ERF Q&A 031: Are You Eating The “Right” Amount Of Food To Lose Fat?

It can be confusing or frustrating when it comes to your diet.

You are “dieting”. You are trying to watch what you eat, and attempting to cut back on sweets or sodas.

But, you don’t truly know if what you are doing is working. 

Yea you have made some changes to your eating habits but, are the changes you made actually going to make you lose fat?

I cover this topic in depth in this new YouTube video I just put out.

There are signs that tell you if what you are eating is actually leading to fat loss.

There are certainly things that come with being in a calorie deficit, which we know is, the only way to lose fat.

So if you can know these things, then you can be better educated on if the amount of food you are eating is actually going to lead to you losing weight.

ERF Q&A 030: Sweat Belts, Fat Burners, Detox Cleanses

Have you ever tried wrapping some belt as tight as you can around your waist to lose belly fat?

Or maybe done some detox cleanse that was meant to get help kick start your fat loss!

Or better yet, spend 100$+ on fat burners from GNC every single month, while still eating pizza and drinking wine.

This podcast goes over

  1. Can you actually lose fat from any of these things?
  2. Why do they exist?
  3. Who pushes them?
  4. What other options are available instead of them.

Give it a listen, I think a few minutes in you may know how I feel about them all…. 

How To *ACTUALLY* Boost Your Metabolism

 

Do you have a slow metabolism?

Better yet, do you LOOK at a cookie, and gain 27lbs?

What about just struggling to LOSE weight, but have no problem GAINING it?

If your answer was yes to any of those questions, especially the cookie one, this article will be for you.

Whether through age, through previous diet history, through lifestyle change, your metabolism has gone down hill.

You don’t burn as many calories, you really don’t eat that much food yet still gain weight.

No need to fear, Eric is here.

I am going to teach you how to increase your metabolism the RIGHT way to see results.

And no, this will not be an ad for some fat burning pill with a promo code at the end.

Just real science that you can take and implement today to help start seeing results.

What Actually Is Your Metabolism?

It is funny, people will be quick to blame their metabolism for their lack of fat loss..

But when I ask them to explain to me what metabolism actually is, they cannot quite speak with the same conviction.

I cannot teach you how to increase something without actually knowing what it is first.

In the simplest of words, your metabolism is simply the sum of all chemical processes going on in your body at any one time.

At any one point in time there are millions of processes going on inside your body. Your heart beating involves your metabolism, your eye movement reading this, digestion of the food you eat.

Anything that is allowing you to live and breath right now, is apart of your metabolism.

Now that you have a basic understanding of what metabolism ACTUALLY is, you can have more context when Sally from the gym complains how hers is just SO SLOW.

Now let’s look into what components play a role, and how we can use them to your advantage to speed up your metabolism.

RMR, Resting Metabolic Rate

Your RMR, or resting metabolic rate, is the most practical component of your metabolism.

Some people use BMR, basal metabolic rate, but that is literally when your body does NOTHING but lay in bed and not even more..

I mean, you at least gotta blink or something right?

So your RMR is what we can use to begin to talk about how your metabolism works.

These are the calories you burn when you stand up and get out of bed. Your brain processing and thinking as you read this. Everyday life things.

What can go into your RMR? Super glad you asked.

Lean Body Mass

Your lean body mass plays a roll into what your RMR is.

This is can be how much muscle you have. Also, Your muscle to fat ratio.

This can also be how tall or short you are.

Taller people, like myself, burn more calories than those who are shorter. We will talk more on this when we get into gender as well.

Depending how tall or short you are, you can have differences in bone mass, and in overall total body expenditure. 

This can lead to a difference in how hard your body has to work to maintain itself.

Muscle Burns More Calories.. Kind of.

One BIG thing I do want to briefly touch on is the fact that more muscle can lead to an increased metabolism.

Now, this is 110% true.

The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn. Absolutely.

BUT, the amount it does is minimal.

For every 1lb of muscle you add, you burn an extra 6-10 calories a day, at most.

So if you added 10 lbs of muscle, you would potentially only burn possibly 60 more calories a day.

Is it more? Yes. Is it so significant you should listen to someone selling you something crazy about building tons of muscle to boost your metabolism?

Nope.

Now you should clearly be building muscle, but it isn’t a justice to you go to go and eat pizza and ice cream.

Do it for health reasons, for strength reasons, increased bone density, all things that build you up.

Rather than worrying about it tearing your fat down. That will be done mainly through diet anyway.

Click HERE to find out how many calories you should be eating to lose fat.

