Real Health & Fitness

How Many Calories Should a Person Be Eating To Lose Fat?

Our Transformation program is so successful, we even offer a money back guarantee to those who sign up! One of the main reasons we are this confident is because of the work we do with our clients before we actually get into the work of adjusting their metabolism and helping them to shed body fat.  I thought it would be helpful to explain some of the pre-work we do to determine how many calories one should be eating for the body type you have.

The first step is to figure out what your Total Energy Expenditure (TEE) is a day. You can do this by using the formula below.

TEE=Basal Metabolic Rate(BMR) + Physical Activity(PA) + Thermal Effect of Food(TEF)

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the number of calories the body uses at rest (i.e. just sleeping all day or watching TV).
BMR = body weight in pounds x (11 for females or 12 for males)

For example my BMR is my body weight, 215 lbs, x 12 (male) = 2580 calories/day

Next, we need to calculate the calories you burn per day.  Physical Activity (PA) is the number of calories above the BMR we burn by our daily activity. To determine this, we use the something called the  Paffenbarger scale. This is a subjective estimate as to how active you are in a day and can be used as shown in the examples below:
PA = BMR x (.25 if person is sedentary or .50 if person is active or .75 if highly active)
To use me as the example;  My PA = 2580 cal. (my BMR) x .75 (I’m highly active) = 1935 calories/day.

The next step seems to be overlooked by so many “diet experts,” yet is it an important component in determining your caloric need each day.  This is the Thermal Effect of Food (TEF) and it is a calculation of how many calories above the BMR that we burn just digesting our food. Of course, this depends on
the overall composition of your daily food intake.  You can use the scale below to determine your TEF:
TEF = BMR x (.05 if the diet is high in fat or .10 if the diet is high in carbohydrates)
So using me as the example again; my TEF = 2580 cal. (my BMR) x .10 (I eat a high carbohydrate
diet) = 258 cal./day

Back to the original formula, TEE = BMR + PA + TEF we find that my TEE = 2580 cal. (my BMR) + 1935 cal. (my PA) + 258 cal. (my TEE) = 4773 cal./day My Total Energy Expenditure (the total number of calories I burn a day) = 4773 cal./day.  Therefore I now know what sort of healthy deficit can be created to get me to drop body fat if I were to continue using the same numbers for my caloric need and I were to eat the same types of foods.  But there is more to be considered if you want to be accurate.

The formula above does not take into account your current percentage of body fat.  It assumes that everyone using this formula has an “average” percentage of body fat. That is certainly not always the case.  This is why, in our program, we determine the accurate percentage of an individual’s body fat prior to getting them started on their transformation journey.   Muscle is metabolically active tissue and requires calories to exist.  The fat on your body, on the other hand, is a place your body uses for energy storage and does not require calories to exist.  So, if a high percent of your body weight is fat weight, than you wouldn’t need as many calories as calculated above.  In a sense we need to “tweak” your formula based on the percentage of body fat you are carrying.

To adjust for percentage of body fat, have that percentage measured by a health/fitness professional. There are several methods of assessment that can be used.  At Real Fitness, we use a very accurate body scanner that will read this measurement within 1/10^th of a percent.  Once known, we can plug that information into the formula below.

Adjusted % of TEE = 100% – (actual % fat – average % fat)
Average % fat = 22 % for women and 18 % for men
Using me as the example once again, here is what we need to do. My Adjusted % TEE = 100% – (14%, my body fat, – 18% for men = negative 4%) =104%
Subtracting a negative number is the same as adding.
My TEE = 4773 cal./day x 104 % (1.04) = 4964 cal./day

My TEE adjusted for my “less than average” % body fat = 4964 cal./day

Now you can use the formula to determine what your fat loss requirements are.  It is prudent here to advise everyone that they should meet with a health professional prior to starting a transformation type program. At Real Fitness, we use our onsite nutritionist and certified dietitian in assessing a clients dietary need, but by using the formula above you can indeed get an accurate picture of what your needs are so that when meeting with your health professional you are not lost and wondering what is next on your proposed journey to shed body fat.

