Weight Loss Diet: Deficit, Macros and Training
I have written about a weight-reducing diet on my blog before. Today I would like to come back to the topic to help you clarify the facts.
A weight-reducing diet simply means maintaining negative caloric balance, or consuming fewer calories than your Total Metabolic Rate (TMR).
BMR and TMR – let’s start from the beginning
If you consider going on a weight-reducing diet, the first thing you should do is calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and your Total Metabolic Rate (TMR). Below you will find the formulas, but you can just as well use calculators available online. The value of BMR is the energy our body needs to maintain basic life functions – it’s our base and we cannot go anywhere below it. On the other hand, TMR also incorporates our everyday physical activity and this is where we can include a calorie deficit. If you subtract 500 kcal from your individual TMR, you should be able to observe a weekly loss of about 0.5 kg (that is 2 to 4 kg per month). It is the optimum deficit which should bring the most permanent results. When you begin a weight-reducing diet, your initial calorific value can also be determined by calculating 80% from your TMR.
BMR for a man:
BMR [kcal] = 66.47 + (13.75 x body mass in kg) + (5 x height in cm) – (6.75 x age)
BMR for a woman:
BMR [kcal] = 665.09 + (9.56 x body mass in kg) + (1.85 x height in cm) – (4.67 x age)
TMR = BMR x activity level
Select your physical activity level:
- 1.4 – for low activity;
- 1.6 – for medium activity;
- 1.75 – an active lifestyle (about 3 to 5 workouts per week);
- 2.0 – a very active lifestyle (a physical job and training);
- 2.2 or more – professional athletes.
These equations give you a starting estimate rather than a measurement, and the activity factor is where most of the error sits. How far the numbers can drift from reality, and what to do about it, is worked through in the post on the reduction diet.
Calorie deficit is key
There is one issue that I wish to highlight. If you would like to lose weight, remember you must achieve a calorie deficit, meaning you provide your body with less energy from food than it uses up throughout the day. You will not reduce your body weight, even while on a healthy diet, unless you achieve the deficit.
If you think your diet is well-balanced, rich in highly nutritious products and you avoid unhealthy, processed foods, but still fail to lose weight, think what you could change. Maybe the portions in your meals are too big, or you may eat too many healthy but high-calorie products, such as nuts, nut butter, fruit or dried fruit. Or maybe you should include physical activity in your daily schedule? 🙂
Where a deficit usually leaks
A deficit rarely disappears in one obvious place. It drains through several small ones that share a feature: the food is genuinely good for you, which is exactly why it goes unquestioned.
Nuts and nut butter are the most common. A handful of almonds is a sensible snack and also around 200 kcal, and a tablespoon of nut butter is roughly 100 – two of each across a day is a third of the deficit gone. Dried fruit concentrates the sugars of fresh fruit into a quarter of the volume, so a small bowl of dried apricots matches a large plate of fresh ones. Oil measured by eye rather than by spoon adds up the same way: what looks like a drizzle over a salad is often two tablespoons, near 240 kcal.
The fix is not to cut any of them out. It is to weigh them for a week, once, so you know what your own portions actually look like. Most people need that week only once.
That’s right, it might seem obvious but let me say it again 🙂 The most effective way to lose weight is combining a diet and physical activity, and that’s exactly why you will find both in my Diet & Training by Ann application 🙂
Why strength training beats cardio in a deficit
Physical activity is especially important while following calorie reduction. It is recommended to replace cardio workouts with strength training in order to look after the muscles and to avoid muscle tissue loss.
The reason is that a body in a deficit does not choose to spend fat only. It takes what is available, and muscle tissue is expensive to maintain, so it is among the first things the body is willing to give up. Resistance work is the signal that says the muscle is still in use and worth keeping. Without that signal, a large part of what you lose is lean tissue, which is why the scale can move while the shape does not.
In practice that means keeping two or three strength sessions a week through the whole reduction, holding the loads roughly where they were and cutting the volume rather than the weight if you feel flat. Cardio is not the enemy, it just should not be the only thing you do. There are over 200 training plans in the app and the sessions fit around the menu rather than competing with it.
Macronutrients in a weight-reducing diet
Carbohydrates are the main energy source for our bodies and should be the basis of our diet. You will mainly find them in wholemeal products, such as thick groats and grains, as well as fruit and vegetables. And what about the popular low-carb diets? Research shows that it is the amount of protein and not carbohydrates that determines the effectiveness of weight loss. It is connected with after-meal thermogenesis, which is the amount of energy your body uses up for digestion and absorption, and protein is the most thermogenic nutrient.
