Calorie deficit: what everyone who is losing weight needs to know. Acceleration of metabolism

After a low-calorie diet, many people gain weight again. And it's not a lack of willpower or bad eating habits. This happens because the body strives to return to a given amount of fat.

A given amount of fat is a certain level of adipose tissue in the human body.

This amount is strictly individual and depends on genetics, activity level, etc. But whatever it is, the body will try to keep this amount unchanged.

How the body stores fat

Metabolic slowdown

The further you go from your fat set point, the more your body prevents further fat loss by forcing your energy system Biology’s response to dieting: the impetus for weight regain. work as efficiently as possible. Mitochondria, the cells' energy sources, begin to produce more energy from less fuel.

At the same time, your metabolism slows down, the amount of energy you expend on normal activities decreases, and even the thermic effect decreases. Effect of circadian variation in energy expenditure, within-subject variation and weight reduction on thermic effect of food. food - the number of calories you spend to digest food.

And the more fat you lose, the more efficient your body becomes. Moreover, the more often you expose your body to such a test, the better it learns to conserve energy. That is, on your fourth attempt to lose weight on a low-calorie diet, fat will go away much more slowly than in the first three.

Hunger hormones

When you lose weight, your fat cells shrink in size, triggering the secretion of leptin, a hormone that makes you feel full.

Study Leptin signaling, adiposity, and energy balance. showed that during a calorie deficit, the fall in plasma leptin levels exceeds the rate of decline in fat stores. Moreover, this level remains low for some time after the weight has stabilized. This means that even after finishing the diet, you will find it difficult to get enough.

At the same time, a calorie deficit causes increased levels of ghrelin, a hormone responsible for the feeling of hunger. Thus, you constantly feel hungry, meals do not bring satiety, while your body conserves energy - ideal conditions for weight gain.

And when you stop dieting, you not only return to your old weight, but you also gain even more.

Why do you gain weight after dieting?

The set amount of fat we talked about above is determined by the number and size of your fat cells. When you stop dieting, the shrinking fat cells become larger again. In theory, this should tell the body that the weight has been restored and there is no longer a calorie deficit, so you can stop saving energy.

However, the experiment Weight regained after sustained weight reduction is accompanied by suppressed oxidation of dietary fat and adipocyte hyperplasia. proved in mice that rapid weight restoration after weight loss provokes the formation of new fat cells.

The more fat cells you have, the smaller their average size. Lack of fat cell size and reduced leptin levels signal to the body that the amount of fat is still reduced, so your body continues to conserve energy. All this causes you to accumulate even more fat than before the diet.

It turns out that in order to really lose weight, you need to avoid a sharp slowdown in metabolism during the diet and properly return to your normal diet after it. Let's look at three strategies that will help you lose weight without slowing down your metabolism and get back on track without gaining fat.

Three strategies for effective weight loss

1. Find your calorie deficit

First of all, you need to figure out how many calories, proteins, fats and carbohydrates (FFA) you consume without any restrictions. For three days, simply count the nutritional value of everything you eat on paper or in a special app.

Then determine how many calories you need to consume to lose fat without slowing your metabolism. Try the simplest method: take your weight in kilograms and multiply by 26.5. For example, if you weigh 60 kg, you would need to consume 1,590 kcal to lose weight.

Do not take this value as absolute truth. This is just a starting point, a rough number to start with.

To find your calorie count, you need to carefully monitor your condition.

If you feel a loss of strength and constant hunger, then you need to slightly increase your calorie intake, otherwise the deficiency will lead to adaptation and a slowdown in metabolism.

If you feel great and are not hungry, you can, on the contrary, reduce your calorie intake, but it is advisable to do this gradually, since a rapid transition will again slow down your metabolism.

2. Use a reverse diet to recover.

Once you reach your goals, it's time to increase your calorie intake. However, a rapid transition to increased caloric intake can lead to the formation of new fat cells and excess weight gain. To avoid this, use a reverse diet.

The essence of this diet is to gradually increase calorie content by 80–100 kcal per day. This approach allows you to speed up a little, slowed down after a long calorie deficit, return to your nutrient norm and at the same time not gain excess weight.

The specific gain depends on how big your calorie deficit was, how you feel, and how afraid you are of gaining weight when you end the diet. If you've created a large calorie deficit, are feeling weak, and aren't afraid of gaining some fat after coming off the diet, you can take a big leap and quickly add 200-500 kcal.

If you feel good on a diet and don’t want to gain an ounce of excess fat, increase your caloric intake very carefully. For example, increase the amount of carbohydrates and fats in your diet by 2-10% every week.

3. Find small victories to strengthen your resolve.

We've already talked about how constantly jumping from a low-calorie diet to a regular diet will only worsen your results. Therefore, try to avoid disruptions.

Physical discomfort from a lack of calories must be compensated for by mental satisfaction. You can't survive for long on the mere anticipation of results - you need small victories every day.

Eliminate situations that make you feel guilty and take away small joys.

For example, if you're constantly going over your carb limit, why don't you just increase it?

