"It's a Calories in VS a Calories out" Math...is it really?

Active Living Active Living
Sep 18, 2024
7 min read

Updated: Sep 29, 2024

Another week has come and gone! Welcome back to my weekly catchup and blog.

TOPIC OF THE WEEK

You must have heard this a 1000 times before..."its a calories in VS a calories out" math equation. And its TRUE...for you to loose the fat and weight on the scale and tone up, YOU need to be in a caloric deficit.

99.9% of people that say they are in a deficit, honesty isn't. If you really are in that deficit, the scale will come down.

The simple truth is, if you want to loose the weight and cms, you need to be in a caloric deficit. A TRUE deficit.

But lets back track a bit. Last week I spoke about the macro nutrients that we need to get into our diet to have all the needed building blocks for our body to function. Well there is another term you need to understand to get this right.

BMR - Basil Metabolic Rate - this is the energy your body needs and uses to live each day. The amount of calories you burn if you would sleep for 24hours. We can look at this like the oil in our car. Oil needs to be topped up to a specific level in our vehicles for them to work. if the oil goes below the needed level the engine will seize up and the car/vehicle will break down.

The same with our body. BMR is the amount of baseline Fuel your body needs to function...going lower, you might get away with it for a while, but somewhere it will start catching up. Two things will happen, You are either going to start experiencing low energy and lethargy, and your metabolism WILL slow down and require less energy to work on a daily basis. If we keep eating too little with no nutrients - getting into that caloric deficit will require being in a way too low caloric intake.

What we need is to keep our metabolic function speed at optimum level while then being in that caloric deficit. THUS, - eating more to loose, not less

HOW... Well that's where I come in, as a nutritionist we have been taught to look at these factors and help you stay above your minimum optimal fuelling amount while being in that deficit. Calculating what your body uses and what it needs, and then giving you the Macro nutrient parameters to work in.

Some of you might need a period of reverse dieting and metabolic repair, because you have been in a deficit for too long, OR you have a metabolic disease that needs a bit of TLC. This all takes time. Everyone is different. We are trained to help, IT will require a period of adaption and change , guaranteed, when you see those numbers come down, you will be thankful for trusting the process.

Achieving balance while being in that deficit is the sweet spot. Most of my clients see success when they realise that grazing is not needed. They learn they do not need to scared of calories and eating a meal with a higher caloric value 3 times a day, sometimes is better than eating 5-6 meals at a lower level.

The higher value meals keeps us from snacking and without a lot of issues, we keep the calories in check. What we then also teach our metabolism is routine. Like a lot of things in life our bodies like routine. It knows its going to get 3 meals a day, with adequate nutrients therefor it doesn't need anything else.

The lower value meals a lot of times leaves us craving for more, and this opens the door to unnecessary snacking and grazing. Honestly...that is where people spill over in their allowances.

When we eat a balanced meal with adequate macro's, 3 -4 times a day. What happens? Our bodies start using the nutrients more optimally, we ingest enough protein so our muscle mass increases, our metabolic rate therefor also increases and without us really trying...our bodies burn more energy to live...muscles needs more fuel than fat to live...but fat needs more space...so!!!!

Back to Calories in VS Calories out... yes that simple... 3-4 meals a day with adequate macro nutrients in each. Balanced Colourful meal. Be it in the form of a fry up, salad, stew, Sandwich, smoothy or what ever...the key is balanced.

It keeps you full till the next meal, you don't need the snacks. you look at your food log...and BOB's your uncle... you have hit your deficit goal and you see results within the first week.

The other side of the coin.

You eat small, un filling meals, you are always feel like that "something" after you eat, You graze on this that and anything...the day you actually log it HONESTLY you go into a complete breakdown....its way too much...then the next day you don't log it...and the next ...and the next....

What MOST people then do is... one piece of cheese, bit of vienna, one cookie, a bit of chips, one or two large caramel latte's. They think that doesn't count and its not all that much.... well I can tell you that these five items listed above, can add up to sometimes 300 - 400 calories or more...it can add up to 700 calories if you consider that depending on the milk and syrup used that latte can go up to 400 calories.

