How to lose weight with no diet restrictions

Here we are again, sunburned, slouched over clutching rolls of flab that we didn’t have three weeks earlier. How best to reverse the damage of a fortnight of all-inclusive bliss?

As a personal trainer I typically see people make drastic and unsustainable plans to lose their unwanted holiday physiques. Commonly, the first thing wrongly do is cut out carbohydrates from their diet, they stop eating bread, potatoes, pasta etc thinking that it was all the carbohydrates they consumed whilst away in the sun that caused the weight gain.

They then endeavour to go to the gym every day and punish themselves by spending hours on the cross trainers, rowing machines and treadmills. They go to bed hungry every evening, post-salad, frustrated with the lack of change in their bodies.

But, there is an easier way. Weight loss is always a result of energy balance, this is just science.

Energy in < Energy out = weight loss.

Energy in > Energy out = weight gain.

Energy in = Energy out = no change in weight.

This is thermodynamics and it applies to everyone. Every diet on the planet works in exactly the same way – they change the energy balance equation to cause weight loss, they do this by creating a caloric deficit, as this is the ONLY way to lose body fat.

The take-home message here is not to make dieting any harder for yourself than it already is.

A diet strategy that works every time and is so easy to implement is to eat three meals a day and two small snacks. Use your palms measure portion sizes – one palm of protein, one palm of carbohydrates, one palm of vegetables and one thumb sized serving of fats.

Go to protein sources include chicken breasts, eggs, lean rump and sirloin steaks, bacon medallions and salmon. While some great carbs are rice, bread, pasta and potatoes.

For vegetables, anything goes while lots of foods contain fats incidentally, some great sources are salmon, eggs, nuts, milk and avocadoes.

These lists are just suggestions they are by no means exhaustive. Feel free to be flexible to work any and every kind of food into these parameters; ice cream would take up fat and carbs for example. Flexibility is key to sustainability! There are no good and bad foods, just varied calorie values.

Similarly, the goal of your workouts is to grow muscle not to punish you for over indulgence. Structure your workouts around the key compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups as these will build the most strength and provide the greatest bang for your buck. Squats, deadlifts, chin-ups, rows, presses and lunges are the foundation of any good workout.

I also recommend performing metabolic circuits for the second part of your workouts (take a look at my live workouts on the Indy Lifestyle Facebook page for some ideas). The goal here is to elevate your heart rate and work as many muscles as possible without a break. Grab a pair of dumbbells, run through 4-6 exercises working each muscle without a break, take a two minute rest and repeat 3-5 times. Aim to exercise like this 2-4 times per week.

Here’s an example workout:

A) Deadlift - 3 sets of 5 repetitions

B) Barbell shoulder press - 3 sets of 8 repetitions

C) Dumbbell lunges - 3 sets of 10 repeptitions

Metabolic Circuit – no rest between exercises

A) Dumbbell squat to shoulder press – 10 repetitions

B) Dumbbell swings – 10 repetitions

C) Press-ups – 10 repetitions

D) Plank rows – 10 repetitions

E) Squat thrust to deadlift – 10 repetitions, 3-5 rounds

Implement these strategies, stick with it for 4-6 weeks and that holiday weight would have shifted completely, depending on how badly you abused the all you can eat buffet.

Harry Smith is a personal trainer. Follow him on Facebook.