HOW MANY CALORIES SHOULD YOU BE EATING FOR FAT LOSS?
I’m pretty sure you’ve heard the word ‘calories’ thrown around many a time when it comes to the health & fitness industry. We’re always told you need to be in a caloric deficit or surplus to hit your goal, and it’s all good hearing this, but do you really understand it?
Our understanding of any topic in life, allows us to be better informed about the decisions we will make. In this case, better decisions around our food choices and how to make them work for your personal goal.
So by the end of this I hope to leave you with confidence in your understanding of calories, and the tools to be able to make better decisions when it comes to your food choices.
No matter what time of the day you eat your meals, a calorie is still a calorie. In the simplest of terms a ‘calorie’ is a unit of energy. Your body requires these units of energy in order to be able to perform everyday tasks, functions of the body and exercise.
When you consume food, your bodies begin to break it down to absorb the nutrients it contains. During this process is where your body begins to use up the calories within the food as a source of fuel, how much it uses will be dependent on your level of activity.
Any calories that your body does not use as a source of fuel, will then be stored within your body’s fat cells for later use, if needed. This is what we call an excess of calories, where you are consuming more than your body needs in a given day.
Doing this repeatedly over time, will cause your body's fat cells to expand in order to make room for the constant excess of calories that you are eating on a daily basis. Leading to an increase in some cases weight, but mostly body fat.
The key point to remember here is that this doesn’t happen based on an excess of calories eaten over one day. This is something that you will have been doing on a consistent basis, that equates to your weekly calories being in a caloric surplus.
(Caloric Surplus = the amount of calories you consume is more than the amount you burn)
However, like all areas of life, there's a silver lining to be found here. If you feel like this is you or you’ve been in this calorie excess for too long, you can start working to reverse this and get back on track.
How you do this is by creating a consistent caloric deficit, allowing your body to use these fat stores for energy. As your body won’t be getting enough energy from the calories you consume it will look to the stored fat cells as a source of energy, in turn leading to a reduction in body fat.
(Caloric Deficit - the amount of calories you consume is less than the amount you burn)
Sounds easy right? The frustration only begins to settle in when we don’t see the results as quickly as we would like. But always keep in mind, the excess fat stores didn’t happen overnight, so neither will the reduction of them.
I know maybe I shouldn’t say this but facing the reality, allows us to make an honest change, where needed. You consistently stuck to the ‘no-limit’ plan which led to an excess of body fat. So try sticking to the caloric deficit plan for the same amount of time, if not longer and the rewards will eventually begin to take shape.
