Things to Consider Before Increasing Your Calorie Deficit

More is not always better. When weight loss stalls it can be tempting to increase your calorie deficit, but you need to be checking these important things first!!

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Featured Mocktails: 

Slice

Once Upon a Coconut

Click play, sip back, and be empowered.

Transcript

Baylee 0:21

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to this week's episode of Mocktail Minutes. This is Bailey.

Brianna 0:26

And this is Brianna

Baylee 0:27

This week I am drinking, it's called Slice. It's like a dirty soda, but it has prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics. three grams of added sugar. What flavor is this? Oh, it's like a strawberry dirty soda, so this isn't bad. Pretty good. I think I found it at Target maybe

Brianna 0:48

Like I'm sleeping on Target, like on their fun drinks

Baylee 0:53

fun drinks, like on one of their end cooler things

Brianna 0:56

Yeah. I'm doing... I got this at Sprouts, Once Upon a Coconut. I don't know if we've ever had these on here, but it's just coconut water and pineapple. All of them are just coconut water and then some sort of flavor. It's very good

Baylee 1:11

Is it like a sparkling wine or is it flat?

Brianna 1:13

No, it's flat. Which I s- started shaking it and I was like, "I really hope this is flat." It's flat,

Baylee 1:21

Good,

Brianna 1:21

it's really good

Baylee 1:22

Perfect. Yeah, 'cause sometimes when you have those, the natural juices, they do settle at the bottom, and then you're like, "Oh, weird, there's all the pineapple."

Brianna 1:30

Oh yeah, this definitely needed to be shaken.

Baylee 1:33

Yes. This week we are talking about five things to consider before thinking your deficit isn't working. you know, I feel like this can go a couple different ways. Lot of times we'll see people in a deficit and it's okay, you've been in a deficit for too long, or if it's too big of a deficit, or when we've worked closely with clients in a true deficit, then there are some things that we can spot where it's okay, not that, it's here's the things that aren't working for your deficit. Don't... Does that make sense how to put that way?

Brianna 2:10

Yeah, because I think when you're in a deficit, it's a lot of mental load 'cause you're, you know, you're tracking, you're trying to make sure, like, you're in a deficit. And so a lot of times if people aren't losing weight, suddenly they're like, "Oh, it's the deficit," and you go down. But not always, and I'm always so hesitant to just be like, "Okay, let's drop calories," because usually some of these things we're gonna talk about are, like, areas to focus on first. Because like we say all the time, less is not better

Baylee 2:41

So yeah, the first thing I would say is your average weekly calories. And I will say, like, a caveat to this because, like, there was some logs I was looking at this past week, and it would range from, like, 1,500 to 2,400 calories.

Brianna 2:55

Mm-hmm.

Baylee 2:55

So something like that, like, I forget what the average was, but it was close to 2,000, which was around her maintenance. I had her aim for 1,700 because her really high-calorie days were, like, days she was eating cake or would, like, grab a donut or a coffee out, it's like the 1,500 days were her normal. And so something like that, I did work to- I'm working to reverse diet her. But I think looking at your average weekly calories overall, so that way you can see also does your week match your weekend. That is, like, one of the biggest things that we'll see is oh, I did so good Monday through Thursday, sometimes Friday. But weekends are a little bit tougher, or you just don't log on the weekend because it's "Oh, if I don't log it didn't happen."

Brianna 3:43

Yeah

Baylee 3:44

I mean, that could go either way, too. It could be too, way too low, or it could be way too high, or alcohol. is something that's not gonna go towards your macros, but it will go towards your calories. So that can kinda throw some people off, too

Brianna 4:01

Mm-hmm. And the whole not tracking on the weekend, I think it's a big roadblock for a lot of people because you will eat much more on the weekend. If, like, you're going out, whatever it is, you tend to do that, and it really can mess up your average calories. Like, typically, when I calculate someone's average yeah, their week looks great, and maybe they're even under what they wanted to be for the week for one-- or for the day for one or two days, but then the weekend is putting them literally at their maintenance

Baylee 4:32

Your body likes consistency.

Brianna 4:34

Mm-hmm.

Baylee 4:35

I would say a myth is that you have to keep your body guessing, and so you should change up your calories all the time.

Brianna 4:40

Yeah

Baylee 4:41

No, your body likes consistency, keeping it consistent Monday through Sunday for your calorie intake, but also your macros. You don't wanna be getting, like, 80 grams of protein one day and then you're at 150. want a consistent macro balance

Brianna 4:56

Mm-hmm.

