A woman who lost 5st through a calorie deficit has shared three tips she wished she knew when she started her journey, in the hopes that it might help others lose weight
Losing weight isn’t easy, and if you’re embarking on a wellness journey, you should be patient with yourself. It takes time to see results when doing things naturally, and you shouldn’t be too harsh on yourself if you don’t drop a dress size as quickly as you want to or if you find yourself craving the occasional indulgence.
One woman who lost 5st (31kg) “naturally” through eating in a calorie deficit is now on a mission to help others kickstart their own weight loss journeys, and has shared some helpful tips that she wishes someone had told her before she started. Kols posted a video on TikTok in which she listed three “hard truths” that people need to hear before starting to lose weight.
In the caption of her video, she stated: “Weight loss hard truths. I’m going to be holding your hands and telling you what I wish someone told me before I started my weight loss journey.”
1. Don’t wait for motivation
Kols’ number one tip is that you should never wait for motivation to strike before you start your journey, as you’re likely to never actually take the first step.
She said: “Starting a fitness journey, a lot of the time, is not really fun. Changing your daily habits kinda sucks. There’s probably nothing that’s really going to get you motivated, so if that’s the reason that you’re waiting to start, stop. Just start.”
The woman admitted that it might be “easier said than done” to just start making changes to your daily habits, but said that taking things slow and gradually making changes can be a vital tool to helping you get your journey underway.
She added: “The reason you can’t get yourself to move is because you’ve set the bar too high. You think you need to start going to the gym six times a week, or you have to completely transform what you’re eating. You don’t have to do that.
“Change your whole milk to almond milk. Park your car a little bit further when you go [shopping] this week. Those are the things that, over time, are going to make a big difference. If you start there, it’s going to feel a lot easier to just get started and get past that lack of motivation.”
2. You only get the results that you put in the effort for
The woman’s next tip was to stop comparing yourself to gym and fitness influencers on social media. She said these people make a living from staying fit and eating well, so it’s far easier for them to maintain their bodies. If you have anything else going on in your life, like a job or other commitments, this physique won’t be attainable.
She said: “You guys give yourself weird weight loss goals. Like [saying], ‘I need to lose 50lbs’. What if you’re going to feel great if you lose 20lbs? Stop setting the bar so high. Stop putting your expectations so high when you’re not willing to put in the effort to get there.
“I’m not saying that because you’re lazy, I’m saying that because the majority of people don’t have the time that it takes to have a rocking physique. These fitness influencers that you’re comparing yourself to online? That’s their full-time job! The people I know who are thin year-round are either genetically like that or they literally exercise all day long.
3. You must be in a calorie deficit to lose weight
Kols’ final piece of advice is that exercise won’t have any effect on your weight loss if you aren’t eating in a calorie deficit. This means you need to be eating fewer calories than you use in a day in order to successfully lose weight.
She said: “You can do keto, you can do intermittent fasting, I don’t care. If you are not also in a caloric deficit when doing those diets, you are not going to lose weight. You can hit the gym six days a week every single week, and still not lose any weight because you’re not eating in a calorie deficit.”
The woman said she lost weight without following any diets, and simply ate the foods she enjoyed while making sure she was in a healthy calorie deficit.
Weight loss is not a one-size-fits-all thing, however, and what worked for one person may not work for you. No matter what lifestyle changes you make, you should maintain a balanced diet with enough protein, carbohydrates, and fruit and veg.
You can find more information on how to lose weight in a healthy way on the NHS website.