I married a personal trainer and we love to tease each other about who can be more helpful to individuals wanting to lose weight. Is it nutrition or exercise that is more important? One of the things we often talk about is the idea of calorie in vs. calories out and the resulting weight loss. There is a simple equation that is often used to describe this phenomenon:
Calories in – calories out = energy balance
Calories in is simply the number of calories you consume. Calories out is simply the number of calories you burn by all your bodies metabolic processes (yes, it takes energy to just stay alive every day) and any additional calories burned through exercise and activities. If your net energy balance is a negative, it will result in weight loss; if positive, you will have weight gain and the extra energy will be stored as fat. It is a very over simplified concept, but for the average, healthy adult, it can be a really easy way to jump start your weight loss (or weight gain) goals. Simply by adjusting your calorie intake and/or adjusting your activity level you can skew the equation in your desired direction. But this equation can actually oversimplify things too much.
Like I said, this can be an oversimplified equation:
· Avoid the extremes: you do not want your energy balance to be too negative either by over exercising or restricting your calorie intake too much. Your body needs a certain number of calories (and nutrients) for proper function and severe negative energy balance may result in a host of health concerns. Also, your goal should be about a lifestyle change and severe calorie restrictions or high intensity workouts multiple times a day aren’t sustainable long term.
· Nutrient density: This equation doesn’t take into account the nutrient density of the food. Obviously, eating nutrient dense calories long term is going to be much more beneficial to your health than eating empty calories.
· Hormone contribution: This equation does not take into account other factors such as the role of hormones like insulin and grehlin and their contribution to your appetite, fat storage and overall weight.
· Thermic Effect of Food: The equation also does not take into account the thermic effect of food which is the idea that not all foods are digested and absorbed at the same rate; foods that take more energy or calories to digest and absorb will result in a larger net negative energy balance. More nutrient dense foods burn more calories through their digestive process. Yet another reason to avoid those empty calories! Protein has the largest thermic effect compared to its fat and carbohydrate counterparts, which is why lean protein is so beneficial in weight loss plans. Furthermore, increasing your own lean muscle mass through exercise will increase your thermic effect (increase your metabolism) compared to someone with a high body fat percentage.
While thinking of the calories in vs. calories out equation can be helpful to think about, it’s still important to make sure the calories going in are quality calories from things like phytonutrient dense vegetables and clean, lean protein sources. Exercise is incredibly important to your overall energy balance and has many health benefits, but I stand behind that you can’t exercise yourself out of a poor diet long-term.
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