Baylee 4:56

a consistent calorie intake

Brianna 4:58

Yeah. And I would say that's especially true with carbs, 'cause I will see some people be like 80 and then 180. I'm like, we gotta... That's gonna impact your perceived weight loss because that fluctuation of water, you know? So sometimes that's a thing too. They're like, "Oh, I didn't lose any weight," and really it's just 'cause on Sunday you decided to eat 200 calories and the rest of the week you didn't, so you look heavier. The next would be, like, your movement, and I'm talking movement outside... Like, obviously exercise. If you're in a calorie deficit, I really do hope you're strength training. With that being said, the movement you're doing outside of workouts, you need to really capitalize on that, and this is where I would focus on before changing your deficit. If you're not getting, I would say, at least 8,000 steps a day, hopefully more, you definitely shouldn't be touching your deficit

Baylee 5:49

Mm-hmm. one of those foundational pieces that I would say too. Being at least at 8,000 a day, but, like, consistently throughout the day too is actually shown to be helpful rather than feeling like you have to get home and walk for an hour.

Brianna 6:02

Mm-hmm.

Baylee 6:02

move all throughout your day. Have those movement snacks put in. Keep your body in motion. It'll actually help your energy as well. It'll help your appetite. It'll help you digest your food better. movement throughout the day is gonna be very beneficial as well, and it gives you a little bit more of a natural deficit versus, like, having to decrease your food more

Brianna 6:22

Yeah, which is what I like to get the deficit from movement than just being like, "Eat less food." But,

Baylee 6:27

Yeah.

Brianna 6:28

The next

Baylee 6:28

steps is really not that hard,

Brianna 6:31

It's doable for sure

Baylee 6:32

definitely doable. You just have to be intentional. Like, I think that's the biggest hangup is like all of a sudden we wanna increase our steps by 3,000, but we're not strategically doing it or focusing on anything that's actually going to increase our steps. We just think randomly our steps are gonna get better tomorrow by doing the same thing we've done for the past week. No, you have to be intentional. You have to create time maybe to add in some movement, especially if you have that desk job. But it gets easy, 'cause eventually you just get used to it, and that becomes your new routine

Brianna 7:05

Mm-hmm, and even things like parking at the back of the parking lot, using the bathroom on the second story, like just adding in more movement with the things you're already doing, all of that adds up, and I think people are quick to discredit it, but your movement. Like, don't be touching your deficit if your movement is low. I think the next one is how are you measuring your food, and I think this is really probably the most important when it comes to fat just because it is the most calories per gram. So sometimes I'll see, like you can measure in volume or you can measure in weight, and if you are to measure a tablespoon of peanut butter, like what your, what the serving size is, if you were to weigh out how much grams a tablespoon is supposed to be, it's usually wrong. Like you're usually off. So when you're doing like cheese and nut butters and, you know, nuts, all those things, not that you can't do it with protein and carbs, it's just if you overdo fat, you're gonna be eating much more calories than you think you are. So maybe you're logging your food and you're trying to be meticulous about it, but your measurements are wrong

Baylee 8:12

Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely making sure you measure correctly, or if you're logging it, that you're also measuring it. Because if you're just "Oh, but it's probably a half a cup," just take the extra 30 seconds, grab a half cup measuring cup out of

Brianna 8:27

Yeah

Baylee 8:28

pantry or whatever, and measure it out. That way you know what you're logging is actually accurate. I think it definitely helps to have some information when logging, but the more accurate it is, the more you can understand, like, what's falling behind. Seeing, okay, is it actually a half cup, or is it more like a fourth of a cup, or a full cup? We don't know what we don't know, so it's taking that time to actually measure when you're logging it will make a big difference. I know for me, like, pasta was one that I was consistently undereating just 'cause I was, like, estimating, and then I finally measured it and I was like, "Oh that makes sense why I'm a little hungrier." Being able to actually measure it. And again, it's not a hard thing to do, it's just that you're not used to it. So just taking that time to be like, "Okay, I just have to be a little bit more intentional with my meals so that way I can see what I'm actually eating, how much fat I'm actually getting." But yeah, especially with fat. And I think, too about if you're cooking with fat, that's still gonna add up. So if you're like I put a tablespoon for the whole thing, and I divided it by four," okay, that's gonna be a little bit less than, like, a teaspoon. just giving yourself something rather than nothing too, and, I mean, out to eat, I would say do your best or find, like,

Brianna 9:44

Mm-hmm.

