Let’s Simplify Weight-Loss

Let’s start this off with a controversial statement:

The entire weight-loss industry is built on overcomplicating weight-loss in order to make you feel like you need to pay someone for help because it’s “too hard” to do on your own.

To understand how simple it actually is to lose weight, we have to establish something basic about the human body.

Our bodies burn calories in their everyday functions. Digestion, breathing, cellular functions and replication, walking, wiggling our toes, typing on a keyboard, walking out to the car; simply existing burns calories. The exact amount of calories you burn per day depends on your height, sex, muscle mass, genetics, and much more.

Let’s say, for the sake of this article, that I burn 2000 calories per day by simply existing, even if I sit in a chair all day. These are calories I need to replace in order to maintain my weight.

The simplicity of losing weight is this: If I eat fewer calories than I burn, I will lose weight.

Now, fitness or health professionals would jump in here to explain that it’s not that simple, and I agree. There is a nuance here that I’ll touch on, but before someone tries to convince you that their amazing plan is the only thing that is going to help you lose weight, understand that at the most basic levels, weight loss happens because of a calorie deficit. Period.

Before I continue, I need to clarify that calorie deficits need to be managed carefully. If you’re too aggressive with it, your body can go into a sort of “emergency mode” where it breaks down your protein (muscle) tissue in order to fuel itself properly (and this is bad). The general rule of thumb is that deficits shouldn’t be much greater than 500 calories per day. For our 2000 calorie example, I shouldn’t eat much less than 1500 calories per day to be at a healthy deficit.

A pound of weight is equal to about 3500 calories, so if we maintain a healthy 500 calorie per day deficit, math tells us we’d lose about a pound per week, which is a healthy pace to keep. If you are thinking “a 1000 calorie deficit would help me lose weight faster”, you need to cut that out because now you are not fueling your basic bodily functions and that is dangerous and unhealthy.

The nuance I referred to earlier is this: sometimes simply losing weight is not the right goal for you.

“But Johann, this article is about losing weight, isn’t it?”

It is. In a way. The truth is that losing weight shouldn’t be your goal. Instead of “I want to lose weight,” let’s rephrase your goal like this:

I want to be healthier.

Health isn’t always about losing weight. It may sometimes be part of the equation, but it’s not the focus. Health refers to how we feel, how our bodies function, our ability to perform everyday tasks, our mental space, and much more. If you can rephrase your goal to focus on health instead of weight, you’ve already taken the first major step.

That being said, we are here to talk about weight-loss so I want to leave you with something you can do over the next week to help you get started:

1. Download MyFitnessPal and start an account — this terrific app will calculate your daily caloric needs based on information you input and then give you a daily calorie allowance based on your goals. Remember that losing over 1 pound per week is too aggressive, so don’t set your goal higher than that.
   *Disclaimer, I am not sponsored by, nor do I receive any compensation for recommending this app. I just truly believe it’s the best option.*
2. Without changing your diet at all, start logging everything you eat and drink into the app. Do this for a week or two and you will get a feel for how many calories you are eating per day, and how many calories your typical foods have. This awareness alone can lead to making better choices when it comes time to eat. The great thing about MyFitnessPal is that it has an enormous database of foods and brands with nutrition facts already uploaded. Just search for the food and brand and they’ll usually come right up.
3. After a week or two of this, start dialing things in to stick to the allowance the app gives you. If you’ve been going over, dial it back. If you’ve been going under, turn it up.

All you’re doing is logging your food and calibrating your daily caloric intake to that 500 calorie deficit. If you change nothing else, including exercise and macronutrients (more on those another day), you will start to see a slow decrease in your weight.

It’s that simple.

In the next few articles, I’m going to go over some more basics, including realistic timelines, snacking, adding exercise to the equation, and macronutrients. For now, start with logging your food.

See you next week!