- What's up, guys? It's your girl, FrumpyFit
and if you don't know who I am, I'm an online weightloss coach
who's dedicated to calling out all the BS in the fitness industry
and providing you with accurate fitness, nutrition, and weight loss information.
Today we are talking about a calorie deficit.
And I mention it so much on my channel,
you guys are probably like, "Okay, we get it. We understand."
But, I see a lot of people get certain things wrong
about what a calorie deficit even is,
and so I just wanted to put together a video
that explained everything you need to know to fully understand
what it is and how to utilize it for weight loss.
Okay, so we're gonna start with the basics
and we're gonna go and build up from there.
So, what is a calorie deficit? What is a calorie?
A calorie is simply a unit of energy. That's it.
So a calorie deficit is just kind of a description
of the balance of energy that's in your body.
So a calorie deficit means that you consume
less energy than you utilize or burn throughout the day.
There are two other descriptions of how energy
can be balanced in your body.
The other one is an equal energy balance,
or that would be calorie maintenance.
So your calories consumed versus calorie burned
are gonna be exactly the same or relatively the same,
and a surplus means that you're consuming
more calories than your body is utilizing
for energy throughout the day.
So those are the three different energy balances that you can have.
Calorie deficit is just one of them.
So a calorie deficit is how you lose weight.
That energy balance is required for weight loss.
It is the only way that weight loss is going to occur,
aside from something like liposuction
where the fat is physically being removed from your body.
A calorie deficit is a non-negotiable for weight loss.
There's no right way to be in a calorie deficit.
There's no perfect diet or strategy that's going to work for everyone.
A calorie deficit itself is not a type of diet,
and I see people confusing that a lot
when I talk about calorie deficits.
And I'm trying to think of an analogy that I can use
to help explain what I mean.
So we all know that in order to go out in public,
you have to be fully dressed, right?
You have to, it's a non-negotiable.
If you go out in public and you're naked, you'll be arrested.
So it just doesn't work.
I know this is already weird, but stay with me.
You have to have clothes on,
but the clothes that you choose to wear,
doesn't actually matter.
You can wear tons of different outfits
that are gonna be suitable enough
to prevent you from getting arrested for being naked in public.
A calorie deficit is required for weight loss
just like wearing clothes in public.
The diet you try, or the strategy you use
to acheive a calorie deficit is like the outfits.
There's so many different ways to accomplish the same goal.
So, to go off of that, can you eat anything that you want
and still lose weight as long as you're in a calorie deficit?
Can you go out in a bikini in public in the winter?
Yeah, technically you can, but it's not really recommended.
And I think that's as far as we're gonna go
with the naked in public analogy 'cause it's getting too weird.
Let's use a different analogy to answer the question,
"Is a calorie a calorie, regardless of where it comes from?"
So let's take a pound of feathers versus a pound of bricks.
They're both a pound. That's the unit of measurment.
But, they are made up of very different things.
So if you try to carry a pound of feathers versus carry a pound of brick,
it's gonna be a very different expierence for you.
But that doesn't change the weight.
So same goes for calories.
100 calories from junk food versus 100 calories from veggies
are both 100 calories, that can't change
because it's the unit of measurement, but that doesn't mean that there aren't
some very important differences between those two things.
Yes, you could technically eat nothing but junk food
and still lose weight, but it's not recommended.
Primarily for your health, but also for enjoyment and sustainability.
Junk food is very calorie dense.
So you have a small amount of food that's a high amount of calories.
And because of that, you're likely to get hungry
much more quickly after eating that,
than if you ate a less calorie dense meal that was higher volume.
Hunger matters, and so if you're hungry later
what's gonna happen is you're much less likely
to stick to your calorie goal or to remain in a calorie deficit
because you're gonna be so hungry that you wanna give up.
Whether or not it's that day, or that week.
And so that's how you get into a cycle,
one way, to get into a cycle of restriction and binging
because you're not managing your hunger appropriately.
There are so many different other scenarios
that would explain this concept,
but that's a perfect example of how hunger
and managing the other factors related to calories
make just as much of a difference as making sure your calories
are at the exact right number for weight loss.
There's another piece to the puzzle,
and that's activity and exercise.
