Are you a small woman struggling to lose fat?
I am not surprised...You need a different approach.
If you’re a small woman and you’re struggling to lose fat.. this one is for you!
Firstly, I am not surprised you are struggling, it is genuinely harder for you.
All things being equal you will need to diet on lower calories..
I am going to show you a comparison of Tall Tanya (5ft 9 google tells me anything above this is ’a tall woman’)
& Small Sasha (5ft 3 google tells me is anything below this is ‘small woman’)
I am actually using the lower side of cut offs here & you’re going to be pretty shocked by the impact. - this would obviously be even bigger if I picked 5ft 11 and 5ft
To make this comparable I am using a BMI of 27 - so they are both the ‘same amount of overweight’ and I am assuming a ‘moderate’ activity level for both.
At a BMI of 27:
Tall Tanya - 5 ft 9 & 185lbs (83.9kg)
Small Sasha - 5ft 3 & 155lbs (70.3 kg)
The first thing to note is to get to a healthy BMI range Sasha needs to weigh less than Tanya.
The second thing I want to draw your attention to is the difference in calorie needs between Tanya & Sasha..
Maintenance for Tanya is ~2,200 calories
to lose 1lb of fat a week she would need to diet on ~1700 calories a day
Maintenance for Sasha is ~ 1,840 calories to lose 1lb of fat a week she would need to diet on ~ 1,340 calories a day
You can see the issue here - 1,700 calories is enough to allow you some flexibility - you can eat out, enjoy a few treats, maybe have a few drinks within that.
1,340 on the other hand… you’re really going to struggle to stick to that while having a life.
Now you might be thinking…
But isn’t it all relative? Wont Sasha just be less hungry because she needs less food.
Wouldn’t that be nice…
Unfortunately it doesn’t really work like that. It also makes the incorrect assumption we only eat for hunger and not any other reasons e.g. literally every celebration, 99% of social events, when we are bored, emotional etc
As a general rule; will a smaller person have a reduced appetite compared to a larger person? Potentially but it’s one of so many factors that influence appetite and genetics & food choices play a significant role.
& anyway, the impact of height on appetite bares little relevance in our obesinogenic environment.
There is nothing cheeky and a Nando’s when you’re trying to stick to 1300 calories
in fact, its most of your calories for the day even if you make smart choices.
Food portions arent smaller for smaller people so we get used to eating larger portions and then start expecting and requiring those to feel full.
Having a Nando’s for one person is going to take up a far higher % of their calorie needs for the day than for someone else.
We have a one size fits all approach when it comes to portions but we don’t have the same calories to play with & so the impact is very different.
So what is the solution for someone like Sasha?
Be miserable on 1300 calories?
No.
There are 4 things to consider:
1) Increase activity - on a very simple level this increases your calorie needs so if you’re more active you can lose fat on higher calories.
Whether this is sensible advice for you depends on your baseline activity - as a general rule I like my small women fat loss clients to be aiming for 12,000 steps or equivalent.
What you dont want to do is keep pushing that up and up as you will just increase hunger and make the level of activity unmaintainable and it harder to stick to calories anyway
2) Aim for a slower rate of fat loss.
Aim for 0.5lb a week not 1lb a week this will allow you to diet on higher calories while living your life and still making progress
You need far less patience when you can enjoy yourself at the same time. 1300 calories is HARD - it requires a lot of sacrifices - I am not surprised you’re impateint and frustrated - but dieting on 1500 gives you enough space for flexibity
3) Acceptance - it is harder, you do have less calories to play with, you do have to choose your indulgences for carefully. It doesnt mean you can never have pizza/ inter fav food it just means you have it less often or you have 2-3 slices instead of the whole thing.
What my clients find is that after a while they actually start to enjoy their fav foods more when they have them less.
4) Consider WHAT you eat.
The less you eat the more important what you eat is.
There are always going to be non negotiables you need in your diet for health - protein target, fruit and veg target, fibre, some healthy fat sources.
These are essential and tend to take up around 1200 calories - for someone on 1700 calories for fat loss - that gives you a nice 500 calories to play with
For someone on 1300 calories they get 100 to play with - you cant do much with that.
This is something we really focus on with women on lower calories - it’s not enough just to give a calorie target and say crack on - you need structure to it and you need to make sure you’re including the important parts in your diet - for health, for fat loss, for energy, for performance and most importantly to feel your best.
What you eat matters and it matters more on low calories.
This is something we specialise in.
If you’ve struggled before and you’re sick of comparing yourself to women dieting on higher calories and getting great resutls and wondering what you’re doing wrong
1) hopefully you now understand and feel more empowered
2) if you would like our help head to esgfitness.co.uk fill in the application form - tell me a little about you and I will email you to discuss the best option for you.