Are you tired of trying out a million different diets only to feel hungry and deprived after just a few weeks? Or maybe you've come close to achieving your dream body but consistently struggle to shed those last few pounds? If any of this sounds familiar, this episode is perfect for you! Today, I share my top tips and proven strategies for understanding the right calorie deficit for your unique body. 

Plus, I explain why you tend to slip up in the final week or two of your diet, how to focus on body composition once you've reached your weight loss goal and the simple science behind weight loss. 

The Nutrition Project is a 12-week live group program that addresses your challenges in real-time. You will learn my eating methodology and gain direct access to me for in-person coaching. Add your name at hollyperkins.com/workshop.

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Topics Covered:

• How to find the sweet spot of calorie deficit 
• Why you need an extremely personalized approach to weight loss
• The reasons most generalized diets fail 
• A simple way to estimate your daily calorie intake 
• Tips for the final stretch of weight loss to improve body composition

Resources Mentioned:

• Listen to the first 13 episodes of Holly Perkins Health Podcast HERE
• Join the waitlist for The Body Composition Project HERE 
• Episode 2: The Problem With Losing Weight 
• See the research on optimal diet strategies for weight loss and weight loss maintenance HERE 
• See the research on the comparison of weight loss among named diet programs in overweight and obese adults HERE 
• See the research on why fat loss depends on energy deficit only, independently of the method for weight loss HERE 

Follow Me: 

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.

In a weight loss journey, you will not succeed long term if your calorie deficit is too big. If you're eating way less than your body needs in a given cycle, be it a day or a week. hunger, food, preoccupation, and energy fallout will sabotage you within 10 days. Once I got this right about weight loss, it became easy for me and my clients to lose weight for good without overly restrictive food rules. So keep listening.

Hello, and welcome. This episode is one of the most important things you need to know if your goal is to lose more than 10 pounds of body fat. Now, if you've been around here for a while, you know, I like to focus on body composition as the measure of your health, not body weight on the scale. Be sure to listen to episode two the problem with losing weight to hear more on this, once your body is at least 70% lean muscle, your life and your health will change regardless of your body weight. And when your body composition is in a healthy range, your body weight doesn't matter at all. Having healthy body composition is what matters at the end of the day. When you've got the right ratio of lean muscle, the body fat, you'll be at your ideal body weight. That all being said, losing weight on the scale may be an important step for you in order to achieve optimal health. And a lower number on the scale may be part of the journey to achieving that ideal body composition of at least 70% lean muscle obesity is an epidemic. And if you are 20 3040 pounds or even more, away from your healthy body fat range, you are at an increased risk of disease. And we got to fix that I am body positive. And I support you in loving yourself and your body at every single weight. And it would be irresponsible of me as a health expert to not guide you to the body composition and body fat levels that are associated with a reduced risk of disease.

And on that note, the body composition project is coming. This brand new live group coaching program gives you the exact strength and nutrition programming to increase strength, improve your muscle mass and reduce body fat so that you can finally achieve once and for all the ideal body composition associated with the reduced risk of disease and to help you feel strong, help you look lean and become unstoppable in your life. You'll get me as your coach alongside my proven programming so that you can feel guided and supported and held accountable the whole way through so that you can become strong, empowered and 100% confident in your body now and for all the years to come. You can get on the waitlist to be the first to get the announcements and updates once enrollment is open. Just head over to Holly perkins.com forward slash body waitlist. All one word VOD why wait list all one word Holly perkins.com forward slash body waitlist. If you need to lose 1020 30 pounds or more on the scale, and you feel like you just can't get your diet right. Stay with me. And if you have a pattern of starting a new diet and doing well for a week or two, and then mysteriously finding yourself off track, what I'm about to share will be the missing link to help you release the body fat necessary in order to be healthy and or just to be happy. If you're the type of person who finally gets inspired and motivated to eat right? And then you follow the plan with excitement. But then you end up losing steam and inevitably giving up oh my gosh, this is going to be such a powerful strategy for you.

