#185: Calorie Deficit: The Right Way to Lose Fat Without Harming Your Body

Ever wondered what a calorie deficit really means and why it’s the most talked-about weight loss strategy?  In this episode, we dive deep into the science behind calorie deficits, why simply slashing calories can backfire, and how to create a sustainable plan that works for YOUR body.

Learn how to avoid common pitfalls like under-eating, metabolic slowdowns, and yo-yo dieting. Plus, discover why strength training, balanced nutrition, and mindful habits are key to long-term success.

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Transcript

#185: Calorie Deficit: The Right Way to Lose Fat Without Harming Your Body

Okay. Today we want to talk about being in a calorie deficit and what does being in a calorie deficit actually mean? Now I'm heard that word is thrown around all the time about being in a calorie deficit and that is the only way to lose weight. But I think, um, does everybody truly understand what being in a calorie deficit actually means? 

So let's first understand what a calorie is. So a calorie.  It's a measurement of energy and the calories in food supply your body with the fuel that it needs to survive. So when you eat food, the food is broken down and it is converted into energy and  glucose. And then that, that is then released in the body.

It is either used straight, straight away, depending on the activity of what you're doing, or it will be stored for later. So your needs a certain amount of calories to maintain your weight. And so a calorie deficit is when you're consuming fewer calories. then what your body requires to stay with at its current weight.

So if you're taking fewer calories than your body needs, your body will then turn the calories that you've got stored, um, to use for energy and therefore lose weight. So it seems pretty simple, doesn't it? Everybody's per, every person's calorie Uh, needs and deficits are different and it just depends on so many different factors, how much you exercise your genes, your metabolism, your hormones, and it can be really, really challenging to create a calorie deficit in a healthy way.

So many people, um,  they end up not picking the right amount of calories to go to, to go off of, and then they generally. Cause something that's too restrictive  for them to follow so then they can't stick to it long term. So for example, a woman that may need 2, 400 calories in order per day based on her height and weight and her training volume.

So how much she's training and she may think that she only needs 1, 800 calories a day to maintain her weight. So she thinks she needs 1800 when in fact she needs  2400. So then she decides she's going to  have go into a calorie deficit and she decides to cut her calories by 500 calories a day. So now she's ending up eating 1300 calories a day.

So she's in the category of now severely under eating and she is exercising quite a lot. So her body, her, her body is just going to, um, it is going to kind of go into panic mode when she's going into that less amount of calories. What the confusing thing that I find a lot of people get confused with is they underestimate how many calories they actually need for their body to function optimally.

In the example of this woman, she had totally underestimated it. and she was eating, um, you know, she, she needed 2, 400. She thought she was eating about 1800 and then she tried to cut it back by another 500 down to 13. Simple science, you would think, well then she should, uh, she should just, you know, lose weight a lot quicker.

But it doesn't quite work. It doesn't quite work that way. Um, when there's such a big deficit. So again, a calorie deficit is when you consume fewer calories than your body requires to stay at its current weight. Creating a calorie deficit isn't an exact science. There's so many factors that you need to take into account before you start doing.

So things like what have you done  how much you're actually eating, sleep and stress. If you have spent your life dieting, so if you've yo yoed from one diet to the other, and then you just think you'll go into a calorie deficit, your, your, your body needs to find what maintenance is first. And, uh, that's really hard for people to understand, but, but your body needs to begin to trust you again, because you've kind of been, um, not treating it very well for a long time.

If you've, Being constantly yo yoing from diet to diet. So you need to give it time to go back to maintenance, get your body used to eating the right amount of calories that it should be eating  and then look at dropping them back. Stress, um, plays a major role in weight loss. As I said before, it's kind of like the silent killer.

Stress, uh, tends to lead to us overeating and a lot of people tend to  underestimate what they're eating in a day. They, um, might pick and I do it myself. I pick a lot and sometimes picking could be a thousand calories. You just how much you're eating. So like the example of the woman I gave you, she was already under eating.

So she was already under eating and then she went into too much of a deficit. So you need to know how much you're reading. And like I said, if you've spent a long time under eating and then you try to cut it even more, you just. You just, you know, you can't survive on nothing. And the thing is, it's getting your body to, to trust you again, because when you've been mucking it around for a long time, your body will, when it's not getting enough calories that it needs for, you know, for essential, for you just to live optimally, it'll start shutting things off that it doesn't need to preserve its energy.

So you'll notice that you feel more tired, you slow down, you know, it'll just shut off the things that it doesn't really need. And that's where other problems start to happen. You know, all this 1200 calorie stuff, it's just, it's not enough food. It is not enough food. They said that the very minimum that a woman needs to function optimally is 1200 calories.