Gender

Here we are, the forever war between girls and boys.

Who truly started cooties? One will never know.

Anywho, yes, men normally burn a bit more calories than women.

But that is not some magical fat loss potion.

It is just science.

Like we said earlier, taller people have more energy that their bodies have to use.

There is more blood to be circulated, takes more energy to go up and down steps, more bone mass to them, etc.

Men are typically taller, so they typically burn more calories.

We also just said the more lean body mass / muscle mass you have, you burn more calories.

Again, men typically have more muscle mass / lean body mass to them.

Both of these things lead to a higher metabolism, because again it is just more work their body has to do.

I coach mostly women, and trust me when I say, you all are much more bad ass than us men could ever be.

So you win.

AGE

Oh boy, Age.

This one is the crutch of many individuals wanting to lose weight.

They claim they are not 18 anymore, so their metabolism doesn’t work like it used to!

I am here to tell you to STOP using this excuse as to why you cannot lose fat.

Does your metabolism slow as you age?

Yep. Sure does.

BUT, first and foremost it is usually lifestyle based, not solely because you got older.

You eat less overall, eat less protein, your lean body mass decreases, your activity level goes down.

If you have been following thus far, those things are key factors when it comes to how your metabolism works.

Second, the amount it decreases is almost next to none per year.

Good thing for you is, however much is does slow down, this can pretty much be reversed.

Through proper strength training, well thought out nutrition, and losing body fat, you can pretty much reverse that aging process.

Click HERE if you want to contact me about possibly coming up with a plan for you to do just that.

Genetics

Yet again, another thing people look towards to pin the tail on their fat loss scapegoat.

I debated whether I wanted to go into this or not, because if I give you a reason to quit, most of you will.

The truth is, genetics plays a HUGE role in your metabolism.

It affects obviously your gender, your height, your lean body mass, all of these things.

A lot of it again is lifestyle based, but there are just cases of genetics winning no matter what.

If you are a 5’5 male out there reading this.. You aren’t making it to the NBA.

Just not gonna happen.

Some people have the perfect genetics for bodybuilding. 

Here’s the thing, we are talking about fat loss here, not professional basketball or professional bodybuilding.

So, even if we say your genetics are the worst ever.

Why would you not still do EVERYTHING you can to make the best of them.

To increase your lean body mass. To do proper strength training. To eat healthy.

Regardless, that is a great idea.

So, don’t use genetics as a crutch either. This is fat loss here we are talking about, not stepping onto the court or a body building stage.

TEF, Thermic Effect of Food

Protein protein protein.

Protein is the #1 macronutrient I see missing in the average individuals diets when I go through my initial nutrition coaching evaluation.

Protein should be a staple in ANY fat loss diet. Let’s talk about why and how it helps boost your metabolism though.

Let’s talk practical application first.

Protein is the most satiating macronutrient, meaning it will fill you up and keep you full the longest.

This then means if you are not hungry, and stay full, you tend to not eat at much.

Then leading to eating less calories aka being in a calorie deficit.

Which is the only way to lose fat.

It also is the only macro nutrient that can help build and maintain muscle / lean body mass. Which as we know from above, helps with boosting your metabolism.

There is also something called the thermic effect of food.

This basically just means how many calories your body has to burn digesting food.

Protein has the highest thermic effect of food. Meaning when you eat protein, your body has to burn more calories to digest it. Just because you ate a chicken breast.

Obviously you can see how, if you make your diet high in protein, all day your body is burning more calories digesting it, as opposed to if you were eating carbs or fats all day.

TEA, Thermic Effect of Activity

This picture was just absolutely hilarious, so I had to use it.

Okay so thermic effect of activity.

This is basically just the calories you burn through exercise and or movement through the day.

And before we get any farther, NO your fit bit or apple watch tracking your calories is not accurate.

It actually over estimates by 50%. Click HERE to find out why.

Okay, moving on.

Strength training I believe is the most important for long term fat loss.

This will increase your lean muscle mass, increase your lean body mass, and with the right diet decrease your body fat.

This will have the biggest impact on boosting your metabolism long term.

It will burn less calories than cardio in the short term, but long term will allow you to burn more.

More importantly, will KEEP the fat off, without having to do hours and hours of cardio.

Because I’d rather watch grass grow than do hours of cardio.

Next up would be said spoken cardio.

Whether LISS or HIT, low intensity steady state or High intensity training.

Both can be beneficial and both can have their benefits.

Not only physical, but mental and emotional as well. Which I would argue is maybe a bit more important for most people.