Now that you know how many calories your body requires on a daily basis, you can modify your caloric intake to lose fat. All you need to do is burn more calories in a day than you take in. So, take your TEE or your Adjusted TEE (if you know your % body fat) and subtract from 200 calories up to 20% of your total Adjusted TEE. Do not reduce your intake more than 20%. If you restrict your calories too much you will slow down your metabolism and make it more difficult to lose fat. That’s one of the problems with “diets” that are started without knowing “your numbers.”  Without applying the above formulas to your attempt to rid your body of excess body fat, you could end up wasting a good deal to time and effort. If you restrict your caloric intake by too much, not only will your metabolism slow down but without the right amount of protein your body will actually cannibalize your lean muscle mass in an attempt to stay healthy.  Let that happen and you  will inevitably support the ever-growing diet industry as an official member of the “yoyo weight losers/gainers in America.”

So you see, losing body fat is far more complex than a simple figure of calories in, calories out.  Let’s use the formula and myself as an example of how you would rid your body of excess fat while keeping your metabolism high and doing so with a healthy intake of the right calories.

My Adjusted TEE = 4964 cal./day minus 200 calories= 4764 cal./day.
The maximum I want to reduce my caloric intake is 20% because I am active and some days actually spend over 17 hours in the gym (no, not working out, but managing others transformations does take time and effort as well)  So, 4964 – 20%(993) = 3971 cal./day.  To lose fat I could reduce my normal caloric intake (4964) down to 4764 – 3971 cal.  Now by increasing my PA each day I can burn the excess energy stores that my body is holding for just that need and in doing so will increase my fat burning each week.

Always remember, it is easier to put on body fat than lose it.  Your body is designed to store excess energy as fat and it will slow down your metabolism if you do not eat enough, making your current energy need less and less.  What is needed is balance, and using the above formulas will help you as you transition from one stage to the next on your transformation journey.  Remember, you should check this formula every week as it will change with your body.

To your health

Coach Bob

#1 – Be Happy! You must keep your body and metabolism happy to lose body fat.

Regular dieting is not fun for you or your body, dieting can do a number on your metabolism by screwing with important fat burning hormones like leptin, and screw it up rather quickly I might add.  The answer to overcoming these adaptations lies in strategic high-calorie “cheat days” and eating 5 – 7 times a day.

Leptin is heavily mediated by your calorie intake.  Decrease calories and leptin levels fall off, increase calories and leptin levels recover. It takes roughly a week of moderate dieting for leptin levels to fall off significantly, it only takes one day of cheating, or overfeeding, for leptin to recover back to baseline.

By finding out what your metabolism is, as we do at Real Fitness, and by frequently resetting your metabolism throughout the course of your fat loss journey with strategic high-calorie “cheat days,” you can essentially have your cake and eat it too while watching your waistline continually shrink week after week.  Best part of this method of fat loss is then you and your body will be happy as you give up the fat.

#2 – You must create a massive calorie deficit to lose fat rapidly.

There’s no way around it, a pound of fat is 3500 calories.  If you’re going to lose a pound of fat, you’re going to have to create a 3500 calorie deficit (while keeping your body in “fat burning mode” at the same time).  If you want to lose 10 lbs of pure fat, that’ll require a 35,000 calorie deficit.  This is where so many people go wrong

After a “cheat day,” your body is super primed for fat loss, and it’s prime time to take advantage with a mega calorie deficit.  On this day, we do two things:

A.  Consume minimal carb calories along with strategic supplementation to offset muscle catabolism. Real Fitness’ online analyzer assures that you are getting the correct balance of nutrients while melting away fat.

B.  Crank up the interval training like we teach in our transformation program.  This short burst activity burns a ton of additional calories on this day and will help you create that deficit without feeling hungry or hurting your body.  Remember; a hurt body is not a happy body and if you violate rule number 1 you’ll never see the fat loss you want.

With this type of strategic set-up, it’s actually possible to burn a pound or more of pure fat in one day (considering that a pound of fat loss a week is deemed a “very good” rate of fat loss by most standards, that’s pretty neat!).

#3:  You must tackle your fat loss goals synergistically through diet and exercise.

At Real Fitness we teach the most strategic set-up and the most rapid fat loss methods. However, you have to know your numbers before we start and remember that things get a little more complex than simply “do a lot of exercise”.  In fact, the type of exercise you do is just as important to your rapid fat loss goals as the frequency, duration, and intensity are. Besides the HIIT (high intensity interval training) methods we teach there is yet another little “trick” that will help you burn body fat.

