2911: How to Set Up A Calorie Deficit for Fat Loss (6 Steps) by Matt McLeod on How to Track Calories

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Health Daily, How to Set Up a Calorie Deficit for Fat Loss 6 Steps by Matt McLeod of mattmcleod.org and I'm Dr. Neal. Hey there, welcome back to another weekend edition of Optimal Health Daily. This is where I read to you every single day of the year from the best health and fitness blogs we can find. I'm going to keep this intro nice and short so let's get right to it and start optimizing your life.

[00:00:30] How to Set Up a Calorie Deficit for Fat Loss 6 Steps by Matt McLeod of mattmcleod.org Everybody is talking about it. Unless you follow Dr. Oz, the Keto Warriors or the descendants of Vegan Gains, you've heard that a calorie deficit is the key to losing fat. We'll get into details later, but to refresh, a calorie deficit simply means your body is burning more calories than you're consuming.

[00:00:55] Think calories out greater than calories in leads to weight loss with some few exceptions. A calorie surplus means you're burning fewer calories than you're consuming. Think calories out or less than calories in which leads to weight gain. And if you're eating at your maintenance calories, you are burning around the same number of calories as you're consuming. Think calories out equals calories in which equals maintain stable weight.

[00:01:22] Now, I could get deep into the minutia of calories in and calories out and how your body, quote unquote, burns calories. But you probably don't give a **** about the science. What you do give a **** about is me knowing the science and giving you the actionable steps to put into practice. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. So now your question becomes, well, how do I know if I'm in a calorie deficit? Great question. I'm glad you asked because I'm about to share a secret with you.

[00:01:49] This is exactly how I set up a calorie deficit for my online coaching clients. So listen up. Step one, buy scales. Buy a body weight scale and a food scale. These are reasonably cheap and some of the best investments you can make for managing your body. Plus, there are two things humans suck at. Estimating and remembering data. In fact, one study on daily food reporting showed even dietitians are off by up to 800 calories.

[00:02:17] Some non-dietitians were off by over 1000 calories. So yeah, buy the scales so you don't do this. Step two, download a food tracking app. My go-tos are MyFitnessPal or Mike's Macros. The macronutrient calculator for MyFitnessPal isn't as great as the one for Mike's Macros. MyFitnessPal might just be more accessible in terms of how to use the app for some people. However, another downside of MyFitnessPal is their calories can be off with some of their foods.

[00:02:45] Just make sure your total daily macronutrients match up to your total daily calories and you'll be good to go. Any tracking app or using a pad and pen if you're a Neanderthal will work just fine. Step three, eat normally and track everything. Without drastically changing how you currently eat, track every single thing you put in your mouth for at least four days, preferably three weekdays and one weekend day. And be sure that you track very accurately.

[00:03:12] I say to eat normally because you want to find your current baseline. If you go changing everything you eat, you'll skew your results. And when I say track everything, I mean everything. Alcohol, condiments, oils, drinks, supplements, butter, sauces, desserts, you get the idea. Step four, average out your baseline. After tracking for at least four days, find the average number of calories you ate during that time period. For example, for you math whizzes out there,

[00:03:41] Let's say day one you ate 2300 calories. Day two, 2100 calories. Day three, 2300 calories. And day four, 2100 calories. Your average would be 2200 calories. How did we get that number? 2300 plus 2100 plus 2300 plus 2100 equals 8800. 8800 divided by four days equals 2200 calories.

[00:04:10] Step five, remain consistent with tracking weight and food for 14 days. Once you have your average calorie amount, try to hit it within plus or minus 50 of that average. Do that every single day for the next two weeks, including weekends. And weigh yourself every day in the morning, before you eat and after using the restroom first thing in the morning. It's important you try to mimic each day so you can get a realistic idea of what your typical intake and weight would look like.

[00:04:39] So don't do this while you're on vacation. Step six, analyze weight trends. If you followed step five correctly, we should now see a trend in what your weight does based off of how much food you're eating. If you're eating about 2200 calories per day and your weight is trending downward, not down every single day because weight fluctuates, but let's say over the course of two weeks, you're likely in a calorie deficit. If your weight is staying about the same within a pound or so,

[00:05:07] subtract about 250 calories from your daily calorie goal and then keep that consistency. This is because if your weight is staying the same, it means you're eating around your maintenance calories. If your weight is trending upward, take away 350 to 500 calories per day because you're in a calorie surplus. To be fair, there are definitely more indicators of fat loss than just using your scale weight. However, it's a pretty good tool when determining a calorie deficit. I also have some of my clients take measurements, compare old clothes,

[00:05:35] and take pictures every four weeks to compare. If those tools suit your fancy more than the scale, go right ahead. Just be as objective as possible. And that's it. Now you have to use trial and error to see what is going to work for you in the long run. But this should at least help you determine a baseline. In my opinion, this works much better than a random macro calculator because it's completely individual to you and your current eating habits. You just listened to the post titled,

[00:06:05] How to Set Up a Calorie Deficit for Fat Loss. Six Steps by Matt McLeod of mattmcleod.org And I'll be right back with my commentary. Dr. Neil here for my commentary. I know I've said this many times before on this show. When it comes to losing weight, it is just straight math. It's kind of how Matt mapped it out. If you want to lose weight, you've got to create a deficit somewhere. You could exercise more so that will force you to burn more calories or you can reduce your calorie intake.

[00:06:35] Burning calories through exercise will take more effort, but it's of course great for your heart and overall health. Not having an extra soda is an easy way to reduce your calorie intake by at least 150. No problem. So either way, you've got to figure out how you're going to mess with that equation. But the thing is, is it doesn't always lead to fat loss. So yes, buying a scale, especially if you're really interested in losing fat weight, can be helpful. It'll keep you accountable. But it doesn't always mean that when that number on the scale goes down,

[00:07:04] you're actually losing fat. We're learning from a lot of good data that when you lose weight, some of that can be fat. But actually, initially, a lot of that is water or even muscle. We don't want you losing too much water or muscle. And so one way to combat this is to be sure your diet is balanced and that you incorporate some physical activity, particularly resistance training. That will help you preserve muscle. And the wonderful side effect of doing resistance training is some studies are finding that the more muscle you have,

[00:07:34] potentially the more calories you burn all the time, even when you're asleep or at work or watching TV. If you don't have your own body fat percentage calculator or don't have anybody to help you with measuring your waist and hips, your clothes are a great indicator of whether you're losing fat. If you find that your pants, especially around the waist and the hips, are starting to get looser, you're probably losing some fat weight, which is great news.

[00:08:01] So regardless of whether the number on the scale is changing, if you find that your clothes are fitting better, you're probably losing fat weight. But if you want to get more specific, like Matt mentioned, buying a body weight scale and a food scale are things that I often recommend. All right, that'll do it for today. I hope you have a great rest of your weekend. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for listening every day. I'll be back here tomorrow for the Monday show and where your optimal life awaits. Thanks.