What Is A Calorie Deficit?

Let’s start at the beginning- how do you lose weight? If you ask 100 people you may get 100 different answers to this question. Some will suggest keto, one will say that a juice cleanse worked for their neighbor, another will mention the South Beach Diet, and yet another will suggest endless hours of cardio. All these answers are correct, but not in the way you think.

The only way the body can mobilize fat for energy (burn fat) is if the body is in a calorie deficit. This deficit can be created by diet, exercise, or ideally a combination of the two.

At rest, the body burns a certain number of calories to maintain all the processes that keep us alive; this is your basal metabolic rate (BMR). You will expend these calories each day regardless of what you eat or what activities you perform. For simplicity purposes, let’s say your BMR is 1,500 calories. If you were to eat exactly 1,500 calories you would net 0 calories for the day. If you eat 2,000 calories you would net 500, and if you ate 1,300 calories you would be in a deficit of 200 calories.

To burn a single pound of fat requires a cumulative calorie deficit of 3,500 calories. From our previous example, if you are in a calorie deficit of 200 calories every day it would take 17 days to burn a pound of fat. We can speed this process along in a few ways: prescription medications that increase your BMR (such as Adipex), deepening the calorie deficit by burning additi