Do You Have To Be In A Calorie Deficit Every Day To Lose Weight?
Have you ever wondered? Here’s the answer!
Written by: Jonathan Fletcher
If you’re trying to drop a few pounds you probably already know that your results (or lack thereof) come down to one simple thing. Calories.
But let’s not confuse knowing that calories control weight gain and loss with the idea that controlling calories in your everyday life is simple.
It’s not!
In this article, we’ll remind you what causes weight loss, and then we’ll dive into:
Whether or not you have to eat the same number of calories every day to lose weight
How many calories you should eat to lose weight
How to set your weekly and daily calorie goals
Let’s go!
Oh, by the way… I’m Jonathan. My wife Blakley and I own and operate Digital Barbell. We’ve been helping people like you get stronger, build muscle, lose fat, and be athletic at any age for over a decade.
Since 2019 our coaching business has been 100% online. When we’re not at home in Texas you can catch us working from the road in our Airstream.
What Causes Weight Loss And Weight Gain
If you already understand metabolism, energy balance, and what causes fat gain and loss, you can skip down to the next section…
Just like our homes and cars use gas and electricity for energy, our bodies use calories for energy.
We get those calories from our food. You can read much more on that subject in THIS blog post.
We burn the calories in food to accomplish all of life’s tasks. Everything from blinking to breathing to bicep curls.
Since we’re not constantly eating, our bodies have evolved a system that keeps us alive even when we’re not chowing down or sipping on calories.
Behind the microscopic scenes, we’re always moving nutrients/energy through our blood and in and out of our cells. This includes our fat cells.
This whole process gives us balance, and a steady stream of energy while we’re asleep and awake.
But just like the teeter totter you played on at recess in 3rd grade… sometimes things can get out of balance.
Remember those pesky fat cells I mentioned earlier?
They hold our reserve energy!
Think about this…
Getting food wasn’t always as easy as opening an app on your phone and ordering a large meat lovers pizza.
We used to have to look for it. Hunt it. Kill it and then eat as much of it as we could in a day before it rotted.
It might be days or weeks between meals.
We developed body fat as a way to store excess energy (calories) for times when we didn’t have food for extended periods.
Back to balance…
Here’s the way this whole balance of energy (calories) works nowadays in non-hunter-gatherer days.
Remember….We eat calories and we burn calories…Calories in vs. Calories out
When we eat about the same number of calories as we burn over time our weight remains largely unchanged except for daily fluctuations in water weight and undigested food in our gut.
We shuttle nutrients and fat in and out of our cells throughout the day to meet our needs, and over the day, the week, and the month as long as “calories in = calories out” we stay about the same.
When we eat more calories on average over days, weeks, and months we have an overabundance of energy called a Calorie Surplus.
To prevent future starvation, our bodies pack away that extra energy in our reserve tanks. Our fat cells!
Yes, our bellies, thighs, extra chins, and love handles are just extra energy.
If you don’t need the extra calories you eat, your body will store them as fat.
Keep in mind... one high-calorie meal isn’t the problem.
A steady flow of high-calorie processed food, snacks, and drinks is the real cause of fat gain.
Ok, so eat the “right” number of calories and your weight stays the same.
Eat “too many” calories and they’ll be stored as fat for later.
What about getting rid of some of the stored fat that we already have? I mean, is there some kind of “locks of love” donation for unwanted fat?
Sadly no, but there’s still a way to get rid of it.
You need to deprive your body of energy so that it’ll attack your body fat instead. Remember, fat is reserve energy.
So how do we do it?
We eat fewer calories on average over days, weeks, and months than we normally do.
We call this being in a Calorie Deficit.
Just like one heavy meal doesn’t “make you fat”, one low-calorie salad probably won’t give you the fat loss results you’re looking for either.
You’ve got to be in a calorie deficit for an extended period of time to really start burning body fat.
I know what you’re thinking.
It’s got to be more complicated than that right? What about carbs? Insulin? Sugar? Inflammation? Eating at night? Fat-burning exercises?
Let me be clear.
THE ONLY WAY TO LOSE FAT IS TO BE IN A CALORIE DEFICIT, AND ANY “DIET” THAT CAUSES YOU TO LOSE FAT DOES SO BECAUSE IT CREATES A CALORIE DEFICIT.
Yes, even that diet. And that one too.
I hope I’m not unclear!
Ok, now the question that you came for:
Do You Need To Be In A Calorie Deficit Every Day To Lose Weight?
In short, absolutely not. Let me explain.
It’s a blessing and a curse that time is divided up into nice 24-hour chunks called “days”. It gives you a schedule to follow, makes routines easier, and hey… the sleep is nice too, right?!
The curse is that we tend to think that weight loss results should come in nice 24-hour chunks also.
In a perfect world, we’d nail our workout for the day, eat the right number of calories, go to sleep, and wake up ready to celebrate yesterday’s compliance by seeing a lower number on the scale.
But as I’m sure you’ve noticed… You can do everything “right” today, and somehow wake up heavier tomorrow.
A sad, frustrating fact of weight loss.
This unfortunate reality usually causes 1 of 2 reactions in you, the dieter.
Reaction 1: “This isn’t working! It’s not worth it! I’ll never lose this weight, bring me a drink!”
Reaction 2: “I need to drop my calories even lower! 1200 calories a day sounds right!”
