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On today’s episode of Live Lean TV, I’m sharing 3 different ways that you can create a calorie deficit to lose weight, and the best way to increase the G-Flux.
I’m sure “G-Flux” is a new term to many of you, so I explain how to do it, and it’s sustainable benefits, towards the end of this blog.
First off, you may be wondering what do I mean when I say a “calorie deficit”.
Well, you’ve probably heard the saying, “calories in, calories out”.
This simply means, to lose weight, you typically need to be in a calorie deficit.
You’re in a calorie deficit when your body burns more energy than you consume via food.
Check out this post on: How Many Calories Should I Eat A Day?
That’s the simple part.
However, did you know there are different ways to create this caloric deficit?
To demonstrate, lets do a little survey.
Meet Willy.
Willy works at the local chocolate chip cookie dough factory.
He has made a promise to his son Charlie, that he is going to lose 25 pounds, and keep it off forever.
After making this promise, Willy googles “how to lose weight” and learns a new fancy word called thermodynamics.
In simple terms, the word is thermodynamics refers to burning more calories than you consume.
Willy’s first thought was, I’ll just starve myself to create the biggest calorie deficit I can.
Then 4 seconds go by and Willy realizes that he works at the damn chocolate chip cookie dough factory.
He does a little more searching and learns that a decent daily calorie deficit is 500 calories.
Willy also discovers a decent way to find out how many calories you burn in a typical day by using this online calorie calculator.
To use the calorie calculator, all you need to do is click your:
Once you do this, the calorie calculator will spit out your calorie goals to:
The next day, Willy takes out a piece of paper and writes down 3 different ways to create this 500 calorie deficit.
Eat 500 calories less then he burns in a typical day, without working out.
The thought of only being able to eat 1,400 calories a day scares Willy, because he knows that’s the equivalent of eating just 4 chocolate chip cookie dough cookies.
Based on this, Willy decides to add in some exercise in the form of walking on the treadmill.
Willy wears his activity fitness tracker and walks on the treadmill for 60 minutes to see how many calories the treadmill burns.
Within 5 minutes of walking on the treadmill, he’s looked at the clock 5 times, and cringes at the thought of doing this mindless and boring cardio activity every day.
Eventually, he makes it through those 60 minutes and sees that he has burned 400 calories.
Willy hears about a unique and fun type of workout style called Afterburn Training, that combines weight lifting and cardio to really boost your metabolism, burn fat, all while building lean muscle.
He follows one of the workouts from the Afterburn workout program and finishes within 45 minutes, and feels amazing.
Not only did the time fly by, but he feels young and athletic, and he actually enjoyed the workout.
Then he checks his activity tracker and it shows that he burned 650 calories.
After doing the experiments, Willy looks at each strategy carefully.
Even though they all create that 500 caloric deficit, the process to get there are different.
According to Willy:
The reason was because he couldn’t eat very much food, which made him feel super weak and vulnerable to losing muscle, which Willy heard is not a good thing since muscle helps keep your metabolism fast and healthy.
Willy cringed at the thought of being a slave to a treadmill for 60 minutes every day.
Even though he could eat that additional 400 calories because of it, that extra cookie at the factory was not worth the boredom.
Not only did Willy enjoy the endorphin rush from an incredible workout, he also felt stronger, more athletic, and slept amazing that night.
To top it off, the thought of being able to eat an additional 650 calories made the thought of “dieting” way more bearable.
It’s pretty obvious which of these 3 ways is not only the most healthy way, but also the most sustainable way to create a calorie deficit and lose weight.
If you didn’t know, the answer is: Calorie Deficit Strategy C.
If sustainable weight loss was just a numbers game, all three calorie deficit strategies would be equal.
However, Living Lean is more about psychology than mathematics.
Besides the fact that everything you eat, as well as your physical activity, creates a fat burning or fat storing hormonal reaction in your body, the simple equation of creating a calorie deficit needs to be sustainable.
Since strategy A is an extremely low calorie approach to weight loss, it’s creating a hormonal reaction that can slow your metabolism.
It does this because when you body is excessively under fed for long periods of time, it can enter starvation mode, meaning your body holds on to stored fat for survival, while burning muscle for energy.
Since muscle is key to a fast and healthy metabolism, you eventually become a skinnier, saggier, fat person.
Strategy B is creating a slightly better hormonal environment as you can eat more, but the 60 minutes of cardio a day can be super boring, meaning most people will quit before they can see any weight loss results.
Plus this much cardio, on a reduced calorie diet, can also burn into lean muscle tissue.
Hello weak and slow metabolism!
With all this said, strategy C is the clear winner.
Not only do you get to eat more food, which will keep you energized, you’ll also love your workouts, and love your body recomposition results.
More lean muscle and less flabby body fat means a healthier metabolism and more daily calorie burn.
The best way to create a healthy calorie deficit is by increasing your G-Flux.
This is just a simple equation:
Eat more food + Exercising more to still be in a calorie deficit
= Losing more fat, while still being strong and healthy
When you exercise, you increase your metabolism, you burn calories and you elevate the amount of fat burning enzymes in your body.
You’re also keeping your body happy by feeding it an adequate amount of calories, thus keeping it from going into fat survival storage mode, and once again you’re improving your metabolism.
Win-win-win-win!
The trick is to burn more calories during your exercises, so you can eat more, while still remaining in that calorie deficit.
That’s G-Flux.
So stop starving yourself and start exercising.
Just don’t go overboard with too much exercise.
If you’re unsure about how much exercise is too much and what types of workouts are best for burning body fat, while maintaining, and in some cases, building lean muscle, check out my all-time best selling workout program, Live Lean Afterburn 2.0.
This program has been transforming the bodies of men and women from all over the world.
Every single exercise in the program has a clickable exercise demonstration video.
Simply open the workout in our Live Lean workout app.
If you come across an exercise you don’t know how to do, simply click it and follow along with the exercise demonstration video.
Here’s a link to Live Lean Afterburn 2.0.
Keep Living Lean.
Brad Gouthro is the founder of Live Lean TV, a media company focused on helping men and women “Live Lean” 365 days a year. Brad’s programs and content have helped millions of people all over the world learn how to get in shape, and more importantly, sustain it for life.
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