To lose up to one pound (0.45kg) of body fat per week, 500 calories has become the acknowledged number to eliminate each day. Nick Watson, a fitness expert and co-founder of the u energy boutique health club at DIFC, shares his advice on how to do it.
1. Use a smaller plate. The simple act of downsizing your portion sizes will allow you to cut 500 calories without feeling deprived. Tip: choose a bread and butter plate instead of a dinner plate to serve your lunch and dinner.
2. Swap fizzy drinks for water. Swap your usual two cans of soda for water and you can cut around 200 calories from your daily intake. This will also help your body to burn extra calories, as a hydrated body functions better, thus increasing your metabolism.
3. Sleep more. People who sleep less than six hours per day tend to eat more because their fatigue releases hunger-feeling hormones. Get more rest and you could save 100 calories with every extra hour of sleep you get.
4. Stand up and move. Take the stairs instead of the lift, pack and carry your own shopping, do some housework and gardening. Simple tasks all help to burn calories. In fact, are you sitting now? If so, stand up! If you were to stand up instead of sit to make your phone calls, read articles, etc, then you would burn more calories.
5. Exercise. Seventy-three minutes of playing tennis can burn around 503 calories. Sixty-four minutes of a moderate bike ride can burn around 504 calories. Sixty minutes of a strenuous circuit class can burn around 500 calories. Forty-five minutes running at 9.6kmh can burn around 500 calories.
6. Double up. It is possible to cut 250 calories from your food intake and burn 250 calories with exercise. Remember the equation “calorie in versus calorie out”. As long as you are eliminating a total of 500 calories each day, then that’s all that matters.
