In order to understand how you gain, lose, or maintain your weight, you need to understand how energy balance (aka science) works.
We all know that our bodies use lots of energy (calories) to exercise, but did you know that you also burn calories (or energy) by simply LIVING?
In other words, you are burning calories while working your day job…
You’re burning calories while digesting the foods you eat…
You’re burning calories while you breathe…
You’re burning calories while you clean your house…
And even while you sleep!
How MANY calories you burn during all of these activities comes down to a variety of factors, including your age, height, weight, genetics. daily activity level, workouts, muscle vs fat mass, etc.
The difference between how much energy you BURN versus how much energy you CONSUME (through food and drinks) directly leads to weight loss, weight gain, or weight maintenance.
Here’s what I mean:
If you eat MORE calories than your body burns during workouts AND while living your life (walking, breathing, sleeping, cleaning your house, etc.), then you will gain weight.
If you eat LESS calories than your body burns during workouts AND while living your life (walking, breathing, sleeping, cleaning your house, etc.), then you will lose weight.
If you eat a SIMILAR number of calories compared to how many your body burns during workouts AND while living your life (walking, breathing, sleeping, cleaning your house, etc.), then you will maintain your weight.
Here’s the biggest takeaway — Things like your genetics, your metabolism carbs, sugar, fatty foods, etc. often get blamed for leading to weight gain… But in reality, each of these is ONE single part of your weight management equation.
In order to successfully lose weight, you need to look at BOTH parts of the equation: your caloric intake (as a whole) and your caloric expenditure (as a whole).
One last note - results linked to energy balance happen over an extended period of time… NOT after one day of eating more or less than you burn.
Have questions on how this works?