Remember that your diet should provide the right amount of protein. As the main source you should choose lean meat like chicken, rabbit or veal. Fish and eggs are also rich in protein.
Why protein does more than its calories suggest
Thermogenesis is worth putting numbers to, because the effect is larger than most people expect. Your body spends a share of every meal simply on digesting it, and that share differs sharply by nutrient: roughly a fifth to a quarter of the energy in protein goes on processing it, against a small fraction of that for carbohydrates and less again for fat. Two meals matched on calories are therefore not matched on what you keep.
The second effect is appetite. Protein holds hunger off longer than the same number of calories from carbohydrate or fat, which makes the deficit something you can sit with rather than something you fight. Between the two, the protein target is the part of a reduction plan worth getting right first, ahead of any decision about carbohydrates.
Fats are also an important part of a weight-reducing diet and I am glad that they are no longer considered the root of all evil 🙂 We know that fats do not lead to obesity and are necessary, among other things, to maintain proper hormonal balance. Fats should be consumed in the form of mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6). The crucial point here is the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. The recommended ratio is 1:4-5, but, unfortunately, we tend to consume too many omega-6 acids which can also have pro-inflammatory properties.
Vegetable oils are the best source of omega-6 fatty acids (sunflower, corn, soy, rapeseed), as well as sunflower and pumpkin seeds. When it comes to omega-3 fatty acids, you will find them in fish, shellfish, algae, chia seeds, walnuts, almonds, flaxseed and linseed oil. I especially recommend including chia seeds in your everyday diet, as they are not only rich in omega-3 acids but also in protein, and in 100 g they contain more calcium than milk.
The omega ratio is about what you add, not what you cut
A ratio has two sides, and the side most people reach for is the wrong one. Cutting omega-6 is difficult, because it comes from the oils used in nearly everything cooked outside the home. Adding omega-3 is straightforward, and it moves the same ratio.
Two portions of oily fish a week does most of the work. Where fish is not an option, flaxseed oil is the densest plant source, and it has one condition attached: it oxidises quickly in light and heat, so it belongs in the fridge in a dark bottle and on food that is already cooked, never in the pan. Ground flaxseed and walnuts fill the gaps on the days between.
Summing up, remember that the core of a weight-reducing diet is a calorie deficit. We put on weight as a result of excessive calorie intake and not because of the amount of macronutrients. However, it is important to highlight that the appropriate ratio of macronutrients in our diet is necessary for supplying our bodies with all the essential nutrients and for proper functioning. If you need help with your diet, use my Diet & Training by Ann app.
GOOD LUCK 🙂
Frequently asked questions
About 500 kcal below your Total Metabolic Rate, which works out at roughly half a kilogram a week. A deeper cut does not speed things up in any useful way, it just makes the diet harder to hold and takes more muscle with it.
No. Weight loss follows the calorie deficit, not the share of carbohydrates. Research points to the amount of protein rather than the amount of carbohydrate as what decides the outcome, so raise the protein first and let the carbohydrates fill the rest.
Enough that it is the part of the plan you set first. Protein costs the most energy to digest and holds hunger off longest, which is why lean meat, fish and eggs appear in every meal of a well built reduction menu.
Both, with strength training as the part you protect. In a deficit the body is willing to give up muscle, and resistance work is the signal that keeps it. Two or three sessions a week through the reduction is the usual recommendation.
Almost always because the deficit is not there. Nuts, nut butter, dried fruit and oil poured by eye are genuinely healthy and genuinely calorie dense, and they close a 500 kcal gap faster than anything else. Weigh your portions for one week and the answer usually appears. The AI Calorie Calculator in Diet & Training by Ann takes the guesswork out of that week: it reads the calories and macros off a photo of the plate.
Sources
- Matarese LE, Pories WJ. Adult weight loss diets: metabolic effects and outcomes. Nutr Clin Pract. 2014;29(6):759-67.
- Ramage S, Farmer A, Eccles KA, McCargar L. Healthy strategies for successful weight loss and weight maintenance: a systematic review. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2014;39(1):1-20.
- Soenen S, Bonomi AG, Lemmens SG et al. Relatively high-protein or ‘low-carb’ energy-restricted diets for body weight loss and body weight maintenance? Physiol Behav. 2012;107(3):370-80.
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