What is energy balance?

The major key to achieving your weight loss or weight gain goal

Energy balance 101 - Now we have all heard of calories (or at least i hope you have). If not a calorie is a measurement of energy. Calories are taken in through the food that we eat and drinks that we, well, drink and then used by the body for energy for many jobs such as breathing, digestion and walking, just to name a few. Energy balance is simply a term which we use to reference the difference these 2 things. The balance between calories consumed and calories burned.

Calculating your energy / calorie intake - There are many ways in which you can start to calculate your required calorie intake. Some of which are various calculations based on your height, weight, age and activity level. This will calculate your TDEE, although this sounds like a strange acronym for some kind of new product from your favourite phone company. TDEE is an estimation of your Total Daily Energy Expenditure. In simple terms, the amount of calories you burn each day taking into account your activity level. Although these calculations are not exact due to the obvious genetic differences and large range of activity levels we have, in using the Miffin-St Jeor Formula you can give yourself a good starting point. Instead of giving you the complex formula to sit for half an hour and calculate the square root of your height x weight divided by who knows what. The miracle of technology allows you to simply input the basic data online at tdeecalculator.net and the calculation will be done for you. Now, before you run away with this number singing halleujah and think this is gospel to reaching your weight loss or weight gain goal. This does require some time and tracking and management (more on this below) to find your own real personal energy intake.

Calories are king - Once you have your TDEE you can now look to add or take away calories on a daily or weekly basis to ensure weight loss or weight gain is made. If you want to lose weight I would recommend dropping about 10% of your total calories. If you want to gain weight then add on 10% and go from there. If you start losing weight, happy days keep those calorie targets until you stop seeing weight loss, then take away another 10% & repeat. Now you obviously cant do that forever until you are consuming 2 leaves of lettuce a day and you die. However if you give this process time and allow the natural adaptation to occur before dropping calories for most people you will be able to achieve your goals within a safe range of calorie intake. How many of you have tried weight watchers, low carb, low fat, keto, some kind of diet. They all work because of the energy deficit they put you in. By removing food groups that you would normally eat you naturally will consume less food each day therefore causing weight loss. So why aren’t you still on that diet now or already achieved your goals? 1 massive reason... CONSISTENCY. If you start a diet and cant see it being something you can sustain for the rest of your life or at least many years to come. I can tell you from experience, it is a waste of time. By simply understanding your energy balance and consistently putting yourself in a slight deficit you will be able to maintain normality, make meals with your children and enjoy the food you love all while achieving your goals. Sounds good right? Theres more...

Whats measured is managed - Do you know what 500 calories of peanut butter or the correct 40g serving of your favourite cereal actually looks like? Me neither for most things. The fact of the matter is you will need a certain level of understanding of what foods you eat regularly contain. To ensure you are actually in a calorie deficit I would recommend tracking your regular eating. Now most people can find this difficult and not sustainable within itself, but I would guess you probably rotate 6-10 of the same or very similar meals on a weekly basis. If you wish to track everything once, twice a week or everyday thats fine but I would recommend to take a few weeks to track your main meals you will quickly start to understand the calorie content of these foods and allow you to remain in a deficit. Be aware of hidden calories in drinks and what we call calorie dense foods (small volumes with a lot of calories). I recommend downloading the myfitnesspal app and play about with scanning, weighing and tracking a few of your favourite meals today. You might be surprised.

The other half of the equation - Part 2 of the energy balance equation is energy out. This is another tool which you can use to increase your calorie / energy deficit. Now this is my favourite and can have a great impact on reaching your goals while reducing the impact on your current lifestyle. As previously mentioned calories out is created through all movements and processes our body‘s do. Some of these are automated bodily fucntions like breathing for example, but a large amount of our output we can impact with physical activity. Now before you run to the gym (or online training session) and sign up for 3 back to back classes each day, let me introduce you to NEAT - Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. What this accounts for is calories burned through movement that isn’t traditional exercise, simply walking up the stairs, getting in and out of the car and scratching nose all use energy and therefore burn calories and make up your NEAT. If you can increase your NEAT each and every day this can have a huge impact on your overall calorie burn over the period of the week. According to Dr James Levine, the mayo clinic researcher who was the part of the original team to research NEAT, it can vary up to a whopping 2000 calories per day in people of the same size. Obviously workouts can also add to your energy expenditure and I would recommend fitting this into your current lifestyle and not fitting your lifestyle around exercise. Doing exercise you enjoy will increase the chances of you sticking to it for many months and years to come.

The final piece of the weight loss pie - The final piece of the puzzle or pie if you prefer is being able to now make all of this work in your life. We all enjoy that night of too many drinks, a kebab or a pizza and the more you restrict yourself from these moments the less likely you are to succeed. Its human nature to want what we are told we cant have. So here are a few hacks or tricks you can try to ensure you stay on track to your goals. Firstly, if you treat yourself or feel you “messed up” let it go. One meal in the grand scheme of your week, month or long term health goals is much more important to enjoy for your mental health than to beat yourself up for. However, if you know you have a meal or night out coming up you can start to think of your calorie allowance in a different way to remain in a deficit. Lets use the example of your weight loss calorie allowance being 2000 per day and that is a 200 calorie daily deficit. This would mean your maintenance calories are 15,400 per week. If you know on Saturday you are going to go out and drink and eat what you like you probably need 2000-3000 for that. Lets say you eat your allowance each day and an extra 2000 on your night out in sugary cocktails and late night kebab shop trip, that deficit you built up quickly turns into a calorie surplus over the week totalling 16,000 and resulting in weight gain. So by thinking of your calories in a weekly allowance instead you to eat a little less, say 1800 Monday to Friday, 3500 blow out Saturday and 1800 Sunday and remain in a deficit and on track. This way isn’t the best for everyone but you definitely should understand that you can undo a week of hard work in 1 night if your goal is weight loss. Use your calories like money, save them when you can and dip into the savings when you need.

Want support on how to implement any of this into your personal life? Whether its understanding energy balance or looking for support with home workouts in this current pandemic. I am here to help. Follow @harryhfitness on instagram for daily posts and email me at h.hughespt@gmail.com for any 1-2-1 online personal training enquires.