How I Help Women Lose Weight (continued)

Now that you have the big-picture view of how I get women to lose stubborn belly fat, I will give you a closer look at the first step in the process -- their nutrition. Whether we're using the "FREE" formula or the "FRESH" formula (see the previous article), they both start with FOOD. This doesn't just apply to women who want to lose weight. Having a nutrition plan for achieving fat loss is the single most important element for every single demographic, whether you're a 45 year old woman or a 28 year old man. (Side note: there actually is ONE demographic who can out-train a poor diet -- teenage boys. Don't tell them that. It's our secret.)

Eat well. THEN exercise!

You've heard it a million times, it's "diet and exercise". You've heard them so many times that they lose their meaning, if one ever understood what they meant in the first place! And because they're said in tandem with one another, it gives people the incorrect impression that they are equally important. Worse still, most people overestimate how well they eat and think, "Oh, I just need to exercise more", without realizing that their efforts are pointless.

So I start with a woman's height, weight, body composition (i.e., how much body fat she has) and age. Then, I use three different formulas to calculate what her total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is. Her TDEE tells us how many calories she requires to maintain her current mass. It will vary depending on how active she is. Does she exercise once a week or does she exercise six days a week? Once I know that figure, I typically have women start with a modest 10 - 15% deficit. This means they will consistently eat about 15% fewer calories than their bodies requires to maintain their current mass. The key for them is consistency, and this is where people tend to fail most often. People sometimes treat their diet the way they treat their job -- it's a thing to focus on during the week, but then they ignore it on the weekends. The problem with that approach is that it not only takes the person out of the deficit, it typically comes with blood sugar spikes that accompany the indulgence in their favorite high calorie foods. Worst of all, it teaches their body to not adapt metabolically to a new size, and to cling to their old, heavier body size instead.

I expect my clients to lose around 2 pounds of fat per week, when they stick to their program. After a few weeks, we re-assess their body fat and consider increasing their daily calorie deficit to 20%. The deficit can be larger if the individual is in the morbid obesity category, though I tend not to exceed a 24% calorie deficit. I want the shift to be modest, but sustainable and to not feel like torture.