It is not very high up on my list as far as importance of boosting metabolism, but it certainly plays a role.

The last would be NEAT, and that is the Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.

Now don’t worry, big word, but it just means all of the stuff you do throughout the day that is not dedicated exercise.

Walking into the grocery store. Brushing your teeth. Scratching your head.

People VASTLY underestimate NEAT when it comes to fat loss.

This is why counting steps became so huge. Shooting for 8-10k steps a day is an amazing way to increase NEAT.

Eventually leading you to move more, and increase your metabolism.

Park farther away at the store, walk around the perimeter of your house 5x, take the stairs no matter what.

I strongly urge you to not be one of those who underestimate how much getting 10k steps can help your fat loss journey.

Supplements / Metabolism Boosting Foods

So, I HAVE to go into this, but keeping it very brief.

Anyone who tells you you can take a pill to burn fat, run.

Run far, far away. After you laugh at them.

Also anyone who tells you to eat a certain food because it can boost your metabolism ( besides protein we learned because science not because some marketing ad ), run even farther.

Seriously, anyone who tries to sell you on a fat burning pill or metabolism boosting food, they are doing just that.

Trying to get your money and sell you something.

No other way around it.

Let’s put an end to it one person at a time.

Final Thoughts

So, as you see, nothing here is sexy.

I can’t go sell you something some product from any of this.

Nothing is about doing this ONE trick to start boosting your metabolism!

Or eat this food or do that workout to boost your metabolism!

Because in 100% honesty, it is quite simple.

Move more, optimize your lean body mass, keep protein high, and you will increase your metabolism.

It would be just down to science at that point, your metabolism would HAVE to increase to keep up with the work you are putting on it.

Focus on things you can control, things that will give you the biggest return on the change you put in, and I promise you will see change.

Though I would love to hear, what is the craziest thing you ever heard or read to increase your metabolism?

It is always great to hear what fitness marketers can come up with these days.

I hope you enjoyed the article, learned something, and can take it with you to start using your metabolism to your advantage.

If you have any further questions leave them below, or feel free to reach out to me at coacheric@ericrobertsfitness.com.

If you are interested in seeing if we are possibly a good fit for coaching together, head to the link HERE!

Talk soon.

-E.

How To Lose Fat By Counting Calories

 

Have you tried different fad diets, lost 5 10 15 lbs, but not ever been able to really stick to anything?

Maybe you tried keto, or cut out sugar, but after 2 weeks you’re like F I WANT A COOKIE. You “break” and realize this isn’t going to work for you, so you fall back to your old ways.

Well, I have a simple solution for you.. Start counting your calories.

Every single thing you eat, drink, put on top of your cheeseburger, all of it has calories.

And, when it comes to fat loss, calories ALWAYS count.. So why not count them?

Dive in with me, let’s go over not how to diet, but how to eat for the rest of your life.

 

Before We Get Any Farther..

I believe in educating you so you can learn and understand, rather than following a plan blindly.

This has been shown to increase long term adherence in my online coaching clients.

This cannot be said loudly enough, THE ONLY WAY TO LOSE FAT IS TO BE IN A CALORIE DEFICIT.

There is simply NO other way around that. I don’t care if you eat sugar, eat carbs, do keto, do intermittent fasting..

The only way to lose fat, in this universe at least, is to be in a calorie deficit. That simply means taking in LESS calories than your body burns out.

Every diet out there has this one single purpose in mind.. most just end up being not very sustainable.

This article is not going to tell how you can’t eat pizza, cookies, or pasta.. Rather how can you do that, and still see fat loss progress?

And no, I am not saying you can eat pizza, cookies, and pasta all day everyday and lose weight.. Though, if you are in a calorie deficit, you could ;).

Where & How To Count Calories

As I am sure you know, as you are probably reading this off your phone right now, technology is one hell of a drug.

But, you can use this drug for good use.

As far as where and how to track, there a few ways.

The first would be to just go old school pen and paper. This can work for some people, if you are a math wizard, because it will require a lot of math throughout the day.

And if you are caveman.

The second option would be to use your smartphone device, you know that thing everyone is on all day long, to let one of the many apps do this for you.

Some are labeled below.

  1. My Fitness Pal – This is the one I use personally for myself and my online coaching clients. It is very easy to use, it has millions of food in its data base, you can scan foods you eat and put them right in. You can also add friends to see their diary or vice versa, this works very well if you are doing it with a friend for accountability or working with a coach.

           2. Lose It!

            3. Fitbit

There are millions out there, I just label the top 3 I see used very often.

It is less about picking the right one, more about just getting started using them.

