Calories come from macronutrients protein, carbohydrates and fats. To lose body fat you MUST be in a Calorie Deficit. If you are not in a calorie deficit then you will not drop body fat and no matter how hard you train, you will see little to no changes with your body. You have probably heard this already, but what exactly is a calorie deficit or surplus and how many calories does that equate to?
Dependent on your goal, your calorie intake will be geared at either one of the following 3:
CALORIE DEFICIT: lose body fat
BASELINE/MAINTENANCE: maintain current physique and weight
CALORIE SURPLUS: gain muscle
A calorie deficit is when you are consuming less calories than you are burning for energy in a day. The result is that you will drop body fat as this will be used as your energy source in replace of a surplus of calories from food consumed. A calorie deficit is essential to lose body fat.
Maintenance or Baseline is exactly that. It is the number of calories needed to maintain your current body composition. You will neither gain or lose body fat at this calorie intake.
Calorie Surplus is the exact opposite of a calorie deficit. It is where you consume more calories than your baseline requirements which should result in a gain in lean muscle and not body fat if training correctly.
To correctly work out the exact amount of calories needed to reach your goals, you firstly need to work out your TDEE – your Total Daily Energy Expenditure which is how we establish our body’s baseline calories.
Look out for my next post on how to calculate your Baseline calories