The best way to lose weight

Despite many promises and marketing treatments, there is no miracle diet.
However, if you are wondering how to lose weight fast, there is an effective way to achieve your dream goal.
How to do it? Let's start with the basics.

What is energy balance?

Energy balance is the sum of the energy taken in from food and drink (Energy Input) compared with the energy needed by the body to live and perform activities (Energy Expenditure). The unit of energy is calorie.
Energy balance is responsible for weight loss or gain.

Types of energy balance

To reduce body weight, a negative energy balance is required.

To maintain body weight, a ‘zero energy balance’ is applied.

To increase body weight, a positive energy balance must be used.

Total Daily Energy Expenditure

To establish the ideal Energy Input you need to know your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) – amount of calories that your body needs throughout the day (24h).

Total Daily Energy Expenditure depends on the Basal metabolic rate (BMR) and Physical Activity Level (PAL).

TDEE = BMR × PAL

Basal metabolic rate

Basal metabolic rate is the energy needed to ensure basic life functions, such as breathing, digestion, heartbeat or functions of other organs.

The most important factors affecting BMR:

• Age
• Gender
• Body weight
• Body height

You can use Harris-Benedict Equation to estimate BMR.

Man: BMR = 88.362 + (13.397 x weight in kg) + (4.799 x height in cm) - (5.677 x age in years)

Woman: BMR = 447.593 + (9.247 x weight in kg) + (3.098 x height in cm) - (4.330 x age in years)

Physical activity level

PAL ratio helps to determine energy needed for additional physical activities.

Commonly used ratios are:

• 1.2 - extremely low physical activity. Dedicated for people who spend most time laying in bed, with no professional activity, e.g. elderly people with limited mobility.
• 1.4 - low physical activity. Used to describe people spending most of their day sitting, walking occasionally (about 3 hours a week) or choosing low-intensity sports activities, e.g. person commuting to the office by public transport, not exercising.
• 1.6 -  moderate physical activity. Intended for people working in the office, which additionally exercise 2-3 times a week for at least 1 hour.
• 1.8 - strenuous physical activity. People who are manual workers or devoted 1-2 hours daily on average to high-intensity sports, such as football, continuous swimming.
• 2 - extremely strenuous physical activity. These are primarily athletes who train intensively every day (or even twice a day), but also workers performing heavy, physical work.

Now, when you know the basics, you can calculate the energy requirement that is needed to achieve the target body weight. Check the table below where you can see the basic recommendations for a person weighing 100 kg (220.46 lb).

IMPORTANT! For now you need to remember one important thing - you cannot consume less energy than your Basal Metabolic Rate! Soon you will find out why.

Of course, these are assumptions in a perfect world. The human body is very complex and sometimes you have to look at other aspects and factors as well. That's why we're starting this series of articles.

Until then, take care and see you next time!