Calorie counting is a task within itself, so just getting started using one of these apps is a great first step.

Once you get whatever app you choose downloaded and get familiar with it, now is time to actually track.

I CANNOT UNDERESTIMATE THIS ENOUGH, THIS IS WHERE PEOPLE GO WRONG.

You would think, well what is so hard about it now?

When you start to count your calories, and track your food…. You have to do just that!

Meaning, if you have a ham and cheese sandwich, you have to put in all the ingredients of that ham and cheese sandwich.

Let’s use that for example.

If you just type into the app, “Ham and Cheese Sandwich”, the calories comes out to 250.

Now, let’s look at what you actually ate on that ham and cheese sandwich, including the 2 slices of white break, 4 oz of ham deli meat, 1 slice of Swiss cheese, and a serving of mayo.

Look at how the calories almost DOUBLED, at 493.

This is HUGE, because if you think you are tracking everything correctly, you end up following the guidelines I lay out later in this article, and you aren’t seeing results, you are going to get frustrated.

You will think it is not working.

When in reality, as you can see, you MUST track accurately if you want to get results.

You may think you are eating 1200 calories everyday… But if you were accurately tracking, you would see you are eating 1800, and THAT is why you are not losing weight.

Because it all comes down to a calorie deficit, right? ;).

And yes, I know this can be tedious at times, but I promise you, it will be worth it.

You will LEARN what 4oz of ham looks like.

You will LEARN how many calories 1 slice of Swiss cheese has.

You will get educated on so many things.. and if you remember from the beginning, what leads to long term success / adherence?

Education.

How Many Calories Should You Shoot For?

So, know that you have where to track your calories, you have gotten used to doing it, and you KNOW you have to track EVERYTHING ACCURATELY..

Let’s get into the fun stuff.

It would be good to know what to shoot for now, right?

Let’s talk calorie equations for if you want to lose fat.

 

WEIGHT LOSS EQUATION – Bodyweight x 8-12 = Calorie Limit For The Day

 

So say your body weight is 150, you can do 150 x 10 = 1500 calories. 

All of this can be VERY dependent on YOU.

YOUR activity level, YOUR previous history, YOUR relationship with food, to name one of many.

BUT, it is not the point to be perfect here. The point is, pick a number, and go with it.

Do it for 2, 4, 6 weeks straight. 100% during that time, and track your results.

If you do this, I PROMISE you will see results. Then from there, you will be able to made adjustments if need be.

But please, just start something.

** FOR FAT LOSS IN PARTICULAR, LISTEN UP**.

So, I know most of you looking at this equation will automatically jump to the body weight x 8 to achieve your desired calorie number for the day, because it will give you lower calories.

Please, please, let me make you aware.

This is NOT about losing weight as fast as possible. If that is the reason you are here, I am sorry for wasting your time, and you may as well leave now.

Will that equation make you “lose weight faster”, maybe.

BUT, think about this.

If you pick this, and it gives you a amount YOU cannot sustainably adhere to, and causes you to binge, over eat, have negative hormonal responses..

Then is it really worth the perceived “increase rate of fat loss”?

When really, you won’t be making much fat loss progress at all because the deficit will be so aggressive that you will not be able to sustain it.

I am not saying don’t try it, I am saying if you do, be aware, work in periods where you can have more calories, and always think big picture.

Consistency, Not Perfection

I cannot say enough about consistency during this, or any fitness journey.

I can give you the perfect plan, perfect number of calories, everything.. But, if you don’t follow it consistently, none of it will matter.

I am not asking you to only eat chicken and broccoli. Not asking you to cut out your favorite foods.

What I am asking you to do is stick to track your calories, stick to a calorie number no matter what, and from there you will see results.

You can have cookies. You can have pizza. Nothing is “off limits”, as long as you can stick to your calories, you WILL see results.

Now, should protein be prioritized? Should you be getting a good amount of veggies and fruits to maintain hunger and micro nutrients? Yes of course.

But that is a different article for a different day (reach out if you want me to cover that!).

For the purpose of this, just know that consistency trumps perfection.

And that means, weekends, holidays, travel, all of that counts too.

I cannot tell you how many people track PERFECT Monday – Friday morning…. Then Friday night – Sunday, they act like a blindfold is on and it doesn’t count.

Saturday night means the same as Tuesday night.

Friday night means the same as Thursday morning.

It all counts towards your progress.

 

 

You can be perfect Mon – Fri, hit your calories, but if you on Friday Saturday Sunday eat 3000 calories, when you are only supposed to eat 1500.. You won’t lose fat.

