To get you started
It can seem incredibly overwhelming when you are attempting to improve your health. For a lot of people, the overriding question they have pinballing around their heads is, “Where do I start?!”
What I want to do today is give you some starting points. I’m going to cover the really common questions I get and hopefully, put you in a position where that overwhelm isn’t there and you have a decent, simple and effective plan to start from.
For most of my clients, and for a lot of the enquiries I get, fat loss is the primary goal, so I’m going to base the guidance around that.
Let’s break it down into sections.
Nutrition
What should my calories be?
To calculate your calories for fat loss, a really simple starting point is taking your body weight in pounds and multiplying it by 10. Track to this number for two weeks and see how you get on. If you are super hungry and it feels unsustainable, then increase it by 10%. If you are seeing progress, it feels okay, and you are experiencing manageable hunger, then keep going.
Now you have your calorie allowance…
How do I create balance in my diet?
You are going to save 10–20% of your calories for the non-nutritional stuff. I’m not going to call it “bad” or “junk” food but you know what I am talking about. No one is having a Mars Bar for its nutritional value! Aim for around 80% (of your calorie allowance) from good proteins, healthy fats, carbs, fruit and veg, and up to 20% of your calories from foods that wouldn’t come under that bracket.
How many meals should I be having?
For most people, 3 + 2 is a good starting point: 3 main meals and 2 snacks. It’s up to you how you divide your calories. Some people like a bigger breakfast, others like a bigger dinner.
I’ve heard I should be eating more protein, how much should I be having?
Again, we are not going to overthink it but a really simple starting point is to aim for a decent protein source as part of each main meal. In real life, this could be scrambled eggs at breakfast, tuna at lunchtime and a steak at dinner.
If you are a numbers person, at the very minimum, aim for 1g of protein per kg of body weight every day. For example, if you are 100kg, then you should be aiming for 100g of protein per day as your starting point.
Daily activity
How many steps should I be doing?
If you are consistently doing over 10,000 steps every day, then you are in a pretty decent spot and I would just put your focus on nutrition.
If you are doing less than 7,500 steps on a consistent basis, unless you are super tight with the food side of things, you are going to struggle to see decent progress.
If you are below 7,500 steps, increase whatever you are doing now by 20% as your starting target.
Training
How often should I train?
Three times a week is the sweet spot for most people. It’s super realistic, achievable and if you train properly (put some effort into it!), it’s enough to get you the progress you are looking for.
What exercises should I do?
I’d recommend strength training in some form.
However, if you are starting out, just choose something you enjoy, as that consistency will take you a long way.
If I do strength training, what should I do?
If you are training at home with some equipment or at the gym, this is a really nice framework to use to start to build out an effective full-body workout:
An upper-body horizontal press (something like a press-up)
A squat (something like a goblet squat)
An upper-body horizontal row (something like a seated row)
A hip hinge (something like a deadlift)
An upper-body vertical press (something like a shoulder press)
A lunge (something like walking lunges)
An upper-body vertical pull (something like a lat pulldown)
Three sets of 8–10 reps or two sets of 12–15 reps on each exercise will be suitable.
How long will it take me to achieve my goal?
It would be a good idea to build out a roadmap and crunch the numbers to see how long it will take you to achieve your weight-loss goal.
Take your body weight and aim to drop 0.5% each week. If you are hitting that each week, that’s efficient progress. But remember, even if you are not and you are still progressing, it’s progress! There’s no rulebook to say how efficient you need to be.
Do I need to be dieting all the time?
Certainly not. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend it. At the very least, take 2–4 days of non-dieting every 3–4 weeks. But once again, there is no rulebook on this. You do you and take it at your own pace.
Some other questions…
How should I track my progress?
Take scale weight every day.
Calculate a weekly average using this data and compare it to previous weeks.
Do body measurements and pictures every four weeks.
Monitor how your clothes are fitting.
How much sleep should I be getting?
You really don’t need to overcomplicate this. The answer is…enough that you feel rested in the morning. A general rule of thumb is 7–9 hours.
Should I be taking any supplements?
Consider vitamin D, especially if it’s October–March in the UK.
You may also want to consider creatine, but if that feels a step too far for now, you won’t need anything else.
In summary…
All of the above are starting points and approximations and you should continually monitor and tweak things according to how sustainable you are finding them and how you are progressing. Everyone aims for perfect right away and that is normally the thing that ends up stopping them from making any decent progress.
At no point do you need to be perfect, especially not at the start. Just start. Even if you take one of the points above and work on just that, it’ll move you in the right direction.
If all of the above still feels overwhelming, or you want some more precise starting points, head over to my Plans and Packages page, pick your plan, and drop me a message. If you are looking for more inspiration, I’ve just uploaded David’s kind words on the client page. Go and check it out.
