Whether it's for your health or to be able to wear your favorite skinny jeans, losing 9 pounds is a big goal. It will take a lot of hard work and commitment on your part, but you can do it. Read on below to learn how to lose 9 kg of weight safely and effectively.
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Method 1 of 6: Understand Your Current Lifestyle
Step 1. Record your current diet
Take the first week to analyze your current eating habits. To do this, keep a food diary. Keep a record of everything you eat and drink during the week, making sure to include snacks and portion sizes as well.
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While recording your food and drink intake, note your mood as well. You will be looking for a pattern. Do you eat when you are sad, bored, stressed?
If you find that you do eat when you are emotional, keep this in mind when starting your diet. You won't want to subconsciously fall back into old emotional habits
Step 2. Determine your current average calorie intake
After a week of recording everything you eat, analyze your weekly food intake. Use a free online nutrition site to determine how many calories you are consuming. Add up the calories you consume for the whole week. Then divide this number by 7 to find your average daily calorie intake.
Step 3. Determine your average daily macronutrient intake
Macronutrients refer to how much fat, carbohydrates, and protein are contained in the foods you eat. Use a free online nutrition site to determine the macronutrient content in your diet. Determine your daily average by adding up your macronutrient intake for the entire week and dividing by 7. Do this for your daily intake of fat, carbohydrates, and protein.
It's important to know your macronutrient intake because you want to limit yourself to the right types of calories to stay healthy with your diet
Step 4. Make a commitment
Think about why you want to lose weight. Is it for health, appearance? Think about what your ultimate goal is, write it down. Place this target in a place where you can see it often, such as on the refrigerator, bathroom mirror, or on your desk.
Method 2 of 6: Calculate Your Calorie Target
Step 1. Calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
Your basal metabolic rate or BMR is how many calories your body burns each day to perform basic metabolic functions, such as breathing, digesting food, etc. This calculation is important for determining your basic calorie needs.
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If you are female, calculate your BMR using the following formula: 655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age in years)
Example: A 30 year old woman, with a height of 170 cm and a weight of 61 kg will have a BMR of 655 + (9.6 x 61 kg) + (1.8 x 170 cm) – (4.7 x 30 years) = 1405, 6
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If you are male, calculate your BMR using the following formula: 66 + (13.7 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) – (6.8 x age in years)
Example: A 30 year old man, with a height of 183 cm and a weight of 81.5 kg will have a BMR of 66 + (13.7 x 81.5 kg) + (5 x 183 cm) – (6.8 x 30 years) = 1893, 55
Step 2. Calculate the number of calories burned each day
If you are less active, multiply your BMR by 1, 2. If you are moderately active, multiply your BMR by 1, 3-1, 4. If you are very active, multiply your BMR by 1, 4-1, 5. Result is an estimate of the number of calories you burn each day.
Example: If you, like the man above, have a BMR of 1893.55 and you are moderately active, then you will need to multiply your BMR by 1.4. If you do this, you will find that you burn approximately 2650.97 calories per day
Step 3. Calculate your calorie goal
A reasonable calorie goal is to consume 15-30% fewer calories than you currently burn each day. To perform this calculation, multiply the number of calories you burn each day (as calculated in step Calculate the number of calories burned each day) by 0.7 - 0.85.
- Example: If you, like the man above, burn approximately 2650.97 calories per day, then you will want to eat between 1855, 7 (2650, 97 x 0.7) and 2253.3 (2650, 97 x 0, 85) calories per day.
- The bigger your deficit, the closer to 30% (1855, 7 calories/day), the faster your diet will work but the harder it will be to maintain. The smaller your deficit, the closer to 15% (2253.3 calories/day), the easier your diet will be to maintain, but your weight loss will occur more slowly.
Method 3 of 6: Time Your Diet
Step 1. Understand how to make a reasonable diet time
Often, it's tempting to time your diet first, then set your calorie goal. However, this often results in unrealistic expectations of dieting, fast dieting, and yo-yo dieting. To avoid this, find a healthy calorie deficit first in the Calculate your calorie goal step, then use this section to calculate how long it will take you to lose 9 kg.
Step 2. Calculate your daily calorie deficit
To time your diet, subtract your calorie goal (from the Calculate your calorie goal step) from the number of calories you burn per day (from the Count calories burned per day step). This will result in the number of calories you have to burn each day.
- Example #1: If you burn 2650.97 calories a day (as calculated in step Calculate the number of calories burned daily) and set a 30% deficit for your target calorie, which is 1855.7 (from the Calculate your target calorie step step), then You will have a deficit of 2650, 97 - 1855, 7 = 795, 27 calories per day.
