How to Lose Weight 101: Understanding energy balance

If you're trying to lose weight but don't understand how your body works, your odds of success aren't good. However, learning accurate information about how your body works isn't an easy proposition! That's because (no kidding) most medical professionals don't know either. The (magic) diet book and other weight-loss-gurus don't care (they're interested in your money, not your success). So it's fair to say that too often we have a case of the blind leading the blind. Is it any wonder that so many find it so hard to lose weight, and even harder to keep it off? Sadly, not.

UNDERSTANDING ENERGY BALANCE

You gain weight when the amount of energy (calories) you consume as food and drink exceeds the energy your body uses up in the following three ways:

1.  Basic metabolic processes (the energy your organs and various body tissues use), and digestion and assimulation of nutrients (thermic effect of food)
2.  Energy used in activities of daily living (taking the stairs, parking further out in the lot, etc.)
3.  Voluntary exercise (walks, what you do at the gym, exercise tapes, sports, etc.)

This is known as positive energy balance. The excess energy is stored principally (but not all) as fat. Each pound of excess body weight represents approximately 3,500 calories.

On the other hand, you lose weight in the opposite scenario, when the total energy you expend (in items 1 through 3 above) exceeds what you consume in food and drink. This is negative energy balance, which causes the body to draw upon its energy stores (use up body fat).

What we are talking about is actually a law of physics—the 1^st law of thermodynamics: energy cannot be created or destroyed, it only changes form. This isn’t a theory; like gravity, this law applies to every BODY.

There are individual differences (see: Normal Range of Metabolism); where your basal metabolic rate (BMR) falls along the bell curve depends on the genetic hand you were dealt. Unfortunately, you can’t do anything to significantly change your genetic hand (see: Myth: Weight Training...). Think of it as your daily "calorie allowance." Having your metabolic rate measured, so you know "your allowance" is helpful. If nothing else it eases many peoples minds to learn that they do have a normal BMR.

The variables that you do have control over in the energy balance equation are:

1)  The energy/calories you consume in food and drink, and
2)  The energy/calories you expend (in both activities of daily living, and voluntary physical activities).

Part of the reason so many fail at weight loss maintenance is that they don't understand energy balance, let alone how their weight loss affects it.

[PA = physical activity]

Here's an example with the numbers. A woman weighs 205-pounds, and her goal weight is 160-pounds. "The Task" (495-calories per day) represents a quantification of the permanent lifestyle changes she will need to make in order to keep the weight off after she has reached her goal. In other words to maintain her goal weight she will have to permanently reduce her NET energy balance (NET maintenance calories) by 495-calories per day. What are her two options to do that? Those two variables above that you do have control over: what you eat and drink, and how much you choose to move. Most successful maintainers achieve their success with a combination of these two variables: reduced calories-in, and increased calories-out. 

This illustration should make it very clear why we say that weight loss maintenance requires permanent lifestyle changes. Here's the recap:

To achieve weight loss (to lose weight) you have to create an ongoing negative energy balance (through a lower energy intake and/or higher level of energy expenditure).

To maintain weight loss, a permanently lower level of NET energy balance must be maintained. This lower energy balance simply represents the energy balance appropriate to your new lower body weight.

Understanding ENERGY BALANCE is the foundation for success with weight loss, but only the beginning. Effectively problem-solving how lower energy intake and higher energy output is achieved is a complex challenge that requires addressing multiple variables. These include: stimulus control, support, record keeping, cooking, physical activity, cognitive restructuring, intuitive-eating, dealing with lapses, understanding the abstinence violation effect (so that the pattern can be broken), black and white thinking, stress management, and more.

There's never room to cover all the details and related information in one blog. Let me know what your most burning questions are!

For accurate information on healthy weight loss see my book The NEW Healthy Eating & Weight Management Guide.

Best,
-Dorene