When you are looking to achieve a body composition change and loose fat the one key thing is a Calorie Deficit, which means burning more calories than you eat.
When we think calorie burn, most of us will immediately think “Exercise” but thats just a small part of the puzzle.
Here are all the ways our bodies burn calories:
- Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR):
This is the energy your body uses to maintain basic life functions while at rest, such as breathing, circulation, and cell production. It accounts for the majority of calories burned daily.
- Physical Activity:
Any movement burns additional calories. This includes:
- Exercise (e.g., running, swimming, weightlifting)
- Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT): daily activities like walking, cleaning, fidgeting
- Thermic Effect of Food (TEF):
The energy used to digest, absorb, and metabolize food. It typically accounts for about 10% of total daily energy expenditure.
- Adaptive Thermogenesis:
The body’s ability to generate heat in response to environmental changes or diet.
- Growth and Development:
Children and adolescents burn extra calories for growth. Pregnant women also burn additional calories to support fetal development.
The component that contributes most to our daily calorie burn for most people is the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).
BMR typically accounts for 60-75% of total daily energy expenditure for sedentary individuals. This means that even if you were to lie in bed all day, your body would still burn a significant number of calories just to keep your basic life functions operating.
The exact percentage can vary based on factors such as:
- Age: BMR tends to decrease with age.
- Body composition: More muscle mass increases BMR.
- Gender: Men generally have a higher BMR than women due to greater muscle mass.
- Genetics: Some people naturally have a higher or lower BMR.
- Health conditions: Certain medical conditions can affect BMR.
It’s important to note that while BMR is the largest contributor to calorie burn for most people, physical activity can significantly increase total daily energy expenditure, especially for very active individuals. For athletes or people with physically demanding jobs, the calories burned through activity might approach or even exceed their BMR.
The one that generally gets overlooked but can actually end up having a BIG effect on your daily burn is NEAT – Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.
Tips for increasing NEAT in daily life:
- At Work
Use a standing desk or treadmill and vary your position throughout the day.
Take walking meetings instead of sitting in a conference room.
Set a timer and stand up at least once every hour. Add in a stretch if possible, or a walk around the building.
Use a smaller water bottle so it needs filling more often.
- At Home
Do more vigorous versions of chores (scrub the floor rather than mop for example).
Stand or pace while using your phone.
Do simple exercises or stretching during tv commercials, or between episodes.
Dance while listening to music.
- During Commutes / Errands:
Park further away from entrances of buildings.
Get off public transport one stop early and walk the rest of the way.
Carry groceries instead of using trollies for small shops.
Walk or bike instead of using your car wherever possible.
- Social Activities:
Suggest active things to do; mini golf, bowling etc.
Play active video games that require movement.
- Throughout the day:
Fidget more; drum your fingers, tap your feet etc.
Increase your daily step count wherever possible.
Use a smaller water bottle so it needs filling more often.
- At Night:
Do some light stretching or yoga before bed.
Tidy your living spaces before going to bed.
Remember, the goal is to make movement a natural part of your day. Even small increases in activity can add up over time and contribute to higher overall calorie burn.
Walk Your Way to Faster Running
RED-S; Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport
Periodisation Deep Dive
Low Energy Availability (LEA):
How do we burn calories? Let me count the ways…
Fuel Up to Smash Your Endurance Goals:
Supercompensation – the effective but counterintuitive training methodology.
Practical Mental Coping Strategies for Endurance Lows
Avoiding the Euphoria-Despair Roller Coaster in Endurance Racing
The Importance of Periodisation in Endurance Training
Monitoring and Managing Fatigue in Endurance Training
All About Stress
Train your breathing for better race results
Does how you breathe really matter?
Unlocking Your Athletic Potential: Nature vs. Nurture
Recovery: The Unsung Hero of Triumphs
Build Consistently, Adapt Relentlessly
Minimum effort. Maximum Impact
Specificity is KING for Endurance
Strength Reigns Supreme in Endurance
The 5 Pillars of the DB Training Methodology
The Three Biggest Mistakes Endurance Athletes make…
Mastering the SAID Principle for Endurance Training Success
Mastering Heart Rate Zones for Peak Endurance Performance
Can Herbal Adaptogens help Perimenopause?
HIIT – Are you doing it right?
Setting your HR Zones & How to Judge Progress
How to Test your Lactate Threshold
Why Lactate Threshold trumps Max Heart Rate for Endurance Training
Golden Rule #5 Extreme Ownership
This is a question I hear a lot!
Usually it means the person asking the question is only focussing on the number on the scale and that is not something I’m a huge fan of (but you can read all about that in my next blog!).
Hopefully you know by now that to achieve fat loss you need to be in calorie deficit.
The number one reason people who are tracking their calorie intake don’t see movement on the scales is simple… They are under estimating the amount of calories they eat.
Whether they are tracking via an app such as My Fitness Pal or Chronometer… or keeping a manual diary, it is very common, and very easy to record less calories than you consume.
Main ways to wrongfully track:
- Not weighing / measuring your food and estimating the amount.
- Not tracking EVERYTHING you eat and drink – the snacks, that latte, that slice of cheese… it all adds up.
- Eating out and not taking into account the added fat etc of restaurant meals.
- Choosing similar meal options in your tracker app/calorie book which is less than the meal you actually eat.
The second reason is related to the first and again, really common… Over estimating the amount of calories burnt through exercise.
FitBit, Apple, Garmin… all the activity trackers, the machines at the gym… nearly all will over inflate your calorie burn. AND if you have your activity tracker linked to your My Fitness Pal, all this will encourage you to do is eat back the calories you burnt.
