Most of us, at least once in our lifes, have tried to lose weight, gain muscle and adopt a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, only few people have actually succeeded in this undertaking. In this post I’ll explain the main bulletpoints that you need to bear in mind in order to overcome this seemingly insurmountable challenge and conquer your fitness goals.
First of all, let’s look at the definiton of calories – a unit of energy, often used as a measurement of the amount of energy that food provides. It just as the definition suggests: it’s the energy that our body uses to function which it gets from food. There are three states your body can be in (in terms of calorie intake) and each of them serves different purpose. They are calorie dificit, maintenance and surplus. let’s go over each of them seperately.
Calorie deficit
A calorie deficit occurs when you consume fewer calories than your body expends over a given period. Essentially, it means you’re burning more calories than you’re taking in. You should aim for this state if your goal is to lose weight.
Creating a calorie deficit can be achieved through a combination of reducing calorie intake (eating less) and increasing calorie expenditure (exercising more). So it’s pretty much culculated by formula Ci-Ce, whe Ci is a calorie intake and Ce is a calorie expenditure. You can reduce your calorie intake by eating more high protein food (lean meats – beef, lamb, veal, pork; poultry – chicken, turkey, duck, emu, goose; dairy products – milk, yoghurt (especially Greek yoghurt), cheese (especially cottage cheese); fish and seafood – fish, prawns, crab, lobster, mussels, oysters, scallops, clams.eggs) to satiate your hunger and eating more high-fiber foods (pears, strawberries, corn, lantils, avocado, oats, apples, bananas, etc.) to help your digestion. While it varies from person to person the average optimal deficit is around 500 calories per day. With this you will be able to steadily lose weight without any harm to your health.
It’s important to note that while a calorie deficit is essential for weight loss, creating too large of a deficit can have negative consequences, such as muscle loss, nutrient deficiencies, and a decrease in metabolic rate. Therefore, it’s crucial to strike a balance that allows for sustainable and healthy weight loss
Calorie maintenance
Calorie maintenance refers to the state in which an individual’s energy intake matches their energy expenditure, resulting in weight stability over time. In other words, it’s the level of calorie consumption suatable or people who just want to maintain their current body weight without gaining or losing any significant amount of it.
In order to achieve calorie maintenance you have to determine your calorie maintenance level and not consume more calories that is allows. To determine your calorie maintenance level, you need to consider factors such as your basal metabolic rate (BMR), which is the amount of energy your body needs to function at rest, as well as your level of physical activity and any additional factors that may affect your energy expenditure, such as age, gender, muscle mass, and metabolism. You can use any calorie meintenance calculator for this, for example https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html
Understanding your calorie maintenance level is essential for managing weight, whether you’re looking to maintain your current weight or adjust it by creating a calorie deficit or surplus for weight loss or gain, respectively.
Calorie surplus
A calorie surplus occurs when an individual consumes more calories than their body expends over a given period. So, back to our formula: Ce>Ci. When you consistently consume more calories than your body burns, the excess energy is typically stored in the form of body fat, leading to weight gain over time.
While you should try your best to steer clear of it if your goal is to lose weight, it might be just what you need if you’re more interested in building muscles. People often aim for a calorie surplus when their goal is to gain weight, whether it’s muscle mass for athletes and bodybuilders or simply to increase overall body size. However, it’s essential to approach a calorie surplus in a balanced and controlled manner to minimize excessive fat gain and prioritize muscle growth.
Just like with a calorie deficit, the magnitude of the surplus needed for weight gain varies depending on individual factors such as metabolism, activity level, and genetic predisposition. While consulting with a healthcare professional, such as a registered dietitian or nutritionist, can help you achieve overly ambitious goals, someone who just wants to get themselves in shape can make do without it.
Those three categories cover most of the information that you need to know about calorie intake. I hope it helped you to understand how calories work a bit better But there is actually a lot more to dieting that is written here (f.e. the quality of your food, the usefulness of cardio exercises, hydration habits, etc.) I’ll cover all of them in my future posts, so stay tuned in order not to miss out on them.
