A Calorie Deficit And Why It's Essential For Fat Loss
- CoachK
- Jun 13, 2020
- 3 min read
As a human being we require energy to be alive. This energy comes in the form of calories in food and drink. So...
To maintain weight, you must consume the same amount of calories as you use.
To gain weight, you must consume more calories than you use.
To lose weight (body fat), you must consume less calories than you use.
Think of this like scales - calories in vs. calories out.
In order to lose fat, you need to be expending more energy than you consume. This is called a caloric deficit. Now, a lot of people will try to tell you that eating foods x, y and z are the key to fat loss or that the paleo diet is the way forward but that just isn't the case. There is no best diet for fat loss, there is only a caloric deficit. Simple. What these people miss out on is the fact that all these diets whether it's paleo, keto, Atkins, 5:2 or carnivore ultimately create a caloric deficit and that is what results in fat loss not the specific diet itself.
Take the Ketogenic diet for example. This requires you to remove nearly all carbohydrates from your diet to allow the body to enter a metabolic state called Ketosis. This results in the body using fat as a fuel source instead of carbohydrates. Now, not only is this extremely hard to achieve as even a minimal amount of carbohydrate will mean you are not in a state of ketosis but by cutting out an ENTIRE food group you are also very likely to be significantly reducing the amount of calories you consume and putting yourself in a caloric deficit. Which we already know is the key to fat loss. It doesn't matter what diet you choose, they all do the same thing. Put you in a caloric deficit. Seriously though, who wants to be removing all carbohydrates from their diet?? No pizza, no ice cream, no bread, no pasta, no rice, no chocolate. It may work for some people (ultra-endurance athletes are commonly cited as users of ketogenic diets) but for most it's too drastic a change, unsustainable and causes unnecessary restriction around food. Remember the only diet you should be choosing is the one you can stick to consistently.
So energy in comes from calories but what about energy out, how does that work?
There are 4 parts to our energy output. These are BMR, TOF, NEAT and EAT. Let's tackle these one by one.
BMR - Basal Metabolic Rate. This is the amount of energy it takes your body to keep you alive at rest. The bare minimum if you will. This includes things like the energy required for your heart to pump blood around your body, your lungs to breathe oxygen and your brain to function.
TOF - Thermic Effect of Food. This is the energy we use to digest and absorb nutrients from our food. Protein has the highest energy requirement (up to 10%), which is why it's so important when you're trying to stay in a deficit. By eating more protein, you burn more calories. How good is that?
NEAT - Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. This is the amount of energy you burn moving around each day that isn't intentional exercise. Includes things like walking, fidgeting and dancing in the kitchen while you wait for the kettle to boil. These all burn calories and the best way to get your NEAT up is increase your daily step count.
EAT - Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. This is the calories burnt from exercise. So the run you went on or the gym session you did, all those sessions count as EAT.
Knowing this, we can manipulate our energy in by eating a little less, eating lots of protein and our energy out by moving a little more to create a caloric deficit. It's as simple as that. Always remember the balance, don't overcomplicate it and you'll be fine.
If you still need help or have some questions then don't hesitate to email me at nourishnutritionuk@gmail.com and I'll be happy to help.
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