In this episode, you'll learn why your daily energy needs should reflect your current body weight and your goal polls, you'll learn what's behind the pattern of being on track for a week or two, and then inevitably, falling off track somewhat mysteriously, you'll also learn my simplified way to estimate your daily calorie needs specifically for weight loss. And one possible reason why you're not losing weight, even if you are actually following the plan, following a weight loss diet. I believe the reason why so many people fail on weight loss diets is because the diet programming itself is failing you. Most diet plans that I've reviewed, get calories wrong. So either they don't give you the necessary parameters, they don't give you enough structure to actually achieve a calorie deficit, which is the difference between energy in and energy out. And a calorie deficit is really the only way to truly burn off extra body fat. Or those diets give you the calorie deficit. But it's way too big for your current energy needs, ie your current body weight. When you get this piece of the puzzle, right? You'll eat the right amount of food where you're not starving, and underfed. And you're also eating just below what your body needs in order to maintain homeostasis, which then prevents weight loss. In simple terms, this means that you've got to be eating enough to avoid big hunger and food preoccupation. But you also have to be eating less than what your body actually needs. So that you can tap into the extra fat that you want to burn off. When you get this window, right, you'll see steady fat loss each week, where you feel in the zone, you feel good, but you won't be pulling your hair out because you're hangry. And you won't feel so restricted that you over obsess on your favorite foods, you will have to deal with some mild hunger each day because in my experience that goes hand in hand with fat loss, but you'll feel good because it will be manageable. And because you're actually seeing results. It's finding this sweet spot of calorie deficit where the magic happens.

So let me reveal the key to getting your weight loss. Right. Okay, but first, some real talk. So I have a policy around here that I won't call out other experts in the field if I disagree with their approach. Personally, I am so tired of canceled culture and seeing my colleagues call out other people publicly to criticize what they teach. I think it's disrespectful. I think it's rude. And I think it's just unnecessary. Yes, if someone an influencer, if you will, is teaching something that's questionable or unsafe. I hope that another expert will politely offer a new perspective. But this can be done privately. It doesn't have to be done in public. Don't get me started. We do need to keep each other accountable. When we're dealing with your health. It is a great responsibility for me to share this information. And I really work so hard to be responsible and provide the most relevant research fact based information that I can. But I've decided that I don't want to be the voice of criticism to other people out there. Now that all being said,

I do get a bit fussy. When I see a weight loss Doctor putting their patient on 1200 or 1400 calorie diets. When the patient is morbidly obese, and I'm talking about someone who weighs 300 or 400 pounds or more, you've probably seen this type of story somewhere out there in the media. You see this kind of practice, when a doctor needs a patient to lose weight fast in order to undergo bariatric surgery or gastric bypass. Now I know this is an extreme situation and in order to have surgery, they usually need to first lose some weight and I get it but ugh, don't get me started. It's just all wrong. In my opinion. It rarely works in the long term because You're not teaching the person better habits, and the rebound rate is high. It's just all wrong in my opinion. And by the way, it's just not necessary. Here's why. Your daily energy needs are determined by your current body size, and your activity level. So the amount of energy that you need today is determined by your current body weight. And your current activity level, how much you move around each day, the speed of your metabolism and your body composition also factor in, but not that significantly when translated into a daily calorie goal. So I tend to not calculate that in unless I'm working with a private client. And I really want to get super super granular. your calorie intake today should reflect number one, your current body weight, not your goal bodyweight, and number two, your activity level, how much you're moving around, whether you're active during the day, what your workouts look like the nature of your workouts, and number three, your goal.

Now today's conversation is specifically about weight loss. If that's not your goal, the calculation is a bit different because your calorie target goal is based on your specific goal. This conversation will be a bit different if your goal is let's say health and wellness or to have good energy, or to build muscle. But for today, this conversation is very specifically focusing on weight loss as the goal. And the first part of this conversation applies if you have more than about 10 to 12 pounds of fat to lose. If you're within this is important. If you're within about 10 to 12, maybe 15 pounds of your goal body size. Stay with me because the last tip in today's episode explains when you should stop focusing on body weight and only focus on body composition. As I already said, we could complicate calculating your daily calories by factoring in RMR, which is known as your resting metabolic rate. And your somatic type, which reflects whether you're an ectomorph mesomorph, or endomorph, which is known as your body type. In my experience, which is now 30 years of coaching people directly week after week, those additional variables are negligible. But if we wanted to get super granular, we would factor that in as well. If you're the type of person that likes to be super detailed, and cross your t's and dot your i's, and you want it as precise as possible, yes, we'd factor that in. But again, in my experience, 99% of the time, it's just not necessary.

So calories are energy. When you hear about an energy deficit, or energy surplus, what we're talking about is calories because they are a measure of energy, the amount of energy you need each day, ie calories should reflect your current body weight, because that's how much calories you need, and how much you move around each day, which includes dedicated workouts. So for example, let's say that Michelle comes to me wanting to lose weight. Remember, that's the specific goal we're talking about today. And let's say Michelle is five, five, and 150 pounds. Her daily energy goal, ie her calorie target should be different from let's say, Kim, who is the same height five, five, but who weighs 200 pounds. And for simplicity for illustration, let's assume that their activity level and all other variables are exactly the same because I want you to understand this concept. Don't you think that Kim, who has 30% more body than Michelle requires more energy each day simply to maintain her body weight? Of course, we would never put someone who's 120 pounds on the same calorie target is someone who weighs 300 pounds, right? What do you think would happen if I arbitrarily put both of them or everyone or are you on a 12 or 1400 calorie diet? I can tell you from experience. Kim is going to suffer. She is going to be hungry. She's going to crave food and she's going to be super tired. Now Now, Michelle at 150 pounds might suffer also if she's in a calorie deficit. But Kim will undoubtedly fail, simply because she's eating way less than the amount of her 200 body needs. Make sense? It's too big of a deficit, and it leads to symptoms.