When you understand that you are able to follow a diet and stay within your norm, and at the same time you feel good, there is no weakness or wild hunger, you begin to enjoy the process, and this is the key to a long-term diet with sustainable results.

Reading time: 5 min

Get rid of excess weight no calorie deficit impossible. But how much should you cut your daily calorie intake to lose weight? And is the approach correct: if you want to lose weight faster, you need to eat less? Let's try to figure it out.

What is the optimal calorie deficit?

The golden rule for losing weight is eating in a calorie deficit. What does it mean? In simple terms, you should consume less food than you manage to burn during the day. Everything that the body does not have time to process into energy is deposited on our body in the form of fat. At nutritional deficiency the body has to look for additional sources of energy, and it begins to waste fat cells.

The deficit is calculated relative to the daily calorie intake. For your convenience, we have created a special table with which you can quickly and conveniently calculate your calorie intake and the intake of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. We recommend using it to calculate the permissible daily calorie range in conditions of deficit, surplus or weight maintenance.

But the question remains how large a calorie deficit is needed for effective and safe weight loss? In our table, you can enter the percentage of the deficit yourself: by default it is set at 20%. We recommend sticking to 20% and never lowering the calorie corridor below a 30% deficit. Accordingly, with average parameters ( age 35 years, weight 70 kg, height 170 cm, average activity) the corridor will be 1500-1600 kcal with a deficit of 20%. To calculate values based on your individual parameters, use our table.

Accordingly, if you decide to start losing weight, we recommend using a 20% deficit. If you want to speed up the weight loss process a little, then take a calorie deficit of 20-30%, but never fall below this line. Once you are close to your goal weight, you can gradually increase your daily calorie intake, reducing your deficit. So, let's take a closer look at this point.

How to increase daily caloric intake on a nutritional deficit?

When you introduce restrictions into your diet, your body adapts and reduces metabolism. Moreover, the greater the restriction, the slower the metabolism. This is why it is so easy to gain weight back after finishing a diet.

Imagine the situation. You ate within 1200 kcal, lost weight to the desired size and started eating 1800 kcal again. With a daily norm of 1800 kcal for average female parameters there should be a deficit and weight loss, but not in this case. The body has adjusted its metabolism to a diet of 1200 kcal, and with a sharp increase in calories, all the excess will go into fat, because your metabolism has not had time to adjust. You will gain weight eating even at a low rate of 1800 kcal.

There is such a thing as acceleration of metabolism. For whom is it relevant?

For those who want to intelligently exit a low-calorie diet.
For those who want to gradually reduce their calorie deficit (for example, previously there was a deficit of 20%, now the plan is 10%).
For those who have achieved their desired weight and now want to eat within the framework of its stabilization.
And just for those who ate with serious restrictions and now want to return to normal nutrition, while continuing to lose weight.

The principle of accelerating metabolism is very simple. Necessary gradually increase daily caloric intake so that the body has time to adapt to new conditions. The goal of accelerating metabolism is to increase caloric intake, but maintain your weight loss trend.

Let's give an example. You eat 1400-1500 kcal. But taking into account a deficit of 10%, your daily requirement can be 1700-1800 kcal. Accordingly, you need to accelerate your metabolism to these values. In order to achieve this, increase your calorie corridor by approximately 50 units every week. For example:

1 week: 1450-1550 kcal
Week 2: 1500-1600 kcal
Week 3: 1550-1650 kcal
Week 6: 1700-1800 kcal

It is important to note that despite increasing your daily calorie intake, you will continue to lose weight. And the rate of your weight loss will be quite comparable, both with restrictions of 1400-1500 kcal and with restrictions of 1700-1800 kcal, since metabolism in the second case has become higher. You will eat more varied, consume more nutrients and vitamins, but at the same time continue to lose weight. At the same time, allowing yourself more food, you will not feel as constrained as before.

Of course, the figure of 50 kcal is very arbitrary. But you need to understand that, firstly, not a single daily calorie calculator will give you an absolutely accurate figure without a drop of error. Secondly, when calculating the food eaten per day, inaccuracies and errors are often made. Therefore, we specifically take such a minimum figure as 50 kcal, so that eliminate the possibility of sudden changes in diet due to errors in calculations.

Why do you need to increase your caloric intake?

It is logical and expected if you have a question: “ Why increase the caloric content of the diet if 1300 calories of food is enough for me?" Moreover, most people who are losing weight have a natural fear that by increasing their daily calorie intake, the weight will increase again. But if we're talking about healthy losing weight, then you shouldn’t constantly eat with a deficit of 20%. Especially if your weight is normal or close to normal.

Firstly, with constant serious restrictions in food, the body is underpaid nutrients and vitamins. This may not immediately affect your health, but favorable soil for the development of diseases will be laid. Secondly, it increases risk of breakdowns when strong dietary restrictions result in excessive food intake.

Thirdly, your body adapts to the current state of affairs and, with a large calorie deficit, reduces metabolism. Therefore, you will not notice a strong difference in the rate of weight loss when eating with a calorie deficit of 20% and with a calorie deficit of 30%. This means that you can afford more food, while your the results will be comparable, but with less risk to health.

