Calorie expenditure - the only way to determine your optimal calorie requirement

Each person expends a certain amount of energy each day. That energy is used up with organ functioning, thinking and movement. If our daily caloric requirement differs from the number we consume, we end up with either a surplus or a deficit. If the number of calories we eat, matches our requirement exactly, then our weight will remain the same. It follows that if you eat less than your body needs, you will lose weight. This works as follows: If you create a calorie deficit, your body will get the necessary energy from its own reserves. The aim of a diet is for your body to get its energy from its fat reserves, so that you lose weight. With a surplus of calories, the body adds fat to its reserves, for later use. Our BMI calculator will help you calculate your optimal body weight.

In the 1960’s, the heavily overweight cardiologist Robert Atkins, recognised that it is not the amount of calories you’ve consumed at the end of the day which is the deciding factor in weight loss but rather the composition of the foods you have eaten. Atkins himself underwent a successful diet, as part of a scientifically carried out project, laying the foundation-stone for weight loss through calorie counting. The basis of his diet consisted of fat and protein with severely limited carbohydrates. This led to the world-wide known “Atkins Diet’. This diet is not about the number of calories you eat, but rather about cutting out the ‘bad carbs’. Fruit and vegetables are allowed in small quantities. These principles have seen a resurgance in popularity in recent years: Protein-based diets are booming. Carbohydrates are indeed lower in calories than fat, but certain types have been exposed as fat makers. Fat, at 9 kcal per gram has the highest calorie densit. Carbohydrates and protein contain only 4 kcal per gram.

There are many ways to calculate your calorie requirements. Relevant factors include your girth, weight, age, gender, height, body fat percentage, muscle percentage and body to water ratio. The result for the number of calories you need will differ slightly depending on which method you use. You can choose to use a body fat scale, which shows you your calorie requirements. Note: be careful to understand what the scales are telling you: Are they telling you your basic metabolic need or your total daily requirement?. Apps and websites all use slightly different formulae giving different values. It’s important to find an App or website that also takes into account your daily activity. The Upfit Calorie Calculator does exactly that for you – with just a few clicks you can determine what your calorie and nutrient intake should be.

One value an App may give you is your daily requirement, e.g. 2,500 kcal. This is made up of your basal metabolic rate, the number of calories required to keep your body functioning at rest, and your individual need. Your individual need depends on factors such as your activity level, your stress levels, the amount of sleep you get and above all your goal. For example if you want to lose weight, you need to consume less calories than you burn. However since these figures rely on a mathematical model and individuals are inherintly difficult to predict, you should expect a margin of error of around 100kcal (this is nothing to get too worried about).

Typical errors occur as a result of various factors. It’s important to remember that fundamentally our bodies don’t like to lose weight. If you consume less calories than your body needs, your body will start to reduce its activity level and you will start to move less without really realising it. It is important to keep this fact at the back of your mind during a diet. You will need to be disciplined to motivate yourself to keep moving. Having said that, you should avoid spending too long in a calorie deficit, or creating a very high deficit. The reason being that the body may start to use its protein reserves in addition to its fat reserves. If the body can’t get energy from its fat reserves quickly enough, it will start breaking down anything that uses up a lot of energy in order to try and lower its energy requirements. That includes our muscle. In order to prevent this effect, it is important to eat enough protein during a diet. Don’t create a too drastic deficit, a good rule of thumb is a deficit of around 300-500 calories a day.

Crash diets with a deficit of over 1000 calories are not only physically but also mentally damaging, and simply not condusive to longterm success. The solution is: Don’t think shorterm- sustainable weightloss won’t happen overnight. You will go through periods where the weight comes off quickly and then periods where the weight loss slows down. Our body is not a machine, even though many of its processes occur very routinely. Losing weight is not a constant process, concentrate on what state your body is currently in and adapt your calories accordingly. Think in periods of a week. Weigh yourself on Sunday morning before you have eaten anything.

A calorie can come from protein, carbohydrates or fat. It’s not just the number of calories that are important but also their macro distribution. If the foods you are eating have a high glycaemic index, they will send your insulin levels soaring, which will interfere with fat burning.

You could even gain weight as a result, because at high insulin levels your body is constantly trying to store calories. Be cautious that – just because you are counting calories – you are not eating unhealthy foods and then compensating by eliminating other meals. Healthy eating should form the basis of any diet and you should always think about the distribution of macronutrients before implementing a deficit.

The quality of our food is not only important for the health of our organs, but also plays an important role in weight loss. Imagine that your body is a house, in which you want to live: you would make sure that your house is made from high quality materials. If you apply this metaphor to nutrition, you should eat nutrient-dense foods which fill you up for longer. It follows that the focus shouldn’t be to eat as few calories as possible, i.e. quantity, but to eat high quality foods, which can be processed into important elements (muscles, bones, hormones etc.) which will use the energy we supply it with sustainably.

A high quality diet is based on essential amino acids (for example protein from nuts, eggs and fish) as well as high quality plant fats (e.g. fat from nuts, seeds, avocados, or virgin olive oil). Other than that, in order to function, our bodies need sufficient micro nutrients, i.e. vitamins and minerals, which are found in fruit and veg. Vegetables are comprised predominantly from high quality, so called long chain carbohydrates, which don’t have a negative impact on weight. Fruit is also rich in vitamins and minerals. However, it is also high in sugar, so consume fruit in moderation, if you are trying to lose weight.

Although it may sound absurd: Sugar is the nation’s drug of choice and is responsible for many chronic ilnesses. In addition to obesity, sugar can lead to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks and even cancer. On top of this, sugar has the property that when you eat it you crave more and the feeling of fullness takes longer to set in than when you eat proteins and fats. As a result we tend to eat far too much sugar, in order to feel full. We consume unnecessary calories, putting too much stress on our digestive tracts, and damaging our health. Once again this illustrates that calorie counting alone is not enough.

Since carbohydrates are fuel for our bodies, a high carbohydrate intake is only necessary for those carrying out demanding physical or mental activity. Endurance athletes, such as marathon runners, need a lot of energy. These can be supplied through a carbohydrate rich diet. Before and during important exams, or, stressful phases the brain requires a lot of energy. Without enough carbohydrates, it is hard to achieve maximum performance from our bodies or to cope with demanding mental activities. Conversely, those who move very little should consume fewer carbohydrates, otherwise they will just be converted into fat reserves.

Keeping a record of the calories you consume is a useful way of tracking exactly how much you are eating and how many calories are in the individual foods. One method for tracking your calories is to use an App, in which you can log the foods you are eating. If you prefer a more ‘old school’ approach, you can use a food diary. If you want to be very precise, you can go on the websites of restaurants or supermarkets and look up their recipes to work out how many calories and which macros the meal contains. An easier and more everyday friendly approach would be to buy one of our individual nutrition plans, which does all the hard work for you.

If you want to lose weight, we don’t recommend simply counting calories. It is far more important to concentrate on the quality of the foods you are eating and to provide your body with all the important nutrients it needs. Whilst checking a product’s table of nutritients, don’t just look at its total calories, but also at the proportion of saturated fatty acids, carbohydrates and sugar. If you find it a hassle to constantly check the labels of products, make it easier for yourself by letting our experts create an individual plan for you. We don’t just take into account how many calories you need but also your individual requirement of micro and macro nutrients, budget, food intolerances etc. Lose weight without calorie counting- it doesn’t get much easier.