How To Burn Fat Through Nutrition

Losing weight is not easy, but it is simple. It’s also not an overnight hack or something that can be done quickly and without effort.

I want to teach you that you can lose weight and burn fat while eating the foods that you enjoy.

That means that you don't have to give up carbs and you don't have to treat sugar as the enemy. You also don’t have to switch to an extreme diet or do intermittent fasting.

Does that mean you should eat a huge bag of Cheetos every single day? No.

But you can enjoy them in moderation.

Unfortunately, a lot of people are easily influenced by extreme diets, unnecessary powders, and pills that "help you burn fat."

But nutrition is way more simple than some people make it out to be.

All foods can fit into a healthy diet if the majority of your diet consists of nutrient-dense foods like whole grains, lean proteins, low-fat dairy, and lots of fruits and vegetables.

This article will not demonize certain foods or food groups and instead, will focus on nutrient-dense foods that make you feel good while burning fat and enjoying a special treat every once in a while.

Calories IN/Calories OUT

Calories are energy that your body takes in through food and uses to function.

Basically, this is the process of taking in food as energy(or calories) and then using that energy for life functions and daily activities.

Every single thing we do takes energy(or calories), from digesting food to exercising and even washing dishes.

If you eat(take in) more calories than you burn(put out) then you will gain weight. Not immediately, it’s not that you eat too many calories today and then gain weight tomorrow. This is a gradual process that happens over time and eventually, we realize we have put on some unwanted pounds.

Daily Energy Needs

Your body uses energy in three ways. For life-sustaining operations (blood circulation, respiration, and temperature regulation), to process (digest) food, and for physical activity. The sum total of all of those energy components is what is called your TDEE, or total daily energy expenditure.

Think of your TDEE as your calories out. It’s an estimate of the total amount of calories you burn every day. And it’s the sum total of three different energy components.

Your resting metabolic rate, or RMR, is the amount of energy you expend while at rest. You can think of this as your metabolism. These are the calories you are burning in order to circulate blood throughout your body, breathe, and regulate your body temperature. This accounts for around 70% of your total daily energy expenditure.

Your RMR can be affected by many factors including, age, sex, genetics, hormonal changes, body composition, medication, food, and even caffeine intake. Losing body fat and putting on muscle can have a gradual increase in resting metabolic rate. That’s why strength training plays such an important role in fat loss. However, certain factors like age, sex, and genetics cannont be altered so there’s really only so much you can do to improve your RMR.

The thermic effect of food, or TEF is the amount of energy it takes to process your food for use and storage. This is what you know as the digestion process. When you chew your food you are starting the digestion process. Once food is consumed it is digested and moved through the digestive tract. Nutrients are transported from the gut to your blood, and then they are distributed throughought the body.

This process requires energy that can be measured after the meal is consumed. The increase in energy after your meal is called the thermic effect of food.  This accounts for approximately 6 to 10% of your total daily energy expenditure. 

Energy Expenditure during physical activity accounts for approximately 20% of your total daily energy expenditure.

Physical activity could be anything from brushing your teeth to hitting the gym. Engaging in exercise or sports will increase your energy expenditure.

Calorie Deficit

A calorie deficit is when the amount of calories you eat in a day is less than the number of calories that you burn in a day.

A calorie deficit is the reason that all diets work.

If you are in a large deficit you will lose more weight over time than if you were in a small deficit. Right off the bat, you need to understand that the best(most sustainable) way to do this is to be in a moderate calorie deficit over an extended period of time.

It seems like everywhere you look there is a fad diet encouraging you to eat 1,000 calories a day. Of course, you will lose weight that way, we all will. But it’s not healthy and it’s definitely not going to be sustainable in the long run.

With that said, would you rather have slower progress that you can maintain over time and eventually do without thinking about it? Or would you prefer the fast progress that results in 2 steps forward and 4 steps back?

If you pick the slow progress that is sustainable in the long run then you have come to the right place.

Here is the science. If you eat in a 500-calorie deficit every day then on average you will lose 1 pound per week. That means that over a 7-day period you were in a total deficit of 3,500 calories.

That’s a really good benchmark to go off of because 1 pound per week would equal 4 pounds lost in a month, which comes to 48 pounds lost in a year! That’s phenomenal!