And finally, fourthly, with a high calorie deficit, the body begins to burn more muscle tissue. In the process of losing weight, in addition to fat, you always lose muscle. However, the greater the calorie deficit, the higher the likelihood that the body will begin to intensively take energy from amino acids and destroy muscle tissue. The fact is that it is not profitable for the body to maintain muscles with limited nutrition, since they require more energy than fat tissue. And the greater the calorie deficit, the higher the percentage of muscle from total weight loss.

What else is important to know about calorie deficit?

The calorie range needs to be adjusted depending on changes in lifestyle, height and weight indicators, and training schedule. Let's give one typical example. You started losing weight and calculated your daily calorie intake and calorie deficit taking into account your training load. Let's say you did a moderate-intensity program for 30 minutes a day. Then, as your fitness increased, you complicated your workouts and now do 45 minutes a day using high-intensity programs. Energy consumption has increased, and the calorie corridor remained the same.

Therefore, an important rule when maintaining a calorie deficit is do not forget to recalculate your standards depending on changes in loads. Moreover, this works both in the direction of reducing the deficit and in the direction of increasing it. For example, you decide to take a break from training. This should definitely affect your diet due to reduced energy expenditure. A similar principle works in the case of a lifestyle change, for example, when sedentary work changes to physical work and vice versa.

Pay attention to one more point that we already mentioned in the article about myths about calorie counting. The body does not look at the daily calorie deficit, but as a whole for several days in a row. Therefore, if today you eat with a deficit, tomorrow with a surplus, then the end result is maintenance. That is why a frequent recommendation is to eat at a 20% deficit. In this case, even with small jumps in nutrition, you will still be at a general “minus” in calories.

We remind you once again that there are no There are no magic remedies for weight loss. And even the most effective and high-intensity workouts will not help you get rid of excess weight if the calorie intake exceeds the expenditure. But the process of losing weight does not equate to a period of serious deprivation and constant hunger.. With a small calorie deficit, you can lose weight comfortably and without risk to your health.

– we calculated how much weight you can lose if you limit calories minimally, by only 10-15%. Spoiler: in a week, a 60 kg woman loses about 200 g of fat, and an 80 kg man loses about 300 g of fat with a calorie deficit of 10-15% of the daily requirement. At the same time, loss of water, muscles, etc. not taken into account. At the very beginning of a diet, it is the loss of water that can give a much greater minus on the scales. But after a week or two you will lose weight more slowly, at about the same rate as described above.

FAT LOSS CALCULATOR IN A WEEK

Daily norm, kcal:

Calorie deficit, %:

Please enter a value

Approximate rate of weight loss: kg per week

Average Calorie Deficit

20-25% daily value

Losing weight at an average pace is the most common approach. It is recommended by nutritionists and fitness trainers.

Weight loss at a deficit of 20-25%

Calculation of daily caloric intake (how many calories a person spends per day to maintain weight) can be done using the formulas described in the article

This rate of weight loss (0.5 - 0.7 kg per week) is recommended by most doctors, but for this you need to reduce your diet more than with a deficit of 10-15%.

In most cases, a 20-25% deficit is easiest to create through a combination of dietary restrictions and increased physical activity (fitness classes, outdoor activities).

Pros:

50-300 calories from diet plus 250-300 calories from fitness is a doable task that does not require too much effort - very strict dietary restrictions or exercise 2 times a day. However, you can achieve such a deficit solely through diet - by further restricting yourself in nutrition, but without buying a membership to a fitness club or taking a bicycle from the balcony.
Since weight loss goes faster, the diet ends earlier. Although those who need to lose a lot (more than 25 kg) will still have to follow the diet for about a year. But at least you won’t lose weight as slowly as with a deficit of 10-15%.
There is a chance that you will make mistakes when counting calories. For example, you forget to enter 250 calories in your food diary when your total deficit is 500 kcal. This will not prevent you from losing weight, but it will slow down the process. It is for this reason that sometimes a person cannot understand why he lost only 1 kg in a certain period of time, while according to the plan he should have lost 2 kg.

Minuses:

More serious dietary restrictions than with a low calorie deficit, which already feels like a “diet”, unless of course the deficit is created only through sports.
A deficit of 20-25% slows down. But this cannot be avoided on any diet (since fat loss affects the release of hormones (for example, leptin)).

In summary, except for those who have a very large amount of weight to lose, a moderate caloric deficit is appropriate for most people. This approach has more positive aspects than negative ones (comparing low and high deficits).

