To be precise, calories are a unit of measurement of heat - Layne Norton
Read that quote again before you move on. It's critical to understand that calories are merely a measurement of energy for your body to operate like gallons of gas for a car. My Jeep for instance burns more fuel per mile than a Prius and unfortunately I have to pay for that difference. I hope you enjoy this analogy because it's present throughout this entire post while I discuss energy balance :)
We know calories are merely units of measurement for energy. Great. Now what? Your body needs a certain amount to operate sufficiently (setting fasting aside for now. Fasting isn't sustainable long term). The amount of calories you need to break even and stay your current weight is called your maintenance calories. Maintenance calories are critical to understand because without a starting place, you are just guessing at what calories you need to hit daily for your goals. It's as if you set your GPS for New York but your GPS has no idea what your current location is. It's impossible to know how long it will take if you don't have a starting point.
Maintenance calories can be determined one of two ways. One way is more of a pain in the ass than the other but will get you better data to work off of. The first way is to track your calories and macros over a 2 week period. Grab yourself either a physical journal or Myfitnesspal and track your weight daily. The goal is to stay within 1-2 pounds in that 2 weeks. If you do, you're pretty close to your maintenance calories. Think of this as your miles per gallon average. While you will get better gas mileage on the freeway than in the city, this is your average.
The second and easier way is to multiply what you currently weigh (take me at 188 right now) by 10. This gives me 1880 calories and understand this is a rough estimate. THEN, we multiply this by an Activity Multipler.
Notice the difference between Sedentary vs Very Active. It's almost double. I'd categorize Very Active as mail carriers, nurses working 12 hours and running around most of the time, and anyone on their feet most of their job. Sedentary would be described as office/desk work. Those in between would fall into the other two categories. For me, I'd say I'm lightly active now but used to be Active when I worked at the golf club. So I will multiply my calories by 1.5, which gives me 2,760 calories. Again this is a rough estimate but if you are just starting out and want a Step 1, this is where I'd recommend you start. I have my clients track their macros so I have a better understanding of their food intake before we change calories to either a surplus or a deficient.
I want to share a infographic from Carter Good to explain very simply why you aren't losing weight.
I used to do this A LOT. We think we are doing well in our minds throughout the week and we deserve a reward on Friday. We give into a beer. Order a pizza. Tell yourself you earned it. Then that spills over into Saturday. You have leftovers right? Then you get back on track. Look at the graph again. Those two days averaged out to your maintenance calories. WORSE CASE here is you didn't lose weight. Most people don't know their maintenance and are constantly eating at a surplus (there's another extreme I'll discuss in another post revolving around metabolic adaptation and reverse dieting). I don't want you to be frustrated and give up because you aren't aware of this key component.
We've figured out our maintenance calories and you're pretty confident in that number. The next step is determine your goal which I'm sure you had before you started reading this. I'll use my progression over a 6 month cycle in 2019 as an example and reference. From January to late March, I was in a growth phase in a caloric surplus. I'll be honest, the 6 weeks prior to March 22nd were my best weeks. Before that, I wasn't consistent as I should have been and it showed.
I went from 187 lbs to 200 lbs in 6 weeks. My target calories were near 3,100 and I was good about it. I tell people I ate like a jackass though for the last 2 weeks so I was a little more inflamed than I should have been. It was definitely a dirty bulk. A lot of processed carbs to get me to that 3,100 goal. I succeeded in my mission however. From there starting around April 9th, I started my cut phase and my aim is/was 2,500 calories. I gave myself those 2 weeks in between to just gain sanity back and didn't track. From April 9th to today, I've lost 16 pounds which is fairly normal (and with very little cardio ;) ) .Good amount in the beginning was water weight. My collar bone is a lot more defined and I can tell in my midsection I've lost a good amount. I have not been perfect by any means. I've had my share of brownies, pizza, and skittles.
I also did Cody Boom Boom's F.I.T. program. I highly recommend this. I wouldn't suggest this program in a deficient though. It is a 6 day a week program and whether I was just being a weenie or not, it was a lot. I'm excited to go back to it in May and June this year at maintenance calories.
