Energy Balance
The truth about “calories in and calories out”.
Keys:
- Daily exercise either
aerobic or anaerobic
- Proper micronutrients
- Know your G-Flux, energy
balance
- No Diets. Quick results
equal quick losses.
You might be a believer in this rule.
If I am 150 lbs and my daily energy
expenditure is 1800 calories per day (because this is what the online
calculator told me) and I eat 1800 calories per day, than I will stay the same
weight. If I eat less than 1800 calories
I will lose weight. Sounds simple and
there is a lot of good science to back up this philosophy.
There is only one problem.
If never seems to work in real life with most people. The reason is that true energy balance needs
an increase in activity and an increase in proper micronutrients to really
work. In most cases, I have found that
people living by this method are not exercising regularly and not eating
properly. I have found that they are eating under their daily resting metabolic
rate (RMR) and are not losing, but gaining fat.
What they do lose in the very short term is muscle and water, with very
little coming from fat stores.
So why is this happening?
It happens for a number of reasons. The most likely being a
low RMR (resting metabolic rate), which in turn makes you a thrifty calorie
burner and great at storing fat. Your
pro-hormone levels are not activating properly.
Maybe you are insulin sensitive, have high cortisol, thyroid is high or
low, growth hormone is low or testosterone or estrogen is too low or too
high. Perhaps you continually looked for
a quick fix to your fitness challenge and tried 1 or more of the many fad diets
that are advertised. Any of these reasons
could explain the challenges most people face in reaching there fitness goals.
Let me tell you another little secret. You know those magazine pictures that show
these dramatic transformations from fat and frumpy to lean hard body…you know
the ones with the house wife who now has abs. Firstly some are fake, surprise.
But some are real. I have even met a few of these individuals, and can vouch
for there ability to change and keep it off.
In every case, 100% those men or women increased daily activity, lifting
weights and doing cardio. They also increased daily calorie consumption. In most cases they doubled or even tripled
calorie consumption and used supplements.
They also ate very differently than there old habitual way of eating.
Why because I told them to. Many didn’t believe me at first.
Nutrient partitioning
Nutrient partitioning refers to how many calories are
directed into muscular stores verses how many calories are directed into fat
stores when you consume food.
Well what the hell does that mean? Here is a simple explanation. Everybody wants
to put on muscle while losing fat. There is only 1 problem. This is very
difficult. This is because of nutrient partitioning thresholds. You may have a fat gain threshold of 2000 cal
a day. If you eat more than 2000 cal per day you tend to gain fat stores. You want to gain muscle to, but you have a
muscle threshold of 2200 calories per day.
You need to eat at least 2200 cal to gain any substantial muscle. So to gain muscle you always gain some fat as
well. Very frustrating!
Here’s where I give you the good news. You can lower the muscle gain threshold. I would say 90% of trainers don’t have any
idea how to do this. But yet again most
trainers can’t teach someone to squat properly, let alone construct a proper
program. Sorry… you want the secret of how
to change the muscle to fat ratio! First
your 2000 cal (number of calories depends on client evaluation) must be more
nutrient rich. So you see a calorie just isn’t a calorie.
The ratio of protein to carbs to fats has to be
balanced. If I told you that a person eating
600 calories of protein, 800 calories of carbs (mostly sugars) and 600 calories
of fats (mostly of it being trans and hydrogenated fats) would not see the
results that a person eating 1000 calories of lean protein sources, 500
calories from carbs (mostly fruits and veggies and fibre rich grains) and 500
calories from fats (the majority from omega 3 fish oil and an equal division on
saturated and polyunsaturated omega 6 and 9 fats), would you believe me?
Here are some food examples.
Fish
Eggs
Chicken breasts
Lean red meat
Cottage cheese
Milk protein isolates
Whey protein isolates
Green vegetables
Salads
Legumes
Low glycemic index fruits
Oatmeal
Sweet potatoes
Mixed grain bread
Fish oil, flax oil, olive oil
Mixed nuts
These foods should be on your grocery list each week. If you
are vegetarian then you will need to supplement your protein and consume
fermented soy meat alternatives.
The real key is figuring out your real energy output. Your
calories in and your true calories out. Your calories out will consist of your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), the
calories driven by your metabolism at rest (your daily activities) and the
amount burned when exercising daily, Cost
of Exercise. Once we have a good grasp of these numbers the idea is to be
just shy of that daily total. There are various online calculators that ca help
figure this out. Try to stay within 200 calories of this number.
I am partial to Precision Nutrition’s online calorie
calculator of course.
Now you may say. Hey! I’m going to eat 600 calories under my
target and loose more weight! I have a lot of clients that secretly try this. I
catch them in about when performance drops and so does muscle mass. This is
because their metabolic rate drops due to a loss of anabolism and they become
catabolic flabby muscle wasters like before they started. You cannot cheat your
way to success when it comes to body transformations and this is what most of
you really desire when you look in the mirror. Change…not just Less.
Your goal is to be Anabolic. This is the key to a healthier
you. Diet programs make you catabolic, muscle wasting, flabby douches. Get of
the spin cycle; get out of the pool classes and Zumba just for fun. Hire an
experienced trainer who tests extensively and start grunting.
That is all!
Mike Hayden
TopShape.ca