It needs to be considered because a calorie deficit
is the balance of calories burned and calories consumed.
It's totally possible to be in a calorie deficit
without changing your diet at all
if you're changing the amount that you exercise,
the amount of calories that you burn every day.
So if you wanna know more about how our body
burns calories throughout the day
and how you can manipulate that in your favor
to help you be in a calorie deficit,
then go check out my Metabolism Explained video.
I'll link it up in this corner, and I can never figure out what corner it is.
But to summarize it, the main driver of increasing
the number of calories you burn is manipulating movement,
and that doesn't just mean exercise, that means any movement possible.
So me moving my hands in this video is burning calories
and it may seem insignificant compared to a full workout,
but it adds up a lot throughout the day.
So activity that you wouldn't necessarily consider exercise,
like traditional exericse, can be a big driver
of change when it comes to the amount of calories you burn
and then subsequently being in a calorie deficit.
So, if you're having an extra hard time losing weight
during this global pandemic, or it's much easier to gain weight than usual,
it's because our general activity, our total daily activity,
has gone way down because we're all stuck inside.
Regardless of if you're still doing workouts at home,
or even if you're still going to work on a regular basis,
you're probably not going to the grocery store as frequently,
you're not going out to hang out with your friends
or go to resturants as much, and that little tiny change
seems insignificant, can potentially make a big difference
when it comes to weight loss.
I know as soon as I started isolating in March,
my appetite went straight down.
I had no appetite because all of a sudden
I wasn't moving around as much as I used to.
So there are so many different weight loss strategies out there,
the bottom line is that if something worked for somebody,
it's because they were in a calorie deficit whether they realized it or not.
So the key is gonna be finding what works best for you
and gets you in a calorie deficit for real.
The thing that I see getting neglectied most often
when we talk about the how of weight loss
or being in a calorie deficit, is adherence and consistency.
If you're considering a strategy or a diet for weight loss
and you can't see yourself adhering to it long term, just don't do it.
It doesn't matter what it says on paper.
I'm very science based, it doesn't matter what the scientific studies say
are the benefits of a particular diet or strategy,
if it's not actually gonna work for you in real life.
And some people will say,
"No, you just have to have willpower,
you have to be dedicated, you have to sacrafice
in order to reach your goal,"
and maybe sometimes that's true, but I don't think it's true
if there's a different way that's gonna be more enjoyable.
'Cause again, there's so many different ways to do this,
why would you pick the one that you don't like
over a way that maybe you like a lot better.
So for example, if you like eating breakfast,
don't try intermittent fasting.
It doesn't make sense.
If you don't like running, find a type of exercise
that you enjoy more than running.
It doesn't matter what's ideal,
it matters what you're actually going to do long term.
Because weight loss takes long term commitment,
it's not gonna happen quickly, and willpower will run out.
It's not this infinite resource.
And I get so many comments and so many DMs from people
saying like, "Should I try this particular diet?
Should I do this type of exercise?"
And my answer is, "I have no idea."
I don't know you personally, I don't know what you like,
I don't know what you don't like,
I don't know what your lifestyle is like.
How can I possibly make a recommendation
about what's gonna work for you if I don't know those things about you.
So I know a lot of times my content isn't like,
here's exactly what you need to do, but that's why.
Because there's so many different ways to do it
and there's no right way for everybody.
All my content is geared towards,
"Here's how you figure out what to do for you,"
and I know that might be frustrating
'cause you do want somebody to tell you,
"Here's the exact step-by-step,"
but it just doesn't work like that.
But, here are the tips that I can give you
to get you on the right track so you can figure it out for yourself.
So number one is, find a form of exercise
that you enjoy and do it regularly.
The more you enjoy it, the more likely you're gonna do it long term,
and ideally, this includes some form of resistance training.
Resistance training is very beneficial for everyone on the planet,
I wish everybody would do it,
and it's especially beneficial for someone
who's losing weight because it will help you
keep that kind of toned look rather than skinny-fat.
And having lean body mass is important for overall health.
So we want some resistance training,
but beyond that, any kind of exercise that you enjoy
is gonna be great, and remember not to discount
other types of activity that you might not consider a workout,
so adding more walks to your day, or even one walk,
hitting a step goal is a great way to encourage you
to be in a calorie deficit and might really help with weight loss.
