If your goal is to lose body fat, energy balance is the fundamental basis of being able to
lose that fat, but if you're new to counting calories, it can definitely be a confusing
process whenever you're trying to figure out how many calories you need to eat in order
to reach those goals.
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It's somewhat surprising how many people have started off counting calories at this magical
number that I still don't know where it came from, of 1200 calories and whenever it comes
to counting calories and finding out the amount of calories that you're going to need specifically
for your goals and for fat loss, the process is really extremely individualized.
There is no one set number that's going to work for everybody all the time.
Now there are a couple of different ways to calculate calorie estimates for you individually
whenever your goal is fat loss.
The way that I'm going to talk about today in this video is definitely not the only way
to start to get into this, but it's definitely probably the easiest and makes it the quickest
so that you can find a set point and just kind of start to get after it because we know
that whenever we're motivated and we're motivated in the moment, we want to get started now,
and this is going to help you get into a very quick and easy start point so that you can
find a good number to start and see how your body reacts to it.
So in this video, I'm going to show you the main way, not the only way, but definitely
probably the main way that I get people to start on calories for them individually, especially
when I'm working with my clients.
Now, the easiest and quickest way to do this, your one simple step to get started on this
is to use a calorie calculator online.
Now, here's the thing about using these Cali calorie calculators online.
They are not all the same.
Different calculators will use different equations and there are certain equations that have
been shown to be more accurate than others and whenever you are starting out and you're
trying to pick a calorie standpoint, this is going to be one of those that it's going
to be an educated guessing game.
No matter what method you go by, there's no way to 100% accurately know how many calories
you're burning every single day, day in and day out.
It's an educated guessing game, but these calorie calculators when using the right equations
can definitely help get you into a good starting point.
You test it out, you see how your body responds, and then you make adjustments as you go.
Now when you're using a calorie calculator online, my recommendation is that you find
one that uses what's called the Mifflin st George equation.
There are a few different equations out there that you could potentially use.
This one, when you look into the research, you look into the literature.
This one seems to be the most accurate out of the options out there, but here's the thing
that you need to understand is, is kind of what I mentioned earlier that it's still an
educated guessing game.
There is no perfect equation or perfect way to know exactly what's going on and when you
look into the research on this equation, even though it was the most accurate one, that
in about 25% of the people that participated in this study, it was still around 10% or
more off on their calorie calculations.
So understand that whenever you pick these numbers, it's just a starting point.
You still have to see how your body is choosing to react to the calories that you're taking
in on a daily basis.
I'll link below to the one that recommend the one that I use.
Typically a easy, you just click the website, go right to it.
Whenever you go to this website, it's going to ask you a few different questions.
It's going to ask you to input your age, your height, your weight, your activity levels.
It's going to ask you to put in a few, quite a few questions to fill out so that it can
get some baseline information, uh, to get an idea of where things you should be as far
as the starting point and it's going to give you multiple different options to start off
with.
Now for me personally, I always have my clients start off on the higher end of the range.
This is one of those things that me from my goals and my clients, regardless of what their
goals are, if it's fat loss, muscle gain, any of the above, I always want them to eat
as many calories as possible and still be moving towards their goals.
If you are eating the maximum amount of calories that you can eat and still moving towards
your goals, it's going to be ultimately better for your metabolism is going to help you get
in more nutrients overall and it's going to make it easier to stick with a diet because
there's potentially going to be less hunger if you're eating more calories and again still
moving in the direction that you want to be moving.
You have to be able to look at regardless of what plan you're taking or what route you're
going, you have to be able to look at the short term and the longterm, both whenever
it comes to creating a nutritional lifestyle because if you pick something and you can't
stick with it and it doesn't really matter if you do something and it's the perfect diet
for you, the perfect diet, but if you can't stick it, stick to it more than three or four
weeks or even more than a month or two, then it doesn't do you any good.
You have to find something that you can look at and say, you know what?
This is something that in one year from now and two years from now and five years from
now, I could still potentially be following this because it fits into my lifestyle.
And that being said is why I always have my clients start on the higher end of the calories
to see how their body reacts first.
Because if you can eat 2000 calories a day, and I'm making up numbers, but if you can
eat 2000 calories a day and still be moving in the direction of your goals, if your goal
is weight loss, and if you're eating 2000 calories a day and you're still losing a pound
or a pound and a half a week, why eat 1600 calories if you can eat 2000 calories and
still be moving in that direction?
So whenever you input all your information and it gives you a list of everything, here's
what I would recommend that you do.