Another way to illuminate this concept is to imagine someone who weighs 500 pounds, versus someone who weighs 120 pounds. Now listen, there is a person out there who is 120 pounds, who does need to reduce their body fat to some degree to really achieve an ideal body composition. This is what we call skinny fat. And it's a real thing. This is another reason why I stopped focusing on body weight on the scale, because you might think someone who weighs 120 or 30 pounds, could never need to reduce their body fat. But if their body fat is still high in the category that's related to an increased risk of disease, we still have to look at her body composition. Let's go back to Kim and Michelle, they each want to lose weight. But why would we prescribe the same amount of daily calories? This approach is setting people up for failure. And this is what I see many weight loss doctors and or experts or coaches doing. This is why you can start a diet and be on track for seven to 10 days or maybe two weeks. But then seemingly out of nowhere, you get knocked off track or you crash or you succumb to hunger and food cravings because it feels like you just can't decide otherwise. In my experience, it takes about seven to 10 days precisely for your body to truly respond to whatever actions you're taking, like eating fewer calories or working out more. This used to happen to me over and over and over until I finally came to my senses and realized the pattern, I'd be on track bullet proof for 10 days, maybe maybe two weeks, and then boom, out of nowhere, I would be completely off track. I'd feel like I failed and it would take me another week of licking my wounds. And then another week to muster up the motivation to start over. And then the cycle would begin again. If this sounds familiar, please take notes.

When you get fewer calories than you need, your body will eventually respond with symptoms. In an effort to avoid losing weight. This is homeostasis. This is preservation and this is how your body works. Be sure to listen to the first 10 episodes of this podcast as I dive into these concepts even deeper. To get a bit technical for a minute, there is a long standing belief that in order to release one pound of body fat, you have to burn off 3500 calories. And while this isn't a strict or completely accurate rule, I find that it's close enough to guide us here. Now, you may think that losing two pounds per week is a good target. And I realize that might sound like a small increment. If your ultimate goal is to release 30 or 40 or 50 pounds of fat or more two pounds seems paltry

per week, right? But in my experience, two pounds per week is actually quite aggressive. And it's way too aggressive. If you only have 10 or 15 pounds to lose, so let's do the math. It's the sciences right? We're going to assume that is I believe in science. First, you'll need a daily calorie deficit of the 1000 calories in order to lose two pounds of fat in a week. Okay, a deficit is the difference between energy in and energy out. You would be expending 1000 calories more each day in order to lose two pounds of fat in a week. Now, this deficit should be a combined effort of less food and more exercise for best results. So you could look at it and say diet only you would eat 1000 fewer calories each day but it really is better. We know that when you combine your energy expenditure of both less food in and more exercise out. Surprisingly, you don't burn a ton of calories during during a workout, so you're probably looking at 400 calories Max burned as a result of exercise. And therefore, you would need to reduce your food intake by 600 calories per day. On the days that you exercise, if it's a day when you don't exercise, you would have to reduce your calories by 1000 calories per day. That is a lot in comparison to where a person is currently eating. Now, if you are 50 6070 100 pounds overweight, you're probably eating quite a few number of calories each day. But still, as a percentage of that 1000 calories per day is a lot. The greater the calorie deficit, the more pronounced the symptoms associated with weight loss. This means in direct relationship, more hunger, more cravings, more fatigue. faster weight loss generally means faster pain, make a note of that if your goal is to lose weight quickly.

What's more realistic, and more comfortable is to target about one pound of fat loss per week. And less if you have less to lose. Yes, this does result in a slower weight loss. But the payoff is that it's more comfortable weight loss. And it's usually associated with true habit changes that last, and therefore this kind of weight loss has a higher chance of being permanent. I've found that the rate of weight loss might be slower. But a targeted daily calorie reduction of about 350 to 500 calories is the most realistic, most sustainable and most effective way to release body fat. This, of course is on top of the hard to accurately measure energy output from workouts.