Number two is finding a way of eating
that you enjoy, like enjoy the taste of,
and fits in your lifestyle, and makes you feel good physically.
All of those things need to be considered
when you're coming up with your diet.
Those people who say like, "Food is fuel,"
it just gets way under my skin
because if you're neglecting the enjoyment factor of food,
you're not doing it right.
You're just not.
But at the same time, health is important
and food is fuel, it is a part of the equation,
so you have to consider all of those things
and once you figure that out, whatever that looks like for you,
just do it for a while and see what happens.
Depending how your body responds
is how you figure out if you're in a calorie deficit or not.
If you're losing weight, you're in a calorie deficit.
If you're not losing weight, you're not in a calorie deficit.
It is that simple, but I'm not talking about massive instant weight loss.
Weight loss is gonna be very, very slow.
So when I say if you're losing weight or not,
I don't mean tons of pounds, I mean half a pound to a pound per week over multiple weeks.
Never analyze your progress after a single week.
You gotta give it two to three weeks before you decide
whether or not it's working, and it's not gonna be massive.
If the scale goes down even a tiny little bit,
if your clothes fit a little tiny bit better,
that's progress and you need to just keep doing what you're doing.
So if it truly isn't working, if you're not getting results,
you go from where you're currently at and figure out
based on what you know about a calorie deficit,
calories burned versus calories consumed,
and you figure out how to manipulate it in a way,
slightly, that can get you into a calorie deficit.
So you can increase your activity,
or decrease the amount of calories you're consuming.
I love use calorie tracking as a strategy for diet.
Because it's giving you numerical data that you can use
to make decisions about what to do next.
It's very trackable and it makes it much more likely
that you're gonna see results.
So if you're interested in calorie tracking at all,
you can check out my How to Calculate Calories to Lose Weight video.
I like calorie tracking myself, and it's what I use with my clients,
but calorie tracking isn't for everybody.
Again, there is no one size fits all diet strategy.
If you think focusing on the numbers
will not be healthy for you mentally,
I don't recommend calorie tracking.
So the other option that I recommend
is just being more mindful.
For example, become more mindful of your hunger signals.
If you aren't truly hungry, maybe it's not the right decision
to have that snack, or have that meal.
And I'm not talking about that BS of like,
"You're only hungry if you feel like eating vegetables,"
or something, there's no rules, there's no concrete rules to hunger.
I'm not gate-keeping hunger, okay?
Truly look into yourself, and figure out if you're hungry.
You don't have to listen to any of that BS.
When you are hungry, consider what foods
will make you feel satisfied, but also keep you on track to your goals,
and build your meals and snacks with that in mind.
But maybe all it will take is you eating
he same exact meals and foods that you would normally eat,
but just being a little bit more aware of your portion sizes.
And this doesn't require perfection all of the time.
Eating a snack just for the fun of it isn't the end of the world.
And what I encourage with all my clients
is to view your weight loss journey as practice.
As long as you're aiming to learn and get a little bit better,
mistakes don't matter. It's totally normal.
So don't put too much pressure on yourself
to be perfect with this.
Being mindful can sound easy on paper,
but it's absolutely going to take practice.
The key is really to never do something drastic
when you're trying to make changes to your diet
or be in a calorie deficit.
Little tiny behavior changes that are sustainable
is gonna be the best way to go about it.
One little behavior change could be all it takes
to get the scale to start moving.
But it takes patience.
If you're not patient, you're not gonna do it long enough
to see those things happen and you're just gonna constantly be stuck
in this extreme and then quit, extreme and then quit,
and then you're stuck in that yo-yo dieting situation
that I see so many people stuck in.
That's all I have for you guys today.
Let me know if you want me to make
another video talking about more tips
for being in a calorie deficit,
or maybe even how to troubleshoot
if you're trying these things and it still doesn't seem to be working.
I just didn't wanna overload you
with too much information all in one video.
As usual guys, thank you so much for watching!
Don't forget to follow me on Instagram and on TikTok,
and hit the subscribe button here,
and I will see you guys in next weeks video.
Bye!