How Many Calories Should You Eat To Lose Fat? (GET THIS RIGHT!)

Summary

This video explains the importance of calorie intake for effective fat loss while preserving muscle mass. It provides a simple calculation to estimate daily calorie needs based on body weight, and offers guidance on determining an optimal rate of weight loss using body fat percentage. The video emphasizes fine-tuning calorie intake based on progress over time, avoiding drastic calorie cuts, and not overestimating calories burned during exercise. Viewers are encouraged to monitor their weight and adjust accordingly for sustainable fat loss. A personalized training and nutrition program is also recommended.

Takeaways

• 💡 The key to fat loss is consuming the right amount of calories, regardless of how clean your diet is.
• ⚖️ Eating too many calories hinders fat loss, while eating too few may result in muscle loss.
• 📏 To estimate daily calorie intake, multiply your body weight in pounds by 10-13, adjusting for activity level and age.
• ⏳ A safe rate of weight loss is 0.5-1% of body weight per week, with higher fat levels allowing faster loss without muscle loss.
• 📉 Use body fat percentage divided by 20 to determine a more accurate rate of weight loss.
• 📝 Track calorie intake and body weight for 4 weeks, and adjust calories if weight loss is slower or faster than the target.
• ⚖️ Avoid trying to 'eat back' calories burned during exercise, as people often overestimate calories burned, especially with fitness trackers.
• 🏋️ Resistance training burns fewer calories than expected; cardio is slightly better but still often overestimated.
• 📊 Use a consistent tracking approach, adjusting calorie intake based on weight change to maintain a sustainable deficit.
• 🏆 The ultimate goal is long-term sustainability, not a race, so adjust your calorie deficit based on personal comfort and adherence.

Q & A

What is the importance of calories when it comes to dieting and fat loss?

Calories are crucial in dieting and fat loss because consuming the right amount determines whether your body starts burning stored fat for energy. Consuming too many calories prevents fat loss, while consuming too few can lead to muscle loss.

Why is it problematic to eat too few calories during fat loss?

Eating too few calories can lead to muscle loss, which is not only detrimental to physical appearance but also contributes to increased appetite and weight regain after the diet, making long-term success harder to achieve.

How can you estimate the number of calories you need to lose fat?

You can estimate the number of calories by multiplying your body weight in pounds by a factor between 10 and 13. Choose a higher multiplier if you're younger, leaner, or more active, and a lower multiplier if you're older, less lean, or less active.

What is the recommended rate of weight loss to avoid muscle loss?

A general recommendation is to lose 0.5% to 1% of your body weight per week, depending on your current body fat percentage. The more body fat you have, the faster you can safely lose weight without risking muscle loss.

How do you calculate your optimal rate of weight loss using your body fat percentage?

To determine your optimal rate of weight loss, divide your current estimated body fat percentage by 20. The result is the percentage of body weight you should aim to lose per week to minimize muscle loss.

How should you monitor your progress during a fat loss diet?

Monitor your daily calorie intake and track your morning body weight. After about four weeks of tracking, analyze how your weight has changed relative to your calorie intake and adjust accordingly if weight loss is faster or slower than expected.

What should you do if you're losing weight slower or faster than expected?

If you're losing weight slower than expected, decrease your calorie intake by about 10%. If you're losing weight too quickly, increase your calorie intake slightly to avoid muscle loss.

Why is it important to avoid eating back the calories burned during exercise?

It's important because fitness trackers, cardio machines, and personal estimations often overestimate calorie burn, leading to inaccurate adjustments. Additionally, the calorie intake estimate already considers average activity levels.

What should you consider when determining if your calorie deficit is sustainable?

You should consider whether your rate of weight loss is manageable for you personally. If the recommended deficit feels too aggressive, slow it down to ensure it is sustainable for long-term success.

When would it be appropriate to eat back calories burned during exercise?