High calorie deficit

more than 25% below the daily norm

Weight loss at 50% deficit

Pros:

The biggest advantage is rapid weight loss. For those who have more than 25 kg of excess weight, weight loss will go even faster, perhaps even 2-3 kg per week. This is what most people dream of – losing weight quickly.
Weight that usually takes 2-3 months to lose can be lost in one.
Some lucky people note that over time, on a strict diet, the feeling of hunger “dulls,” and a large amount of vegetables in the diet helps them stay full.
Also, in situations where you need to "lose weight in 10 days" - before a wedding or a high school reunion - cutting your calories in half can help achieve maximum weight loss.
For people who are very overweight, starting to lose weight by quickly changing the number on the scale is easier psychologically. When a person sees significant weight loss in the first week, it gives him the motivation to continue. Those who need to lose 25 or more kilograms may be unhappy if they lose just one in a whole week of dieting. A large calorie deficit can help them see up to 5kg in the red on the scale in a week (part of this will be water loss). Later, you can switch to a medium calorie deficit.
For those who want to avoid losing muscle mass during a diet with a large calorie deficit, you need to take care of a sufficient amount in the diet and also continue.
For athletes, quickly ending a diet can mean a quick return to training at full strength (there is much less energy on a reduced calorie diet).
Starting with greater restrictions, you can dramatically change your eating style, switch from overusing sweets and fatty foods to less high-calorie, but healthy foods. These will be vegetables and fruits, lean meats, cereals, low-fat dairy products, etc. Such changes will contribute not only to weight loss, but also to improved health.

Minuses:

A large calorie deficit is mainly created due to a strong reduction in diet; sports alone cannot do this.
Since the total calorie content of the diet will be low, the choice of products is small. With such restrictions, a diet with a small amount of food is suitable. Protein is needed to maintain muscle mass, and there won't be much room for carbohydrates and fats.
It is quite difficult to severely limit yourself for a long time. You can include in your regime cheating (allow yourself something high-calorie once a week), refeeds (a whole day, when the amount of carbohydrate foods and calories in general increases noticeably), and also take breaks in the diet (a week or two at a time). But this is not suitable for everyone - for some, cheating/refeeding can turn into a diet break.
You can't be at a high deficit for too long - it not only greatly slows down your metabolism, but also has a bad effect on your overall health.
Sometimes, even with wise food choices and a transition to a moderate caloric deficit, people find it difficult to recover from a strict diet. There is a breakdown, rollback and weight return. If you have this experience, it is better not to try to lose weight quickly and consider a more gentle approach - moderate or even calorie restriction.
It is possible that a person has reduced calories only by greatly reducing food volumes (for example, a chocolate bar + a sandwich for the whole day). Then, when switching to a mode with a moderate deficit or to a maintenance mode, a person will not know what foods to eat so that the weight does not return. Just adding another chocolate bar won’t work; it’s impossible to eat like this for the rest of your life. If the diet is left the same as before losing weight, the weight is gained again (calorie content has returned to the high level it was before the diet!), often bringing with it several more kilograms.

As a result, to lose weight on a diet with a large calorie deficit (i.e. you need to severely limit yourself in nutrition) you need:

change nutrition (choose);
exercise regularly (from 3 times a week);
work on existing eating disorders (bulimia, anorexia, eating during stress - “problem eating”);
include refeeds, cheating, breaks in the diet (for example, allow yourself something “extra” once a week).

Used materials:
Setting the Deficit – Small, Moderate or Large by Lyle McDonald

Many of us wonder how many calories need to be cut from your TDEE level in order to lose fat effectively and safely. Is there such a thing as “too much of a calorie deficit”? Have you ever wondered why some people can eat very low calories without experiencing serious problems, while others suffer from even a slight deficiency? Should caloric deficits be the same for everyone or, like all other aspects of life, should they be individualized? Such questions are completely natural, so they cannot be ignored. I think that the latest research by scientists in the field of nutrition and fat burning will be able to shed light on this problem. This article talks about the good old "minus 500 kcal" or "minus 20%" deficit for losing 500g of fat per week, and much more.

3500 Calories is 0.5 kg of fat or 3 kg of muscle?

First, let's clear up the old advice: "500g of fat contains 3500 kcal, so you need to create a deficit of 500 kcal per day and therefore 3500 per week in order to lose 500g of fat." In reality, everything is not so simple.
Studying the problem of burning fat for a long time, I had to delve into human physiology, which led me to wonderful sources (articles and scientific studies) that can help answer the cherished question “how much”. Perhaps one of the most authoritative organizations in this area is the National Institute of Health. Researcher Dr. Kevin Hall in his writings drew attention to the various mechanisms that regulate human weight. Dr. Kevin's work was largely based on material developed by his predecessor, Dr. Gilbert Forbes. Dr. Kevin Hall recently published an article in the International Journal of Obesity entitled "3500 Calories to Lose What...?"

This article, as well as many other works on this issue, prompted me to create the “New BFS Rules”, or to be more precise, “Additions to the Basic Rules”.

Below are some of Dr. Kevin Hall's points in simpler terms. Read them carefully. They contain a lot of useful information that will help you better understand the issue and create a calorie deficit that will take into account your individual needs.

