How do you calculate cal. burned if you are mainly doing your workout with weights. Or if you are doing interval workouts with say squat thrusts, push-ups and weights, how would you calculate this. Many thanks for all your great advice.
In yesterday’s post, we discussed several different ways to create a 300 calorie deficit:
- Skip the morning bagel (-300 calories)
- Walk on the treadmill for an hour and half (-300 calories)
- Perform a very high intensity interval session (-300 calories)
In all 3 instances, the net calorie burn is -300 cals; however, as mentioned in the previous post, scenario 1 sucks, scenario 2 really sucks, and scenario 3 trumps them all–by far.
And today I want to share 3 other “scenarios” with you, with yet another lesson to be learned.
Out of the below 3 individuals, who will burn more fat and achieve better, faster results?
Scenario #1 – Subject A
- Basal Metabolic Rate of 2,000 calories
- No additional calories burned per day through exercise
- Total calories burned: 2,000
- Dietary intake: 1,300
- Deficit: -700 calories
Scenario #1 – Subject B
- Basal Metabolic Rate of 2,000 calories
- Additional 200 calories burned per day through exercise
- Total calories burned: 2,200
- Dietary intake: 1,500
- Deficit: -700 calories
Scenario #1 – Subject C
- Basal Metabolic Rate of 2,000 calories
- Additional 600 calories burned per day through exercise
- Total calories burned: 2,600
- Dietary intake: 1,900
- Deficit: -700 calories
Paying careful attention to the 3 scenarios above, you see that Subject A, Subject B, and Subject C all have a Basal Metabolic Rate of 2,000 calories, and all subjects are creating a -700 caloric deficit daily.
Who will be more successful?
If fat loss were simply a mathematical phenomenon, then all three subjects would have equal success and would experience the same exact fat loss.
But, just in case you didn’t already know, there’s MUCH more to fat loss than just the numbers.
Fat loss, by and large, is largely hormonal (yes, I’m aware, that was redundant). Indeed, a caloric deficit must be in place for fat loss to occur, but not all deficits are “equal”.
Subject A, while still being negative 700 calories, is creating a hormonal environment in the body resistance to fat loss. Subject B is slightly better, but still far from optimal.
Subject C is the clear winner here. Although Subject C is creating the same exact numerical -700 calorie deficit, this individual will without a doubt experience greater fat loss and overall results.
Why?
When you decrease calorie intake, the body’s anti-starvation mechanisms are alerted and it creates a hormonal environment conducive to fat storage.
So, 1) if you need to create a calorie deficit to burn fat, but 2) you DON’T want to drastically reduce calorie intake for the reasons mentioned, what are your options?
It’s called G-flux, or energy flux.
Eat more. Exercise more. Lose more.
It really is THAT simple.
Simply put, the more calories you burn through exercise (versus a dietary caloric deficit), the greater your fat loss results will be. Every. Single. Time.
Fat burning enzymes will be elevated, the body will remain happy from a nutritional stanpoint, and let’s fact it, eating an additional 600 calories per day is a lot more livable from a psychological standpoint than attempting to create a large caloric deficit through diet alone.
My challenge to you: Starting this week, on top of what you are already currently doing, add an additional 300 calories to your daily diet, and strive to burn an additional 300 calories via exercise.
Watch what happens. You’ll be surprised.
Or maybe now that you’re “in the know”, you won’t be.
Questions? Comments? Respond below.
I’ll be checking in throughout the day and responding below, so bring on the discussion!
Talk to you in the comments section!
Joel
P.S. In the meantime, want another EASY way to burn 8 lbs of fat without doing ANYTHING? My buddy Jon Benson just posted a really cool tip here:
==> How to burn 8 lbs of fat without doing ANYTHING (30 second tip)
Keep rockin!
Joel
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72 comments - add yours
Bob,
I too struggle with the Cheat-Day-3-pound-gain-followed-by-the-rest-of-the-week-fighting-to-get-back-to-even. I am also in my early 50’s. I’ll be interested to see if Joel or others have thoughts on this.
By the way – be careful with the baby carrots. They are not a “free” vegetable in the way that celery, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, lettuce, etc. are. They are a carb choice and only to be utilized on higher GI days.
Enlightening and intriguing – and frankly I am puzzled that most mainstream doctors continue to focus on the old format that any calorie = a calorie. I lost a considerable amount of weight on a medically supervised radical calorie reduction (well under a 1000 per day). I was informed that if my calories exceeded 1400, then I would be gaining weight, regardless of my workouts.
As I increased my workouts (reps as well as weight) I was exhausted every day, my sleep patterns suffered and my irritability increased, not to mention the fact I was starving.
Thankfully I found your program !
Of course, Jeff Anderson would argue with ya about HIIT over LIIT haha.. but I’ve started doing a half hour of HIIT followed by a half hour of somewhat lower intensity cardio.. so we’ll see if doing some of both makes a difference. :)
Joel—-I am 64 years old—-am gaining muscle due to you —but waist is getting bigger too—–waist is hard and am losing love handles but pants are getting tight around waist—-am I doing something wrong—-I am doing heavy two times per week, then combo resistance and cardio the other days
thnaks Doyle aka Grumpy
Hey Joel,
The best part of all the scenarios is that it is all easy to understand, and something that is easy to apply to any lifestyle, thanks mate great work!
that’s South AUSTRALIA…. it’s ok, I’ll still keep reading ! ;-)
Great info Joel. Can you clarify one thing for me?