I absolutely kicked ass the first month and a half. No soda, no late snack. Used intermittent fasting to my advantage (more on this in a later post). A couple habit changes and I've seen tremendous results. You can have the same results as well.
Okay, enough about me. Back to some education. So we are clear on calories, what maintenance is, and your goals. What should you set your calories at to lose weight? My suggestion is start with a 500 calorie deficient. It should be fairly easy to accomplish. My next post will be all things macronutrients but if you want to start today, keep protein high. I'll explain why in a bit. From there, you can assess your weight loss from there. Going back to the activity multiplier, this is assuming you are lifting 3-6 times a week consistency. If you don't have a plan and are looking for a guide through this process, I created Body Design Complete for this exact reason (currently in it's beta stage but if you are interested I have a few options we can discuss).
From there, USE CARDIO AS A SUPPLEMENT. Too many times I've seen people overdo it with cardio. Think of cardio as turning off your A/C or drafting behind someone. You'll get slightly better gas mileage doing these things but it's not sustainable. If you overdo it with cardio, you can't increase it later when you'll probably need to. I included a cardio scale below:
Cardio will absolutely help, but your diet should come first and weight training should come second. You can lower your calories gradually if you need to. You may run into a problem if you stall and your cardio is jacked all the way up.
For muscle gain, I'd start at a 500 calorie surplus and assess from there. I don't want to get too far into the weeds here but suffice to say your experience level has a lot to do with the amount of muscle you can gain a month.
From a theory perspective, it's easier to understand fat loss than muscle gain in terms of energy balance which I'm sticking to for most of this post (or trying to).
Simple right?! For 9o-95% of individuals looking to lose weight or gain muscle, understanding and manipulating your calories in vs calories out is going to be the key determining factor of your success long term. I wouldn't be me though if I didn't explain some other advanced concepts to take note of.
201:
Fat Balance = Fat Storage - Fat Oxidation
If your body is oxidizing more fat (burning essentially) than it is storing, you are energy deficient. This is why Keto is all the rage now. Those who believe in Keto to the core believe that since you're burning more fat all day, you must be losing more fat. Keto is a high fat, low carb diet. So… you're taking in more fat. Which causes more fat storage.
As you can see, fat balance is equal no matter which diet you are on. Your diet should be determined by WHAT YOU CAN STICK TO over the LONG TERM. I did Keto for awhile. Mornings were great. I was on fire mentally. My gym performance became an issue however. That's because the bodies primary energy source is glucose (it pains me to admit this because I thought I found some holy grail). No we don't need carbs to survive. Our ancestors didn't have access to what we do. Their lifestyle was a little different than yours or mine though. They weren't bodybuilding and valued aesthetics and performance (I'm guessing). I wanted to set that straight because a lot of people get hung up on this topic.
Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE components): This is the "calories out" side that is a bit more complicated than "calories in".
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): Your BMR keeps the lights on in your body for lack of a better non-car related analogy (was going to use oil but it's not close enough). This equates to roughly 60% of your TDEE. Did you know your brain requires calories to function properly? It demands roughly 20% of our BMR or Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR, similar to BMR).
Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) and Non-Exercise Physical Activity (NEPA): This includes talking and non-exercise related activities that burn calories.
Thermic Effect of Food (TEF): Remember my car analogies? Gonna use it again. TEF is like an engine. The conversion from gas to energy isn't perfect. Neither is calories in used for energy.
Remember what I said about protein? Keeping it high will allow you to use more for tissue repair and is more satiating while dieting.
TDEE= BMR + NEAT + EXERCISE + TEF
Calories in vs calories out is not a perfect one to one ratio but it's absolutely where you should start on your road to weight loss or muscle gain.
Hope you enjoyed this and look out next week for my nutrition post all about Macronutrients!
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Tables Credit:
Baker, P., & Norton, L. (2019). Fat Loss Forever: How to Lose Fat and KEEP It Off.
Morgan, A., Valdez, A., & Helms, E. (2019). The Muscle and Strength Pyramid: Nutrition.