Now, uh, understanding that, um, this is known as your BMR or your basal metabolic rate. And it's the minimum number of calories that your body needs to function optimally. Now it's understanding this is if you laid in bed all day and you didn't move.  So that should be a mark, but so then once you add in any form of exercise walking, you know your job Getting from place to place doing things with your kids cooking You need a lot more more calories than 1, 200 calories and that's the bare minimum the more muscle you have The, uh, the more, you know, you're going to need to eat more.

Um, so it's, there is a bit of a science to it, but it's starting to, uh, understand where your body's at and your body a lot more. If you go below your BMR, um, you may need fewer calories at some point to maintain your weight. So, uh, which becomes increasingly difficult and not sustainable. So when you do this, we tend to store the calories.

When we eat below our BMR, because again, like I said, your body just, and if you, if you're really sporadic with your eating, so if you don't, you know, don't eat regularly, your body  It's just got a story thing because it's, it's your body's wired for survival, not starvation. So it is, it is trying to survive and you are, you are giving it a little fuel that it's, it's just when you're eating, you know, this, 5, 800, 500 calories or any of those silly things.

It's just, it is just not enough. It is not enough. And the thing is that you may initially lose weight, but when you'll lose weight, you won't be able to, you won't be able to maintain that because it is too restrictive for life. So that's when people, yo-yo and tend to put even more weight on, and then they feel shit about themselves.

So how can you actually achieve a calorie deficit? And it's a combo of, of lots of things. So, uh, again, so. incorporate some form of strength training. Okay. So exercise is going to help you burn more calories and a strength training is going to help boost your body's energy needs and increase how many calories you burn at rest.

So understanding that the more muscle you have, um, the muscles require more calories, uh, and the more lean muscle mass, you're the more lean muscle mass you have. The more calories you'll need to eat in order to maintain that. You can reduce your carbohydrate intake, but your body converts most carbs to in your body to sugar and those calories are always absorbed and used in the body for later.

But please don't cut carbs out altogether. We need, we need a balance of your protein, fats and carbs. And it's really, really important. But sometimes a lot of people tend to quite overeat in the carbohydrates and, um, You know, so if you look at reducing them, remember we talked about water before and how that's all stored in there as well.

Add more protein and healthy fats to your diet. So what I find is all the people I've come across, they are generally under eating in protein. Um, and your protein, is you want to try to build your meals around having high fiber foods and such as fruits and veggies. And this is going to help you feel fuller and satisfied for longer.

Uh, your protein will help keep you full, but it's going to help build your muscle. Now, as we age, the more muscle we have, the better. The last tip would be to stop eating after dinner. Okay? So if you're eating after dinner, um, you've, or generally most people by dinner have met their calorie needs for the day.

And, um, so when you're starting to eat after dinner or any of those things, you're just adding in extra calories that, that you don't really need to. The thing is, if you keep a food journal, you can start to become aware of how much you're eating and what, what types of food you're eating. And you just want to think about,  how you're fueling your body.

We want to firstly understand what a calorie deficit is. So we want to understand what we need to do to be in the deficit. But in order to start to understand that you need to start looking at where you're at now. Have you spent years dieting? You know, do you not eat breakfast? Do you not eat all day because you just feel like you don't have enough time?

Do Then you get to the afternoon and then you, you know, you just snack. And, uh, I know lots of people say when they first start looking at the food, they say, Oh, there's no way I could eat that amount of food. Well, your body needs to start to trust you again. So you will be able to eat the amount of food that you need for your body optimally, but you need to, um, you need to slowly start refeeding your body and getting it used to.

to you and to getting to trust you again that you are going to fuel it properly. Um, so we need to do all of this stuff first before you even think about going in a calorie deficit. Again, this is what lots of people miss. They just jump in and they start in on diets, but they've not looked at where they, where they were before.

Um, they're not looking at any of that stuff and it's really It plays a huge part in your results. Um, if you're already under eating, you've spent years yo yoing and then you jump back in. to, to try and to restrict again, your body is just not going to respond. It's not going to respond because you, you've, you've been pushing it and pushing it for so long.

So, so we really need to see where you're at, uh, start to get your body up to maintenance. And, you know, optimally we want to live at maintenance. We don't want to live trying to be in a deficit. We want to have lots of energy and feel good about ourselves and, and that's living in maintenance. And, um, I think lots of people underestimate what that actually is.

So, so we should have hopefully a better understanding of our calorie deficit.