How Many Calories Should You Eat To Lose Fat? (GET THIS RIGHT!)
Summary
TLDRThis 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
- ๐ก The key to fat loss is consuming the right amount of calories, regardless of how clean your diet is.
- โ๏ธ Eating too many calories hinders fat loss, while eating too few may result in muscle loss.
- ๐ To estimate daily calorie intake, multiply your body weight in pounds by 10-13, adjusting for activity level and age.
- โณ 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.
- ๐ Use body fat percentage divided by 20 to determine a more accurate rate of weight loss.
- ๐ Track calorie intake and body weight for 4 weeks, and adjust calories if weight loss is slower or faster than the target.
- โ๏ธ Avoid trying to 'eat back' calories burned during exercise, as people often overestimate calories burned, especially with fitness trackers.
- ๐๏ธ Resistance training burns fewer calories than expected; cardio is slightly better but still often overestimated.
- ๐ Use a consistent tracking approach, adjusting calorie intake based on weight change to maintain a sustainable deficit.
- ๐ 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
๐ 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.
๐ 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 itโs a general estimate, and adjustments will be made later based on progress.
โ๏ธ 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.
๐งฎ 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.
๐ 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. Steveโs 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.
โ Avoiding Common Mistakes: Donโt Eat Back Workout Calories
This section cautions against a common mistakeโeating 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 doesnโt 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.
๐๏ธ 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.
๐ 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
๐กCalories
๐กCaloric Deficit
๐กMuscle Loss
๐กBody Fat Percentage
๐กRate of Weight Loss
๐กFine-tuning Calorie Intake
๐กExercise and Calorie Burn
๐กTracking Progress
๐กSustainability
๐กMuscle Osmotin
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
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