If you are overweight and wish to decrease your weight, you must be eating less calories (energy) than you are expending. I.e. Energy in (calories in) must be less than energy out (calories out.) Below are examples and explanations of how the body puts ‘Energy In’ and puts ‘Energy Out:’
Energy in: This refers to any food or drink which contains calories/energy.
Energy Out: This refers to ways in which energy is expended in the body, this occurs in 3 ways:
(1) Through the movement of your body. Any movement produced by your body requires energy, a general rule of thumb is the more muscle fibres used to move the more calories you will be using or ‘burning’. E.g. Running on a treadmill burns more calories than cycling on a gym bike since the gym bike only requires the leg muscles to move, whereas running requires muscles throughout the entire body to work.
(2) Through the digesting of your food. Few people know the actual eating and digestion of food will result in ‘energy out’ i.e. you expending energy and burning calories when eating.
(3) Through simply keeping alive. Your body burns calories even when you are doing nothing, this is known as your Basal Metabolic rate, and is the number of calories you expend merely keeping the body functioning at rest.
Consuming less calories than you expend is known as ‘Energy Deficit.’ This can be explained through the equation below:
Energy Deficit = Energy expended (exercise, metabolism, thermic effect of feeding) > (greater than) Energy taken in (Food + Drink)
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For more information on losing weight, please visit the losing weight through diet page in the weight section.
