Health & Wellness | Lose 5kg in 4 Weeks?

Caloric Deficit Diet

Easy, healthy way to shed that fat - FAST!

How many times have you tried a diet program and it only seemed to work for a while and then you went back to gaining the weight you’ve lost? What’s more frustrating, what you gained back is sometimes more than what your weight was before!

Eve Writes | 12 April 2019

Health & Wellness: Get Healthy

About Eve loves leading a healthy lifestyle – we’re not just about losing weight to look good or to fit into that dress for the weekend event, but we want to have a healthy body throughout. Other than making sure we’re up to date with our health checks by going for the screenings a woman should go for, we also realize the importance of understanding how our body reacts to the diet program we’re on.

Tell us this scenario is not familiar – you went on a diet program because it seems to work on many people you know. Without enough research and understanding how your body reacts to the diet program, you dived into it, you lived it day and night, and you might have even gone hungry because of it. Then, because you can’t take the tediousness of going on the diet anymore, you’ve abandoned it and thus, gaining back the weight that was lost.

We understand how painfully familiar this is, because hey, it happened to us at About Eve before.

We said ‘before’ because with just a little extra understanding of how our body reacts to food and to certain diet program, we at About Eve were not only able to lose weight rather quickly, but also able to maintain it without feeling hungry, stressed, or forced to.

One of our About Eve Ladies was able to lose about 5kg in just 4 weeks with this diet (and she is someone who absolutely loves good food!) so we know you’re going to love this too because despite being a foodie, she was still able to lose weight and enjoy hearty, healthy meals!

Note: If you have a medical or health condition, kindly make sure you check with your doctor first before trying out this caloric deficit diet.

Understanding the difference between weight loss and fat loss

You hear a lot of people saying they want to lose weight, where if you were to understand what they really want to lose is actually fat. You can still lose weight, of course, but essentially, what you will be losing is both muscle and fat.

To lose weight, you can just stop eating. To lose fat, now that takes a little work.

You will need to supply your body with the right kind of food to promote healthy fat loss because when you lose the fat the right way, you allow your muscle to work more efficiently in helping you burn the fat. See, your muscle has these little powerful fat-burning machines called mitochondria. These little cellular machines are responsible for the production of energy where your fat is metabolized. So, the more muscle you have, the better you can burn the unwanted fat.

By understanding how much fat you want to lose and how to lose it can help you in planning the right diet program. It will also help you in knowing what to expect in the process, so you won’t be discouraged when you don’t see the expected result as yet.

Caloric Deficit Diet 101 – Calorie in, calorie out

Many of us tend to eat more than what we need to. Whether it’s the type of food we consume or the portion we take, chances are we’re consuming more than what our body really needs. You may have heard that if you consume less calories, you can lose weight, but there’s a grey area you need to be aware of.

It makes sense for you to gain fat when you have a high calorie diet especially if you don’t work out, but by not consuming enough calories, you can also gain because your metabolism is sluggish and not at its optimum level. Metabolism, as many of us know, is the process of turning food into energy. By helping it to work efficiently, you can lose more fat in a shorter period of time.

To get rid of the fat, you should reduce the calorie you take. When the body is not taking in excessive calories, it will begin to burn the stored fat you have – the ones from your hips, thighs, and belly. Even when you’re resting, your body is burning fat for energy because your body needs this energy for the “hidden” functions such as breathing and blood circulation.

So just imagine what your body is doing when you’re active! If you’re not supplying your body with excessive calories, your body will burn the stored fat while you jog to catch your train, while you take the stairs to your office, or walk to your car in the parking lot. Imagine again how much your body will burn the stored fat if you were to add workout routines while you’re on caloric deficit diet!

This is how you can lose up to 5kg in just 4 weeks!

Eating the right food at the right portion

We admit, it takes a little getting used to when you want to do the caloric deficit diet. This is mainly because we’re used to eating either food with high calorie or we’re used to eating more than we need to.

Knowing the caloric content of the food you consume goes a long way in losing all the unwanted fat. It may sound a little tedious because there is some calculation involved, but once you’re used to it, knowing what to eat and how much to eat them will be like second nature.

