Today I’m revealing five calorie secrets that you — definitely — want to know. In this episode, I explore whether calories matter (or not) and share a system to help you hack calories and eat more. You’ll learn ways to prompt fat loss, plus signs that weight loss is on its way! And if you struggle with fatigue or poor performance, this episode has the answer. 

First, I share how I use manifestation as a mental reframe for health and body goals. Then, I cover the five calorie secrets relating to diet, weight loss, overeating, hunger, and fatigue. I also illustrate how to track macronutrients and observe the specific foods you’re eating. There is a reality where you are vibrant, energized, and feel good in your body! Promise.

If you are a woman determined to lose weight but the scale won’t budge, this episode is the game-changer for you. 

Want FREE access to my brand new four-week strength training plan, Strength Without Stress? Head over to hollyperkins.com/review where you can upload a screenshot of your review and gain immediate access. This is a limited-time offer before it sells for $197, so be sure to grab it now!

If you resonated with anything shared in today’s episode, I hope you’ll rate and leave a *glowing* review of the show on Apple Podcasts. Be sure to follow and subscribe to keep up-to-date when new episodes drop on Tuesdays! 

Topics Covered:

• Secret #1: Calories do matter
• Secret #2: Weight loss ≠ starved, miserable, or depleted 
• Secret #3: Not losing weight? You are eating more than you realize 
• Secret #4 Hunger will tell you if you’re on track to losing weight
• Secret #5: Imbalanced macronutrients = fatigue and poor performance
• How to track macronutrients 

Resources Mentioned:

• See the research on ​​optimal diet for weight management HERE
• See the research on optimal diet strategies HERE
• See the research on whether calories count HERE
• See the research on calorie restriction HERE
• Listen to Episode 5 of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast HERE

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Find me on Instagram: @hollyperkins

Learn more on my website: hollyperkins.com

Connect with me on Facebook: facebook.com/HollyPerkinsFitness/

Disclaimer: Content and information as part of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast is for general interest, education, and entertainment purposes only. The use of information on this podcast or materials or products linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions.

After 30 years coaching women in the gym and in life, I've never once come across a client whose weight loss has stalled because she wasn't eating enough. The law of conservation of energy governs energy balance. Where there is a positive energy balance, ie you're eating more calories than you're burning in a given cycle, your body will store that energy for future use in the form of body fat. energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only converted from one form of energy to another. According to the laws of physics, calories do matter. And it's not quite that simple. So keep listening.

Hello, and welcome to episode seven of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast. If you're new to my community, welcome, I am truly honored that you're here. I'll help you use strength training and intentional nutrition to create the body that you need to keep up with the life that you love. Be sure to listen to the first 10 episodes of this podcast, as they are each dedicated to the core tenants of my philosophies and reflect the most important concepts that I know to be true after 30 years in practice.

So a little disclaimer first, I don't love the psychology of the term weight loss. And I'm trying hard to shift the way that women think about body weight and body size. Instead, I vote that we focus on achieving a body composition, where at least 70% of your body weight is lean muscle. If you do this, you'll naturally discover your ideal body weight. That being said, losing weight is still the common vernacular. And in this episode, I'm going to reveal the secrets that you want to know if your goal is to see a lower number on the scale. See what I did there. If you want to lose weight, and find that no matter what you do, the scale won't budge. This episode will change the game for you. If you've got more belly fat than you'd like, these calorie secrets are probably what you've been missing. And if weight loss is not your goal, but you struggle with fatigue, hunger, cravings, or even poor performance. Stay with me because calories matter for you too.

Today, I'm revealing five calorie secrets that you want to know. And you'll learn if calories matter or not, how to hack calories so that you can eat more without feeling restricted. What to do to prompt fat loss and lose weight. If that's your goal. The telltale signs that weight loss is coming and is imminent. And what's really happening when you're exhausted all the time, but not losing weight. There is a reality out there ahead of you, where you are vibrant and energized and you feel good in your body.

Remember this phrase, there is no reason why you can't create the body and the health that you want. Think about that for a moment. If you want to feel tighter and leaner, there is no reason why you can't. If you want to release some belly fat and love how your clothing feels. There is no reason why you can't. And certainly there is no reason why you can't have the energy you desire. You can create the body that you want, whatever that looks like for you.

