Energy balance, put simply, equals energy in vs energy out.
More specifically, it’s the relationship between the calories you consume through food and drinks and the calories you burn through living, breathing, thinking and physical activity.
So, as a simple idea, if you go over your calories, you put on weight.
If you eat in a calorie deficit, you will lose weight.
Simple concept right?
But there’s additional factors to consider when you’re dealing with an actual person.
To achieve energy balance, there are several factors to consider:
genetics,
diet history,
body size,
amount of body fat,
muscle mass… just to name a few.
And these matter because they will determine what your body can do as well as how the body is composed.
So what happens when there is an imbalance?
Consistently eating low calories biases your body towards storing energy as body fat.
(It does this because your muscle constantly demands energy.)
It also exposes you to disordered eating and long-term damage in your immune,
digestive, and reproductive systems.
So there is a limit on how big a deficit your body can be in and how long it can stay in deficit.
A useful reference point is ~1800-2400 cal (if you’re training hard, say 5x a week).
But just to be clear with you: calories are not the full story.
Macros also form a big part of the picture.
Macros are protein, fat, carbs, fibre and water, which your body highly needs everyday to function well, stay healthy, and have optimal composition.
In fact, did you know that we prescribe the same, or more calories
to 70-80% of our clients?
only 20-30% need less calories than when they came to us.
But one thing we change for almost everyone: their macros.
So once you learn how to track your macros along with your calorie intake?
You’re on the right path towards radically changing your physique the way you want it to.
Would you like some help with getting to the bottom of what nutrition should look like for you?
Click this link and chat with our team.
Love and light,
The SMP Coaching Team
