Everywhere you look there's different advice on losing fat.…

Weight changes are determined by energy balance.

Energy Balance:

Energy In vs Energy Out

More in than out? Gain

More out than in? Lose

ENERGY IN.

Here are 3 factors that contribute to your energy in and how to manipulate them for weight loss.

1. Appetite

Your appetite obviously influences your intake, and we could go deep into Leptin, Ghrelin and many more...but here are some high level actionable tips.

If you tolerate caffeine well, this can be an excellent appetite suppressant. Using it to get through the mornings is a great way to decrease intake for the day.

A massive influence here is going to be CHEWING your food, and primarily eating whole, unprocessed foods.

When you take your time chewing extensively, your body has time for signaling pathways to eventually send signals to your brain that you are full (ie decreased appetite).

This is a hell of a lot easier with whole foods, as there's more volume to consume. Eat a candy bar and you'll inhale it and keep eating before your brain has any idea you consumed anything.

2. Food Consumed

This one seems obvious. This is the amount of food you eat.

However, this can easily be impacted by lack of sleep, routine, planning, etc.

Don't obsess over a starting point, the entire game of weight loss is adjusting after getting feedback.

A great starting point for calories is 12 kcal per pound of body weight.

For a 200 pound man, this is 2400 calories.

Get 1 g per pound of body weight in protein as well.

This would be 200g, or 800 kcal.

To some extent, you can fill in your remaining calories with carbs or fat, but I'd recommend not skimping on carbs if you are weight training (you should be).

Weigh yourself often, and adjust down when weight loss stalls.

3. Food Absorbed

Yes, you can eat food that is not absorbed.

Many factors influence food absorption, including how your food is cooked, your gut, and others.

We won't go too deep here, as for the most part manipulating this won't have a massive effect.

ENERGY OUT.

A big mistake I commonly see is cutting calories when energy out is already extremely low.

This is a recipe for disaster.

Get your activity level up before dropping calories.

Here are the 4 factors in energy out.

1. Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)

This is your energy burned at rest, literally just to keep your body functions going.

This will increase with more weight, and decrease with less weight.

The more MUSCLE you have, the higher this will be.....

Yet another reason to lift long term...It makes your life way easier when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight.

This is another case for re-comping at your current weight....if you put on muscle and lose fat, you can eat more food just because you are burning more at rest.

2. Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis

This is your physical activity throughout the day, other than deliberate exercise.

Unless you're a competitive endurance athlete....this is MUCH HIGHER than your exercise calories burned.

This is why I preach 10,000 steps a day.

Many do not realize they're getting less than 4,000 steps on the regular...no wonder they feel like shit.

Check my other threads on how to manipulate this, but it involves walking more and you will find many other benefits from this.

3. Exercise

From an energy out standpoint, this is not as effective as many would hope it would be.

Your time in the gym should be spent lifting weights, and only if you have a solid foundation here should you move on to deliberate cardio.

Cardio for weight loss should only be incorporated after maintaining a high step count and after manipulating calories and getting too low.

This is not to say cardio is not beneficial for cardiovascular and brain health.

By all means, hit it up for these benefits, which you can get at just 1-2 sessions a week...but PLEASE get your weight training in.

4. Energy burned digesting food.

Yes, the makeup of your food determines how many calories are burned digesting it.

First and foremost, the macronutrient profile changes the caloric burn while digesting them (known as the Thermic Effect of Food, or TEF):

Protein - 20-30%
Carbohydrate - 5-15%
Fat - 0-5%

This means for every 100 calories of protein you consume...you BURN 20-30 calories digesting it.

Yet another reason to prioritize protein....it's pretty damn hard to gain weight from overconsumption of it.

Guess what? processed foods take less calories to digest.

The makeup of highly processed foods make it pretty damn easy to digest, leading to less calories out.

Yet another case for eating whole, unprocessed foods.

As you can see, there are many roads to a caloric deficit.

The best approach?

Moderately attack all of these factors.

A great starting point:

- Walk more (more NEAT, energy out)
- Eat more whole foods (appetite, fullness, digestion, TEF)
- lifting weights (higher RMR, more calories out)
- enough protein (higher TEF, more volume leading to lower appetite)

Notice something?

Doing these heavy hitters impact BOTH sides of the equation at multiple levels.

So stop screaming CALORIC DEFICIT when someone says to eat more whole foods or walk more....

Those things literally contribute to a deficit.

In 1 month you'll be stronger & lose belly fat. Money back if u didn’t.

No more than 30 minutes workouts even if you eat out

Sign up for my coaching program & you’ll notice an improvement in your energy as soon as 1 week into it

2 available spots this month DM me if interested

Everywhere you look there's different advice on losing fat.

You try one, fail, get overwhelmed and end up worse than where you started.

Let's breakdown the science behind weight loss so you can understand WHY certain things may work.

(Thread)

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Everywhere you look there's different advice on losing fat.You try one, fail, get overwhelmed and end up worse than where you started.Let's breakdown the science behind weight loss so you can understand WHY certain things may work.(Thread)

More from All

You May Also Like

Everywhere you look there's different advice on losing fat.

You try one, fail, get overwhelmed and end up worse than where you started.

Let's breakdown the science behind weight loss so you can understand WHY certain things may work.

(Thread)