Calorie Deficit And Working Out But Not Losing Weight

People often think that their metabolism has been broken from over dieting.  The phrase has been banded about all over social media by diet gurus who then proceed to push their ‘metabolism fixer’ program or supplements.

In this article I’d like to challenge your thinking and show you that while dieting and exercising is a proven way to lose body fat, sometimes you need to take a step back.  It’s very easy to stay in our own bubble and be afraid of eating more when eating less has brought you results so far.

It’s easy to keep on exercising more and to reduce food even more.  Eventually though this will lead to ill health and exhaustion.

Calorie Deficit Calculator Tells You How Much To Eat For Weight Loss

I want to give you that solution that will make you happier, healthier, allow you to eat more and still lose weight.

As you restrict calories and exercise your calorie deficit will increase.  After a while the body recognises that fat is being lost and if that deficit is quite high it will start to put the brakes on.  This happens when metabolic hormones are suppresed such as thyroid and leptin.

In many cases this could actually be the right solution.  Gradual weight loss does result in a lowering of metabolism because you are carrying less weight around.  

Calorie Deficit Calculator Uk: 3 Steps To Find Yours

If you weren’t exercising then I’d suggest that was a sound strategy as weight loss can be achieved from only restricting calories.

Exercise does bring some nice adaptions though.  The more you exercise the more efficient your body becomes at using the fuel you put into it.

Exercise increases the quantity of enzymes that produce glycogen – your muscle’s main fuel for explosive exercise.  This means you can turn more carbohydrates into serious muscle fuel and there’s less chance of it ending up as body fat in a surplus.

Calorie Deficit To Lose Weight: Why It May Not Work For You

Exercise also increases the enzymes in your muscles that process the fat stored in your muscles – called IMTAGs (Intra Muscular Tryglycerides)

What this means is that your body becomes a more efficient machine both at absorbing the food you put in and burning that food up as exercise.

This in turn means that you can exercise for longer at a higher level providing you’ve got the fuel to do that.

Are You Cancelling Out Your Calorie Deficit? — The Bodybuilding Dietitians

The problem then presents itself that while you’ve done really well increasing your fitness levels you’ve also restricted the fuel to perform that exercise.  Over time this results in the situation I highlighted earlier where the body starts to put the brakes on.

You may be able to mentally motivate yourself to get into the gym but you find the workouts gradually getting harder to do.

You may also find yourself extremely tired when you get home.  This is a process called compensation where the body tries to slow you right down to account for the workout calories you just expended.

Calorie Creep: Why You're Doing Everything Right And Not Losing Weight In A Calorie Deficit

Coupled with the other metabolic hormone variations that I talked about earlier this eventually results in a stalling of your weight loss efforts and incredible frustration

Very simply we want to make sure that our calorie intake and expenditure is putting us in a situation where the body is happy to lose body fat and is happy that the fuel coming in doesn’t put our existence at risk. 

It does depend on your level of body fat though.  There is a well documented case of Mr AB a Scotsman who ate nothing for over a year as he was so tired of his obesity.  The body was able to utilise it’s body fat levels to supply energy to keep him alive quite easily.

Eating 1200 Calories Per Day & Not Losing Weight (why?)

I generally see this situation in people who are not obese but who have a reasonable level of body fat that they are trying to reduce.

They are already at a level of body fat that is not obese or very overweight but they still want to get leaner. Reducing too fast too quickly results in these feedback signals from the body presenting more quickly.

I can’t stress how important it is to calculate and track your calories.  At least in the first instance you need to know what your expected output and intake is.

Reasons Why You Are Not Losing Weight Even In A Calorie Deficit

If you’re in the situation of a metabolic stall as outlined earlier then it’s likely that you’re in a major deficit.  A simple increase can help kick start your weight loss again.

You want to be in around 300-500 calorie deficit a day to be in a healthy weight loss environment in my experience.

If you are in a higher deficit then I’d advise increasing carbohydrates while making sure that protein is at a level of 2g or protein per kg of bodyweight.

Why You Don't Just Lose Fat When You're On A Diet

You may find that weight goes up slightly at first.  This is due to food volume increasing and you should expect it but not be worried.

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Calorie Deficit: The Fundamental Principle Behind Weight Loss

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Weight Loss Plateaus

Most new online fitness coaches don’t do this and fail What we would do if we started again in online fitness coaching.   And what we wouldn’t.   Not right away anyway.   Don’t make these mistakes which can cripple your business in the early days.A big concern or fear of dedicated athletes or anyonewho really cares about their ability to perform in sport. Is that a fat loss phase that ultimately consistsof some formof Calorie deprivation and reduction would negatively impact performance in Sport/exercise. This may affect one's abilityto commit to a fat loss phase, to a meaningfulextent that sees any results. Often as nutritionists, we hear athletes and sports enthusiasts say things like...

I'll lose strength if I go into a Calorie deficit. I really want to get leaner, but I'm worried I won't be able to perform as well in (insert sport here. Will dieting impact my competition?

Before I address this any deeper, it's worth noting that for many sports, probably most in fact. Improving power to weightratio is a desirable outcome. Often if you can be a lighter human but maintain your physicalstrength and exercise capacity you'll actually often performbetter. There are obvious exceptions like certain strength sports where the idea of 'weight moves weight', somewhat applies.. But often even these sports have weight classes, with relative strength being a primary factor for how one places. For example, if you're a powerlifter, who manages to maintain strength, but drops to a lower weight class. You'll almost certainly place higher. If you're a sprinter, becoming lighter via the loss of losing body fat, whilst maintaining contractile tissue (muscle) will often result in quicker race times. The same idea applies to many exercise endeavors including popular sports such as CrossFit and bike racing.

Calorie Deficit Diet

Now I've partially touched on the utility behind optimizing power to weight ratio via an i improvement in body composition (increasing/maintaining muscle mass whilst dropping/maintaining body fat) let's go into how we can get leaner without impacting our ability to perform.

While being in a slight 'Calorie deprived state', or a Calorie deficit where you are consuming fewer Calories than you expend will make getting stronger or ‘better’ a little more difficult. However, the impact of dieting on merely maintaining strength and sports performance is hugely overplayed, and often far worse when you convince yourself 'you'll get weaker'. I'm in a Calorie deficit, therefore I'll lose strength... Will you really though?

As mentioned, sure, getting stronger is harder when you're in a Calorie deficit, but you probably won't get weaker unless you do some 'dumb sit' such as the following.

Reasons Why You Are Not Losing Weight In A Calorie Deficit

The body perceives any stress largely in the same way. Think of your daily or weekly stress tolerance, as a bank account. Train large amounts at high