Baylee 9:44

out to eat things. That's helpful too with tracking

Brianna 9:49

Yeah. Which is the next thing, I think last thing, but it's how often are you eating out? If you are trying to be in a calorie deficit, it's really hard to be consistent with it if you're dining outside of the house often. There's always more sugar, more fat. That's just how it is. If you're going to a restaurant, there's always much more fat than you were thinking. And then even places like Cava or Chipotle or, like, the better options that I try to help people to get, unless the people are using the actual serving size, you are getting more or less than you think, and they're not using the serving size, okay? So if you use your little calculator and you're like, "Okay, if I get a burrito bowl and I get XYZ, this should be 500 calories," it could easily be 700, 800 calories or less than the 500 depending on how they're scooping things. So if you're, you know, doing that, like, once a week, maybe twice a week, okay, as long as you're being consistent, it's probably not gonna be the make or break. But if you're like, "Oh, I'm going to Chipotle every day for lunch," or, "We go out to eat three times on a weekend," I would focus there before moving your deficit 'cause I guarantee you that's throwing you off

Baylee 10:57

Mm-hmm. And also thinking about, like, they're not as high-quality carbs a lot of time. Burger, you're typically not gonna get, like, a whole grain bun. less quality carbs, more sodium. So those things can hold onto that water weight as well, and increase inflammation. And so we mentioned alcohol a little bit, but I would say, like, alcohol would be our biggest last one, which can also gear up inflammation and add calories that we don't think about when we just focus on those macros. also aren't going to digest our food as well. We're gonna store carbs very easily. So, I... alcohol, too, can slow your metabolism down for, like,

Brianna 11:38

Mm-hmm.

Baylee 11:38

hours afterwards. So that's also not helping anything either. And definitely keeping alcohol under two days a week is going to be beneficial, and it's definitely a habit. I mean, I think, like, just deciding what do you if you just like having a fun different drink, spend money on, like, a poppy or something like that's what I started doing because I was like, "I don't really want a drink," but, like, I could just have a l- lemonade and not add the vodka. And, like, people don't even question it. just it something you enjoy. Make it something different. Even we... Like, we went out somewhere. We were at a wedding, and, like, I got a Diet Coke. I hardly ever drink soda, and I was like, "You know what? I just want something fun and different," so I did Diet Coke and a lime. still say that's a better option than doing, like, vodka in it or rum

Brianna 12:30

yeah

Baylee 12:31

or anything. So think about how much you're doing alcohol. And I would say with all this, too, r- really consider how consistent are you really. Is a major thing, and I think it helps to have a habit tracker or something that, like, counts how often you're going out to eat because there are times where it's "Oh, we're not going out to eat that much." But then we look at our week and it's oh, we went out to lunch three times. the weekend, we went out Friday, Saturday, Sunday. six times in a week. So really just being aware of how much are we actually doing this, where maybe it doesn't feel like a lot, but it's because that's what you're used to. Where, like, us, for example, like, we go out to eat maybe, like, once a month. if we change that to six times in a week, like, it would feel... We would feel very off. We'd feel bloated because we're not used to that, and that would feel like a lot. So I think really into how consistent are you really or how often are you really doing these habits? Is this actually in moderation, or is it happening more often than what we realize? So I

Brianna 13:38

Mm-hmm.

Baylee 13:38

kinda diving into how consistent are you with the habits can be helpful too as well.

Brianna 13:44

Yeah, and I saw another... She's not a dietician. She's some sort of exercise person, but I really like her. She was posting something about, and this is very true, if you don't have a lot of weight to lose, if you're at that last five, 10, 15, maybe even 20, but 20 or less, your 80/20 is going to be very slow movement. So it might be one of those things where if you're really serious about losing that last bit of weight, you maybe go 90/10 for a month, see what happens. Your... If you have a lot of weight to lose, you will lose a lot at first relatively quickly. But as soon as you start getting down to the like, "I only have a little bit," your body is not really gonna wanna let go of that as easily. 'Cause again, it doesn't need to survive. So maybe instead of 80/20, doing 90/10. But first make sure you're at 80/20, 'cause when I have people take that aerial view, they're like, "Oh, I'm more like 60/40." Okay

Baylee 14:41

Yes. Yeah, really diving into that and seeing where you're truly at. And I think, too it's not that you have to be, like, this strict, rigid person either. Like, you have the wiggle room. And, yeah, if you wanna be 60/40, cool, but don't expect it results that you would get at 90/10. And that kinda comes with deciding are you flexible or are you focused right now. And I think that's the biggest mistake that we can make is it's "Ah, what we're doing is not working," but we're only doing it, like, three days a week. it's "Ah, I'm not losing weight, I'm not losing weight," but you've had the same goal of working out for the past three months that you haven't done. You know you're undereating, but we're not increasing your intake. You know that your fat's too high, but we haven't adjusted that yet. Can get us in almost, like, that victim mindset. Ruffle any feathers here, but just I think it's a call-out that we all need, is maybe we're not as consistent as we think.