It would be appropriate to eat back calories if you are an athlete with a significant event or multiple intense training sessions in a day, where you burn considerably more calories than usual. In such cases, increasing intake, primarily through carbohydrates, is advisable.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Understanding the Importance of Calorie Control

This paragraph emphasizes the critical role that calorie intake plays in dieting and fat loss. It explains that maintaining a proper calorie deficit is key to burning fat while preserving muscle. It introduces the idea that many people either eat too many or too few calories, leading to either ineffective fat loss or muscle degradation. The video aims to clarify these issues and help viewers pinpoint their ideal calorie intake to maximize fat loss while minimizing muscle loss.

05:00

📊 Simple Calculation for Initial Calorie Estimation

This section provides a straightforward method to estimate the number of calories needed to lose fat. It suggests using body weight in pounds, multiplied by 10-13, depending on age, activity level, and body composition. This approach serves as a starting point, acknowledging that it’s a general estimate, and adjustments will be made later based on progress.

⚖️ Finding the Right Rate of Weight Loss

This paragraph highlights the importance of determining an appropriate rate of weight loss. It discusses the risks of losing weight too quickly, such as muscle loss and the potential for rebound weight gain. Research is mentioned, indicating that maintaining muscle mass is crucial for both short- and long-term success. A calculation is introduced, where the percentage of body fat is divided by 20 to determine the ideal rate of weight loss, ensuring fat loss without muscle loss.

🧮 Refining Your Calorie Intake Based on Progress

Here, the video advises tracking weight and calorie intake over four weeks to fine-tune the initial estimate. It stresses the need to monitor weight changes after the first week (which often involves water weight loss). The idea is to adjust calorie intake based on actual progress, either lowering or increasing calories to match the desired rate of weight loss, while ensuring sustainability and avoiding muscle loss.

📉 Practical Example: Adjusting Calorie Intake

This paragraph provides an example using a hypothetical person, Steve, who adjusts his calorie intake based on his weight loss progress. Steve’s goal is to lose one pound per week, but after tracking his calories, he finds that his rate of loss is slower than expected. The video shows how to tweak calorie intake, either decreasing or increasing calories to stay on track with the weight loss goal.

⛔ Avoiding Common Mistakes: Don’t Eat Back Workout Calories

This section cautions against a common mistake—eating back calories burned during exercise. It explains that fitness trackers and cardio machines often overestimate calorie burn, leading people to consume more than they should. Studies are cited showing that resistance training doesn’t burn as many calories as people believe, and thus, the video suggests sticking to the planned calorie deficit without adjusting for workout calories unless doing significantly more physical activity.

🏋️ Exercise and Calorie Adjustment for Athletes

In rare cases, athletes with multiple training sessions or competitions may need to adjust their calorie intake to match higher energy expenditure. For regular individuals, the initial calorie estimate already takes daily activity levels into account. However, for athletes, adding more calories (especially carbohydrates) can be beneficial to fuel performance during periods of intense training.

🚀 Recap: Steps to Start Losing Fat Efficiently

This concluding paragraph summarizes the three-step process for starting a fat loss journey: estimate calorie intake, determine the ideal rate of weight loss, and track progress to fine-tune the plan. It stresses the importance of accurate tracking and consistency, suggesting that sustainable fat loss comes from monitoring and adjusting over time. The video promotes a program that simplifies this process using software to automatically adjust calorie intake as progress is made.

Keywords

💡Calories

Calories refer to the units of energy that the body derives from food. In the video, calories are central to the theme of dieting and fat loss. The speaker emphasizes the importance of consuming the correct amount of calories to create a caloric deficit, which forces the body to burn stored fat for energy. The video's approach stresses that both consuming too many or too few calories can negatively impact fat loss and muscle retention.

💡Caloric Deficit

A caloric deficit occurs when a person consumes fewer calories than the body needs to maintain its current weight, leading to fat loss as the body starts to use stored fat for energy. The video explains that this is key to effective weight loss, but it must be carefully managed to avoid muscle loss. The speaker provides a method for estimating the right caloric intake to create a safe and effective deficit.

💡Muscle Loss

Muscle loss refers to the breakdown of muscle tissue, often as a result of consuming too few calories during a diet. The video warns that rapid weight loss can lead to muscle loss, which not only affects physique but also increases the likelihood of regaining weight after the diet. Therefore, preserving muscle mass while losing fat is highlighted as crucial for long-term success.