Calorie Deficiency Research Shows:

3500 Kcal for losing 0.5 kg of fat has always been an unshakable rule. However, this rule is based on another rule, which states that the loss will be exclusively due to adipose tissue.
. Muscle tissue is lost along with fat. This needs to be understood. It's all about proportion. This is why “3500 for 0.5” is too simple a solution to such a complex issue.
. The amount of muscle tissue lost depends on the initial level of fat tissue and the size of the calorie deficit.
. Lean people tend to lose more muscle tissue and retain more fat tissue.
. People with more fat tend to lose more fat with less risk of losing muscle tissue, even in large calorie deficits.
. Too much of a calorie deficit and low-calorie diets promote greater muscle loss than moderate diets.
. 0.5 kg of muscle contains not 3500 kcal, but only 600 kcal, which explains the ease of losing muscle tissue compared to fat.
. If you lose weight too quickly, then you lose more muscle tissue than fat.
. If you create a deficit of 3500 kcal per week, and the loss comes exclusively from fat, then you will lose 0.5 kg.
. If you create a deficit of 3500 kcal per week, and the loss is solely due to muscle tissue, then you will lose 3 kg (of course, in this case you need to hang a medal around your neck that says “professional dieter”).
. If your starting fat level is high, you will lose more fat tissue in proportion to muscle tissue. You may need a larger calorie deficit to lose the same amount of body fat compared to a lean person.
. With large weight losses, the caloric deficit must be adjusted as TDEE levels decrease.
. The rate of weight loss usually decreases over time. This happens due to metabolic adaptation, due to deviations from the rules of the system, or due to both reasons (many people deviate from their diet more and more often over time).
. Increasing strength training and adequate protein intake can increase the loss of fat tissue compared to muscle tissue. If you use your muscles in a calorie deficit, the body preserves them due to a protective mechanism

New BFS rules

So, based on the points above, what should we do? Throw away all the formulas that we used before?...No, not necessarily.
You can use these formulas to determine where your optimal deficit is within the range (500-1000 Kcal depending on your starting weight). Mathematical formulas do not always reflect how things work in real life, especially when it comes to questions of physiology. However, these formulas are a good guide to help you understand the basic principles of nutrition and calorie deficit.
It is for this reason that I so often say that formulas are not dogmas, they are just a starting point.
That is why a deficit of 1000 Kcal for one person may be the limit of hunger, and for another an ideal figure (although not absolute).

For example. You are a large man with a high activity level and a large amount of both muscle and fat tissue. Your TDEE level is approximately 3400 Kcal. In this case, if you cut off 1000 Kcal, then you have as much as 2400 Kcal left (a deficit of 30%), which, in principle, is enough to maintain muscle with a properly balanced diet and a sufficient amount of protein. Plus, sufficient reserves of adipose tissue combined with strength training can reduce the risk of muscle tissue loss.

Another example. You are a tiny woman with a low activity level. Your TDEE level is 1900 kcal per day. If you cut 1,000 calories from your diet, you'll only have 900 calories left per day, which is a 53% deficit. Obviously, in this case, the end of the 1000 kcal stick will clearly not be in your favor.

It's simple. Instead of using "500 kcal" "1000 kcal" as fixed standards, you are better off using percentages. Additionally, you should consider your goals, your starting weight, your desired rate of weight loss, and your body fat percentage.
15-20% below TDEE = moderate deficiency
20-25% below TDEE = average deficit
25-30% below TDEE = large deficit
31-40% below TDEE = very large deficit (risk)
50%+ below TDEE = near hunger or starvation (dangerous)

Maximum Deficit (Lower Calorie Bar)

Previously, a question was asked about the minimum amount of calories, below which one should not fall. Numbers such as 1200-1300 for women and 1800-1900 for men were often heard. This all sounds good, but woman is different from woman, just like man is different from man.
Obviously, if a woman weighs 80 kg, has 30% body fat and does sports 5 times a week, then she does not fall under the general rules, just like a man who weighs 55 kg, has a body fat percentage of 20, and whose only activity is walking. for beer at the nearest stall.
From here it is clear that for this woman 1200 kcal will be an ordinary hunger strike, and for this man 1900 kcal is simply unacceptable gluttony.
Where did these numbers 1200 and 1800 even come from? In fact, this is nothing more than a statistical average based on a study of women and men aged 23 to 50 years. However, no study can take into account all the nuances and non-standard situations that we discussed above.
We now understand that there is no ideal “minimum calorie intake” expressed in a specific figure for everyone, because a 1000 kcal deficit for a man with a TDEE of 2800 and a woman with a TDEE of 2100 are not the same thing.
Differences in caloric deficit depending on initial body fat level.
Typically, a person is advised to reduce their calorie intake by 15-20% of their TDEE level. However, research shows that there is a difference between lean and obese people in their ability to lose fat versus muscle tissue.
If your starting body fat percentage is very high, then the basic rules may not work as well for you. It's possible that even a large calorie deficit will allow you to lose fat safely and quickly.
It has been noticed that those people who, due to their large body weight, have a high level of TDEE, when cutting off 15-20%, have more than enough food in stock. In simple terms, the more you have, the more you have and the easier it is to share.
If you have a million dollars, then 15% is a less tangible loss than 15% of a salary of 2000 rubles. By the same analogy, with high salaries, taxes become higher, because It is understood that it is less painful for a wealthy businessman to lose 30-40% of a large income than for a poor person to lose 15% of a meager salary. It's the same with calories.

