Calorie Deficit?

First and foremost, I want to start off with saying a calorie deficit is not starving yourself. It is a calculated measurement of how much to eat that hits a little below your metabolism to burn off your extra stored energy (your body fat). It’s eating less than the daily energy you burn. Eat less in than you are burning out. That makes it sound like you’re eating very little, but it’s actually not by much. It’s surprising how much room you have to eat! The more you work out or move your body, the more you eat! If you eat too little, you won’t burn the fat. It’s a fine line of eating just a little below your energy burning but not too much or your body will go into survival mode. You won’t be burning fat in survival mode.

Second, it’s worth mentioning that I’m not a doctor or a nutritionist. Please listen to your doctors and not random people on the internet (including me). To help my credibility, I’ve been lifting weights for seven years. My husband has been certified and recertification many times in personal training and fitness instruction. His clients have had crazy results from his teaching. Now he’s currently in the works of going to school for biology. We’ve been living this gym lifestyle for a while.

I’m planning to do this deficit for the entirety of summer then switching back to intuitive eating. I find this method of letting your body tell you what to eat and when to stop the most beneficial to long term mental health and physical health. But doing that the last few years has not wielded the results I’ve been craving so I decided this year to switch it up to try a calorie deficit. So far I’m digging this regimen and process. I would love to write about what I learning.

Can I do it?

Obviously, only do a calorie deficit if you want to. It took me three years after having my baby to finally be in the right headspace to push myself in this way. To view this progress in a healthy way. Not everyone is going to want to track food. It’s annoying and hard to tediously track every little thing. It took a good 2 months to finally see the results.

Everyone’s calorie limit will be different. So for that reason I won’t be posting mine. I suggest finding that number through a bsa machine. I got mine done at my local gym. Some nutrition stores have bsa machines too. It will give you a metabolism number that you can set your calorie amount too.

So now what? Get a food tracking app. The most suggested is myfitnesspal. Before you start planning, I recommend tracking a day of your normal eating. It gives you an idea of what foods you enjoy that might be denser in calories, and how every food has fat/carb/protein ratio. You get told how you need to eat a lot of protein, but having a good amount of carbs and fats are just as important. It’s a great way to learn the process without fully committing.

“You said you can fit a lot of what you already eat in your calorie limit, why post a list of these foods?” While you actually have a higher than you would expect daily calorie limit, you still need to be careful. Snack-y foods are often high in calories but low in any beneficial nutrients. That means you won’t be full from eating them. Sadly the same goes for sweets and desserts. Can you make room for dessert? You can! You just need to make room for it — thus the reason we track the food. These foods I’m posting have high protein which is essential for weight loss. Your body takes more energy to digest protein than carbs and fats. Plus if you are working out or moving your body you need to fuel the muscles you are exercising. Overall all your meals in the day should have a good balance of carbs, fats, and protein to be filling so you aren’t tempted to snack aimlessly away. I just want to help those out who are new to this tracking food journey by posting some high-protein grocery foods to try implementing.

Grocery Food List: foods that helped me track a calorie deficit

• Egg whites– surprisingly a versatile ingredient. Low calorie but high protein food. Make egg white scrambles, bake it into dishes like mug cakes, protein French toast, crepes, the list goes on.
• Chicken sausage– tired of grilled chicken every night? Try chicken sausage (Adielle bacon pineapple is my favorite). It’s not as lean as chicken breast but sure is more tasty.

• Cottage cheese and Greek yogurt– more versatile ingredients. My favorite is to mix a scoop of cottage cheese in with my egg white scramble to give it a cheesy and fluffy taste. My husband dips bbq popped chips into a dip of plain cottage cheese as a snack. I love Greek yogurt by itself but I also use it in many foods including curry, pizza dough crust, and smoothies.

• Protein bars and protein powder– this one is a no-brainer but I can’t have this list forget the backbone . As you know it’s really good to keep your protein intake very high if you want to burn fat. Protein powder is easy to put in almost everything. Bars are easy for on the go and have a lot of fiber in them! They can be calorie dense so make sure you have room for it. Go with whatever brand you feel comfortable with. I haven’t tried it, but I have heard CSE Protein is very good with clean ingredients. I love Quest protein bars and Kirkland has identical off-brand protein bars.
• Costco’s frozen rotisserie chicken (or their hot and ready rotisserie)– sometimes you need quick chicken to cook in case you don’t have any meal prepped chicken. This saved many of my meals when I was too lazy to cook something fancy.
• Hash browns // potatoes– potatoes have lower amount of carbs than rice. This makes fitting carbs a little more relaxed if you are a carb-lover like me. And who doesn’t love hash browns? Breakfast meals are my go-to these days.

• Kodiak cakes– pancakes, mug cakes, for chicken pot pie crust, thickening sauces, you name it. I use the kodiak pancake mix for everything.

• Protein pasta– Yes! I have found a plant-based pasta that I love! Years ago Nate bought some red lentil pasta from Costco that tasted off to me. Idk. This stuff? Legit. My ADHD texture-sensory eating tastes nothing wrong. Yes, it’s plant-based with plant protein but it still has gluten. Just a word of caution.

• High fiber tortillas– Why fiber? Fiber has been shown in many studies to lower blood pressure and the body’s response to insulin. Ideally 30g of fiber everyday is the goal. It’s easier than you think! Fruits and vegetables have fiber. A lot of grain, particularly whole wheat grain has fiber. I love the protein bars I mentioned earlier because they both anywhere from 10-15g of fiber in them. I like adding fiber wherever I possibly can which means, yes, in my tortillas too. I’m showing the brand I get, but there is a lot of fiber tortilla options.
• Chocolate milk– that’s right. When I have a sweet tooth I have some chocolate milk. It has some protein in it, decent carbs and fat too. Don’t be afraid of foods you love. Take a peak at the macros you might be surprised what can fit.

If you have tracked calories before none of these listed are revolutionary ideas. But, if I was just starting out, viewing a list like this would have helped a ton make a game plan.

I hope you don’t mind posts like this because I love talking fitness! Coming up… meals that I love cooking in a calorie deficit.