💡Body Fat Percentage

Body fat percentage is the proportion of fat in a person's body relative to their total body weight. The video discusses how higher body fat percentages allow for faster fat loss without risking muscle loss, while lower percentages require a slower rate of weight loss to avoid damaging muscle mass. The speaker uses this concept to personalize fat loss recommendations based on an individual's starting body composition.

💡Rate of Weight Loss

Rate of weight loss is the speed at which a person loses weight, typically measured as a percentage of body weight per week. The video advises aiming for 0.5% to 1% of total body weight lost per week to prevent muscle loss. This rate is adjusted based on body fat percentage, with leaner individuals needing to lose weight more slowly to maintain muscle mass.

💡Fine-tuning Calorie Intake

Fine-tuning calorie intake refers to adjusting the amount of calories consumed based on progress towards weight loss goals. The video emphasizes the importance of monitoring body weight and adjusting calorie intake over time to achieve the desired rate of fat loss. If weight loss is too slow or too fast, small adjustments to calorie intake are recommended to better match the target rate.

💡Exercise and Calorie Burn

Exercise and calorie burn refer to the energy expended during physical activity. The video cautions against overestimating the calories burned during exercise, which can lead to overeating and slow weight loss. It highlights that activities like weightlifting burn fewer calories than people often assume, so the calories burned should not be 'eaten back' as part of the diet.

💡Tracking Progress

Tracking progress involves monitoring daily calorie intake and body weight over time to evaluate the effectiveness of a diet. The video suggests using morning body weight and weekly averages to assess how well the caloric deficit is working, which helps with fine-tuning the diet to reach fat loss goals. Consistency in tracking is emphasized for accurate adjustments.

💡Sustainability

Sustainability in dieting refers to maintaining a consistent and manageable approach to caloric intake and fat loss over time. The video stresses that extreme caloric deficits or overly rapid weight loss are unsustainable for most people. It encourages viewers to find a weight loss pace that they can comfortably stick to for long-term success, rather than treating fat loss as a race.

💡Muscle Osmotin

Muscle osmotin is a protein linked to muscle mass, appetite regulation, and the tendency to regain weight after dieting. The video references recent research showing that muscle loss during a diet can increase appetite and make it harder to maintain weight loss afterward. Preserving muscle while dieting is essential to avoid a cycle of rapid fat loss followed by regaining weight.

Highlights

Understanding the importance of calories in fat loss, regardless of how clean the diet is.

For fat loss to occur, you must eat the right amount of calories to force the body to burn stored fat for energy.

Mistakes in dieting often come from eating too many calories or too few, which could lead to muscle loss.

To start, estimate daily calorie intake by multiplying body weight (in pounds) by 10 to 13, depending on activity level and body composition.

It's essential to lose weight at a sustainable rate to avoid muscle loss and maintain long-term success.

Research shows rapid weight loss leads to muscle loss and increased appetite, making it harder to maintain fat loss.

Aim for a weight loss rate of 0.5% to 1% of your body weight per week to preserve muscle.

Greg Knuckles' method: Calculate a personalized weight loss rate using your body fat percentage divided by 20.

Track calorie intake and body weight over four weeks to fine-tune your calorie needs for fat loss.

Adjust calories by around 10% if weight loss is too slow or too fast to achieve the target rate of weight loss.

Make calorie deficit sustainable for long-term success, even if the recommended weight loss rate feels too aggressive.

Avoid eating back calories burned during exercise, as calorie burn is often overestimated.

Fitness trackers overestimate calories burned by around 20%, making it unreliable to eat back calories.

For regular workouts, physical activity is already accounted for in calorie estimates, so additional adjustments aren't necessary.

Consistency in calorie tracking and physical activity is key to successfully managing fat loss without losing muscle.

