Calorie Deficits/Surplus — What Do They Mean?
Starter - Do you ever hear these fancy fitness people talking about being on a cut/bulk? What about being in a deficit/surplus? Do you ever sit there and wonder wtf these people are talking about in regard to why you need to eat so much more protein than you thought? What are you really supposed to do?
Entree - What is a calorie deficit? A calorie deficit simply means you are burning more calories than you are consuming. A prolonged calorie deficit will cause weight loss. “A daily 500-calorie deficit should allow you to lose about a pound a week — and possibly even a bit more” (Cleveland Clinic)
What is a calorie surplus? A caloric surplus means you are eating more calories than you are consuming (funny how deficit/surplus are just opposites, right ;). A prolonged calorie surplus will cause weight gain. How do I figure out what my calorie surplus/deficit numbers need to be? Using the “Mifflin St. Jeor Equation”. Here is an example of one I find useful:
https://reference.medscape.com/calculator/846/mifflin-st-jeor-equation
The Mifflin St. Jeor equation will calculate your resting metabolic rate (RMR), which would be how many calories you need in a day to simply be alive. The calculator above will then take your activity factor (how often you work out and to what extent) into the equation and calculate what you need on a day-to-day with working out. Overall, just use the calculator and follow what it says, because it is right. Using the range that it will calculate for you, it will show how many kcal you need to be in a deficit (because this is what most people are after lol).
When people talk about body recomping, what does this mean? I am so glad you asked because I wondered the same thing about 2 years ago when the hype on Instagram was “recomping”. It essentially means losing fat at the same time as you gain muscle or turning fat(fuel) into muscle in the body. This is a big “hype word”, but, essentially, if you are taking care of yourself and lifting weights while also eating a healthy diet, this is probably happening to you all the time. You don’t need to do anything special to achieve this, just eat a normal amount that doesn’t have you gaining or losing a bunch of weight and keeps you stable, and VOILA!
Dessert - How long does this sh*t take? A while. Changes in your body take time and commitment. Don’t ever fall for the miracle “LOSE 20 POUNDS IN TWO WEEKS!” type of headline, because healthy weight loss/gain does NOT look like that. I will expand more on fad diets in later blogs (examples: carnivore, keto, 1200 kcal, vegan, dairy/gluten/whatever else free, etc.) Overall, I hope this information is easily digestible and allows you a deeper look into the crap that gets posted online.
With Love,
Jadon
Useful Links:
Cleveland Clinic. (2024a, June 27). What is calorie deficit?
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/caloriedeficit
Cleveland Clinic. (2024, July 1). What’s all the buzz about “body recomposition”?
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/bodyrecomposition
Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, Hill LA, Scott BJ, Daugherty SA, Koh YO.
A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals.
Am J Clin Nutr. 1990;51(2):241-7. doi:10.1093/ajcn/51.2.241.