Because by the end of the week, you WON’T be in a calorie deficit.

You will have effectively gone into a maintenance, or surplus, by your actions on the weekend.

Weekends count, travel counts, birthday, all of it.

And that is not to say you can’t have birthday cake on your sons birthday, you can certainly do that.

But, just know that if it comes a point you think you are being perfect but not seeing progress, check these trouble spots out first.

Because I can tell you first hand as a coach, this WILL happen to you at some point. And you will be ready to conquer them hopefully, after reading this article.

Ready To Take On Your Goals?

Hopefully by now, you are confident that you can take on your fat loss goals.

Listen, fat loss is hard. It takes time, effort, consistency, all of it.

BUT, it does not have to be complicated.

All it comes down to is if you are in a calorie deficit or not. If you are, you will lose weight. If you are not, you will not lose weight.

Simple. NOT easy, but simple.

And that is why I am such a huge believer in calorie counting, because it can give you the most accurate way to track what you are doing.

It gives you a plan, it gives you the most optimal way to reach your fat loss goals.

Because remember, you don’t HAVE to count calories, but calories ALWAYS count.

If you have any questions about your specific situation, feel free to reach out to me via email @ coacheric@ericrobertsfitness.com, and I would love to help you out.

If you are interested in coaching with me, click HERE to fill out the form to see if we would be a good fit together!!

Talk soon. -E.

ERF Q&A 017: How To Mix Fat Loss & Workout Performance

It seems that it is either one or the other. Fat loss or workout performance. 

Or it seems that workout performance gets thrown under the rug when fat loss is in the mix.

I’m here to tell you you can have both. They can be married as one. It just has to be a marriage that is planned out and taken care of well.

You CAN still have really good workouts when in a calorie deficit. You don’t HAVE to lose energy lose strength and have your workouts suffer.

Because at the end of the day, the workouts are going to change your body. You provide a stimulus to your body to adapt to.

If you can still keep up the intensity, keep providing a stimulus enough so your body needs to adapt to it.

Not only will you see fat loss, but you will see muscle gain, strength gain, better endurance, to name a few.

They are both important, and this podcasts labels out how you can create a healthy loving marriage.

Let me know what you think. Talk soon. -E.

ERF Q&A 016: The “Right Calorie Deficit” Amount?

Spoiler alert: There is no “right” calorie deficit you should be aiming for.

There is only a right amount for YOU.

There are plenty of equations and calculations out there, but none of them take into consideration the individual.

And not just the physical component, but the mental.

Have you been dieting for years? Are you just starting? Do you have a history or binging/anorexia? 

So much needs to go into this.. This podcast will help give you tools to make you critically think for yourself, and decide upon what would work best for YOU. 

Let me know what you think. -E. 

 

ERF Nutrition Hierarchy Series 2/4- How Many Calories Should YOU Eat?

How Many Calories Should YOU Eat For YOUR Goal?

This is part 2/4 of the Nutrition Hierarchy Series.

If you have not watched part one, please go give that a listen, or view HERE. 

It sets the framework for this entire thing by talking about the most important piece to your fitness equation,

Your Mind.

So go give that a view before you continue on here.

This is part two, so that means we have moved one up the hierarchy chain, and you guessed it.

Calories.

Calories are going to be what it ultimately comes down to when referring to fat loss or weight gain.

If they are not in check, then no matter how much you workout, or swear you “eat healthy”, it will not make a difference.

This video labels out how many calories you should eat for fat loss or weight gain goals.

It also goes over the importance of them and why we need to track them.

This is a GREAT starting point for anyone watching. Everyone is different and numbers may be slightly different..

But that is not the point, the point is to START.

STOP making excuses or reasons why you can’t take control of your life and do this.

I hope this video helps.

If so, please share with someone who could benefit.

Also this is available via Youtube HERE

Thanks.

-E.

ERF Q&A 010: Portion Size Matters

Through working with people, one thing that has stuck out to me is that portion control is a topic that is often overlooked, but necessary to talk about.

With so much focus being on calories and macros, and as they should because that is what is going to matter, what makes up those calories and macros?

Often times people may think they are “eating healthy”, but don’t realize they only need to eat one piece of bread instead of two, or 1 handful of almonds instead of 3.

This can make a huge difference in lowering total calories, not from going on any crazy diet, or only drinking hot soup on every 3rd Tuesday at high noon.

Just simply from controlling your portion control.

This episode of the Q&A talks about portion control and tips/tricks to ensure you are keeping yours in check.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Share with someone who could benefit. -E