Transcripts

the fact that you've decided to click

this video tells me that you know the

importance of calories when it comes to

dieting and lose fat

regardless of how clean your diet may be

and you likely also understand that in

order for fat loss to occur

you need to be eating the right amount

of calories to force your body to start

burning the stored fat that you have for

energy

now this sounds simple in theory but in

practice people often screw this up

and they screw it up by either eating

too many calories to see any noticeable

change

or they'll eat too few calories and end

up burning their hard-earned muscle off

for energy instead of fat

in today's video i'll clear up the

confusion for you and show you how to

pinpoint exactly how many calories your

specific body needs a day

in order to maximize your fat loss while

minimizing muscle loss and any other

negative effects

the first step is to get a general

estimate of the amount of calories you

should be eating to start experiencing

fat loss

which we can then refine later on now to

get this estimate there's an

overwhelming number of different

equations and calculators out there for

us to choose from

but keep in mind that even with the most

accurate of the equations out there like

the cash mercardo method for instance

they are all estimates and are not going

to be 100 accurate methods for

pinpointing exactly what your calorie

intake should be to lose fat

instead they all require some fine

tuning based on how you progress

which is what we're gonna do in step two

so for now

just to avoid over complicating things

what i'd recommend is to instead use a

very simple calculation that for most

people

is going to put them into a calorie

deficit and is a good starting point for

us to then refine

all you do is you take your body weight

in pounds and you multiply that by

anywhere from 10 to 13.

