Weight loss is a process, It doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, the best weight loss happens over time. If you’re looking to lose weight and keep it off, there are a few things you can do to keep yourself on track. Here are Rob Grim’s (CEO of Revolution Personal Training Studios) top 3 tips for consistent weight loss.

Tip 1 – Create Awareness

Firstly, you have got to create awareness around what you’re eating and drinking. So the best way to do that is through a food diary so you might do that on a handwritten diary or you might simply take some pictures on WhatsApp, or you might even use a tool like MyFitnessPal. but however you do it and whatever suits you, make sure that you’re recording all the food you eat and drink throughout the week.

This may not be something you need to do forever however research has shown that keeping a food diary (or “food journaling”) helped individuals understand the physical make-up of what they were eating, it also helped them learn how to eat in a more balanced way, make better food choices and even identify migraine triggers (1)

Tip 2 – Create a Calorie Deficit

In order to lose weight you must create a calorie deficit (2). Essentially, this means burning more calories than you eat each day.

First, you’re going to look at the energy you expend throughout the day. This can be made up of things like your personal training sessions throughout the week, your daily step count and the base amount of energy needed to keep your body running (BMR). These are all examples of ways you’re going to burn calories on a daily basis.

The other side of the coin is the food you consume on a daily basis. If you are consuming more calories than you are burning you will not lose weight. Start to look for foods that you can consume regularly and consider small changes that may reduce the total calories in that item. For example,  you might take a latte and switch that for a black coffee, saving yourself around 150 calories on your way to work. You can repeat this process throughout all the areas of your diet in order to ensure you are creating a caloric deficit each day.

Tip 3 – Make it Sustainable

Make sure your diet and nutrition is sustainable for the long term. There’s no point eating in a way which is going to give you great results over 4 weeks but then 12 weeks later you put more weight back on potentially and you create this yo yo effect, which a lot of people suffer from and whilst the research is clear on what’s required to lose weight, (caloric deficit) how you eat is very much a personal endeavour.

My best advice is to take a look at what you eat consistently now. How much of your current diet can be altered and tweaked in order to create a sustainable meal plan that you actually enjoy? This will set you up to make better choices long term in order to make your weight loss consistent and sustainable.

‍