So, which deficit should you choose?

Before deciding what deficit to go for (15%, 30% or more) I would suggest thinking about 4 things:

1. Consider your starting fat level

The higher your fat level, the lower your risk of losing muscle, because... you have a huge amount of energy in reserve, which your body will readily share, protecting you from hunger. If you are already low in body fat and want to get even leaner, then you need to be more careful because large amounts of muscle tissue consume a large amount of energy and the efficiency of body weight training is higher than for an overweight person whose fat tissue is not motor unit. Simply put, a person with 8% body fat and weighing 80 kg will produce more energy (and therefore consume) than a person with 80 kg and 15% body fat. The reason is that more motor units are activated during physical activity compared to a person with 15% body fat and the same weight. That is why you are given two formulas to choose from, one of which is based on the amount of muscle tissue. As long as your body is close to the average, then a formula based on body weight will do, but as soon as your body falls outside the standard (below 10% body fat for men and 19% for women), then it is wiser to use a formula that based on the amount of muscle tissue, since it makes up the majority of your body, and the amount of fat tissue is so low that it can be neglected.

2. Consider your actual results.

If you are rapidly losing fat and maintaining muscle tissue at a 30% deficit without experiencing any physiological or psychological problems, then why not continue this course in the same direction. If you are using a 15% deficit under the same conditions and the too low rate of change is crippling you mentally, then why not try to speed up this process a little by using a higher deficit. High psychological tone from positive results is also an extremely important condition, giving you more chances to emerge victorious in a difficult battle with fat. In any case, remember that what works well for you right now is good. Be prepared for the fact that today's diet may no longer work tomorrow. Avoid extremes. Be flexible, open to change, but not stubborn, and then you will understand in time how to react to the situation.

3. Use both tools to influence energy balance

Remember that you can get into fat reserves not only by cutting calories, but also by increasing your activity level? So, do not forget that it is better to cut calories by 20% and increase your activity level by 40% than to reduce calories by 30% and increase your activity level by only 10%. In other words, both of these values are inversely proportional to a caloric deficit. The greater the deficit, the more difficult it is to create a high level of activity. There is no exact data on what proportion of calorie cuts should be combined with an increase in activity level. This depends on the individual characteristics of the body, genetics, level of training, etc., but it is clear that extremes are undesirable. It is also known that it is easier to lose fat if your energy flux (the flow of calories in and out) is higher. Simply put, it is easier to lose weight for someone who eats a lot and exercises a lot than for someone who starves and does nothing.

4. Consider your deadline

When you set yourself a specific time-bound goal, you have to ask yourself whether you are willing to accept the risk (muscle loss, etc.) and feel the discomfort of hunger pangs, lack of carbohydrates, etc. in order to achieve a goal by a certain date. If you achieved your goal through heavy losses, draw some conclusions and set yourself a more realistic deadline next time. In this situation, everything depends not only on the goal and deadline, but also on your personality. Some people need to prove to themselves that they keep their word to themselves and even losses do not bother them. If your motivation is highly dependent on success in achieving a goal by a set deadline, then this should be used. However, if you suffer losses over and over again and do not analyze the situation, then you will not get far on motivation alone. Following moral inspiration due to the feeling of power over the body, physical failure will occur due to banal malnutrition and overtraining. There is a risk of your results slipping back and then your deadline-based motivation will start to work against you. Weigh the importance of achieving a goal and the reality of this achievement, and then you will protect yourself from unnecessary consequences.

What about medical diets?

Everyone who turned to professional nutritionists noticed that for the most part, doctors recommend sticking to a diet whose caloric content is on average 40-50% lower than your norm (for women, on average, this is 800-900 Kcal per day). We know that 800-900 kcal per day is simply a disaster for our metabolism. Then why, you ask, do doctors alone advise such diets to patients?

Well...it's very simple. Think about the context of the problem. In severe cases of obesity, the dangers of being overweight outweigh the negative effects of a low-calorie diet. The doctor is of little concern that the patient will fall victim to the yo-yo effect in the future. For a doctor who prescribes such a strict diet, it is important that the person does not fall victim to a heart attack or stroke. In addition, the doctor knows very well that the first kilograms will really go away faster (remember about overweight people who are less likely to lose muscle compared to fat), and the speed of losing excess weight in such cases is the most relevant, since trouble can happen to a person at any time time, so the doctor does not have the opportunity to devote a lot of time to instill the right culture of nutrition and lifestyle. At the moment, he is thinking about saving the person as quickly as possible.
As mentioned above, if a person, after losing a significant amount of fat, can switch to proper nutrition, including already permitted physical activity and adjusting the diet in accordance with new conditions, then indeed, such a strict diet under the supervision of a doctor and with a properly selected course of nutritional supplements ( mineral and vitamin complexes, etc.) can give a good start for future changes. Therefore, you must understand that individual differences have a big impact on whether the diet that was suitable for you is suitable for another person. Obviously, if your goal is aesthetic in nature, then such medical diets will do more harm than good.

