A Calorie Deficit: The Secret To Losing Weight

The secret to losing weight has been found and it is called a calorie deficit!

For those of you who don’t know what a calorie deficit is, this will be your full guide for you to discover and learn the reason WHY you lose weight.

Every diet can succeed or fail by creating a negative energy balance, aka a calorie deficit.

Without creating one, you will not lose weight.

It does not matter if you eat clean, paleo, keto, vegan, vegetarian, or any other diet.

The single most important aspect of losing weight is a calorie deficit. This is also known as burning more calories then what you have coming in.

Therefore, my goal is to explain in detail what calories in vs calories out is, why most diets fail, and how you can lose weight properly and keep it off forever!

What Exactly is a Calorie Deficit?

A calorie deficit can be simply defined as you burn more calories than what you have coming in.

A calorie is essentially a unit of energy.

When it comes to losing weight, a calorie deficit can sometimes be referred to as being in a negative energy balance.

Therefore, by definition, if you are not losing weight, you are not in a calorie deficit!

If you are losing weight and burning fat, then you know that you are in one.

But, if you are not losing weight, then some adjustments may be needed.

How Can You Create a Calorie Deficit?

Eating in a calorie deficit is the only way to lose weight

A calorie deficit can be created by increasing your caloric output or decreasing your input (eating less food.)

First, though let’s talk about how you burn calories because this is done in 4 different ways:

1. Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

– BMR is basically how many calories your body burns without you doing NOTHING. Simply put, this is how many calories your body burns just to keep the lights on.

2. Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT)

– NEAT essentially is calories burned through daily activity. This could be from walking, cleaning, going up the stairs, gardening, etc. This is important because you can burn a lot of calories this way. The best way to track your calories burned is by getting a FIT BIT. It is an amazing tool that can help you stay on top of your fitness goals!

3. Thermo Effective Foods

– You can burn calories by eating certain foods. No, that is not a lie. Protein has the highest thermic response as your body burns 25-30% of the calories consumed just by trying to break the food down. This is why it is vital to consume more protein when cutting calories because it can help with weight loss tremendously!

4. Exercise Activity

– This one you probably already know about. You lastly burn calories through any form of exercise you do. This could be from playing sports, cardio and/or weight training. Below I go into what is the better way to create a calorie deficit, cardio or weight training. Keep reading below to check it out!

Are All Calories Created Equally?

Each macronutrient is different when it comes to how your body responds to it. Also, each macronutrient is different in terms of how many calories it has per gram and how many calories it takes for your body to break down the macronutrient down.

Therefore, no, every calorie is not created equally.

Let’s go over the 3 macronutrients and how your body responds to them:

Fat (Lipids):

1 gram of fat contains 9 calories. Fat, also known as lipids, helps us in many ways. One of the ways it helps us is by absorbing necessary fat-soluble vitamins (vitamins A, D, E, and K.) It also helps us keep our hair and skin healthy while protecting our organs!

Carbs:

For carbs, 1 gram contains 4 calories! Carbs help us with energy and satiety! They have been demonized and told that if you cut out carbs you will lose weight. Well, let me just say that the reason you lose weight cutting out carbs is that you cut out a whole food group. Meaning, you cut calories! The research data shows that it’s not a particular diet that helps you lose weight, it’s simply being in a calorie deficit!

Protein:

Protein contains 4 calories per gram. This macronutrient also has the highest thermal effective response. Like I mentioned above, every time you consume protein, 25-30% of the calories get burned just trying to break the food down.

Is it Better To Create a Calorie Deficit With Weight Training or Cardio?

weight training is a great to way to lose weight safely

When it comes to losing weight the best and most efficient way to do it is through weight training.

Why?

Well, there are a plethora of reasons why this is the case.

Firstly, when you work out your whole body and perform resistance training, you begin to recruit muscle fiber. When you recruit muscle fiber, you begin to add lean muscle. When you do that, you start to oxidize more fat (as long as you are in a calorie deficit.) How does fat leave your body? Through your breath or you excrete it out in some form.