On the Real Fitness Transformation program, there is a specific type or style of workout that we’ve purposefully chosen for each type of day to optimize and accelerate the results of that day.  By following this program you’ll have the best results.
Training that creates Lactic Acid, is used on certain days as it is very metabolically demanding.  Other days we use a high calorie-burning workout, these are performed on the depletion days with a low carb intake.

Because lactic acid workouts have the potential to burn more calories than other styles of training (because…they’re hard), they are the clear choice for “depletion days” when we want to create the largest caloric deficit.  Lactic acid training also depletes the body’s “energy reserve”, making it the ideal workout style for “depletion days.” When your glycogen levels are lowered by high repetition style workouts your body actually works with you to oxidize fat to replenish the glycogen stores in your muscle.

#4:  You must avoid ANY positive weight gain.

Without incorporating strategic “cheat days,” an individual may be able to lose a pound  to one and a half pounds a week (with each week’s weight loss becoming progressively slower leading to the inevitable plateau).

However with strategic cheating that same person is able to now lose at least 2 lbs each week (with no drop off in metabolism and no plateau).  This is a result of a half pound gain in body fat from the “cheat day” and a subsequent 2.5 pound loss (net loss = 2 lbs).

Now, the latter scenario is obviously WAY better than sticking to the same boring, strict diet every day while achieving slower results, but it still leaves a half pound of fat gain resulting from the “cheat day,” which, if eliminated = faster results.

Within muscle tissue, energy is stored in the form of glycogen (carbohydrate energy) and triglycerides (fat energy).  With strategic training (like the lactic acid training mentioned in principle #3 and a good HIIT program), these energy stores can be depleted or exhausted. This makes room for the “Cheat day” meals and influx of extra calories that also gets all the hormone levels back to normal and makes for that “Happy body” you need to drop body fat.

When glycogen and triglyceride stores are full, a Cheat Day is like pouring more liquid into an already full gas tank.  Some of that liquid is inevitably going to spill over and lead to a bit of a mess (in this case, fat storage).  But, if you burn up the gas and then refill it, there’s no “overflow”.

This is exactly what we do at Real Fitness by performing glycogen and triglyceride depleting lactic acid training (while limiting carbohydrate intake) on the day prior to a Cheat Day.  We empty the gas tank making room for the following day’s influx of cals, carbs, and fat.

#5:You must maintain muscle mass to keep the fire burning in your fat furnace.

This goes back in to some of the information I shared in Principle #3, the strategic combination of diet & exercise for optimal results, along with something else we haven’t fully touched on yet.

When your body is faced with long-term calorie restriction, it will look for the best way to get energy, and sorry to say it comes from within.  The body will choose to utilize muscle tissue, protein, for energy over body fat, leading to significant muscle loss and decreased metabolism for most dieters.  Simply put, your body is lazy and sees the hard to oxidize fat as being more valuable to your body than “extra muscle” when it comes to survival, and it prioritizes accordingly in the face of long-term calorie restriction.   It will do the same thing to those who think that “mindless cardio” is the answer for getting rid of body fat.  Unless you’re taking in protein while on one of those 45 minute cardio trips with your ipod plugged into your ears.

At Real Fitness we understand how to combine strategic “cheat days” along with high volume training and HIIT programs to spark muscle growth even while you’re dieting. Then, you’ll easily be able to maintain, if not gain a couple pounds of lean muscle throughout the course of only a few weeks on our Transformation program.

Remember this: Muscle = Metabolism and a stoked fat burning furnace.  The more lean muscle you have on your frame, the higher your metabolism is going to be and the more fat your body will burn.  Muscle burns calories just sitting there.  Maintaining it as you lose fat is fundamentally important to continuing to lose fat at an optimal rate.

Another way the Real Fitness Transformation program helps you maintain muscle is via Principle #1 – keeping your body happy.  When your body remains in a “normal” state (instead of a “red alert” state like with long-term calorie restriction) over the course of a diet, there is no reason for it to resort to muscle tissue for energy.  By keeping your nutrition goals intact and keeping leptin levels high week after week in your body, you maintain your metabolism and right combination for your body to continue to burn fat, not muscle.

To your health and a winning fat loss strategy

Coach Bob