Look at the one pound of weight per week, lost those numbers that it lists out is where
I would recommend that you start.
Again, you're starting off on the higher end.
Give everybody at least one a week, uh, preferentially you're going to give it two weeks and see
how your body responds.
Uh, did you drop any weight on the scale?
Are you taking pictures?
Do they look any different?
Are you taking measurements?
Have they changed?
Are you clothes fitting any differently?
Whatever measurements you are using to see that you are making progress, is there change
in one to two weeks?
If there's not any change, then this is whenever I would go back and I may go closer to the
two pound range, maybe split the middle or move all the way down to where it says the
calorie numbers for two pounds a week.
If you are making changes, then don't, don't change anything with your calorie intake.
I'm a big believer in if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I have quite a few clients that they start making progress and they're like, okay, what
can I do more?
What can I do next?
Nothing.
If what you're doing is working and is keeping you healthy, then keep moving in that direction.
One thing to also is that whenever you're looking at a calorie number, you don't have
to hit that exact number every single day.
You're just trying to make it to where over the period of a week that you are averaging
that specific number.
So let me give you an example.
So if you want to, if if you had to eat 2000 calories a day every single day in order for
you to lose weight, you could eat 2000 calories every day and move towards your goals.
That's fine.
Nothing wrong with that.
You can also fluctuate things as needed.
So let me give you an example.
Let's say that you use shrink train three times a week and you know that on the days
that you shrink train that your appetite's a little higher, you find that you're a little
bit hungrier.
So maybe the 2000 calories might be a little bit harder for you to stick with.
So in those situations, on the days that your shrink training, maybe you bump it up to 2200
calories a day.
So three days a week you're eating 2200 calories a day, so the other four days of the week
that you're not string training, you drop it down to 1,850 calories a day, so you've
got three days a week of eating 2200 calories.
You've got four days a week of eating 1,850 calories.
When you take that and you average it over seven days, your average is still 2000 calories
per day, so there is no right or wrong way to go about this.
You can eat the same amount, you can structure it.
The overall goal is just over that period of the week is that you were trying to average
the same amount of calories consistently to see what kind of results you get and how your
body responds to what you're doing.
Now, once you do actually start tracking and you get a good calorie range, I've had quite
a few people tell me that sometimes they struggle with reading and understanding everything
that's on a nutritional label.
I've actually done a video on this topic, so I'll link below to it in the description.
If that's something that you think that you might be able to learn a little bit more about
or that you need some assistance in, watch that video, check it out, learn a little bit
more about the nutritional labels and how that can relate to paying attention to calorie
counting.
Now here's an important thing to be aware of.
Once you find your calorie range and you start following it and you're seeing results, eventually
you're potentially going to get to a point where you plateau.
This is completely normal and honestly for longterm survival, it's a good thing, but
whenever you plateau, what you have to understand is that as you're starting to dye it and as
you're starting to lose weight and you're in a negative energy balance and you're eating
less calories, that your resting metabolic rate, which is essentially if you sat around
and did nothing all day, that's how many calories you would burn in a day.
If you did nothing, that's your resting metabolic rate.
That resting metabolic rate is going to potentially start to drop and it's going to start to match
the amount of calories that you're taking in every day.
And whenever this happens, you're potentially going to have to adjust the amount of calories
that you take in.
So understand that plateaus happen.
This is a normal part of the process regardless of what diet plan you're following.
And whenever this happens, the beauty of you counting calories is that whenever you do
plateau, you already know how much you're eating on a daily basis.
So it makes it a lot easier for you to understand, okay, I've now plateaued, I've stayed the
same for the last couple of weeks.
Then you start to adjust and you drop the calories or increase the activity level in
order to adjust for the plateau that you've hit.
So now you know how to calculate your calorie intake for fat loss, but there are still other
steps that are involved in creating an overall nutritional lifestyle.
So what I've done for you is I have actually created a free guide.
It's my yoyo dieting cure guide.
I'll put the link below in the description.
This is going to help you on the, the rest of the aspects of trying to create a nutritional
lifestyle and make sure that these, the, the, the goals that you're reaching towards and
that the direction that you're moving, that it sticks, that it lasts and it stays longterm.
Because as I mentioned before, you want to focus on the longterm as well as the short
term.
So I'm going to put a link below for this in the description.
Click that link, download the guide, absolutely free.
And of course, as always, if you enjoy this video, I'd appreciate it if you would smash
that like button, subscribe to the channel and, uh, I'll see you guys in the next video.