Now let’s slow it down a little bit and say we set our target calorie deficit at 250 calories per day. This is what I prefer, a nice moderate calorie deficit. As a reminder, that would be 250 calories less than your maintenance calories. That’s half of a pound of weight loss per week which would equal 2 pounds of weight loss per month, and that’s 24 pounds in a year!  Also phenomenal!

Do that for 2 years and you have just dropped 48 pounds by being consistent and having a good relationship with food. The reason I like the smaller calorie deficit is that it will always produce results, and it is much more sustainable in the long run.

If you are in a 200-calorie deficit per day then you will lose weight over time, but if you slip up and overeat a couple of times a month then you aren’t going to take 4 steps back.

On the other hand, if you go into a huge calorie deficit then you leave no wiggle room for days you have a special event like a BBQ or a Wedding. Never mind a weeklong vacation when all of the eating rules go out the window. 

Remember, we want something that you can maintain. You want your weight loss journey to be sustainable in the sense that when you go on vacation you don’t have to change your life, and you don’t have to feel guilty about going out to eat or indulging every once in a while. I want you to go on vacation and eat the piece of cake, and put an end to saying, no “thanks, I’m on a diet.”

In a small, controlled calorie deficit you don’t have to be 100% on 100% of the time.

Budgeting your calories is the same thing as budgeting your money. Let’s say you have a limit on how much money you can spend each day but your car breaks down and you go over that limit by $300 to fix it. Does that mean that every day after that you are going to spend $300 over your daily budget? Of course not. You wake up the next day and stay on track with your budget.

It’s the same thing with your calories. If you go over one day then you get back on track the next.

If I still haven’t convinced you that a small calorie deficit over a long period of time is the way to go, think of it this way. If you need to lose weight but you do nothing about it and you keep going in the direction you have been, you are going to continue to gain weight. So you could either gain 20 pounds over the next two years or lose 48. 

*Please keep in mind I do not suggest eating in more than a 500-calorie deficit unless consulted with a Dr, Nutritionist, or Dietician.

Importance of Protein

When it comes to fat loss protein is the most important macronutrient. It is the most satiating and has the highest thermic effect of food of all the macronutrients.

Protein activates specific satiety mechanisms and is more satiating than fats and carbohydrates. Since protein makes us feel more full, it’s very beneficial for fat loss or weight loss goals.

Thermic effect of food represents how much energy it takes to process a given food. Your body will use more energy, or calories, to process protein than it will to process carbs and fats.

In my experience, the people that I work with were not eating enough protein when we begin working together. By increasing their protein intake each day they realized that they could eat less food and be more full than they were before.

If you are someone who eats a lot of processed foods like candies, chips, cookies, and pastries, then you may realize you can eat a bunch and you never really feel full. That’s because the calories in those foods are mainly coming from carbs and fats. They contain very little protein if any. But when you switch your focus to high protein foods you will notice you’ll feel more satiated throughout the day and you’ll have fewer cravings to overeat. 

Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

Measuring and Tracking Food

I know this may sound like a real pain but it is so worth it, let me explain. First, you should understand this is not something you have to do for the rest of your life, it is a tool to set you up for success moving forward.

Once you get the hang of your calorie deficit, what you enjoy eating, and how many calories those foods contain, then you can stop tracking if that’s what you want to do. However, tracking what you eat will really put into perspective what you are actually eating, and it always keeps you in check.

I can tell you from personal experience as well as experience from the people I work with that when you track what you eat it becomes an eye-opening experience.

You quickly realize how easy it is to overeat and start to think of the adjustments you can make. You may realize that most days you eat over ⅓ of your calories just on breakfast at a fast-food restaurant. Then you find out that the sandwich you got with a heap of mayonnaise for lunch was another ⅓ of your daily calories, but the soda you got tacks on another 100 plus calories.

Or maybe you think you are eating healthy because you have a smoothie every day, and it’s not until you measure and track an entire day of eating that you realize you are overeating eating.

You can track your macronutrients the same way you track your calories. This helps you get a better understanding of how much carbs, protein, and fat is in the food you eat.  You can learn a lot by understanding the macro differences between avocado and oatmeal. 

