As  New Year’s resolutions start to fade away, a lot of people will be left frustrated by their lack of progress as we come into February. January can be a tough month most years, but this January feels like it will never end. With the COVID cloud hanging over our heads, and the gloomy weather here in Ireland, there’s been only a handful of opportunities to get outside. So a tough month like this has made motivation difficult when it comes to working out and getting in shape. Especially when it comes to food and eating the right things for our goals.

Let’s be honest, there are so many diet and nutrition ideas out there that it would make your head spin. Everything from Slimming World, Weight Watchers, Keto and Paleo along with all the options we see on late-night TV ads. Most people have tried a variety of diets over the years and will have varying levels of success with them. Of course, the most successful diet is the one you stick to.

But how do we stick to it?

One massively important part of sticking to a diet is not making it too restrictive. If it feels like constant torture then chances are you won’t be sticking with it long term. So the trick to eating right really is to eat the foods that we love without going over on our calories. From working with thousands of clients over the past 10 years I have noticed one common problem people have with this. They have no idea how many calories they are actually consuming.

I mean, no clue at all.

Simple little things throughout the day such as drinking your calories via juices and minerals and having a pastry here or there will add up and have people consuming way more calories than they should be. This means you will go into a calorie SURPLUS where you are overeating on your calories rather than a calorie DEFICIT where you are eating slightly below your calorie needs, which is what you need to lose fat.

I’m sure you have heard the old saying . . .“Eat Less, Exercise More”

While this is a bit simplistic this is ultimately what we are looking to do. Once we figure out our calorie needs (which isn’t as complicated as it sounds) then we just need to stick to the plan. Getting the necessary activity levels in will then give you the winning combination. Activity levels can be a better term than exercise sometimes, as people always seem to think exercise means a big tough workout. Sometimes it can be simply going for a walk. But the exercise part of it is another story for another day, for now, we just want you to focus on understanding calories.

The next time you see a “healthy recipe” on social media and think you will go and bake it, just be sure to look out for the calories in it before you start snacking on it. You could very easily consume 1000 calories in a very short space of time and this will continue to halt your Fat Loss progress.

Darragh is a writer for La Tonique and also owns 2 Gyms in Ireland. To get more information like this you can check him out at any of the following:

Website - https://www.dutchysfitness.com/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dutchysfitness/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/dutchysfitness/