How To Lose 500 Calories a Day in 2019
As we welcome the New Year, many of us are looking to our diets and lifestyle to make improvements to our health and fitness. Making small almost unnoticeable changes that let us meet our goals sounds almost too good to be true.
Susie Burell a leading Australian dietitian with 2 Honours degrees in Nutrition & Dietetics and Psychology has made recommendations on simple tricks to reduce your daily diet by a whopping 500 calories a day and the suggested almost unnoticeable life hacks open with investing in a standing desk.
“A 300-500 calorie reduction each day over three to four weeks is likely to result in ½-1kg of weight loss each week or 3-5 kilos each month which is not insignificant" Susie explained.
With the idea of 9-5 working becoming quickly obsolete, we are all spending more time at work and this means extended periods of sitting which research shows has numerous detrimental effects to our health and life expectancy.
By contrast a standing desk has proven health benefits and calorie burning of up to 50 calories an hour can really add up over time. In fact only three hours at your desk a day is equivalent to running ten marathons a year according to one study by Dr Buckley that showed participants lost about 30,000 extra calories in a year when they replace sitting for standing.
The concept of N.E.A.T (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis/Time) is to increase the amount of calories you burn that are not directly related to exercise. “Regular NEAT can increase your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) by up to 35% that is an extra 700 cal for someone with a 2000 cal TDEE”. said Peter Carvell, Home fitness expert and owner of the oldest fitness channel on YouTube with over 1.4 million subscribers.
Along with 4 other tips Susie believes integrating a standing desk into your routine can be one of the changes to your lifestyle that can help you drop 500 calories a day without you even noticing.
Susie’s recommendations include switching to walking catch ups, boosting protein intake at each meal, early morning intense exercise stints to kick-start your metabolism and an easy to implement change; drinking cold water.
In our recent article Med School Insiders suggested combining a standing desk with increased water intake to benefit from the prompt to keep moving for regular hydration and bathroom breaks. The extra water will encourage movement whilst standing which is imperative to see the benefits.
One study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found the body has physiological benefits of drinking cold water and people burn extra calories that do so. Some study's have also found that drinking cold water also makes you look younger so it's hard to argue against making this change.