Measuring and tracking your food will put serving sizes into perspective, and it will show you how much of something you can allow yourself to eat without it being considered overeating. Just like having boundaries in your life is important, so is having boundaries with your nutrition. Measuring and tracking your food allows you to understand what you are eating and know when to eat in moderation to avoid overeating.

Meal Timing

When it comes to fat loss, meal timing doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters for fat loss is if you are in a calorie deficit. It doesn’t matter how many times a day you eat or when you eat. When it comes to meal timing the most important things are what fits your lifestyle and being consistent about it.

Some people do better eating 1-2 meals a day and other people do better eating 3-6 meals a day. As long as you are in a calorie deficit and hitting your protein, none of that matters. It’s important that you do what is best for you and stay consistent with it.

If you eat 3 meals a day and 2 snacks then stick to that throughout the weeks and months. If you snack throughout the day and eat one big meal at night then stick with that. It’s important to understand that your hunger works on a regulatory schedule. You can use this to your advantage because if you can predict when you will be hungry then you have a much better chance of succeeding.

The reason it’s best to stay consistent and use this hunger schedule is that you want to make your nutrition as easy and seamless as possible.

A huge topic in regards to meal timing is whether or not eating before bed makes you gain weight. It does not. The only thing that makes you gain weight is eating in a calorie surplus. If you eat more than your maintenance calories on a daily basis for an extended period of time, you are going to gain weight. That wouldn’t have anything to do with the time of day.

A common misconception is that if you eat before going to sleep then your body is not burning calories and you end up gaining weight. That’s not true because your body is always burning calories, even when you sleep. And when we figure out your maintenance calories we account for the calories being burned while you are asleep. So as long as you have your maintenance calories and are set up to be in a deficit then it won’t matter if you eat before bed. It may affect your sleep, but it won’t cause you to gain weight.

Maintenance Calories

Everyone’s maintenance calories will be different and it’s important to understand that most of the time this number is going to be an estimate, not exact.

It’s really difficult to get an exact number because everyone is so different, but having a somewhat accurate number gives us a great starting point. In short, maintenance calories are calculated by finding your base metabolic rate and adding in your activity level. Your base metabolic rate is your metabolism, it’s the number of calories that you burn at rest in a day.

Essentially this is the number of calories that your body needs to lie in bed all day and survive the bare minimum. Now when we add your activity level to that number, we get your maintenance calories. That’s where you create your deficit. 

Hacks to Eating Healthy at Parties and Events

One of the biggest obstacles that people face when trying to lose weight is how to deal with going out to eat, parties, and events. There can be a lot of temptation and most of the food selection is out of your control. You can make the best decisions with what you have in front of you but you can’t always control what will be available.

Let’s assume you are going out to eat with your family and you know the restaurant doesn’t have the best options for you to choose something and hit your calories. First, we aren’t going to track calories that day. That doesn’t mean to go all out at dinner and then go home and eat 2 sleeves of Oreos. It just means we are going to remove the possible stress that will come from you not hitting your calories that day.

Next, you are going to eat something healthy and somewhat filling before you go to dinner. That way you have something nutritious in your stomach and you can enjoy a dish off the restaurant's menu without the guilt of going over your calories. For example, make your own salad at home with a lot of greens, veggies, some protein, and a light dressing. That will control your hunger so you don’t go in on an empty stomach and crush an appetizer with your entree and a dessert after that.

This strategy can be used for any event as well as any situation where you think you may overeat. Say it’s time for a nighttime snack and you are craving some chips. First, try eating something filling, like greek yogurt. Then enjoy a serving of chips knowing that you are just eating them to appreciate the taste, and not get full off of them. If you go into that bag of chips on an empty stomach we both know you can do some damage. Set yourself up for success with these tips.  

Closing

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Figure out what works best for you and your body. If this information was helpful it’s time to get out there and put it to use! 

If you have any questions, I would love to help you out. You can email me on my personal email at any time. patrick@syracusefitnesscenter.com. I respond to emails within 24-48 hours. If you are looking for a personalized approach to your nutrition and fitness coaching, feel free to check out my online coaching page. Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Remember to subscribe to my mailing list to get updates on new blogs, helpful videos, and other coaching updates. When you sign up you will receive a free copy of my Full Body Mobility Ebook but I promise I won’t bombard you with pointless emails.

Much Love,

Patrick.