to weigh or work out the calories of each food type so all I do is try to fill my plates with as much 1 ingredient food as possible.  Some examples of one ingredient foods are: fish, vegetables, meat, nuts, fruit, and eggs.

Basically I avoid as much as possible anything in a packet or box.  This plan makes it much easier than trying to figure calorie content and works well for me. Obviously you can’t eat a much as this type of food as you want but because 1 ingredient foods is generally very nutrient dense it is very hard to overeat. On the other hand most things that come out of a packet or box are very calorie dense and you can find yourself eating too much without even thinking about it.

How many meals a day?

I must tell you that I used to follow religiously the  5 or 6 meal day plan. However over time when it comes to losing fat I think the vital component is consistency. It is doing the right things most of the time all the time that will get results. So look at your lifestyle and work out what works for you. It may be six meals a day it may be 3 just so long as you are able to stick with it long enough and  consume less calories than you burn off then you will see results.

Keeping hunger at bay

Lets face if you are trying to follow any type of fat burning diet plan there are times that you will be hungry  and this is probably most noticeable in the first few weeks.  (Read this post I wrote for some simple tips on how to eat less. http://www.energiafitness.com/3-simple-tricks-to-eat-less-if-you-want-to-lose-weight-without-exercise/). Here are some other tactics I have used as well

Drinking a large glass of water or having an apple, prior to meals.  I have found that I avoid eating too much during my meals when I follow this tip.

Drink Green tea is another great tip to use as it is a natural suppressant for the appetite and can add an extra boost of energy to your system.

One final tip I have found helps especially when dealing with late night sweet craving is too clean my teeth.  I’m not sure why this works possibly psychological but for me it has the desired effect.

The message I really want to send here is that when it comes to fat loss and diet plans don’t forget the basics, keep it simple and make sure that you can stay on track for long enough to see results.

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