When it comes to losing weight for someone in BPD the hardest part is most definitely the food.
The training is the easy bit, they just have to show up and I take care of the rest.
The general census is that in order to lose weight, you need to consume less calories than you expend for energy.
Creating what’s known as a calorie deficit.
It’s pretty much the foundation for any solid weight loss plan.
I use the Harris–Benedict equation to workout the average calories each of my clients need (aka their basal metabolic rate).
Then based on this and a couple of other individualised factors, I’ll work out a specific daily target for them, that puts the in a slight calorie deficit.
If the deficit is too extreme, i.e. the target is too low, this can create massive stress for him.
So chances are he’ll fall off the wagon.
The trick is to keep it at a slight deficit so that you still have good energy to train well and not feel like you’re starving yourself along the journey.
Feeling good and enjoying the process is so so important. It’s the only way you’ll get results four the longterm. Once I’ve given the specific daily calorie target to a client, he sets it as his calorie goal in his MyFitnessPal app.
Here he keeps his daily food diary and the app tells him how many calories he’s consumed for the day.
It’s a fantastic way of educating yourself about food and what food contains what calories.
Plus it gives you absolute clarity of what you need to eat each day.
Also when it gets to the weekend and you fancy a few pints you know exactly what calories you’ve left in the bank.
So you can have a few without it impacting on your weight loss. Or you could go out for a nice meal instead.
Whatever you’re into, it’s important to have something to look forward to at the weekends.
It stops that whole “being on a diet” suffering mentality.
No matter how much you’ve let yourself go and how poised off you are with yourself, punishing yourself isn’t the answer.
Allow yourself to have some fun along the way.
And by tracking your calories, you can do it guilt free.
Andrew “not guilty” Lahart
PS if you haven’t asked me for a free copy of my book
The Bulletproof Dad Blueprint just ping me an email back now.