Brianna 15:41

Mm-hmm.

Baylee 15:42

But also, it might take a little bit more work than what you're doing right now, which is not a bad thing. And

Brianna 15:49

Yeah

Baylee 15:49

I don't think we have to enjoy every single thing either. I mean, I don't love mopping my floors, but, I mean, it's nice to have a clean house, you know? Sometimes we have to do things that we don't like just out of the necessity, and we're gonna reap the benefits from it. So deciding, okay, if I'm gonna be 60/40, I know I'm not gonna get as great of results. If I'm gonna be 90/10, I'm gonna get better results.

Brianna 16:13

Mm-hmm.

Baylee 16:13

N- neither is wrong, it just depends on what you want right now

Brianna 16:16

Yeah. And honestly, the victim mentality thing is a good thing to bring up because if you start thinking, "I'm doing everything. I'm doing everything. Nothing is working," that's gonna really weigh on you, like no pun intended, and you are gonna start thinking like, "Something's wrong with me. I can't lose weight." And then you're just feeding into everything online being like, "Yeah, this is why you're... You know, let me help you with your weight loss resistance."

Baylee 16:40

it's

Brianna 16:40

Yeah

Baylee 16:41

cortisol, it's all these things. And, like, there's some times where I'm talking to people, I'm like, "Man," like, "what else do we need to do?" And I have to, like, step back. I'm like we still aren't doing the strength training. aren't hitting our macro goals."

Brianna 16:53

Mm-hmm.

Baylee 16:54

so, like, I can also get caught up in being like, "Oh, there's gotta be something else." I'm like,

Brianna 16:58

Yeah

Baylee 16:58

Yeah, there could be, but we also need to do these foundational pieces first before we start

Brianna 17:04

Yep

Baylee 17:05

the cortisols, the thyroid issues, where it's like maybe there's not actually something wrong there. We just need to do pieces to get us going and create that solid But yeah, I've definitely found myself sometimes, like, talking to What is going on? What can't we figure this out?" I'm like just start with the things that we're already supposed to be working on

Brianna 17:23

Yeah, and doing them more consistently. And I'm telling you, yeah, the victim mentality, you're gonna start to think nothing is working, and then you're not gonna do it. And then you're gonna throw in the towel, rinse and repeat. Get serious with... And then th- and Bailey said, if you wanna be 60/40, cool. No one is "Oh, that's bad." If you are like, "I need to be really flexible, I have a lot going on, I can only do this much," okay. You're gonna lose weight slower. That's fine. But if you're someone who's like, "I'm really serious about this," then you need to get really serious with yourself, and just have it be less flexible for a tiny bit, you know? It's just that little bit. But I think we all want, like, just great results with the effort that we wanna put in,

Baylee 18:03

or we want, like, different results by not doing anything different.

Brianna 18:07

Mm-hmm.

Baylee 18:08

Or it's like we feel like we have to do this extreme thing, where it's oh, fasting. We gotta fast in order to get these results. We have to take this cortisol supplement. We have to have a HTMA test, or just different things like that where, yes, they can all be useful in sit- certain situations, you also have to learn the foundations that you can sustain for life, too. I don't know where I was going with that, but yeah.

Brianna 18:36

Oh. No, that makes sense. And we've worked with a lot of people. Y'all, that's And we've worked with a lot of people who have done HMA testing. They've done hormone replacement. They've, they're taking very strategic supplements. I'm telling you, if you don't have these basics down, it doesn't really matter. And then I think you feel even more broken

Baylee 18:53

You know what I find in common from everyone who has done every diet that doesn't work or can't sustain it, or they are working out three or four times a week, they're getting 8,000 steps in, they did the HTMA test, they they're sleeping. The... I would say the number one thing I am finding consistently, undereating, and mainly undereating carbs. Very consistently I am seeing this. We add those carbs in, and their workouts start getting a little bit better. And they have more energy, their sleep isn't just okay, it's great now. Their thyroid numbers start getting normal. Their

Brianna 19:33

Mm-hmm.

Baylee 19:34

drops. I had someone that their insulin dropped by 2.4 over a few months,

Brianna 19:40

It's pretty good. Mm-hmm

Baylee 19:41

that's without a GLP-1, and that's from going to 22 hu- from 2,200 calories to 2,700 calories

Brianna 19:48

Yeah. The thing we're scared of, which is why decreasing your deficit is not the answer

Baylee 19:55

all the time

Brianna 19:56

Likely it's not. But yeah.

Baylee 19:58

All right,

Brianna 19:59

That feels-

Baylee 19:59

We hope this episode was helpful, we'll be back next week with a brand-new episode. So we will talk to you then. Bye.

Brianna 20:08

Bye