Secondly, I have seen clients who wear a FIT BIT or an APPLE WATCH burn as high 700 calories from weight training. When you use challenging weights, and perform the exercises with proper form, you will feel the burn.

Now, let’s move over to other aspects of weight training.

Training Volume has been closely associated with fat loss and muscle building. Volume essentially means reps X sets X weight that you do.

However, let me go into more detail about that with the term Progressive overload below:

What is Progressive Overload?

Progressive overload is essentially you changing a training variable to make it more challenging for yourself so you do not plateau.

You can changes variables in many ways and I will list them below here:

Reps You Perform
Amount of Sets
Increase in Weight
Frequency of Training
The Tempo you do The Exercise
Do more Challenging Exercises

By changing a variable every week, you can continue to see progress and create a bigger calorie deficit for yourself.

This can be challenging so if you do not want to go through this process yourself, hire the right personal trainer.

By hiring the right personal trainer you can gain knowledge and wisdom you otherwise would not be able to figure out yourself.

I wrote about it here.

Can You Lose Weight Without Tracking Your Calories?

The simple answer is yes, however it can make things challenging for some people. The reason being that eyeballing your portions can be challenging.

Also, a recent study has shown that most people eat 50% percent more than they actually say they do!

For this reason, I usually suggest that you start tracking your calories initially.

By tracking your caloric intake you get a good idea of how you are doing, how much you are eating, and what macronutrient you need to eat more or less of.

Furthermore, it helps you grow your nutrition knowledge because you know what foods are high in calories and which ones are low.

Lastly, by tracking for 6 months or so you will have a better idea of how much you need to eat to lose weight!

What App is The Best to Use to Track Your Calories?

Most people use the app ‘My Fitness Pal.‘

The reason being is because this app has pretty much ALL the foods in there.

It is very rare that you won’t find the food you are looking to track in this app.

It easily is the most famous one and one that has been around for a long time!

My fitness pal is simple and easy to sign up for and you can track your calories by either scanning food items or finding them in the search engines that they have.

All in all, this is one of the best apps for tracking your calories and macros!

Best Way to Find Out if You are in a Calorie Deficit

The best way, in my opinion, to find out if you are in a calorie deficit is to first just track your calories how you would normally eat.

Do this for a week and you will get a good idea of how much you are eating.

For example, let’s say you track for a week and you discover that you eat on average 1550 calories. If you eat that and maintain your weight at that, it is best just to stay at the caloric intake and begin exercising more and moving more.

Furthermore, by adjusting your macros you can also put yourself in a negative energy balance.

How so?

Well, let’s say you find out you are consuming only 50 grams of protein a day. By adjusting your protein intake to let’s for example’s sake 130 grams, and reduce your carb macros down, you have created a better deficit for yourself because of the thermal response of protein that I mentioned above!

Now, let’s say you do this for a week or two and you see that you are losing weight, great!

You have discovered that you are indeed in a deficit and can keep going on your fitness journey!

Best Resources to Learn More

Some of the best resources for learning more about flexible dieting and being in a calorie deficit are the following people:

Bio Layne:

Layne Norton has a PHD. in Nutritional Science and is one of the leading advocates of a balanced diet approach. Why is he such an advocate for balanced dieting? Because statistics show that 95% of people who lose weight, will gain it all back in 3 years! That is a 5 percent success rate when it comes to dieting! His book Fat Loss Forever is amazing because it teaches you how to lose weight properly and KEEP IT OFF. The best thing you can do is approach losing weight as it’s the last time you are going to go through the process. By having that approach you won’t fall into the trap of fad diets. Therefore, for great knowledge, definitely, do check out his book!

The Flexible Dieting Lifestyle:

Zach creates amazing low-calorie and delicious recipes! He finds ingredients that are low in calories and create products of such too. Therefore, if you are looking for amazing low-calorie recipes check out his Instagram and YouTube channel!

Carter Good:

Carter lost over a 100lbs by flexible dieting! He simply ate in a calorie deficit and now helps others who need such guidance. He is an amazing resource and simplifies nutrition for you so it is easy to understand. By not making things complicated, you can very easily understand and apply what Carter says. Check his Instagram out!