To start, you can look into the type of food you usually eat. Whether it’s rice (which contrary to popular belief, is not fattening because of its low caloric content), pasta, noodles, or etc. Then look into what do you eat these with. Some of us may need to eat curry every other day, some of us need to have fried eggs while some of us are okay with just simple stir-fried vegetables and steamed fish.

Then you need to know how these foods are cooked. The higher the oil content the higher the calorie. Choosing steamed or broiled foodstuff is better than deep-fried or even lightly fried. Raw salad is also another great option. Reducing the salt and sugar in the cooking will also give you added health value because it’s advisable not to take too much salt and/or sugar.

Another important thing in caloric deficit diet is the portion size. If you’re not careful, even something that contains low calorie such as an apple (± 50 calories) can sneakily make their way into your diet and hike up your calorie intake. This is often the case if you were to make your breakfast smoothie because we tend to think the more healthy food we put in, the healthier it will be for us.

You see, you don’t really have to change the food you eat i.e. you don’t really have to switch your nasi lemak to bland bran cereal, you don’t have to stop eating your favorite mee hoon sup and start taking wheat crackers all day.

All you have to do to start on caloric deficit diet is make better and more informed decisions on the type of food you eat by adjusting and controlling the number of calories and its portion size. Of course it’s never a bad idea if you switch to a completely organic diet and start reducing the usual comfort food you’re used to, but what’s important is you start slowly and continue to be aware of the food you eat.

So how much calories do you really need to lose weight?

It can be quite difficult for many of us to know how much calories we’re eating each day because let’s be real, who would actually count everything we eat?

However, if you want to lose fat fast and want to finally achieve that dream size you’ve been chasing, it does require some discipline and effort in knowing how much calories you consume. Admittedly, it’s easier to know how much we should take to lose fat compared to knowing how much we’re already taking.

Researchers have estimated that to lose 500g of fat, you need a deficit of ±3500 calories per week. So, if you were to reduce 7000 calories/week, you should be able to lose approximately 1kg per week. Now, break that down for each day. You need to consume 1000 calories less every day for you to achieve the goal of losing 1kg per week.

It is recommended for women to consume 2000/day, but most of the times, we might go beyond that. Plus, each of our body is different and our calories requirement can and will differ. And if you were to reduce 1000 calories from that, you will only be eating 1000 calories per day and that is way too low. To lose approximately 1kg per week, it’s recommended for you to consume an average of 1200 – 1500 calories per day.

Getting the most out of caloric deficit diet

Dropping your calories intake will be a challenge for the first 1-2 weeks because your body is adjusting to the lack of calories. You may feel hungry every now and then because your body is now burning fat more than it did before so here’s where you need to be disciplined and not reach for the nearest snack to soothe the hunger pang. You will need to “teach” your mind that your body is not hungry, but rather it’s working because the mitochondria is now burning all the stored fat.

To get the most out of caloric deficit diet, you need a little help in monitoring the food you eat. There are many calorie counter app you can use, but we love MyFitnessPal app. All you have to do is key in the food type and it will give you the number of calories it contains. You can also simply scan the bar code on the packaging or for food that are not listed (especially homemade meals), you can enter the ingredients to get an idea of its caloric content. You can then make an estimation from the total ingredients in the meal.

As mentioned, this will need some getting used to because you have to calculate each and every food you eat, but once you’re used to the number of calories in the food you usually eat, then you can continue to monitor your calories intake with or without the app. Should you feel hungry between meals, opt to snack on healthy food such as fruits or nuts. As much as it’s tempting to grab a bar of chocolate, you’ll be amazed how you will no longer feel hungry when you opt to have an apple instead of a Toblerone.

Remember,

When you're hungry,

your body needs nutrients - not sugar

To promote faster fat-burning, we also recommend you include workout routines. If you’re not someone who likes to workout, simple exercises like using the stairs instead of the elevator or do some aerobics at home can also help you to burn fat faster and more efficiently. Every once in a while, there’s nothing wrong with having a slice of pavlova or a delicious Big Apple donut, but remember to either burn that off by working out or adjust the rest of your calories intake for the day.

Do you have any experience in calculating your calories or do you have any question for our About Eve team to help you get started on this diet? Let us know in the comment!

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