Create a Smaller Calorie Deficit to Lose Weight

IronPlayground

Nice little write up on eating a slight deficit instead of VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diets). First sentence sums it up for most people. Stop trying to make this a race to a certain scale number. Work on changing your body over time and you will achieve better, more sustainable results.

http://www.coachcalorie.com/calorie-deficit-to-lose-weight/

We’re all in a rush to lose weight and do it quickly, but creating a larger calorie deficit is not the answer. In fact, an overly aggressive calorie deficit is in direct conflict with your weight loss goals.
You Need Nutrition – Not Just Calories

You need nutrients, not just calories. Sure, calories are a big piece of the puzzle (the biggest actually), but they aren’t the only piece. Calories are just energy. Yes, weight loss does boil down to energy balance, but you need nutrients if you want that process to work efficiently. Otherwise, you create a never-ending downward spiral of a slower metabolism begetting lower calorie intakes in order to maintain a specific calorie deficit until eventually, you aren’t getting in the necessary nutrition to function optimally (build muscle, recovery, mental clarity, stress, etc).

Calorie Quality, Not Quantity is rule #4 in The 10 Forgotten Rules of Weight Loss. In case you didn’t know, that’s the free eBook I give out to Coach Calorie readers. You can get your free copy emailed to you by clicking here.
Set a Body Fat % Goal Instead of Weight

Most people set out to lose weight at a rate of 2 pounds/week. This is a nice general weight loss goal for many people, but it really is going to depend on where you’re starting from. Two pounds/week of weight loss is much more easily attained for someone who is over 200 pounds as compared to someone who is 150.

Instead of setting a weekly weight loss goal, try using body fat instead. This is a much more accurate goal to seek. A good upper range would be losing 1% body fat/week. For a 300 pound person, that would mean a loss of 3 pounds/week. For a 150 pound person, that would be 1.5 lbs/week. As you lose body fat, your weight loss will slow, but your body fat percentage loss from week to week will remain the same for the most part (until you start getting very lean).

Here are some body fat calipers you can use to measure your body fat progress with.
Create a Deficit With Exercise

As you know, I recommend you eat as many calories as possible to lose weight, as not eating enough calories is a huge progress killer for weight loss. A great sure-fire way to consistently and successfully lose weight is to eat your basal metabolic rate (BMR) or close to it (NOT below it), and create your calorie deficit through exercise. Your BMR is the amount of calories you expend at rest.

For example, if your BMR is 2000 calories without doing any exercise, you could burn 500 daily calories via exercise and expect to lose about 1lb/week. Burn upwards of 1,000 calories (difficult to do), and expect to lose 2lbs/week. Ideally, something in the middle is typical for someone who works out intensely and is also active during the day.

What you don’t want to do is eat less than your BMR. Doing that is a recipe for stalled progress and frustration. After all, if BMR is the energy required to support vital organs/function, why would you want to eat any lower? Eat less, move more is the prescription for weight loss that you typically hear. I don’t like that. People take that to the extreme in the hopes of better results.

Instead, I prefer a different approach – eat more, move more. You better believe that if you’re eating the right food and leaving out the processed garbage, and including intense exercise and staying active, you’ll be much more assured of achieving your fat loss goals than if you cut your calories too low. Eat. Get active. Be patient.

yo_andi

Eat. Get active. Be patient.

Story of my life.

SquidgySquidge

Can I get some help?

I've been eating 1343 cals for a few weeks now, I upped this from 1200 after being told to work out my TDEE and minus 20%.
I thought I was doing right but now I've just realised the 1343 is lower than my BMR which I've just worked out to be 1412.

So - I guess I should be upping my cals to 1412 a day then?
And if this is right, where does the TDEE -20% apply? Only when the result is higher than your BMR?

Whenever I think I have it all sussed, I find out I really don't :laugh: