How Many Calories Do I Consume?
I hope I have made it very clear that I’m neither a doctor, a nutritionist or a dietician, I am merely an experienced dieter. A lot of you have asked what my weightloss program is, which I’m more than happy to share, but I think many of the specifics are irrelevant. For instance, my calorie intake, is entirely irrelevant to everyone who is not me. I do not believe there is some magical caloric number that’s right for everyone, but rather that if you’re counting calories, they should be based on YOUR OWN requirements. If counting calories, I’ve found that a deficit of 20-25% of the calories required to maintain your current weight, seems to work for me for slow and steady fat loss. But remember that as your weight goes down the calories will also have to gradually come down too.
I think one of the key things commonly overlooked is examining what diet is right, specifically for your goal. I was not finding success revealing abs on Keto, so I switched to high protein, moderate carbs and low fat, in a 20% deficit and this seems to have done the trick. I was able to steadily lose fat and maintain muscle. I would check this periodically with a DEXA scan, and shed a silent tear for every single ounce of lost muscle, luckily it was very few tears.
You will lose weight on a diet because your body is using more energy than you are providing from an external source, food. You cannot eat 10,000 calories between 4pm-8pm while intermittent fasting, only burn 5,000 total for the day, and lose weight. If you feel like trying out the carnivore diet, you cannot eat 10,000 calories in rib eyes over the course of a day, while your body only requires 5,000 calories, and lose weight. This will be true for all diets as we go down the list. This is physics. All diets function as tools for weightloss because you consume less than your body requires, and your body must cannibalize itself in order to find the required energy for survival. If part of your goal is retaining lean tissue (muscle) and targeting only fat loss, I’ve found that a high amount of protein is required. A high amount of protein will eventually throw you out of ketosis because of glucogenisis, a process where the liver (and to a lesser degree the kidneys) can take amino acids from protein and turn them into glucose, thus turning off ketosis. So, while I have found keto to be fantastically easy to lose weight on, that weight has consisted of both muscle and fat. (If this is too many words keep listening to the podcast, we talk about all of this!)
I am currently getting 45% of my calories from protein, 40% from carbohydrates, and 15% from fat, while maintaining a 20% deficit of what I would need to maintain my weight. Now when I go in for a DEXA scan, the weight lost is almost entirely fat, whereas before, I had been seeing up 25% of my loss in muscle, thus the ever elusive abs.
If you just want to see a lower number on a scale, there is a diet for that. If you want to lose fat and retain muscle, there is a diet for that. If you just want to fit into a tight pair of jeans for one night and don’t care if it means you’ll regain even more weight than you lost, there is a diet for that too!
What do you want? Get specific. Where do your preferences point you? I know that I found keto very easy to do, it didn’t require a whole lot of thought, and after a few days I just wasn’t as hungry as normal. You can try out any diet to see if it’s right for you. At worst it’s the cost of a book and a little bit of your time, at best it’s a google search and a bit of your time. Try something out without the demand that this is the last diet you’ll ever do. Try out a bunch of diets. One will feel better than the rest. That’s your diet.
Sticking to it could be tough, but if you have to go off, don’t do it emotionally, be analytical about it, and be prepared to get right back on.
If I caved and ordered a pizza tonight, and nothing was prepared for tomorrow for getting back on, that would be a WRAP! DONE! FAILED!
You can game the cheat: take the cheat out of it and make it a plan - figure out how you can increase your energy needs for that day. No longer a cheat!
I hope this was helpful.
Sincerely,