In the fitness echo chamber, if you've not heard that a caloric deficit is the main driver of fat loss, you've been living under a rock. You need to consume fewer calories than you burn in order to lose body fat: pure and simple.
So, you've used an online calculator to figure out your fat loss calories, or maybe you've tried eating a set amount for a week and now know what figure works for you. Step 1 done. You're on MyFitnessPal logging your food in 5 days a week from Monday to Friday, creating a caloric deficit. On the next Monday after the weekend, you step on the scale and see that your weight hasn't budged at all. Worse, it's gone up!
This happens all too often and is a common reason why people lose faith in the process. The answer for this, however, is often painfully simple: You overconsumed calories on the weekend that cancelled out your deficit during the week. Huh? Let's break this down.
Let's assume that your maintenance calories (ie the calories you need to consume to stay at the same weight) are 2000. In order to create a deficit, you decide to eat 1800 calories daily.
This would mean that after a week, your total calorie intake would be 12,600 calories. If we take that away from your maintenance (2000 x 7 = 14,000), this would equal a deficit of 1400 calories over a week, enough to elicit fat loss.
However, on the weekend, you don't track your calories, you go out with friends, have a couple of takeaways, some alcohol, and desserts. On Saturday and Sunday, your calories are 3000 on both days.
Why does this matter? Well, it's a simple calculation.
Monday to Friday = 1800 x 5 = 9000
Saturday to Sunday = 3000 x 2 = 6000
9000 + 6000 = 15,000
Now, in order for you to stay at the SAME weight, you needed to eat 14,000 calories in an entire week.
But because of the additional calories you ate on the weekend, this ended up cancelling the deficit you created during the weekdays, and actually caused you to eat more than your maintenance calories - by 1000 calories. Because of this, you gained weight even though you've been eating well and exercising for most of the week.
You can't cheat your body. It will always keep an accurate tally of everything that goes into it. Make sure you're not a weekday dieter and a weekend binger if you want to improve your body composition. Or, create a bigger deficit during the week to account for additional calories on the weekend in order to stay below your target. Either way, you'll want to be tracking your intake consistently every day if you want to have context for why you may not be seeing the progress that you're after. There's usually a very simple reason.
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