Eating enough food is vital for fat loss, often people believe that you need to eat less to lose fat and in many situations this is not the case! With myself and many clients I have increased regular daily intake and created a consistent calorie intake which has allowed people to be fuelled for everyday life and of course their gym workouts.
Think of your body as an engine and food as fuel. Without the right amount of food your body will not function properly. If your body isn’t functioning properly how can you expect it to use stored energy as fuel? By restricting your calorie intake your body will go into a survival mode and keeping hold of this stored energy will be a priority so always remember eating is not the problem, lack of activity is. Encourage your body to start to use fuel efficiently and this will put you into a much better position to burn stored body fat.
Its very important to continue to fuel your body as you get leaner, as body fat drops your body becomes more efficient in burning fuel. So by encouraging your body to burn calories by consuming calories you will be able to not only perform better but also find your body fat will drop easier.
It comes down to calories in vs calories out without a doubt but there is also a lot more going on, continuously restricting calories and creating a bigger deficit will actually cause you to burn less calories. Why not create the calorie deficit whilst eating more, feeling better and feeling stronger!
The more you eat the more energy you will have. The less you eat the less energy you will have. Energy from food is calories, consuming an excess of calories (energy) will lead you to storing body fat. Body fat is stored energy. If you're not eating enough you will not have enough energy to perform most daily tasks. This will leave you lacking in energy and also burning less calories due to not moving as much. This is call NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis).
For this reason it's important to find the balance of enough food to help your perform at your best daily but not over consume calories so you store it in the form of body fat. By eating enough calories not only will you function better but you will also find yourself burning more calories.
E.g
1500 calories consumed
1800 calories burned
= 300 calorie deficit
2500 calories consumed
2800 calories burned
= 300 calorie deficit
As shown these both allow you to create the same caloric deficit but one will allow you to eat more and have more energy whilst burning more energy. I know which one I would prefer.
All done and said, the most important part of this is of course consistency. Maintaining a small consistent calorie deficit will allow you to function optimally and reduce body fat over a period of time. This not only creates a sustainable lifestyle but also allows you to continue a normal lifestyle instead of imposing restrictions on you and your life. This means that results will come and stay!
Eat more and move more.
Consistency is the key.
Ricky