For me, there were several gifts that came during the COVID years of isolation. One of them was that I have the time and the space to get real serious about shifting the way I thought about the things that I want in life. In short, I became obsessed with the psychology of manifestation and really reshaped how I approached creating the life that I wanted. without going too far off track here. It's relevant, I promise. It was during this time that I manifested my life's I think most important and precious manifestation of all and that is my husband out of nothing and from nowhere I was able to find and manifest if you will, the most amazing human and life partner that literally could not be more perfectly suited for me. I should probably be Teaching the art of manifesting because it's actually pretty remarkable what happened. Anyway, during that time, I discovered that in order to get into the right vibration, as they say, to create the reality that I wanted, I had to reframe how I verbalized my intentions.

So rather than saying, I want to find my life's partner, or I am already in the loving relationship that I desire, or I am worthy of my life partner, I discovered that my vibe shifted massively when I changed the phrasing to, there is no reason why I can't have the relationship that I want. And that was the start of a really big thing for me. So as an aside, and this is relevant, I promise, I think a lot of women really struggle with feeling worthy of things. And I know this from my coaching practice, and well also as my own experience as a woman and as human on this earth. But I think sometimes it's hard to believe that we really are worthy of the thing that we want, whether it is to lose weight, or to be skinny, or a smaller size, or to be more fit, whatever the positive is visualization is that you want. For some of us, that's a bit scary.

Once I change that phrasing to, there's no reason why I can't have whatever the thing is that I want. Once I got that right along with some other sort of mental reframes. Dave literally appeared before my eyes within just a few short months. So I started to apply this to so many aspects of my life, and I started practicing it with my clients in regards to their body and health goals. There is no reason why you can't create the body, the health or the vitality that you want. Sure, it might mean that you have to eat differently or take up a new strength program. But outside of adopting new behaviors, there is nothing keeping you from taking the actions needed to improve your body and therefore your life. With that being said,

let's get into the five calorie secrets. You want to know, if you're time strapped as most of us are, there is a good chance that you have heard the messaging out there that says that not all calories are created equal, that a calorie is not a calorie and that some calories are better than others. I agree with this. But if you hear these messages in passing, without fully understanding the whole story, there's a tendency to believe that it means you can completely ignore calories. And that as long as you eat good foods or healthy foods, you'll lose weight. And it's just not true.

The first secret about calories is understanding that they do matter. Calories matter for three reasons. First and foremost, most important, if you're trying to lose weight, calories matter the most. If your number one goal is to release body fat, you must achieve a calorie deficit in order to burn off extra body fat. This goes back to the law of conservation of energy, which is physics, which is indisputable at this point, you can't destroy energy, you can only transform it from one form to another, you can't melt or destroyed body fat, you have to use it. And you have to convert it into expendable energy through the use of your body. In order to burn off extra body fat. You have to expend more calories than you're taking in, in any given cycle.

And on that note, you don't gain and lose weight in a set defined cycle like 24 hours or a day. It's really more like a 10 to 14 day cycle. If you eat more calories than you need today, you won't gain body fat overnight. So if you wake up tomorrow morning and the scale is up two or three pounds, it's literally in virtually impossible that it happened the day before. And if you starve yourself today, you won't see a true weight drop from fat loss tomorrow. It's a cycle. This is why I always talk about the importance Being consistent, because it takes time to lose weight. And even though we're talking about weight loss right now, it just takes time to change your body in general. And that's actually a very good thing that is homeostasis at play. That is your body's survival mechanism, keeping you safe.

As I said, In the beginning, I have never ever in 30 years, worked with a client whose weight loss had stalled because she wasn't eating enough. I don't even know where that idea came from, or why the media headlines or the experts ever talk about it. And as I said, I prefer to move away from the phraseology of weight loss specifically, because if you want to become leaner through building muscle, and therefore improve your body composition, which by the way really should be the goal, it is possible that you need to eat more in order to build muscle, but you won't necessarily become smaller or weigh less on the scale. Fat Loss happens because of a net calorie deficit, where energy from body fat is converted into energy for your body to live, breathe, and move and keep you alive during the day. There is a ton of research out there. And I've included several really awesome links below.

