In order to lose weight, most people need to maintain a calorie deficit over\u00a0a sustained period, says Bethan Crouse, a performance nutritionist at Loughborough University. \u201cThis can be done by increasing exercise to boost\u00a0your calorie expenditure and therefore create a deficit,\u201d she says. \u201cIn\u00a0that case, exercise might be the key to losing weight. But you could approach it the other way: by choosing less calorie-dense foods and reducing your energy intake, you can create a deficit without changing how much you exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Relying on workouts alone for weight loss can be challenging. \u201cIf\u00a0you\u2019re aiming to burn an extra 300 to 500 calories a day, that\u2019s an awful lot of exercise. You\u2019re likely to need some kind of nutritional intervention as well to create that gap between energy intake and output.\u201d<\/p>\n
She recommends focusing on diet, ensuring meals are built around a good source of protein, plenty of vegetables and fruit, healthy fats and a\u00a0wholegrain carbohydrate \u2013 but don\u2019t make carbs the majority of the meal. When it comes to movement, Crouse suggests thinking about overall daily activity rather than formal workouts. Sedentary office workers, for example, could use their lunch break to get some fresh air and steps in, while social plans might shift towards more active options \u2013 swapping the cinema for table tennis, or the pub for a walk in the park.<\/p>\n
Crouse is keen to underscore the benefits of exercise, beyond weight loss. She encourages people to meet NHS guidelines of 150 minutes of\u00a0moderate-intensity activity (or 75 minutes of vigorous activity) a week, plus strength training on two days.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has mental health benefits, improves cardiovascular fitness, supports bone health and strength, and becomes especially important as\u00a0you get older for things like fall prevention,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In order to lose weight, most people need to maintain a calorie deficit over\u00a0a sustained period, says Bethan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-490705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}