There you guessed it. You just killed your deficit.

Some may loose the cms because they started exercising and toning - which is amazing and NEEDED...but the movement on the scale for someone that has more than 1 or 2% of their body weight to loose is also crucial...because that is where our bones get help by carrying less load.

Yes - BMI has a role to play - and cannot totally be thrown out the window. (My view on BMI - you can read HERE)

So sum this all up... in the end you need to consume less calories than you burn to loose actual scale weight and cms. Yes exercise helps, BUT only accounts for 5% of the day and total daily energy expenditure (more on that next week)

But in the mean time take a look, go have a read through some of the other blogs I Published at what might be sabotaging your progress.

AND Why protein is essential for fat loss.

Have a great week. Lets look at my training diary!

TRAINING DIARY

What sessions I did this Week

Run 2

Ride 1

Swim 1

Strength 3

Mobility 2

Other 2

MONDAY - Early start today, I was suppose to do 40min Run with 4 x 60 sec easy climbs and 1 x 4min fast and hard Climb.

I got to gym and the treadmills was loaded and I was short on time to wait for one. Because I have been working in training adaption for a while I knew to replace the session with Elliptical and then stair stepper.

So I did a 30min Elliptical session on resistance 10 for normal running at a SPM (Leg speed/Cadence)of 90 - 120, for the climbs I increased the resistance to 20 and brought down my SPM (Leg Speed/Cadence) to 60 - 70.

I finished off my 40min with a 10 min stair stepper session where my standard speed is about 9-10 - for the interval I increased the speed to 13.

This is all relative and every person will be different, BUT...I managed the aerobic Zone workout that I needed to do, and got my climbing and hill prep in.

As per standard Monday, I did my first lifting session for the week.

I could feel it this afternoon!

TUESDAY - Easy day for me here, remembering I am racing on Sunday so intensity this week has been dialled back a bit.

Did a kettlebell workout with the training buddies and we had lots of fun

Normally a hard workout but worth the effort as its a full body shake out in couple of moves.

Wednesday - Nice solid run this morning, we had the dogs with us so that always ups the intensity a bit.

I followed it by a decent Stretch and foam rolling session and a quick Sauna session.

Mobility is really a key practice that gets overlooked by so many of us and the athletes I work with.

Simple question....CAN YOU TOUCH YOUR TOES? yes or no...no buts, ifs or maybe's... you need to be able to do that and do it comfortably with legs that are semi straight...

Why Foam rolling. Myofascial release therapy is a type of gentle, constant massage that releases tightness and pain throughout your myofascial tissues.

I just give my athletes the choice, you either do it yourself or pay someone to hurt you and get those muscles mobile LOL.

THURSDAY - A new routine for Thursday from last week and glad to say that it went well. I did my normal lifting session and kept the weights at moderate because I knew the box class was after.

Box class was Squat, lunge, deadlift and bag work. Goodness me what a session, but thoroughly enjoyed it. Not much more to say than....this is going to hurt tomorrow. haha.

Not 100% ideal before Sunday's race BUT, I am sure that with good nutrition and some rest on Saturday. I will hit Sunday with guns blazing.

FRIDAY - you know the saying....famous last words...well this morning was interesting!

Spinning was a struggle...my legs was sore! haha and the lunges hit deep! BUT...What doesn't kill you makes you stronger and we got off the bike feeling like a million bucks.

Because I was only half way awake after the class no photos today.

The normal Friday swim was on the cards and after a good Herbalife F1 Shake mixed into my smoothy this morning and a nice stretch and sauna session I hit the pool and did my 1k. The total time in the pool today was again less than the last time, so we are improving.

If you read my first training logs you will know that I treat Friday swim as a recovery session Thus the Heart rate will always be majority in my recovery zone.

SATURDAY - Planned Rest day today - Tomorrow is race day.

I still moved though, A rest day doesn't have to be a couch day. I did a Park run event close by with a friend and her kids and it was the perfect morning to just get the still legs moving.