How to achieve a calorie deficit

A calorie deficit is the difference between the number of calories you need and the number of calories you use.

If you need 2000 calories a day to maintain your weight and you eat 1700 you are in a deficit.

When we are in a deficit our bodies use stored energy (fat) to make up the difference.

You can think of fat like money in the bank that you have put away for a rainy day.

If you want to lose weight you need to put yourself in a calorie deficit and the best ways to do that are through diet and exercise.

Diet

You will have doubtless seen a whole range of diets online which people claim as the reason they were able to lose x amount of kilograms over 6 weeks.

It could be the paleo diet, the carnivore diet, the ketogenic diet, intermittent fasting or any of the other hundreds of diets.

Some people will tell you that you need to eliminate sugar, or fats or carbs from your diet in order to lose weight. The thing you need to remember through all of this is that all you need to do is implement a calorie deficit.

There is nothing inherently special about any of the weight loss strategies I have mentioned beyond the fact that they allow you to achieve a calorie deficit.

You may find that intermittent fasting (i.e missing a meal) works for you. If you are able to wait until 12-1pm for your first meal of the day or if you don’t mind eating breakfast and then waiting for your evening meal, then do that.

Similarly, if you are happy to lower your fats or lower your carbs then listen to your body and go with what feels good.

These diets are just a method of achieving a calorie deficit, they are not the driver of weight loss in themselves. To achieve sustainable weight loss over the long term you need to pick a diet which you don’t find too difficult to maintain and which allows you to still enjoy your life.

How the body uses calories

Diet is one part of how you can achieve a calorie deficit and exercise is the other.

In order to understand the relationship between your calorie deficit and exercise you need to understand the way your body uses calories.

There are four ways this happens.

BMR (Base Metabolic Rate)

This is the amount of calories your body needs to maintain its basic daily function. If you were to lie in one place all day and do nothing this is the number of calories you would use. Your BMR makes up the majority of calories you will use in any given day (around 60%)

Neat (Non exercise activity thermogenesis)

Neat is your second largest daily caloric expenditure (around 20%). It is made up from the calories you use in any kind of movement which isn’t exercise.

This includes walking, fidgeting, cleaning, any movements you make throughout the day. This is why people with more active jobs which involve a lot of movement or walking will usually have a higher daily calorie expenditure.

The prevalence of desk jobs and sedentary lifestyles are a major contributor to the levels of obesity we see nowadays.

Eat (Exercise activity thermogenesis)

This is the caloric expenditure which comes from exercise. This accounts for around 10-15% of your daily calorie usage, so it is considerably lower than your NEAT and your BMR.

Your Eat is made up from things like going to the gym, going for a run and playing sports.

TEF (Thermic Effect of Feeding)

This is the energy you expend from eating and digesting. It makes up around 5% of you daily energy expenditure.

You don’t really have to worry too much about it as it does not make much of an impact. There are no negative calorie foods (i.e foods which require more calories to consume than they will give you). Though some foods require more energy to break down than others.

Protein is one of these. Alongside its ability to repair muscle tissue and how satiating it is protein requires a lot of energy to break down, i.e it requires more calories to digest.

Your TEF is another reason to avoid highly processed food as these kinds of food require very little energy to break down and they do not make you feel very full for very long. Alongside that they are very high in calories making them a lose, lose if you are trying to get into a deficit.

You can still include processed foods as part of your healthy lifestyle, just be aware they are not very satiating and they do contain a lot of calories.

Activity levels

As we have seen, most of our calories are burned at rest and through increasing our activity levels.

The biggest controllable calorie expenditure comes from your activity levels and specifically through our Neat (non-exercise activity thermogenesis).

If you want to lose weight then increasing your neat can have a huge impact. Often this involves getting your step count as high as (realistically) possible, but increasing your activity levels in any way will help.

There are a few simple ways you can make yourself more active throughout your day.

Do not stand still on escalators, walk up them. Try to get out for a walk on your lunch break, if getting off the bus one stop early means an extra 3-5 minutes of walking then do that.

Look for little ways through the day that you can increase your activity levels. On top of this make sure you’re in the gym doing some resistance training.

There are a whole range of benefits to resistance training whilst you are in a deficit including the preservation or creation of muscle mass (muscle requires a lot of energy, i.e calories, to maintain), reduced risk of injury, and increased bone density.

You don’t need to become an ultra-athlete but two or three gym sessions a week, an increased daily step count and a sustainable diet will go a long way.

Mental aspect

The physical side of losing weight sounds simple. Eat less, move more stay in a deficit and you will lose weight.

The reality is that losing weight can often be a long and difficult journey.

Your mind can have a huge impact on the success of your calorie deficit. This is why it is so important to find a sustainable way to lose weight where you can eat the things you love without overconsuming calories.

Final Thoughts

If we add all of the things we have discussed here together then we can draw some simple conclusions.

If you want to lose weight, then you need to be in a calorie deficit.

Whilst in that deficit, you should eat a high protein diet. Make sure there are some carbs and fats in there. Get some micronutrients and fibre from fruit and veg and make sure to add in some of the foods you enjoy to keep your calorie deficit on track and keep your mind happy.

Get your steps up and try to move as much as you can. Include some resistance training for the long-term health of your muscles and bones. And remember to take care of yourself both physically and mentally.

Achieving a calorie deficit sounds simple but it is often a deeply personal experience, what works for me may not work for you. However, you do it as long as it is effective, sustainable over the long term and it helps you to feel healthier, that’s all that matters.

Guest written by Jonathan Dowell