- Example #2: If you burn 2650.97 calories a day (as calculated in step Calculate the number of calories burned each day) and set a 15% deficit for your target calorie, which is 2253.3 (from the Calculate your target calorie step step), then You will have a deficit of 2650.97 - 2253.3 = 397.67 calories per day.
Step 3. Calculate your time
There are approximately 3,500 calories per kg of fat. So, there are 70,000 calories per 9 kg of fat. That means to lose 9 pounds, you will need to burn 70,000 more calories than you take in. To calculate your time, divide 70,000 calories by your daily calorie deficit (from step "Calculate your daily calorie deficit") to determine how many days your diet will last.
- Example #1: If you have a daily calorie deficit of 795.27 calories you will need to divide 70,000 by 795.27 to get ~88 days. In other words, it will take you 88 days (12.5 weeks) to lose 9 kg if you are an active 30 year old male who is 183 cm tall and weighs 81.5 kg, with a 30% deficit.
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Example #2: If you have a daily calorie deficit of 397.67 calories, you will need to divide 70,000 calories by 397.67 to get 176 days (or nearly 25 weeks or about 6 months) to lose 9 kg if you are a an active man aged 30 years with a height of 183 cm and a weight of 81.5 kg, with a deficit of 15%.
From the two examples above, you can see that a larger deficit results in faster weight loss
- Your actual diet timing will vary, depending on your own factors, your age, weight, your current exercise pattern. However, in general, the bigger you are, the faster you will lose weight, but as you get closer to your ideal weight, the rate of fat loss will slow down.
Method 4 of 6: Calculate Your Target Macronutrients
Step 1. Calculate how much protein you need in a day
In general, you want to consume between 0.5-0.77 g of protein per kg of body weight. The more active you are, especially if you are doing vigorous exercise, the more protein you should eat. Protein is needed to repair muscle as you age and after exercise.
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To calculate how many grams of protein you need a day, multiply your weight by 0.5-0.77.
Example: If you weigh 81.5 kg, you will need to multiply your weight by 0.5 to calculate your lowest protein requirement, which is 40.75 g protein/day. To calculate your highest protein requirement, multiply 81.5 kg by 0.77 to find that you need a maximum of 62.8 g of protein per day
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To convert grams of protein to protein calories, know that there are 4 calories per gram of protein. So, to convert grams to calories, just multiply by 4.
Example: If your weight is 81.5 kg, you should eat between 40.75 x 4 = 163 calories and 62.8 x 4 = 251 calories of protein per day
Step 2. Calculate how much fat you need in one day
When you're on a diet, it's often tempting to eliminate all, or nearly all, fat from your diet. But fat is needed for your long-term health. Fat is important for the formation of healthy tissue bundles and is necessary for proper hormone production. Not eating enough fat can actually hinder weight loss, not to mention make you feel very hungry. So, plan for 20-35% of your calorie intake from fat.
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To calculate how many fat calories you should eat in one day, multiply 0.2 and 0.35 by your calorie goal.
Example: If you plan to eat 1855, 7 calories for your diet, multiply 1855, 7 x 0.2 to get 371 calories, and 1855, 7 x 0.35 to get 649.5 calories. From this, you now know that if you plan to eat 1855, 7 calories per day, you should get between 371-649, 5 of these calories from fat
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To calculate how many grams of fat you should consume, know that there are 9 calories in one gram of fat. So, to convert calories to grams, just multiply by 9.
Example: From the example above, you now know that if you plan to eat 1855, 7 calories per day, you should get between 371-649, 5 of these calories from fat. 371 calories 9 = 41.2 g, 649.5 calories 9 = 72 g. So, if you plan to consume 1886 calories per day, you should eat between 412.9 - 72 g of fat per day
Step 3. Calculate how many carbohydrates you need in one day
Unlike protein and fat, both of which are needed to build structures in your body, carbohydrates are not needed as structural components. Carbohydrates are only used for energy. So, your body does not have a strict need for carbohydrates. Instead, the amount of carbohydrates your body will need is calculated from the remaining calories in your diet after you've met your daily needs for fat and protein.
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Example: If you are an active 30 year old male weighing 81.5 kg who plans 1855, 7 calories per day. From the step "Calculate how much protein you need in one day" you know that you need 163-251 of your calories from protein in one day. From the step "Calculate how much fat you need in one day" you know that you need 371-649, 5 calories from fat in one day. So, the remaining calories to reach 1855, 7 calories will come from carbohydrates.
- To count numbers minimum carbohydrate calories you can consume, subtract your highest requirement for protein and fat, 251 calories from protein and 649.5 calories from fat, from your daily calorie allowance of 1855, 7 calories per day (1855, 7 - 251 - 649, 5) to get 955.2 calories of carbohydrates per day.
- To count numbers maximum the carbohydrate calories you can consume, subtract your lowest requirement for protein and fat, 163 calories from protein and 371 calories from fat, from your daily calorie allowance of 1855, 7 calories per day (1855, 7 - 163 - 371) to get 1321, 7 calories of carbohydrates per day.
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To convert carbohydrate calories to grams, know that there are 4 calories per gram of carbohydrates. So, to convert calories to grams, just divide by 4.
Example: If you could eat 1321.7 calories of carbohydrates per day, you would be allowed to eat 1321.7 4 = 330.4 g of carbohydrates in one day
Method 5 of 6: Implement Your Diet
Step 1. Plan your diet
Now that you have your calorie target and macro range in place, it's time to reanalyze your old eating habits. Take a look at your previous diet, as noted in the "Understand Your Current Lifestyle" section, and find out what you need to reduce or change to achieve your new goals.
- This takes time, try different menu ideas and calculate the calories and macronutrient content. Find a diet that fits your taste and lifestyle but follows nutritional guidelines.
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Good foods that you may want to consider adding to or replacing in your diet include the following:
- Good sources of protein include skinless chicken breast, minced turkey, bison, egg whites, Greek yogurt, and tofu.
- Good sources of fat include almonds, peanuts, flax seeds, chia seeds, fish, egg yolks, and olive oil.
- Good sources of carbohydrates include unprocessed carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes, brown rice, fruits, oatmeal, rice bran, buckwheat kernels, Bulgarian oats, beans, and vegetables.
- Try to minimize the consumption of highly processed foods, such as breads, pastries, pasta, fast food, and frozen ready meals.
Step 2. Invite your family/roommates
It is helpful to diet with the people you live with. It's easier to eat healthy when you're not surrounded by temptations and bad influences. Try to get your family and roommates to follow your diet.
Step 3. Clean your kitchen
Do yourself a favor and remove all junk food from inside your home. It's easier to stick to your diet if tempting junk food isn't easy to come by.
Step 4. Go shopping
Go to the store and buy the foods you need for your diet, lean protein, vegetables, and complex carbohydrates.
Step 5. Eat regularly in small portions
Share your calories throughout the day. Consider eating 5-6 small meals a day instead of just three. Also make sure to eat breakfast when you just wake up.
Step 6. Drink water
Drink water during and between meals. This will help you feel fuller while dieting.
Step 7. Plan a weekly cheat meal
With a long-term diet, such as 9 kg, the hardest part is being consistent. Few people have the determination to stick to the perfect diet for the 3-6 months it takes to lose as much as 9 kg. So, it is recommended that you include in your diet a cheat meal once a week.
- Cheating food doesn't mean you can eat an entire pizza and a box of ice cream at a time. But it's an opportunity to eat something that's not in your diet. So, eat two slices of pizza and a reasonable bowl of ice cream.
- Eat your cheat food guilt-free, after all it's a planned part of your diet. After that, immediately return to your diet for the next meal. Regular and reasonable cheat meals may even help boost your metabolism.
Step 8. Get enough sleep
Lack of sleep can hinder your weight loss efforts. Try to get 8 hours of sleep every night.
Step 9. Make this a lifestyle
Record your food intake while you are dieting. If you eat according to plan and maintain your current activity level or above, you should be able to successfully lose 9 pounds.
Keep in mind that as you lose weight, you may want to recalculate your macronutrient and calorie needs
Method 6 of 6: Exercise
Step 1. Strength training
When you are in a calorie deficit, your body will burn its reserves for energy, fat and muscle. You want to burn fat, but you don't want to burn muscle. To help maintain your muscle mass when you're in a calorie deficit, consider weight training.
- To maximize your weight training, focus on compound movements, deadlifts, squats, bench presses, military presses, and pull ups. As you progress, start incorporating isolation exercises like bicep curls, tricep extensions, glut bridges, etc.
- If you've never done weight training before, be prepared to get really sore the first week. As with all new exercises, do it slowly so your body can adapt and avoid injury.
Step 2. Do a little cardiovascular exercise
Cardiovascular exercise is good for overall health. So if you don't do these exercises at all, consider incorporating half an hour of cardiovascular exercise into your exercise routine a few days a week.
- Don't get caught up in the cruel cycle of cardio/diet. A cardio/diet cycle is when you exercise to burn calories, but it makes you hungrier, makes you eat more, and forces you to exercise more, then makes you even hungrier, and so on. Keep cardiovascular exercise to under 2-3 hours a week unless you are actively training to reach your fitness goals. Doing more cardiovascular exercise than this can actually inhibit fat loss due to increased levels of the hormone cortisol. To avoid this problem, control your calorie deficit in the kitchen, not on the treadmill.
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Some cardiovascular exercises you may consider include:
- A light jog 3.2 km before breakfast, a few days a week.
- 20 minutes on the stairmill after lifting weights.
- Intermittent exercise at high intensity, several days a week.