if you're a younger leaner and or more

active individual

then go with the higher end of this

range if you're an older less lean

and or less active individual then go

with the lower end of this range

this will then give you a good estimate

of the number of calories that you

should start eating that per day in

order to lose weight

the next step is to determine what an

appropriate rate of weight loss would be

based on your specific body

this is important for us to get right

because if we eat too

few calories and lose weight too quickly

not only is this unsustainable for most

of us in the long run

but it also puts us at a greater risk

for muscle loss

and we want to avoid that from happening

not only because it will take away from

our physiques once we do lose a bunch of

weight

but also because of what happens after

we diet for example

recent 2020 research found that muscle

osmotin

is associated with an increased appetite

and

increased weight regained after the diet

is over

leading subjects to end up in a worse

position than they were

before they started their diets meaning

that for the best chances of both

short-term

and long-term success maintaining your

muscle mass as you die

down needs to be a priority and we can

do this by using an appropriate rate of

weight loss

and a good general guideline to stick to

is one recommended by the work of dr

hams and colleagues

which is to aim for a rate of weight

loss of no more than 0.5 to 1

of your body weight per week however

taking this guideline

one step further we know based on past

research that the more body fat that you

have to lose

the faster you can lose fat without

risking muscle loss which is why we see

a range with dr helmsl's recommendation

so what you can do to refine and

personalize this guideline a little bit

more

is to use a simple calculation developed

by greg knuckles

which is to take your current estimated

body fat percentage

and divide that by 20. the number you

get will be a more accurate percentage

rate of weight loss that you'll want to

aim for per week

and it's going to enable you to maximize

fat loss with minimal or no muscle loss

so for example if you're currently at 20

body fat you can safely lose around one

percent of your body weight per week

for 190 pound individual this would

equate to a rate of weight loss of

roughly two pounds per week

but in another case for a 180 pound

individual at 15

body fat using the body fat percentage

divided by 20 calculation

they could safely lose around 0.75

percent of their body weight per week

which is a slower rate of weight loss of

around 1.5 pounds per week

so just take a look at this body fat

chart estimate your current body fat

and use this simple calculation to

determine what the appropriate rate of

weight loss would be for you

once you have this number down it's time

to implement it and fine tune it with

step three

where you want to start adhering to and

monitoring your daily calorie intake as

well as tracking your morning body

weight

we're going to use this data to fine

tune your calorie intake so it's no

longer a rough estimation of what we

should be eating that to lose fat

but instead much more accurate and

fine-tuned to you specifically

to do so after about four weeks of

tracking analyze the data

week one we can often dismiss since most

people will lose quite a bit of water

weight during this initial period of

dieting

but in the following weeks we want to

look a little bit more closely at the

numbers

more specifically how has your weight

changed relative to your calorie intake

for instance let's say steve at 15 body

fat 160 pounds

has a goal rate of weight loss of about

one pound per week and is eating at 2

000 calories a day to try to achieve

that

but after implementing this from weeks

two to four he found that his

actual weight loss was slower than his

target as he only lost on average about

half a pound per week

this is good but indicates that his

estimated calorie intake was just a

little bit too high

so to adjust only if he felt he could do

so he would simply drop

his calories by another 10 or so to hit

his target rate of weight loss a little

bit more accurately

on the other hand if steve was losing

weight too quickly

so for example two plus pounds per week

then he'd actually want to do the

opposite and

increases calories slightly just to slow

this down to minimize the risk of muscle

loss

and that's basically all there is to it

you put your original estimate into

practice and then fine-tune this number

based on how your weight progresses

throughout the weeks

but also take into consideration how

sustainable the calorie deficit you're

adhering to is

science aside if your recommended rate

of weight loss is two pounds per week

yet you just personally find this pretty

difficult and too aggressive of a

deficit then slow it down

it's not a race stick with a rate of

weight loss that's sustainable for you

as that's ultimately what's most

important for long-term success

now with that being said there's one all

too common mistake that people make with

these three steps that you'll want to

avoid

which is attempting to eat back the

calories that they burn from their

workouts

or from exercise in general and this is

problematic for a couple reasons

the first reason is because fitness

trackers cardio machines and even

us as humans are terrible at estimating

the calories we burn through exercise

and we almost always overestimate it by

at least 20 percent

in a typical weights workout for example

you actually don't burn very many

calories at all

illustrating this is a 2019 paper which

found that after

a full body resistance training workout

male subjects on average

burned an additional 160 calories during

the workout

and females burn about half that at

about 80 calories

plus an additional yet insignificant 8

calories burned from that afterburn

effect

which is much at all and becomes

problematic because after grueling leg

day for example

oftentimes we'll have a cheat meal or

just eat everything in sight

thinking that we'll easily offset it

from the calories that we burn during

the big workout which just

isn't true cardio is a little bit better

at burning calories but still

people overestimate the calories that

burn here just as bad

and secondly the three-step method that

i previously went through it already

takes into account and averages your

activity levels

therefore the calories that you burn

from physical activity and throughout

the day are already accounted for

and if you do end up losing weight too

quickly because of your additional

exercise

then you would just adjust this by

eating more as we discussed earlier

so just keep it simple the only times

when this would potentially apply is if

you're an athlete and have a big sports

event

competition or two a day training

session coming up

where you would burn considerably more

calories than you normally would

in this case it would be advised and

recommended to bump up your intake for

that day

mainly with carbs just to fuel your

performance so

to wrap everything up for you here is a

step-by-step

example of how you could start applying

this right away

first determine what your estimated

calorie intake should be to lose fat

based on the simple equation outlined in

step one

then determine what your optimal rate of

weight loss should be

based on the simple equation outlined in

step two

and finally implement this while

monitoring how your weight progresses

throughout the weeks

and if needed adjust your calorie intake

so that your actual

rate of weight loss is closer to your

target and that's pretty much all there

is to it

this does however assume that you're

tracking accurately in the first place

and being consistent with your activity

levels

so don't overlook those other variables

as well as they are just as important

and for a step-by-step program that

shows you how to easily set up

track and monitor each of these

important variables

while equipping you with a science-based

nutrition

and training program designed to

transform your body as efficiently as

possible

and simply head on over to

buildwithscience.com and take our

analysis quiz to discover

the best program for you and your

specific body

within the program i've also developed a

nutrition software that will take care

of

all the guesswork for you by adjusting

your calories and macros for you

as you progress throughout the weeks so

check it out as it really has been a

game changer for all of our members

anyways that is it for today's video

guys i hope you enjoyed it please don't

forget to show your support by giving

the video a like

leaving a comment down below as to what

you'd like to see me cover next

subscribe to the channel and turn in on

notifications for the channel as well as

this all really does help me out

thank you so much everyone see you next

[Music]

time

you