The only thing that can help you avoid both of these desperate situations is having the right expectations.
Forget the idea that today’s results hinge on yesterday’s compliance.
The truth is that weight gain and loss don’t happen in nice, neat 24-hour cycles.
Your weight from day to day fluctuates wildly because of many factors that have nothing to do with how many calories you ate or burned.
Things like:
Water retention
Muscle soreness
Sleep disruptions
Undigested food
Sodium levels
And for women, where they are in their cycle
And since the majority of your body is made up of water, even a 1 or 2% change in water retention can cause a several-pound change on the scale that has nothing to do with your body fat.
Once you accept that your daily results are not contingent on yesterday alone, you can take that same principle and apply it to how many calories you eat.
Since weight/fat gain or loss happens over a longer period, we should look at energy balance (calories in vs. calories out) over the longer term as well.
Think of weekly calorie goals instead of daily calorie goals.
Concentrate on how much you eat (and move) based on your long-term habits, not one particular day.
If fat loss is your goal… As long as you’re in a calorie deficit over the week and the month, you’ll continue losing weight.
This is true even if you have special occasions thrown in the mix where you eat more calories than usual.
Your weight might spike up the following day, but as long as you keep an eye on your weekly total and make the necessary trade-offs to keep a weekly deficit in place, you’ll keep losing weight.
This same concept is exactly how things work with your finances.
Your monthly spending budget has a bunch of different categories, and you’re constantly spending different amounts of money every day.
Some weeks you have to do extra driving and you spend more on gas.
Some days you stop on the way to work for a fancy coffee and spend a bit more than usual.
None of these spending anomalies matter as long as over the course of the month you’re not overspending your budget.
If you overspend with money for the month, the consequence is debt.
If you overspend with calories for the month, the consequence is wiping out your calorie deficit, or going into a calorie surplus and gaining fat.
So again, you don’t have to eat the same number of calories every day to lose weight, and you don’t have to be in a calorie deficit every day to see progress either.
How To Set A Calorie Deficit For Fat Loss
Now that you understand what causes weight loss (a calorie deficit), and that your weekly calories are more important than your daily calories, let’s talk about setting your actual goals.
The quickest and easiest way to do this is to download our Free Calorie Calculator by clicking on the button below, and using the “fat loss” formula.
Once you’ve got your daily calorie goal with our calculator, let’s turn that number into a weekly total number of calories.
For example, if your daily calorie goal was 1850, multiply by 7 to get your 12,950 weekly calorie target.
Let’s go ahead and round that up to 13,000. Your body won’t mind the extra 50 calories, I promise.
I don’t know about you, but most of our clients enjoy eating a bit more on Saturdays and Sundays. The most obvious way to spread those 13,000 calories out is by having 5 lower-calorie days, and 2 higher-calorie days that add up to about 13,000 once you account for all 7 days.
The fancy term for this strategy is called “calorie cycling”.
This can work well, but here’s where most people mess it up. They’ll allot a ton of extra calories to the weekends, which drives their other 5 days down into the poverty-calorie zone.
What ends up happening is that by Wednesday you’re starving, end up eating too much, and continue that trend Thursday and possibly Friday. And since the weekend is your “reward” for being so good during the week, you still want those extra calories on your “higher” days.
The end result is that you’re not in a deficit over the course of the week, and therefore don’t lose weight.
To avoid this sticky situation, we recommend keeping your lower-calorie days within 350 calories of your higher-calorie days.
You’ll still get more flexibility over the weekend without accidentally sabotaging yourself. If you only want 1 higher-calorie day per week you can give yourself a bit more flexibility than that 350 calorie guideline.
Here’s how this can play out with our 13,000 calories per week example:
Monday - Friday - 1760 calories
Saturday - 2100 calories
Sunday - 2100 calories
Here’s how it might look with just 1 higher-calorie day:
Monday - Friday & Sunday - 1750 calories
Saturday - 2500 calories
Both scenarios add up to 13,000 calories, which creates that magical fat-burning calorie deficit.
***Disclaimer***
Remember those weight fluctuations we talked about earlier? What do you think is going to happen to your weight on Monday after you’ve eaten more food over the weekend?
It’s going to be higher! You’ll have more undigested food in your stomach…You’ll be retaining more water…So you will weigh more! Maybe even 2 or 3 pounds!
DO NOT FREAK OUT!
So long as you stick with your goals and ensure you’re in a weekly deficit, your weight will stabilize and your average weight will trend down.
When To Adjust Your Calories When You’re In A Calorie Deficit
If you’re in a calorie deficit you’ll be losing weight. Maybe not every week, but if you weigh yourself almost every day and calculate your weekly average weight, you should see that number drop between .25 and 1 pound per week most weeks.
If you’ve been within 5% of your calorie targets consistently for 4-5 weeks but your average weight isn’t dropping, it’s time for an adjustment.
But before you do anything, be honest with yourself about how consistent you really are. Remember, going way over your calories a couple of days per week can wipe out your weekly deficit pretty easily. I mean, one single slice of pizza has over 300 calories ☹️ Work to be consistent before you lower your calories.
Assuming you’re being consistent but your weight isn’t budging, lower your weekly total calories by 700. We suggest removing 100 per day just to keep things simple, and avoid extra hunger.
Stick with that for 2 weeks and progress should resume. If it doesn’t, shoot me an email HERE and I’ll help.
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Thanks for reading!
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