How much time does it take to lose weight?

The most important factor is focusing on changing our habits. Weight and body fat loss are a consequence of this new lifestyle.

First, it must be clarified that body fat has a function in our bodies and a percentage of our body weight will always be fat. Being too low on fat can have serious consequences: deficiencies in the endocrine system, dry skin and dry mucosae, loss of libido and fertility or an increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases.

Including healthy fats in our diet is necessary and is as important as maintaining an adequate body weight.

How do we end up with a high percentage of fat? Fat is a reserve tissue of the organism. All the calories we take with food and that we do not consume are stored in our body as fat. If we take more calories than what we consume, the body stores that excess, causing overweight.

In order to figure out how much fat we could lose and how much time it would take us, we should take into account that the caloric deficit should be the appropriated one. For this, we should focus on the following factors:

• The energy needed to keep an optimal and healthy state. That is, the calories needed to keep our organism functioning. This is what we call basal metabolism.
• The energy needed to do the daily life activities, including those that keep us alive. This is called NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) and includes everything we do in our daily lives: waking up, showering, doing chores, eating, sleeping, or even the energy expenditure of keeping body temperature or digesting food.
• The energy we “burn” with the expenditure per activity. Physical activity requires more calories. Many people believe the here lies the key to loosing fat, but not everybody has the time or the condition to do activities that require a high demand of calories. Unless you are a sport professional, the energy needed at the end of the week rarely surpasses 10% of the total.
• The energy supplied by food. Every food has calories, except water. There are products that are high in calories and low on nutrients - like pastries- and there are others with many nutrients that are low on calories, like fruits and vegetables. These are the calories from the diet.

In order to lose 1 kg of fat, we need to have an energy deficit of 9,000 calories. On one hand, our basal metabolism must be taken into account. It depends on age, sex and health state. On the other hand, NEAT, energy expenditure per activity and calories from the diet that must be ingested so our basal metabolism is not compromised.

Thus, the time that takes us to lose the excess of fat is different from person to person.

Trying to increase the frequency and intensity of the physical activity you do is important. In addition, having good muscles not only makes us stronger, but also can increase our basal metabolism.

But without a doubt, there is a section we can manage: the calories supplied by food and the increase of NEAT. Let’s avoid those “1-tip wonder diets” that are excessively restricting and compromise our basal metabolism. Furthermore, they make us get stack quickly and easily regain every pound we’ve lost. There must be a balance between the calories we eat and the nutrients we take. Another determining factor is NEAT. Trying being more active: take the stairs, don’t remain too much time seated, carry the shopping bags in your arms, do the chores, walk… are little things that add to that deficit we want to achieve.

Increase thermogenesis

Another factor that can contribute to loosing weight is thermogenesis (also known as thermogenic effect). This is the process by which our body balances its temperature. The adipose tissue takes part in this process, as it helps transforming the energy of food into heat. The body has different energy needs, based on what it needs to digest (proteins, fats or carbohydrates). Here are some tips to increase your thermogenesis:

• Eat high-value biological proteins: digesting proteins requires more energy than other foods, so our thermogenesis can be increased.
• Expose yourself to cold. Keep your heating low or end your showers with cold water. This increases thermogenesis.  
• Do not follow a very restrictive diet. Your eating pattern, in both frequency and food selection (eating high nutritional value foods), also favours a high thermogenesis.

Help with supplements that increase thermogenesis. Substances like capsicum, green tea or caffeine notably increase the thermogenic process, assisting in our weight losing journey.