If your goal isn't to lose weight, but to be optimally healthy, some calories are better than others, the quality of calories in let's say corn syrup is very different from the quality of the calories in a banana. Both are carbohydrates, with four calories per gram of carbohydrate. But most people would agree that because of how your body processes those calories, those carbohydrates, one is better than the other. And that really is even more relevant if your number one goal is simply to be healthy. Now, if you don't care about weight loss, because you're just trying to get through the day, and fatigue is your biggest struggle, calories matter here as well. In this case, I have found that the distribution of daily calories could be such that you're not getting the right balance that your body needs for performance.

Be sure to listen to episode five, the diet swap that changed my life forever, if your strategy is to eat so that you are healthy, and so that you are overcoming fatigue. Because a lot of times it's not as simple as Oh, you need to eat more food calories matter if your goal is to release body fat and see a lower number on the scale, you have to be mindful of your net energy balance, ie how many calories you're eating each day, in relation to how many you're expending. You have to be burning more calories than you're taking in so that you can transform your body fat into usable energy.

Now you don't have to obsess over calorie counting though. And that is not the takeaway here, your body is actually really good at finding energy balance. And there is a pretty solid margin so that you don't have to get obsessive about the actual number of calories that you're taking in each day. But you do have to be mindful of it to some degree. Next, I'm going to reveal how you can hack calories so that you can eat more.

But first, moving on to calorie secret number two, you can hack calories and eat more by choosing better calories and balancing your macronutrients. While you do have to eat fewer calories than you expend each week. If you want to lose weight. It's not just a game of restriction at all costs. Weight loss does not have to mean that you'll be starved, miserable and depleted.

A big misunderstanding I see when women come to me for coaching is this idea that they're going to have to suffer through all kinds of terrible symptoms if they want to lose weight. And sometimes I think this is what prevents women from losing weight is because they think they have to shift into this phase where it's going to be awful and restricted and miserable. And while you do need to deal with Some bouts of hunger and fatigue. In order to lose weight. Your calories are way too low

if you're tortured if you're starved, and if you're pulling your hair out, there is a direct correlation between the rate of weight loss and the amount of discomfort that you have to endure. fast weight loss means more terrible symptoms. But if you're willing to slow the rate of weight loss a little bit, you only need about a 200 to 250 calorie per day deficit to prom fat loss. And in addition to that, you can somewhat hack your calories so that you can eat more and reduce the symptoms of weight loss by one, choosing super high quality, nutrient dense foods and to by balancing your macronutrients to 5025 25 50% of your daily calories coming from carbohydrates, 25% of your daily calories coming from protein, and 25% of your daily calories coming from fat.

Now, there are many different macronutrient strategies out there. Again, I've included some research here and on my other episode on macronutrients, I coined the 5025 25 distribution, because what I have found is that it's the sweet spot where performance, energy and appetite all intersect so that you feel awesome, and you optimize your biology. Then once you get there, all you have to do is find the right number of calories each day to prompt fat loss.

Calorie secret number three, if you're not losing weight, you're probably eating more than you realize. Your body is really super smart. And your symptoms will usually tell you what's going on with your energy balance, regardless of the program or diet that you're following. If you're not losing weight, you're eating more than you realize, or more than your body's current energy balance.

Again, yes, as always, the quality of the calories does matter. But let's say that you're eating beautifully. You're eating clean and lean protein, high fiber, quality carbohydrates, healthy fats, and anti inflammatory foods that are supportive of your hormones. If you're doing all of that, and you're still not losing weight, you're simply eating too many calories. If you're eating lean and clean, and your blood sugar is stable, you will lose weight. If you're eating less than you expend each week. It's just a mathematical equation. And if you're eating fabulous, wonderfully healthy foods, and you're gaining weight, you're simply eating too many calories. And in truth, you can eat candy bars all day long and lose weight, provided you're eating fewer calories than you need. If you're in a calorie deficit, you're going to lose weight. Now I don't recommend it. And you're going to feel terrible. And in no way am I saying or encouraging you to eat low quality foods. But it's really helpful to realize that and it is that simple.

