Newbie question...

s16lad

Hi all,

Been lurking on here for a little while now and picking up some great tips, however I'm hoping someone can add a bit of an explanation to what I thought (in it's purest form) was a basic maths question?

To lose weight it is agreed you need to consume calories at a deficit, however I would have assumed that based on this being true, the bigger the deficit = the more weight loss...

It seems there are plenty of posts where people are having far better, and sustained results, from upping the calories (whilst still remaining in deficit).

Can anyone maybe simplify the I'm sure complex science behind this?

Apologies if this has been done to death over time but I did search and couldn't really find the answer...

Thanks in advance!

Si

yarwell

Generally speaking larger deficits should lead to higher loss rates, and this is almost always found in clinical studies.

You don't see twice the loss rate for twice the deficit, because the body adapts to the deficit and uses somewhat less, so the apparent mathematical difference reduces from its initial value.

The deficit is fuelled by fat from storage and it has been shown that there's a limit of about 30 cals per day per lb of fat reserve on what that can deliver, so if you try to exceed that you won't see a proportionate loss.

s16lad

Cool, thanks for that explanation.

From that though it seems that people 'decreasing' the deficit and eating more calories than previously shouldn't really benefit more...?

Shari325

The deficit is fuelled by fat from storage and it has been shown that there's a limit of about 30 cals per day per lb of fat reserve on what that can deliver, so if you try to exceed that you won't see a proportionate loss.

Could you point us to scientific research to back this up? I have never heard anything like this and would like further information.