Sarah Mackay is a social media influencer and fitness guru who shares her weight loss experience on various platforms. In a recent viral YouTube video, she reveals her trick to getting “shredded” fast. “After 60 long days of dieting, I'm finally shredded, and it was so much easier than I thought it was going to be. I didn't follow any crash diets. I didn't drastically cut my calories, I ate a lot of carbs, and I didn't drink a single skinny tea. So, if I didn't follow any of these crash diets, how was I so successful? It's simple. I followed the three main principles of long-term weight loss,” she says. Here is exactly what she did.
Most Diets Fail Because They Are Quick Fixes and Not Sustainable
“Before we dive into the three key principles, let's talk about why all your past diets have failed. Now, it's no secret that the world is full of fad diets that promote quick weight loss results. Yet statistically, these diets have an awful success rate. And according to a 2007 review of weight loss studies, sustained weight loss after a period of dieting is actually the exception, not the rule,” she says. “So why do all these diets fail? Well, the problem actually lies in the setup of the weight loss plan itself. Quick fixes do lead to quick losses, but without a strategy for long-term maintenance, it is far too easy to rebound into old eating habits once our period of dieting is over. But avoiding this problem is easy if you follow the three key principles to long-term weight loss.”
Principle 1: Diet
“First comes the most important principle, and that is your diet,” she says. “If you're anything like me, any mention of a diet has you rolling your eyes and gripping on very tightly to those carbs you desperately don't wanna cut, but it's not what you think.” In fact, “weight loss isn't actually as hard as many people make it out to be,” she continues. “It all comes down to a calorie deficit where you just eat fewer calories on a daily basis than your body burns. But this isn't just through exercise. Your body burns calories in a lot of different ways while resting during physical exercise, of course, non-physical exercise, and also through digesting food.”
You Need to Calculate Your Maintenance Calories
“Taking all that into account, let's just say your body burns around 2,000 calories a day. To maintain your current weight, you would also need to eat 2,000 calories and to lose weight, and you'd need to eat less than that. But how do we know how many calories we're burning a day, and how do we create a deficit? Well, firstly, you need to find your maintenance calories, and calculating your maintenance calories is actually nowhere near as hard as it may sound,” she says, recommending a calculator.
Decide Whether You Want to Take a “Slow, More Sustainable” Approach or “More Aggressive” Option
“After we have our maintenance calories, you need to decide how long you want your deficit to take. A slower, more sustainable rate of weight loss means losing around 0.5% of your body weight each week. But a more aggressive, shorter approach means losing around 1% of your body weight each week, which may sound a little bit confusing,” she says. “Although a shorter, more aggressive option might seem more tempting to you, it is very important to avoid crash dieting here. A more sustainable rate of loss allows you to have a little bit more flexibility in your diet and enjoy free meals without completely derailing your progress. And this balance isn't just more enjoyable. It is the secret to long-term success when it comes to losing weight,” she points out.
Lots of People Plateau
“Here's where most diets stop working. As you lose weight, your body just starts to run on fewer calories, meaning that naturally, you burn fewer calories while at rest, while exercising, and while doing non-exercise activities. And because we're not eating so much food, we're burning fewer calories while digesting, which means that after a few weeks of dieting, your initial deficit probably won't be much of a deficit at all. So you could be doing everything right on paper but be eating the wrong amount of calories and making no progress at all,” she says. “To account for this, all we need to do is drop our calories back down a little bit or up the amount we're exercising in order to push ourselves back into that deficit.”
Principle 2: Exercise
“Now that we have our deficit set, it's time to move on to principle number two, and that is working out,” she continues. “Of course, you could just lose weight from the deficit coming from your diet alone, but including exercise into your plan gives you a way to burn calories. It means you don't have to aggressively cut your food in order to stay within your calorie deficit. Plus, working out is also what's gonna give you that tone-shredded look when you lose weight.”
Higher Intensity Vs. Lower
But are there specific types of exercise you should do when you're trying to lose weight? All it comes down to is what you can maintain in the long term. Exercises that are higher intensities – such as running or HIIT – will burn many more calories within a small timeframe in comparison to lower intensity exercises such as walking, which is very important to keep in mind when setting up a weight loss plan.
She Does a Combination
“Personally, getting in around 8,000 to 15,000 steps each day and doing a light to moderate form of cardio two to five times a week seems to be the sweet spot for me that I can maintain in the long run,” she says. “As I mentioned before, for those looking for a more shredded look when you lose weight, I recommend picking up weight training coupled with a protein-rich diet. Now, to break it down really quickly, all this would mean is weight training around three times a week following progressive overload on all your lifts and eating around one gram of protein per pound of body weight.”
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Principle 3: Keeping the Weight Off with Consistency
After setting your diet and workout, the “most crucial part of weight loss” is “how to keep the weight off,” she says. “There are two main things we need to consider here. The first one is consistency. A consistent calorie deficit, no matter how long it takes you, inevitably will lead to weight loss. It also turns healthy eating into a routine that helps you avoid weight gain rebounds after your dieting period has ended. And honestly, it doesn't matter how many times you go off plan; the only thing that matters when it comes to weight loss is jumping back on plan as soon as you can and continuing to push with your calorie deficit.”
And Also a Post-Diet Plan
“Now, here comes the most important thing we need to consider, and that is our post-diet plan. Without a plan to maintain our weight once it's off, it is inevitable that we go back to old eating habits and rebound on the weight that we've just lost,” she adds.
Shift to Maintenance Calories
In order to keep the weight off long term, she suggests doing the following things. “First, you're going to need to come out of your deficit straight away and shift immediately to your maintenance calories for your new weight,” she says. “This direct approach, instead of adopting an approach such as reverse dieting, where you gradually come out of your deficit and up to your maintenance over time, allows you to come out of that deficit as soon as possible. Because if we aren't losing weight anymore, why would we want to keep our body in that stress state and stay in a deficit? This way, we're also allowing ourselves to eat as much food as possible to maintain our current weight, liberate ourselves from feeling restricted, and resist the urge to binge, which is so common after a dieting phase.”
It Will Be 200 to 600 Calories More Than Your Dieting Phase
“Finding your sweet spot for your new maintenance calories will take a little bit of trial and error. It will probably be around 200 to 600 calories above your dieting intake, but this will be influenced by the exercises you were doing to maintain your deficit and also how rigorous your deficit was,” she says.
Gradually Increase Calories
“After your intake has been boosted, your new goal is to fine-tune this number and gradually increase your calories, keeping a keen eye on the scale a few times a week to ensure your weight remains stable. If your weight holds steady for a week at this new calorie level, you'll know you're on track. And from this point, you can add another little increment of calories until you can no longer hold maintenance weight consistently over a week or two periods,” she says.
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You Will be Able to Maintain Your Weight Loss at This Stage
“And to prevent unwanted weight gain at this stage, it's best to make these calorie adjustments in very small steps. This allows you to keep your progress in check and your body at its new weight while eating the most calories possible. The more food that you are able to eat, the less you will feel restricted and the more likely you are able to stick to a healthy eating plan that allows you to maintain your new body weight,” she said. And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 31 Fitness Tips Every Beginner Needs to Look Sexy, According to Coaches.
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