Many of you have probably heard about sports diets. There are people on the forum who believe that they only need to consume 20-30% carbohydrates in order to maintain a high level of physical activity. They believe that if they eat enough calories from protein, then everything is fine. However, the problem is that large amounts of protein are not absorbed at a time, so they simply waste food. In addition, in order for protein to be absorbed, insulin is needed, and insulin is released when sufficient carbohydrates are consumed. One could also say about the dubious prospect of maintaining a high level of physical activity over a long period of time, but this is not the topic now. Some commercial diets go even further. They offer what they call a “liquid protein sports diet.” Liquid protein is absorbed faster and is believed to be able to compensate for insufficient carbohydrate intake and lack of insulin. In practice, this diet is very low in calories. In addition, liquid protein consumed in large quantities without simple carbohydrates can provoke severe allergic reactions, because. requires a higher rate of insulin release to reach the construction site. To put it simply, if this diet is suitable, it is only suitable for overweight people who have fat in reserve. This diet is not suitable for sports athletes, because they are already slim, and the desire to go on a low-carb diet is dictated by nothing more than impatience.

Compared to the above diets, BFS looks more like a lifestyle. What is BFS? This is a fat burning system, but fat burning itself is just an intermediate step or starting point that makes you believe that you are able to control your body in the way that you need. You don't need to stay in a calorie deficit your whole life. Scarcity cannot be a lifestyle because it is a temporary tool, although, of course, in some cases, it can take several years.

Real-time calorie deficit adjustment

It is VERY important to understand that after you have calculated your initial diet, you need to adjust it from time to time. To do this correctly, you don't need to use formulas again and recalculate the number of calories you need.

Adjusting calories in (nutrition) and calories out (workout) in real time is very important because energy balance is dynamic. This means the number of calories you need today may be different from the number of calories you need in 3 months. If your weight changes, the number of calories you need will also change. If your activity level changes, your calorie needs will also change.
In general, if you lose weight, you will need fewer and fewer calories every day to meet the needs of your smaller body. On average, after losing 20 kg you need 300-350 kcal per day less.
It is for this reason that many people stagnate in their results after a certain amount of time.
On the other hand, the dynamics of energy balance should not drive you into panic and force you to recalculate your calories every day. This will bring you nothing but stress. Also keep in mind that over time, your activity level may become higher than at the beginning of the program. You will perform better and longer because your fitness level will increase. The amount of muscle tissue may also increase. Consequently, your calorie requirement will also increase. It is difficult to give any exact recommendations, so you need to build on weekly reports, your well-being, vigor, quality of training and other circumstances that need to be taken into account. There can be a huge number of circumstances.

Simple scheme.
The week of exams has begun. You are forced to sleep less. Consequently, you began to study less or less efficiently. Obviously, the need for calories decreases.

When to count your calories?

Not to mention special cases, there are three main cases when calorie needs must be recalculated.

1. Recalculate your calorie needs when starting a new phase of the program or a new training program.

Typically, a new program or period in a training cycle involves introducing new exercises to avoid adaptation, so you need more calories. Or, for example, you took 4-5 weeks of recovery training at half strength. In this case, you need to slightly reduce your caloric intake)

2. Recalculate your calorie needs when your body has undergone big changes.

As already mentioned, the smaller you become, the fewer calories you need.

3. Calculate your calories based on your activity level.

As mentioned, this can mean either increasing or decreasing the amount of calories you need. Especially big changes must be made by athletes who, for whatever reason, leave the sport. As the book said, we get better not because we used to exercise, but because we don’t exercise now and eat the same way as when we did.

Everything that has been said above may seem like a painfully difficult and painstaking process to you, but in practice it will all become second nature to you after a few months. Remember how difficult it was to drive a car (speak a foreign language) at first? A person can get used to anything, so why not get used to doing something that will ensure your safety in terms of monitoring your body and health, without taking more time than making a grocery list for a party?

1. Forbes GB. Body fat content influences the body composition response to nutrition and exercise. Ann NY Acad Sci. 904:359-365. 2000
2. Hall, KD., What is the required energy deficit per unit of weight loss? Int J Obesity. 2007 Epub ahead of print
3. Hill, James, Understanding and Addressing the Epidemic of Obesity: An Energy Balance Perspective. Endocrine Reviews, 27: 750–761. 2006
4. McArdle WD. Exercise physiology: Energy, Nutrition, and Human performance. 4td ed. Williams & Wilkins. 1996
5. Wishnofsky M. Caloric equivalents of gained or lost weight. Am J Clin Nutr. 6:542-546.
6. Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle. Tom Venuto. 2004
7. Everything you wanted to know about Fat Loss, Chris Aceto
8. Thorevsky. Human Physiology, Moscow 2001

Diet is extremely important for losing weight. It helps you become disciplined and selective when choosing foods. The main condition is that this mode is comfortable for you. Why do you think people quit strict diets? Because they are inconvenient. An adequate calorie deficit and a comfortable diet consisting of your favorite healthy foods are the most successful weight loss strategy.