DO NOT link your activity tracker to your MFP account, or you chosen calorie tracker app of choice. Figure out what your calorie intake should be to achieve fat loss at a sensible rate (read about that here: Calorie Deficit) set that in your app and eat to that… do not make it more complicated than that!
You’ve probably heard the term Calorie Deficit. It’s almost like its the new topic topic for the fitness world but it has long been know that when it comes to losing fat, it is the only real way to go.
It’s not new, it’s not even that exciting (apart from the results it brings)… but if you are serious about your health and fitness journey and you are looking to decrease your body fat, you need to understand it.
So… What is it?
When we eat and drink we consume the energy stored within. This energy is measured as calories.
Your body can then either burn, store or absorb* those calories.
Understanding how your body uses calories is key to understanding fat loss and fat gain. Put simply:
If you eat more calories than you burn, you will store fat = Calorie Surplus
If you burn more calories than you eat, you will burn fat = Calorie Deficit
If you eat the same amount of calories as you burn, you stay the same = Calorie Balance
*The calories that are absorbed are the ones that end up in the toilet, not the most pleasant thought but its a fact!
OK, How does it help me?
Obviously the bit most of us are really interested in is Calorie Deficit. It is the key to our success in our fat loss journey. In this blog I am going to try and help you understand how to determine how to achieve the right calorie deficit for you.
First, you need to understand that 1lb of fat has about 3,500 calories.
Let’s say you decide you want to lose 1lb of fat a week. You would need a daily calorie deficit of 500 calories a day to achieve a weekly deficit of 3,500.
Now you need to determine your current daily calorie consumption. You do this by counting your calories every day for atleast one week. You can either use an app such as MyFitnessPal or write everything down everything you eat and drink and then look up the calorie content.
Let’s say, for example, you have maintained your weight by consuming 2000 calories a day. You are currently in Calorie Balance. You want to lose 1lb of fat a week so you would need to cut your daily intake to 1500 calories.
However, for some people, cutting their intake in this way may be too drastic and for others, too slow. If someone was maintaining their current weight at 1600 calories, to go down to 1100 calories a day would likely be too aggressive. On the contrary, if someone was maintaining their weight at 3000 calories, they would likely be able to achieve a faster fat loss with a bigger calorie deficit.
So, you could just pick a number for your deficit (like 500 calories a day) and stick to it.
But, if you fall into one of the groups where maybe this doesn’t work as well for you, you could work on a percentage basis.
To do this, you find your maintenance calorie number and subtract 20%.
Let’s stick with the maintenance figure of 2000 per day. If we take 20% from this it would mean reducing the calorie intake by 400 calories to 1600 per day.
This method works well and many believe it is the best approach as it takes into account your actual energy needs, rather than using a set figure which might not be suitable for your needs and lifestyle.
So there you have it. Now you are armed with the information needed to get to work losing that fat.
Then what?
Once you have your calories right, and only then, can you start to look at the other areas of nutrition, like your macro balance; how those calories are made up between protein, carbs and fats.
I will just say one thing on this, I have tried a few different things over the last couple of years; high fat diet, high protein diet, low carb diet and the results from all of them were pretty much the same… as long as my calories were on point. My body composition (weight, fat% and muscle%) didn’t vary much from plan to plan and the thing that was always the same was my calorie intake. If my calories were on point, I got the results I wanted, if they weren’t I didn’t!
My advice:
1) Focus on real food. Avoid quick fixes, meal replacements and “detox” plans. These may work in the short term but you aren’t addressing the long term issues or changing your relationship with food. Do not be fooled – the only way they work is by seriously cutting your calorie intake. Also you may not be consuming enough calories for your energy needs and this can leave you open to all sorts of issues. You may drop a few inches or a dress size by having one or two shakes instead of meals a day but what happens when you reintroduce the food. You haven’t learnt anything and I can pretty much guarantee that weight will come back on, and then some unless you are really lucky!
2) Focus on foods with good flavour. If you are in this for the long term then you have to enjoy it. There is no point including foods you don’t really like just because you think you should. If you don’t like what you are eating, you won’t stick to it. Make the journey enjoyable for your taste buds, as well as your waist line.
3) Focus on Calories. As this blog post has hopefully shown, once you have thought about real food with good flavours, you need to get the calorie intake right. You now know how to do this 🙂 Once you have the calorie intake right you can start to look a bit more in depth at the function of the food and if you can tweak this to your advantage.
Walk Your Way to Faster Running
RED-S; Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport
Periodisation Deep Dive
Low Energy Availability (LEA):
How do we burn calories? Let me count the ways…
Fuel Up to Smash Your Endurance Goals:
Supercompensation – the effective but counterintuitive training methodology.
Practical Mental Coping Strategies for Endurance Lows
Avoiding the Euphoria-Despair Roller Coaster in Endurance Racing
The Importance of Periodisation in Endurance Training
Monitoring and Managing Fatigue in Endurance Training
All About Stress
Train your breathing for better race results
Does how you breathe really matter?
Unlocking Your Athletic Potential: Nature vs. Nurture
Recovery: The Unsung Hero of Triumphs
Build Consistently, Adapt Relentlessly
Minimum effort. Maximum Impact
Specificity is KING for Endurance
Strength Reigns Supreme in Endurance
The 5 Pillars of the DB Training Methodology
The Three Biggest Mistakes Endurance Athletes make…
Mastering the SAID Principle for Endurance Training Success
Mastering Heart Rate Zones for Peak Endurance Performance
Can Herbal Adaptogens help Perimenopause?
HIIT – Are you doing it right?
Setting your HR Zones & How to Judge Progress
How to Test your Lactate Threshold
Why Lactate Threshold trumps Max Heart Rate for Endurance Training
Golden Rule #5 Extreme Ownership