When calculating caloric deficit, do you use TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) minus calories eaten or BMR?
Many thanks
versace
I’m curious if you have to have a calorie deficit to burn fat and under those 3 scenarios you’ll burn more fat under scenario #3, then what would happen under the same three scenarios if there were no calorie deficit. For example, under scenario 3 say your calorie intake was 2600, you burned 600 through intense cardio and your MBR is 2,000. Will you still burn fat or are the three scenarios equivalent at that point?
@RobF – Rob – in my CYWT manual, carrots are in the free veggies list. Like you, I would have thought that they were a little too sweet to be a free veggie, but they are in there. The good thing is that according to nutritiondata.com, carrots have a very high “fullness factor” so you don’t have to eat a lot of them to feel full for a while. I did figure out that about 12 of the little fellows are only 35 calories, so that is not so bad. Better than succumbing to carrot cake!! 8-))
@Joel Marion – Thanks for the comment Joel. If you think 17 pounds is excellent, then I am satisfied. I will keep plugging away. I have also been posting my weight on my Facebook page every week. That helps with accountability because I know my friends are watching and I don’t want to disappoint them. (I also know that their comments would be merciless if I didn’t make progress!!)
hey joel, thanks for the post very informative.
i have been pretty succesful, and in the last 3 months lost 20 pounds. i weight my selfs to weeks to be at 160 pounds, i had a cheat day one week ago, and weighed my self this week and im still at 160, can u tell me, what gives?
i THINK, it may be some muscle because all of my lifts have gotten stronger, ( especially my legs), but im not too sure and im worried im doing something wrong now, would like ur advice, thanks alot!!
I’m really trying Joel with the CWYT program but my fat loss seems to have hit a plateau. I know my caloric intake is already too high for my target weight so I’m trying (with not alot of success) to decrease my calorie intake so for you to suggest I can eat 300 more calories (which would be 300 calories I don’t need) and doing more HIIT doesn’t seem logical for me … perhaps just the latter but both? I’m not saying I refuse to do it but when I’m already eating more calories (even the healthy ones on my noncheat days) and more HIIT (I already do 2-3 days a week depending on when I can fit in the time as Feb is going to be a crazy month for me), I cannot foresee further fat loss. However, I’m not the expert so if you recommend this in my case, I’ll try it.
Problem is how long of HIIT training to reach burning 300 calories? For my HIIT training, I either rotate 20 sec on and 10 sec off or 31 sec on and 29 sec off (rotate some of : Holly Rigsby stuff, your stuff, Vince stuff, Craig’s TT or KB/BW stuff).
Please advise.
Agree with your comments, but what about the type of exercise being performed? Surely it depends on what type of exercise is being performed to maximise the amount of fat calories being burned?
Dianne wrote:
Hi Joel,
I do believe the theory of eat more (within reason) , exercise more (within reason), and you will burn fat and accomplish great gains (Not weight gain of course).
I am troubled, however, by my scenario a little. I am a 120#, 49yr , 5′3 female. I really just would like to drop a few pounds of body fat…..basically I am very fit and have good muscular definition, little body anywhere except for a small amount of abdominal fat that is being very stubborn. I also have diastasis recti from my 2 wonderful children so that doesn’t help with the slight protrusion of my abdomen (it really is not that huge but bugs me to death).
Anyway…..I exercise intensely 5-6 days/wk…..weight train, interval train, and actually teach an intense weight training/ cardio interval class twice a week.
My BMR without exercise factored is approx 1230, add exercise it’s about 1900. I consume roughly 1500 -1600 . Nothing budges. I’m trying to get in the habit of consuming a larger amount of cals once a week to trick my body a bit. It is tough for me to do mentally. Trust me my diet is pretty clean 90% of the time. If I stray on some indulgent it is still within clean eating guidelines being made from all natural products, not packaged….homemade items.
Any suggestions here??? Are my cals appropriate? Oh by the way my carb intake mostly comes from lots of veggies, 2 servings of fruit a day and a very small amount of complex carbs coming from Ezekiel bread, quinoa, some beans, brown rice only occaisionally, oatmeal and barley on occaision.
So there ya have it…..would love a little input….
Dianne,
I am new to posting but I would like to hear what Joel says about your comments. They represent my thoughts exactly except that I am a little older than you. Really want to lose the middle and have a waist back.
Also, can’t seem to find which foods are being recommended for fat loss and which add to belly fat. If you find this out please email me at thelmaphyllis@msn.com. Or Joel, please answer both of us.
Good info, as usual. Synergy in your dieting and exercise efforts is crucial. If the two are working together, you’re going to blast fat at an exponentially higher rate than if they are not!
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Hey, it’s Joel! So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I’d be happy to oblige :-)
I guess it all started back in 2001 (my freshman year of college) when I was just a “skinny fat” 19-year old kid. At the time, I was spending close to 2 hours a day in the gym (now my workouts last about 30 minutes), and despite my efforts, you’d probably never guess I worked out a day in my life by looking at me...