The distribution of foods throughout the day should be convenient for you, but the calorie deficit must be maintained. The optimal period of time between meals is 3-4 hours.

If you have a lot of excess weight and your calorie deficit exceeds 1500 kcal, then the best option would be. If you are not overweight and your caloric deficit is below 1500 calories, then consider eating 3-4 times a day.

People who are heavier often have and will therefore benefit more from eating smaller meals. It will allow you to divide your daily caloric intake into a large number of meals, thereby maintaining satiety, normal sugar levels and avoiding overeating. But splitting 1300-1400 calories into 5-6 meals and eating in tiny portions will not be easy.

Breakfast sets the tone for the whole day. After a long period of overnight hunger, the body needs nutrients. Having the right breakfast helps control your appetite throughout the day. At night, the body reduces insulin secretion, and now imagine what will happen if you eat a large portion of carbohydrates in the morning - a high glycemic load, a rapid rise in blood sugar, a surge in insulin. The slower carbohydrates are digested, the smaller the sugar spike will be. Protein, fats and fiber help slow down the absorption of carbohydrates.

Therefore, it is necessary to have at least 20 g in breakfast. This is also due to the fact that the last meal of protein food was yesterday. When the body does not receive “building material” for a long time, it begins to use internal reserves - to destroy its own muscles.

A complete breakfast can be protein-carbohydrate or protein-fat. A protein-carbohydrate breakfast is suitable for people who are most active in the first half of the day. They work in mobile work or train. A protein-fat breakfast is suitable for people who are not used to eating in the morning, follow a low-carbohydrate diet, or are inactive in the morning.

Examples of a successful breakfast

Protein-carbohydrate breakfast:

s, from one whole and two;
s and .

Protein-fat breakfast:

of two eggs and vegetable salad with;
with berries and...

10 minutes after breakfast you need to take vitamins and supplements.

The purpose of snacking is to maintain moderate blood sugar levels and avoid overeating and discomfort. It should include proteins and fiber-rich carbohydrates.

Examples of a successful snack:

Vegetable salad with low-fat cheese;
with berries or fruit;
Vegetable sticks and Greek yogurt sauce.

Lunch is the biggest meal of the day. By lunchtime you have already worked up an appetite, so the main task is not to overeat and. For it, choose complex carbohydrates, proteins and vegetables. If you eat first courses, then consider the amount of carbohydrates in them. For example, pureed pea soup contains much more carbohydrates than light vegetable soup without potatoes. There is no need to add additional carbohydrates to it. Aim for 20-30 g of protein, 10-15 g of fat and 30-40 g of carbohydrates. Remember, you must fit within your boundaries.

Examples of a successful lunch

With the first course:

Pea soup, fresh vegetable salad with butter;
Borscht with potatoes, toast made from bran or whole grain bread, vegetable stew with lean meat.

Without first course:

Brown rice with chicken and vegetables;
with baked lean fish and vegetable salad;
Durum wheat pasta with lean meat and fresh vegetables.

Most people exercise after work, but not everyone has time to eat before training and make the big mistake of going to the gym hungry. Fatigue accumulated during the day and low blood sugar levels due to a long period without food will not allow you to carry out an intensive exercise. If you have strength or, then you need to eat 1.5 hours or have a light snack 30 minutes before it starts. If you have or, there is no need to have an additional snack before training.

Examples of pre-workout meals

If you can eat normally in 1.5 hours:

Baked potatoes and baked lean fish with vegetables;
Sandwich made from whole grain or bran bread with chicken fillet and herbs.

If you can have a snack in 30-40 minutes:

Sweet and sour fruit (or berries) and Greek yogurt;
Sweet and sour fruit and serving.

If you're hungry before your cardio workout, you can snack on fast-digesting proteins 30 minutes before:

A portion ;

In one hour. If you are going straight home, then just having dinner is enough, but if after training you have some meetings and the next meal will not take place soon, then you should drink a portion of protein. You will satisfy physiological hunger and create favorable conditions for muscle recovery.

The ideal dinner is light, since most people are inactive in the evenings and spend them at home. An exception may be people who have a light dinner that makes them wake up at night and sweep away the entire contents of the refrigerator. For such people, nutritionists recommend having a light breakfast and a hearty dinner within the daily caloric intake. The composition of a standard dinner is protein and carbohydrates from vegetables.

Examples of a successful dinner

Baked fish of moderate fat content and blanched vegetables;
Stewed liver and stewed vegetables with butter;
Omelette and vegetable salad.

What can you eat before bed?

The last meal should take place no later than two hours before bedtime. Choose light, protein-rich foods. Fermented milk products are ideal for a late snack; they will take care of your muscles and intestinal microflora during night hunger.

Examples of a successful late-night snack

Cup ;
A glass of natural unsweetened;
A portion .

You can add to kefir, cottage cheese or yogurt,