What Is a Calorie Deficit?
In this article I want to talk about a term which you hear often when people are talking about weight loss.
I'm referring to the famous "Calorie Deficit" which you need to achieve in order to lose weight.
What is this calorie deficit and how do you achieve it? Let's back up a bit and talk about weight loss and how it happens.
In your body there is a balance.
You eat food which contains calories.
These calories are actually units of energy which your body uses in order to function.
This includes the basic things such as breathing, digesting, and keeping your blood flowing and it also includes things such as playing with your kids, typing, working out, etc.
Whatever you do is fueled by calories.
All those actions add up and you end up with a total sum of burned calories.
You take this sum of burned calories and this is one side of the balance.
The other side is the amount of calories in the food that you consume.
This is a general picture of how things are.
There are two ways in which this balance can manifest itself: either you have a calorie surplus which means that you've eaten more calories than those you burned, or it can be the other way around.
In the latter case, you have a calorie deficit.
Naturally, there is also the possibility that you burn exactly what you've consumed but the chances of that happening are very slim.
If you have a calorie surplus you will gain weight.
If you have a calorie deficit, you will lose weight.
Plain and simple.
To achieve a calorie deficit you can do either of the two following things or do them both at the same time:
If you cut your calories down too low, you run the risk of not feeding your body the required nutrients it must have.
If you are too active, you may be placing too much strain on your body and it may lead to injury.
There are many methods which teach how to create a healthy calorie deficit.
The main thing is to exercise some form of calorie control and to be regularly active.
If you do that, weight loss is virtually guaranteed.
I'm referring to the famous "Calorie Deficit" which you need to achieve in order to lose weight.
What is this calorie deficit and how do you achieve it? Let's back up a bit and talk about weight loss and how it happens.
In your body there is a balance.
You eat food which contains calories.
These calories are actually units of energy which your body uses in order to function.
This includes the basic things such as breathing, digesting, and keeping your blood flowing and it also includes things such as playing with your kids, typing, working out, etc.
Whatever you do is fueled by calories.
All those actions add up and you end up with a total sum of burned calories.
You take this sum of burned calories and this is one side of the balance.
The other side is the amount of calories in the food that you consume.
This is a general picture of how things are.
There are two ways in which this balance can manifest itself: either you have a calorie surplus which means that you've eaten more calories than those you burned, or it can be the other way around.
In the latter case, you have a calorie deficit.
Naturally, there is also the possibility that you burn exactly what you've consumed but the chances of that happening are very slim.
If you have a calorie surplus you will gain weight.
If you have a calorie deficit, you will lose weight.
Plain and simple.
To achieve a calorie deficit you can do either of the two following things or do them both at the same time:
- Reduce the amount of calories that you consume.
- Increase your activity level in order to burn more calories.
If you cut your calories down too low, you run the risk of not feeding your body the required nutrients it must have.
If you are too active, you may be placing too much strain on your body and it may lead to injury.
There are many methods which teach how to create a healthy calorie deficit.
The main thing is to exercise some form of calorie control and to be regularly active.
If you do that, weight loss is virtually guaranteed.
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