How to lose weight properly and effectively is one of the most difficult questions for many people. Yet in theory it wouldn’t be that difficult. If you want to lose weight, you have to take in fewer calories than you burn – achieve a calorie deficit. That way you automatically lose weight. And yet it is often not so easy to find the right means to achieve this. It is precisely with exercise and the right diet that you can lose weight effectively and healthily. In today’s blog post, we will show you how this can work.

Weight loss formula: This is how you can lose weight healthily

Don’t worry: when we talk about formulas here, we don’t mean highly complex mathematical formulas. The various equations for losing weight are very simple and do not require much prior knowledge.

First of all, it is important to know or calculate your basal metabolic rate. For adult men, this is around 2,000 kcal. For women, the basal metabolic rate is a little lower than for men, namely about 1,750 kcal. If you combine the basal metabolic rate with the performance metabolic rate, you get the total metabolic rate.

There are different power rates for different types of sport. If you want to know exactly how many calories you burn during exercise, you can calculate this with various sports watches.

To lose weight, you should reduce your total daily calorie intake by about 300 kcal. That’s how the kilos will fall off your hips!

The Harris-Benedict formula for healthy weight loss success

The Harris-Benedict formula is intended for a more precise calculation of the basal metabolic rate and has existed in this form for around 100 years. The Harris-Benedict formula is more accurate because it takes into account important factors such as gender, age, weight and height. For women, the formula is as follows:

655.1 + (9.6 x body weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) – (4.7 x age in years).

For men, the Harris-Benedict formula is as follows:

664.7 + (13.7 x body weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) – (6.8 x age in years).

Diet and exercise are crucial for healthy weight loss

Although exercise should be one of the most important parts of losing weight, proper nutrition is also a big part. You should pay attention to the foods and meals you eat. Because: Calories are not just calories!

The right diet often doesn’t require much. Nutritious food, lots of fruit and vegetables and a balanced breakfast are the pillars of a healthy diet. Especially at breakfast, it’s easy to start the day with plenty of nutrients and energy.

With our Verival Porridge, you can start eating right at breakfast. Without having to give up a hearty and above all delicious breakfast. Losing weight with porridge works wonderfully!

Lose weight healthily with the Verival calorie calculator

Because calories can often be a confusing topic, we at Verival have created a little tool to help you calculate your daily calorie needs.

Our calorie calculator makes it easy for you to know how much you should be eating each day and also caters to your individual daily routine. This allows you to determine more precisely how many calories you should eat per day in order to lose weight healthily.

Healthy weight loss with cardio and endurance sports

In addition to the right diet, exercise and sport are the first places to start in order to lose weight in a healthy way. With a daily routine that includes a lot of physical activity, the total metabolic rate goes up accordingly. This makes it much easier for you to lose weight, because the calorie deficit can be more easily met with the ideal diet.

How can you lose weight healthily with cardio?

Endurance sports are perfect for losing weight quickly. Jogging, cycling and swimming burn a lot of calories. How many calories you burn with the different sports depends on your body weight. The heavier your body, the more calories you burn. But which sports burn the most calories?

Lose weight with running

There is no clear winner in this category, because the different sports are not that far apart. Jogging burns about 500 calories per hour. This makes running the winner among endurance sports by a small margin. By the way, jogging should be done slowly, because the body tends to use its own fat stores as energy reserves.

Lose weight with swimming

Swimming can also burn up to 500 calories, but it depends on how heavy you are. What makes swimming so special is that it is extremely easy on your joints and is really a whole-body sport. You work almost all muscle groups as you crawl through the water.

Lose weight with cycling

Swimming is closely followed by cycling or spinning. You can burn up to 400 calories an hour on a bike. Cycling is also very easy on the joints if you choose the right saddle setting.

Lose weight with High Intensity Interval Training

If you are looking for something more intense, High Intensity Interval Training is the way to go. HIIT pre-chews alternate high-intensity phases with rest phases. The workout is very strenuous, but it also allows you to burn 600-800 calories in an hour. That’s no small feat!

But before you start your session, make sure you have enough energy to burn. Porridge, for example, is the ideal breakfast before exercise!

Can you also lose weight healthily with strength training?

You know the drill: Fitness studios advertise that you can lose weight and entice you to join. But what about strength training? Can it really help you lose weight?

Yes, you can also lose weight with weight training. When you train with weights, you also burn calories. But if you are only interested in the weight on the scales, you should be a little careful. Strength training is not really suitable for losing weight quickly.

Strength training as a weight loss aid

The fact is that strength training helps you build muscle. The more you train, the more likely it is that your muscles will get bigger. This usually means that you will also gain weight. But you don’t have to be discouraged by this! Weight gain in weight training is desirable. You define your body with it!

The simple formula for losing weight also applies to strength training: If you burn more than you eat, you lose weight. The scales may not show results as quickly as with endurance sports, but they will definitely be there sooner or later.

If you want to gain muscle mass, you can also use the calorie calculator to build muscle.

The best way to lose weight healthily: Combine cardio and strength training

The best case for people who want to lose weight healthily would be to combine cardio with strength training. In this way, strength training builds muscles and the kilos on the scales fall when you do endurance sports.

Especially if you do a lot of sport and mix the two types, you should definitely pay attention to how many calories you eat a day. Muscles can only be formed if the body is supplied with enough proteins and nutrients through food. So it is also important to know what to include in your daily diet.

Healthy weight loss with the right diet

The holy trinity for a healthy body, however, is the mixture of weight training, endurance sports and, above all, the ideal diet. If you eat unhealthy foods, lots of convenience products and fast food, you will not see or feel any progress in losing weight despite exercising. The calculation also doesn’t work in the other direction – if you eat healthily but don’t exercise and thus find it harder to achieve a calorie deficit, you won’t see any progress either.

Especially for athletes, nutrition is an extremely extensive topic. If you do a lot of sport and want to achieve a high level of performance, you should be aware of the power of nutrition. What one may and may not eat in a sporting diet must be internalised in the best case.