Calorie Deficit Creation For Weight Loss: 6 Healthy Ways.

Calorie

Creating a calorie deficit is an absolute necessity if you want to achieve your weight loss goal.

A calorie is a unit of energy that we get from foods and beverages.

Calories provide energy to the body so that it can function even when we are at rest.

Daily calorie expenditure

 

 

 

The calories you consume every day for performing various activities is known as daily calorie expenditure of the body.

Components of daily calorie expenditure

1. Resting energy expenditure:  Calories you consume for sustaining basic bodily functions such as breathing and blood circulation.

2. Thermic effect of food: Calories burned in digestion also known as the thermic effect of food.

3. Activity:  Calories burned in activities like exercising, walking etc.

Calculation of daily calorie requirements for weight loss:

Although there are many methods to calculate the body’s daily calorie needs.

But the most reliable method followed worldwide is the calculation of BMR. (Body metabolic rate)

BMR formula is also preferred over other methods because it takes into account everything i.e. age, height, weight, gender, etc.

 (For complete details on BMR please Read the previous article)

Remember that BMR represents one’s basic caloric needs when the body is at rest. But your body is doing various activities in day to day life.

So, to find your total daily calorie requirements, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:

1. If you are living a  sedentary lifestyle(very little or no exercise) :

       Calorie requirements = BMR x 1.2

2. If you are living a lightly active lifestyle (light exercise or sports 1-3 days/week) :

  Calorie requirements = BMR x 1.375

3. If you are living a moderately active lifestyle (moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days/week) :

Calorie requirements = BMR x 1.55

4. If you are living a very active lifestyle (hard exercise or sports 6-7 days a week) :

 Calorie requirements = BMR x 1.725

If you are living extra active lifestyle (very hard exercise or sports & physical job or 2x training):

Calorie requirements = BMR x 1.9

This calculation provides us with information on maintenance calories. i.e. the calories we should consume each day to maintain our current weight.

Calorie deficit

If you provide your body with fewer calories than its daily calorie requirement, then you are creating a calorie deficit.

If you do it continuously for a long time, it results in weight loss.

This is due to the fact that the body takes away the extra calories required from the stored fat for its daily activities.

For example, 1 kg of fat has 7700 calories. So if you want to lose 1 kg of weight, then you have to create a calorie deficit of 7700 calories in that time period.

How to create calorie deficit for weight loss

Find the maintenance calories required by your body with BMR formula and activity factor.

After this, to set the goal of new daily calorie intake required for weight loss, reduce 20% of calories from maintenance calories.

If you want to achieve your weight loss goal in a very short time. Then you can reduce 40% of calories from maintenance calories for extreme fat loss.

However it is also not advisable to reduce calories too quickly, instead it should be reduced gradually or initially to a maximum of 500 calories per day.

For example: If you find that your maintenance calories are 2,000 per day, then your new daily calorie intake target should be 1,500.

But before you start doing this, you must first create realistic goals. According to how much weight you want to lose, you should decide the number of calories.

Remember that experts around the world recommend that the maximum weight loss goal should not exceed 1 kg per week.

As you lose weight, your maintenance calories will decrease as well, and you will need to adjust your calorie intake based on your weight loss goals.

Once you decide the rate of weight loss for yourself, you can prepare a diet chart, which you should follow completely.

So that the goal of weight loss in a healthy way is met and adequate nutritional intake is ensured.

Diet tips to generate calorie deficit for weight loss:

1. Eat more negative calorie foods for creating calorie deficit.

Negative calorie foods are foods that burn more calories during digestion than they supply to the body.

By including these foods in your diet, you can create a calorie deficit in a healthy way. This can help you achieve your weight loss goal.

Many vegetables and fruits such as carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and watermelons, etc. are some of the most popular negative calorie foods.

2. Avoid sugary beverages

Studies have shown that drinking too many sugary drinks not only increases the number of unnecessary calories in your diet, but it can also increase your appetite levels. ( Study )

A bottle of Coke contains about 200 extra calories and 44 grams of sugar. You should also cut down on other high-sugar, high-calorie drinks

These include fruit juices sweetened by sugar, commercially produced coffee drinks, alcohol, and smoothies.

3.Limit highly processed foods

Highly processed foods such as sugar-rich drinks, desserts, fast foods, and breakfast cereals contain sugar, fat, and salt.

This makes high-calorie foods highly tasty which encourages extra consumption of food.

Studies show that people who eat a lot of processed foods eat 500 calories more per day than those who eat less processed foods. ( Study )

A diet consisting of less processed foods will not only help prevent you from overeating but will also ensure that you get all the necessary nutrients.

A diet consisting of less processed foods will not only help prevent you from overeating but will also ensure that you get all the necessary nutrients.

4. Avoid adding sugar to tea and coffee :

Although both tea and coffee are healthy low-calorie drinks, drinking just one teaspoon (5 grams) of sugar increases your calories by about 16 calories.

Although it doesn’t seem like much, but a few cups of sweet tea or a few glasses of other drinks can add many calories in a day.

5 Prefer Home-cooked meal to create calorie deficit :

If you cook and eat your food at home, it allows you to control the food content and the size of your portion. Which reduces your calories.

Studies show that people who cook at home 6-7 times per week consume 140 fewer calories every day than other people.

6. Count your calories to create calorie deficit :

If you want to make sure that you do not take too many calories in a meal, then you make a habit of calculating the calories taken in a meal.

In the past, this task was quite time-consuming.

But now many modern apps have made it faster and easier than before to track the calories of the food you take.

Apart from tracking calories these apps also provide daily suggestions to inspire you and change your lifestyle.

This can be more useful than counting the calories you take.

Because it helps you to create healthy habits that are useful to you in the long run.

Conclusion

Although, it is not possible to achieve your weight-loss objectives without calorie deficit. But the quality of the diet also matters.

Therefore a person should lose weight in a healthy way and ensure intake of all nutrients.

Most successful diet plans are those in which exercise and a low calorie diet are combined together to achieve weight loss goals.

These plans can be followed for long term as they help you lose weight without starving yourself

Also read :   1.  How to reduce appetite in Healthful way

                          2. BMR formula and its significance in weight loss