Next up, I'm going to reveal one possible reason why you're not losing weight, even if you are taking action and following a weight loss plan. But first, now, I realize that you might be following a weight loss plan to a tee. And you aren't actually losing weight. This happens all the time. If this is you, you're not alone. A common misunderstanding I see when women come to me struggling to lose weight is that they think that the actual diet itself causes the weight loss. So for example, she might be following a popular diet plan by a New York Times bestseller, or doing something like a ketogenic diet. If this is you, maybe you're following the plan perfectly, just as you were advised, but your weight isn't changing. There is an unspoken belief that the diet is the thing that causes the weight loss that there's magic in the diet. And in some cases, this can be true, I actually believe that many programs work if you understand some of the behind the scenes, and you're following it perfectly. But if you're following the diet, and you're not losing weight, it's most likely because you're getting more calories than your body actually needs each day. It's really sexy to think that you can eat as much as you want of certain foods as long as you follow certain rules. And while this can work, if it's not working for you, then it's probably because you're just not moving as much as you need to, in order to burn up the energy that you're taking in.

And quickly on that note, I don't believe that you can outrun a bad diet, it's not effective to try and exercise off extra calories, especially if you're over 40. A more effective and more comfortable approach is to adjust both calories downward and activity. So if this is you, there are two ways that I work this with my clients. Number one, if you're following a proven diet plan, and you're doing what it recommends, but you're not losing weight, simply eat a little bit less. Keep doing everything that you're doing, and just move a little more and eat a little less. Because you might be right On that tipping point where all you need is about another 100 or 200 calorie deficit. And this can be done easily by a little bit more movement and a little less food. The second way is, if you're not following a specific plan to calculate your estimated calorie intake, and take a week or so and track what you're eating, this is my preferred method, because it's pretty much foolproof if you're willing to track your food accurately, and do the calculation. So that leads us to how to calculate your calories right? In order to get weight loss, right. So here is a simplified, easy calculation to get you started. Now remember, this applies to you. If you need to lose more than 10 pounds of body fat in order to be healthy, you should always be focusing on body composition. But if you've got 3040 50 pounds or more of weight to lose, this will help number one, write down your current body weight number to multiply that number by 10 to get an estimated daily calorie intake to aim for. So going back to our example, let's say Michelle who's 150 pounds wants to lose weight, she would write down her current body weight 150 times 10. That means her target is 1500 calories per day. Then, after 10 days, assess your energy, hunger and food cravings and increase or decrease your calorie intake accordingly. If

you're starving, and you're pulling your hair out, you would increase your calories. This accounts for how active you are. And if you find that, after two weeks or so you're feeling really good. And you don't feel any lighter or you don't feel like maybe your body fat is coming down or you aren't actually losing weight, then just eat a little bit less. A common misconception is thinking that you have to be really strict and rigid in order to lose weight. And it's really just not true. You don't have to count every single calorie and you don't have to be super restrictive. There is a great margin of error if you use this approach. And you adjust over time, based on your hunger urges and your energy. So what happens once you get within about 10 to 12 pounds of your target body weight, you can stop focusing on weight all together and only focus on body composition. Now you can do this all along regardless of the amount of fat that you want to lose.

As I've said, in general, I want to move the conversation away from the words weight loss, so that we can improve your muscle. But again, the number on the scale does matter for some people. And if you've got 50 pounds of extra body fat, we've got to get your calories right ish, so that you're not tortured on your way to ideal body composition. If you're eating way too little, you're never going to be successful. This episode really is for you if you keep trying to eat 12 or 1400 calories, and then you find that you're cycling and you're crashing and burning over and over. Now, if you're in the last stretch of body fat within that 1012 or 15 pound range, and you just want to tighten up and see some muscle tone or definition, you can start focusing on building lean muscle to achieve 70% or more of lean muscle mass and improving your body composition in general. Somewhere between 75 and 80% lean muscle is the threshold where you are lean mean and a healthy fighting machine. At this point, it's really just about improving your muscle quality and quantity. I find that muscle is the best way to target and address that final frontier of body fat. It's always helpful to target your energy needs your calories in and your calories out for your specific goal and it has to reflect your current body weight, your goal and your activity level. But like I said, If this is you in this latter half and you're in that final stretch, make sure that you're You're eating the right amount of calories and shift your focus to armoring your metabolism with lean muscle, so the muscle can do the fat fighting for you.

There you have it, my best tips for getting weight loss, right? At this point in my career, I have seen it all really and truly. And I promise that you too can get the body and the health that you want. I know that you might feel confused or that nothing works for your body. But I hope that you'll let me plant a seed of hope. If you want to be leaner and healthier. I promise you can do it. And it does not matter where you're starting. It just takes strategy, action and time. And if you just stick with the plan over time, you will get there. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Remember if you are ready to target your muscle and improve your body composition once and for all. And you're interested in working with me as your coach, sign up for the body composition project waitlist, and I'll send you more information in the coming weeks. Holly perkins.com forward slash body waitlist and stay tuned for another brand new episode on Tuesday of next week. Stay strong my friend