Calorie Deficit

You’re amazed by how your favourite celebrity swears by losing excess fat overnight by keto, or you’re confused whether buying that magical belly cream from the TV commercial you saw last night would help you fit in those old jeans or not. Whatever the case, chances are you’ve had hard luck deciding which route to go for when it comes to losing weight. If you’re thinking it must be your lack of decisiveness that’s not letting you stick to a weight loss plan, then hold your horses. Don’t blame yourself – it’s just that everything you have seen till now is based on nothing but fancy tales that don’t bring any real science to the table.

Do you want real facts? Here’s the thing: Calorie Deficit.

And wait. It’s an open secret by science made clear and evident for everyone to see and observe. If you are really into facts and research, keep reading and turn on your inner nerd. One thing that tells you it works: It’s just plain science and logic. No BS.

What is Calorie Deficit?

Calorie deficit in a simple sense is about taking lesser calories than your caloric requirement is. When this happens, instead of getting energy from the food that you take, your body would take that energy from the fat stored in the body.

Suppose you are running out of cash, so you would go for your savings deposited in the bank. You will compensate for that financial gap by spending a bit from your savings that were already stored for you.

This is how the calorie deficit works as well.

Mechanism of Fat Burn and Calorie Deficit

We need a certain amount of calories to go through a day which is the Total Daily Energy Expenditure or TDEE. Suppose your TDEE turns out to be 2000kCal a day, which means you have to consume 2000kCal food and fluid to meet your caloric requirement for the day. When your food intake is lower than 2000kCal, for example, 1800kCal, you achieved a calorie deficit.

This is when you’ll see something interesting happen: your body still needs the energy to work so it starts taking up that needed energy from your fat stores. Yes! That belly fat you had been storing for so long is now finally coming to use. That fat is now getting converted into energy. What happens next is something you would cherish – a tucked-in belly, or an overall decreased fat mass, in whichever way you deprive your body of some calories.

How to Calculate it?

Finding out your calorie deficit so you can get the weight loss process to start is not a one-step game. You have to take a lot of ingredients into account to create the recipe. Let’s see each of them.

TDEE – Total Daily Energy Expenditure

This is the top mark – it should be scoring high, at least higher than your caloric intake. Meaning that the total energy you expend should be greater than the energy (or the food and fluid calories) you consume. So, lesser calories in and more calories getting burned – that’s the line you need to note.

It comprises of the following things:

BMR – Basal Metabolic Rate

This is the calorie amount expended for your survival: you know, every other important thing needed for being alive than scrolling through social media; breathing, heart beating, cellular repair, immune system, and all those functions medical nerds would love to discuss in detail. It takes the largest percentage of your TDEE, covering up around 50 to 70% of the calories expended, which points towards the notion that your calorie deficit shouldn’t be too large to be interfering with this percentage. Otherwise, you would be just messing up with your body’s vital functions, and that’s never healthy. Don’t starve yourself. Say no to intermittent fasting or any crazy idea like that – water diet? Yikes.

NEAT – Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis

It is the energy you need for carrying out non-exercise tasks – yes, that’s a major disappointment if you consider walking, cleaning, and cooking to come under exercises, which they are not. You need to “exercise” to count “exercise” as “exercise.” No brainer. Fidget spinning, no, that also comes in NEAT. All NEAT stuff takes up to 20% of your energy.

EAT – Exercise Activity Thermogenesis

A lot of people don’t utilize this portion of the TDEE recipe, and guess what? They gain more fat. The trick is to go with the calorie deficit while also pumping up your exercise routine, so you expend all of its energy and do your best in burning that fat you always wanted to get rid of. This accounts for 0 to 25% of your daily energy expenditure. How much exactly this portion depends only on you and your effort that you are putting in exercising.

Thermic Effect of Food

It is the total energy that comes with all the digestion process your body has to do when you are eating a burger or sipping on some margarita, or just anything. You know, all the heat that gets generated when you are relishing your favourite meals comes under the thermic effect of food. This requires around 10% of the total calories as well.

These are all the components that make the TDEE, which we have explained, need to be higher than your caloric intake.

What’s There in Losing Weight?

Well, long story short, your TDEE needs to be equivalent to the total caloric intake. This is when you are not trying to lose or gain any weight and want to continue a normal regime. Things change when you are trying to lose some pounds. You would need to make sure your caloric intake is less than your Total Daily Energy Expenditure. When this difference is created, there becomes a calorie deficit which helps your body to burn fat to metabolize energy which makes you lose fat.

However, a simple calorie deficit regime would not be enough to give you the best results you need. If you are willing to make the difference and have that internal motivation inside of you to get things started on your journey to lose weight and live a healthier life, then you also need to consider an extra thing. That extra thing is increased energy expenditure. So, in a nutshell, an optimum weight loss program consists of two important things going side by side with each other:

• Eating in a calorie deficit
• Increased energy expenditure

This increased energy expenditure can be in the form of any exercise. You can take the help of resistance training, aerobic exercise, strength training, high-intensity interval training, and more. By the way, all the workout programs you can find on my website.

Calorie Calculator

While doing exercise is as simple as just getting some motivation and sticking to a routine, calorie deficit eating can get a little more complicated than that. The primary step is to calculate your optimal calory intake for your fitness journey. If you are worried about finding your calorie deficit, then it’s time to stop overthinking! My calorie deficit calculator would help you find out your calorie requirements and the amount you need to eat so you can get started on the journey without any doubts about your calorie intake.

With the help of my calorie calculator, all you need is to enter your physical activity level, your gender, age, and other biological factors needed to calculate the calorie expenditure, and there you go. You would get the idea of how many calories you would need to consume daily to achieve a calorie deficit.

Now you think that’s it, I know my calorie requirement, and I will lose weight. Yes, you can lose weight just based on a calorie deficit, but if you want to achieve the best results, you have to dig a bit more into it. Why? Just because all the food is food, but, there is a difference between food and food. So, for best results, you have to know a bit more about “FOOD”. Joining my member’s area you will get access to more precise calculators to calculate the exact amount of each nutrient, Proteins, Carbs and Fats, which is as well very important. You will get all the necessary information to get better with “FOOD”. Plus you will have access to more than 200 recipes that contain information related to macronutrients in them. However, if you find yourself struggling with calculating the calories and doing calorie deficit calculations, you can always refer to me.

Final Word

Don’t get your precious time and effort wasted on doing experimental things that might also harm your health. Rather, insist on going with science-based facts and a calculated approach that shows you real results in real-time.

Calculating your deficit and counting macros may involve keeping a food diary, which can help you check the balance of nutrients you are getting from your food and, over time, help you eat healthier. But, to be honest with you, I am not doing it! WHAT?? WHY??? Because I know my “FOOD”!!!

And that’s what I want to teach you, to get to know your “FOOD”. When you start with your journey, the best thing is to count your calories at the beginning, just to be sure that you are eating what you should be. But over time you will learn and get to know your “FOOD”, so you won’t need to count! You will know what and how much to eat. You will learn that there is no bad food, every food is good, the only important thing is the amount of food that you take, and how much you burn. I call it a BALANCED LIFESTYLE!

Kristina Perestegi