Energy Balance is made up of 2 sides. One side is calories in, and on the other side, it’s calories out.
It works like a seesaw and what happens on both those sides will determine what happens to your body’s energy stores.
An important factor that can affect your outcome is homeostasis, which is the body’s auto regulation of what it deems to be stable and balanced.
If you have been at a particular weight or lifestyle for a period of time, any changes to this will be fought by the body wanting to get back to what it feels is ‘balanced’.
This means if you change your energy intake, your body’s first response will be to adjust energy expenditure and hormones, particularly ghrelin and leptin, to try to get you back to where it thinks you should be.
If you have ever experienced that feeling of insatiable hunger shortly after beginning a diet that focuses on a very low amount of calories in each day, that is your body fighting to get you back to balance.
It takes time for the body to adapt to a new homeostasis. This is why a slow and safe approach to dieting works better. Drastic calorie cuts and huge bouts of exercise will initially throw homeostasis out and will make it that much harder to get the results you are after.
