What is caloric deficit and how to do it? – GOOD SHAPE

How many times have you heard that to lose weight, you need to get into caloric deficit? Although it seems easy (it’s just a matter of reducing the number of calories, right?) this condition, when done the wrong way, can bring more harm than good to your health, if not done correctly.

WHAT IS A CALORIC DEFICIT?

Calories are units of energy that we get through what we drink and eat. When you consume fewer calories than you expend (whether exercising or resting), you enter a calorie deficit.

The calories you burn or expend each day — also known as calorie expenditure — include all three components, according to studies.

Resting energy expenditure: refers to the calories your body use at rest for functions that keep you alive, such as breathing and blood circulation.
Thermic effect of food: involves the calories your body expends digesting, absorbing, and metabolizing food.
Activity energy expenditure: that if refers to the calories you expend during sports such as exercise and non-exercise activities, including fidgeting and doing housework.

According to The American Journal of Nutrition when you provide less calories than necessary to suppress these expenses, you enter into caloric deficitwhich leads to weight loss after a long and consistent period. On the other hand, you will gain weight if you regularly supply your body with more calories than it needs to support these functions. This is called a caloric surplus.

HOW TO CALCULATE CALORIC DEFICIT

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, O caloric deficit 500 calories a day is enough to notice a reduction in weight without significantly affecting your hunger or energy levels. But, to create this condition, it is necessary to know what your maintenance calories.

To the maintenance calories are precisely the number of calories your body needs to support energy expenditure. You can use online calculators that estimate maintenance calories based on weight, age, height, gender, and activity level.

After calculating calories, it’s important to keep in mind that as you lose weight, your maintenance calories will decrease over time and you’ll need to adjust your eating based on your goals, always needing to re-calculate.

Butanyway, to ensure healthy weight loss and adequate nutrient intake, women should consume no less than 1,200 calories per day and men no less than 1,500 calories, according to studies.

HOW TO GET INTO CALORICAL DEFICIT?

You can reach a caloric deficit consuming fewer calories or increasing your physical activity levels – or both.

However, it may be easier to maintain a calorie deficit through diet and exercise, as you won’t always have the time (or energy) to engage in physical activity. Also, creating this deficit through diet is easier than exercising, because eating 500 fewer calories a day than burning that number of calories through exercise, as this study shows.

To the Department of Health and Human Services Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that adults engage in 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, or 75-150 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise, weekly. Moderate-intensity exercise includes brisk walking and light cycling, while examples of vigorous-intensity exercise are jogging and brisk cycling.

TIPS TO CONSUME LESS CALORIES

AVOID SUGAR BEVERAGES

By removing boxed juices, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages and all kinds of sugary drinks from your routine, you will be saving yourself from the consumption of several calories. Studies show that their calories don’t provide fullness and, in excess, can lead to weight gain, heart disease and diabetes.

AVOID THE ULTRA PROCESSED

The sugar, fat, and salt in highly processed foods, including sugary drinks, fast foods, desserts, and breakfast cereals, make these foods high in calories and palatable, encouraging overconsumption.

In fact, one study showed that people who could eat as much as they wanted ate 500 more calories per day on a diet containing highly processed foods compared to a diet containing minimally processed foods.