What Are Calories?
Calories are a unit of energy that are used to measure the energy that a macronutrient holds. For example, 1 gram of fat is 9 calories, carbohydrate and protein are 4 calories per gram. This is used calculate how much energy a person has consumed through eating a meal. Calories are important to keep track of because without them it would be impossible to know whether you are eating at a calorie deficit or you are eating at a calorie surplus. These numbers are required to form a diet plan whether it is about weight gain or weight loss.
Tracking calories is also important for people who are required to eat a certain amount of calories a day due to certain illness or condition, so calories are the main source of learning about someone’s eating habits.
Calories In Vs Calories Out
Let’s talk about this big issue that has been debunked and confirmed through many studies. In this social media era, everyone knows someone who is a self-proclaimed expert in fitness and weight management just because they post their buff and toned bodies on social media and provide misinformation to thousands, even millions, of people without considering the damage that can be done to an individual’s health or fitness. There has been a great influx of influencers and content creators promoting certain types of programs like the keto diet and intermittent fasting without any knowledge about calorie deficit or surplus.
Let’s dive into what “calories in vs. calories out” actually is. After dozens of studies conducted on this topic, it has been confirmed that the only thing that is going to help you with weight loss or weight gain is measuring your calories. How does that work? Well, first you need to understand what your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is. It is the amount of calories your body will burn in order to provide energy for your day-to-day chores. Usually, it hovers around 2000 calories for most individuals who do not have an active lifestyle, but it can be more or less based on what your daily activity is. It’s usually higher for people with heavier body weight or people who have a very active lifestyle, like working out at least 3 times a week. So, if you are looking forward to losing weight, you are going to decrease your calorie intake by at least 500 calories in order to lose a pound of fat a week, or you need to add 500 more calories to your basal metabolic rate in order to gain weight.Let’s talk about this big issue that has been debunked and confirmed through many studies. In this social media era, everyone knows someone who is a self-proclaimed expert in fitness and weight management just because they post their buff and toned bodies on social media and provide misinformation to thousands, even millions, of people without considering the damage that can be done to an individual’s health or fitness. There has been a great influx of influencers and content creators promoting certain types of programs like the keto diet and intermittent fasting without any knowledge about calorie deficit or surplus.
Let’s dive into what “calories in vs. calories out” actually is. After dozens of studies conducted on this topic, it has been confirmed that the only thing that is going to help you with weight loss or weight gain is measuring your calories. How does that work? Well, first you need to understand what your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is. It is the amount of calories your body will burn in order to provide energy for your day-to-day chores. Usually, it hovers around 2000 calories for most individuals who do not have an active lifestyle, but it can be more or less based on what your daily activity is. It’s usually higher for people with heavier body weight or people who have a very active lifestyle, like working out at least 3 times a week. So, if you are looking forward to losing weight, you are going to decrease your calorie intake by at least 500 calories in order to lose a pound of fat a week, or you need to add 500 more calories to your basal metabolic rate in order to gain weight.
Studies that prove calories in vs calories out is the right way
So in recent years, a lot of the claims by these fitness influencers and social media personalities have been debunked by many studies. The study quoted clearly provides us information on the calories in vs. calories out method. For example, in the keto diet, they recommend you to cut out carbs totally from your diet, which according to the study has zero effect on your weight loss whatsoever. It all comes down to the fundamentals of how much you eat and how much you expend. No extra benefit was observed after cutting out carbs from their diet. same goes for intermittent fasting; it also had no effect even if you ate only in a small time frame. Although these diets might have health benefits, they have no effect in boosting or accelerating your fat loss journey.
Do Social Media Diet Programs Work?
Diet programs usually fall in both categories of working for someone and not working for others because people think skipping breakfast and cutting out carbs increasing protein in their diet is some how going to magically cut down their fat or they do not have to care about whats going into their stomach no matter what program you are doing you still have to cut out calories in order to lose fat or increase it in order to gain muscle or weight so in conclusion you should focus more on how much to eat rather than what to eat or at what time to eat it all boils down to calories in vs calories out
Conclusion
no matter what you are told or being brainwashed with pseudoscience just keep in mind it all comes down to this single rule of calories in vs calories out their is no other thing that will help your achieve your fitness goal regardless who ever says that you need a certain program to lose weight