This is one of the ways that I promote food freedom. And I don't demonize foods because to some degree, if everything is in balance, and you're keeping an eye on your mathematics and you're very healthy, otherwise, there's a time and a place for a 400 Calorie doughnut, am I right or what? And there is a lot of research to support this. If this is you, and you're tracking your macros, strength training and eating great foods, but you're not losing weight, simply reduce your calories by about 200 per day, wait two weeks and see what happens. I can almost guarantee that you'll see a shift in your body fat and quite possibly on the scale.

Calorie secret number four. Once your macros are balanced and your blood sugar is stable, hunger will tell you if you're on track to lose fat. I see a lot of women way over complicating weight loss Feeling exasperated when they don't lose weight. Often, they think that a specific diet plan is the key to weight loss, right? Like if I follow this diet plan, I will lose weight. For example, many people think that intermittent fasting will lead to weight loss. And I gotta tell you, the research is mixed on that. And the anecdotal evidence that I see in my practice is conclusive. It's not the diet, or the timed eating that leads to weight loss. It's the calorie deficit.

Ultimately, most legitimate, science based diet plans work if you follow them. And once your macronutrients are balanced, and your blood sugar is stable, Your hunger will tell you if you're on track to lose weight. If you're following a plan and not losing weight, ask yourself how hungry you've been. If you are starved, something is off track. And if you're not really hungry at all, you're most likely eating enough calories to maintain an energy balance. And if you're a little bit hungry, just before meals, you're right on track. Once I get my clients on the right macronutrient distribution and eating high quality, high nutrient dense foods, I can literally dictate when and how much weight they'll lose based on their hunger when you approach it this way. Weight loss is really pretty easy.

Calorie secret number five, fatigue and poor performance is usually because your macronutrients are out of balance, not because you're under eating. If you're struggling with energy issues or poor performance, and you're not too concerned about weight loss, it's likely that your macronutrient balance is off. Not that you're not eating enough. I am blown away by how frequently a new client will come to me with the goal of feeling better and improving her energy. And she will tell me that her doctor told her to just eat more that she's probably not eating enough, and that she's just not getting enough calories.

If you're someone who struggles with energy issues, tell me this. When did eating more ever help? I speak both from personal experience and that as a coach, blindly eating more only makes me feel worse. There's a reason most of us feel lethargic after a large holiday meal right now, eating more or eating less is a fine line. If you eat way too little, you'll eventually feel wiped out, just like eating way too much. That's why I'm a huge fan of using a diet tracking app to just keep an eye on your total calories each day and maybe more importantly each week. And keep an eye on your macronutrient distribution.

Take 10 days, track your macros, get them in balance, and see how you feel. Then to further improve how you feel. You can play with the specific foods that you're eating to really optimize your performance. For example, even when I eat according to my macros, and my blood sugar is stable, and I'm eating balanced. I don't feel well when I eat grains and dairy. But I feel really bad when I'm not tracking at all. Simply getting on track and imbalance makes me a completely different person in a matter of one to two days. For real. Then once I feel better, I reduce the foods that I know don't work well for my body like grains, caffeine, my biggest struggle, sugar and alcohol. If you want to better understand my approach to Macros, be sure to listen to episode five to wrap.

up. The takeaway I'm hoping you'll have is that calories do matter. They are a measure of energy that should be relative to your goals, your activity and your lifestyle. If you want to lose weight, get smart about your calories. If you just want to feel better, get smart about your macronutrient distribution, in both cases, calories Matter, and above all, choose nutrient dense, high quality proteins, fats and carbohydrates, so that you can be as healthy as possible while navigating your body goals. Whether that's weight loss or not.

As someone who has suffered with both debilitating fatigue and weight gain, I promise you there is an answer to your struggles. You deserve to feel awesome. And it's absolutely possible for you to be vibrant, energized, lean and mean. Nothing makes me feel better than the right foods, and nothing makes me feel worse than the wrong ones and every calorie counts. So pay attention without feeling the need to actually obsess and track and count every single calorie because it's just not necessary.

I hope you enjoyed this episode. If so, please rate and leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or on my blog on my website, Holly perkins.com. And remember, if you want access to my four week strength without stress program for free, be sure to rate and review this episode right now. Grab a screenshot and then send it to me over at Holly perkins.com forward slash review. You'll get immediate access for free for life. And stay tuned for another brand new episode on Tuesday next week. Stay strong my friend.