What about FAT LOSS? Pt. 1
Hello my friends! The last post was going over some of the basics of calories. Today is focused on fat loss, and how calories figure into that picture.
So, we have learned that there is a balanced equation when it comes to calories: calories in vs calories out (Check out the last post if you haven't read it already!). To gain weight, you need to eat more calories than you burn, and to lose weight, you must eat less calories than you burn. But is there all there is to this? Yes and no.
When it comes down to it, yes. You need to be eating less calories than you burn to lose weight. Plain and simple. But, there are so many different factors that can affect how your body burns and uses calories. This is where hormones are a huge part of weight loss. Not only do hormones affect you mentally, but can also physically mess with how your body uses the food you give it (think insulin). Another thing happens along the weight loss journey as well. Your metabolism "slows down," and your body adapts to eating less and less food. For example, if someone originally ate 2000 calories a day to lose weight, a few weeks later their body may adjust to need only 1800 to lose weight. This is where people have to keep decreasing their calories, and eventually plateau or start gaining weight because mentally and physically, an adult person cannot live off of 800 calories a day (this is where they need to start reverse dieting, but this is a topic for another time!).
So calories play a huge role in weight loss, but other factors are at work here too. And on top of all these other physical factors, there is the emotional and mental side of weight loss too. Anna Verhulst spoke about this, and described weight loss as a complex problem- there are many ways to achieve this, but every person will require a different approach. I thought this was very insightful!!
Since there are so so SOOOO many ways to approach losing fat, I thought I'd break this into a little series. This is kind of the overview and introduction, so stay tuned as I break down the science to weight loss even more!
Hannah
So, we have learned that there is a balanced equation when it comes to calories: calories in vs calories out (Check out the last post if you haven't read it already!). To gain weight, you need to eat more calories than you burn, and to lose weight, you must eat less calories than you burn. But is there all there is to this? Yes and no.
When it comes down to it, yes. You need to be eating less calories than you burn to lose weight. Plain and simple. But, there are so many different factors that can affect how your body burns and uses calories. This is where hormones are a huge part of weight loss. Not only do hormones affect you mentally, but can also physically mess with how your body uses the food you give it (think insulin). Another thing happens along the weight loss journey as well. Your metabolism "slows down," and your body adapts to eating less and less food. For example, if someone originally ate 2000 calories a day to lose weight, a few weeks later their body may adjust to need only 1800 to lose weight. This is where people have to keep decreasing their calories, and eventually plateau or start gaining weight because mentally and physically, an adult person cannot live off of 800 calories a day (this is where they need to start reverse dieting, but this is a topic for another time!).
So calories play a huge role in weight loss, but other factors are at work here too. And on top of all these other physical factors, there is the emotional and mental side of weight loss too. Anna Verhulst spoke about this, and described weight loss as a complex problem- there are many ways to achieve this, but every person will require a different approach. I thought this was very insightful!!
Since there are so so SOOOO many ways to approach losing fat, I thought I'd break this into a little series. This is kind of the overview and introduction, so stay tuned as I break down the science to weight loss even more!
Hannah
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