How Do I Lose Weight?

[caption id="attachment_5864" align="alignnone" width="2736"] GoNutrition BBQ Pulled Pork[/caption]

How do I lose weight?

Written by Caspian Paget - @WORKING.WORKOUT

I know. You can't wait to find out. It's eating you up. What question am I asked the most?: 'How do I lose weight?' What a thrilling build up and pay off that was. Well for starters guys, there's one big thing wrong. It should be fat not weight. Weight can be things like water or muscle, it's quite ambiguous and your weight will fluctuate throughout the day anyway.

How do I lose fat?

Let's tackle the question first: How do I lose it? In simple terms, if you're eating less energy (calories) than you're using, then you will lose it. So how do you know how much you need to be eating? You've got two options really, portion control or calorie counting. For two weeks actively, think about portions you're having. As a guideline, guys should aim for 1-2 servings of protein, 1-2 of carbohydrates, 1-2 of vegetables and 1-2 of fat (that sounds like those balanced diets people are always banging n about). Girls on the other hand should aim for 1 serving of each, on average. Fun tip: One serving of:

• Protein - the size of your palm
• Carbohydrate - the size of your cupped hand
• Vegetables - the size of your fist
• Fats - the size of your thumb

With the other approach, the first thing you need to find out is how many calories you need to maintain your current weight. Just Google calorie calculator, get one and follow the instructions. Unfortunately these calculators don't know you; they're useful but they're not 100% accurate. So, start this week and run it for a couple of times. (Another tip:) You will want to weigh yourself at the start and end (at the same time of day) and see if you have lost, maintained or gained weight. Then you can work out how much you need to eat each day to maintain your weight. Play around with it, experiment and most important of all: if you have a day where you don't log or maintain it, rather than beat yourself up or throw in the towel (it'll get dirty and you'll have to wash it) just reset and go again the next day. If your goal is to shred fat, then once you've established your maintenance calories or portion sizes, drop them down a bit and repeat the two week exercise. At this point you should start to lose a little bit of weight and remember, the slower the better. That way you're more likely to lose fat rather than muscle which is the stuff you wanna keep. Check out GoNutrtion's range of Fresh Macro Meals here.