How To Do A Calorie Deficit (10 Best Tips!)

Just eat in a calorie deficit. You probably hear this all the time, but nobody ever explains how to do that. And even if, let's say, you know how many calories you should be eating, that doesn't really tell you what foods to eat and what foods not to eat. What foods are low in calories so you can hit your calorie goal? How do you change what you're doing right now, go from where you are right now, to get into a calorie deficit? So in this video, I'm going to give you my 10 best tips. Tips that you can take with you to get yourself into a calorie deficit, and even if you only do a couple of these, it will help you lose the body fat that you are looking to lose. The first tip is try to stick to zero calorie liquids, and here's what I mean by that. If you're trying to be in a calorie deficit, liquid calories really serve much of no purpose to you because they don't keep you full. They're very easy to consume, and on top of the food you're eating, it's an easy way to rack up the calories. So if let's say for example you swap out regular Coke for a Diet Coke or a Coke Zero, I know some people are gonna leave the video because I just said that, but if you're trying to be in a calorie deficit, it's zero calories. And no, the current research we have shows unless you drink 20 of these a day, it is not harmful for you. And by the way, being 50, 70, 100 pounds overweight is much more harmful than drinking a diet soda. So something like this, or swapping for a low-fat or a fat-free milk instead of doing regular fat milk. I'm not saying regular fat milk is bad, I'm just saying if you're looking to get less calories, you will swap for fat-free almond milk, something like that. Number 2 is going to be snacking on fruit in between your meals, or just in general consuming fruit, especially these 3: strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. And watermelon, and here's why. There is a concept called volume eating. This means you can eat a lot of food volume for not a lot of calories. And one of the biggest issues people have when they go on a calorie deficit is they get hungry. And so when you're hungry, you're much more likely to eat more calories. So let's take these strawberries as an example. For a serving of strawberries, which is 140 grams, 45 calories. That is a lot of strawberries, food that you can eat that can help fill you up for not a lot of calories. Raspberries are the same thing, and a bonus for raspberries, these are actually high in fiber, which we'll talk about a bit later in the tips, which can help keep you a bit more full as well. Same thing with watermelon. You can eat a whole pound of watermelon for about 150 calories. And so snacking on these fruits on top of all the other nutrients and vitamins and minerals that are inside of fruit gonna keep you a lot more full for low calories so you can stick to your calorie deficit. And you know what, screw it, we might as well go into the 3rd point, which is eating more fiber. You probably hear a lot about protein, which we will talk about in this video as well, but I think fiber is one of the more underrated nutrients when we talk about staying sticking to your calorie deficit because when you consume foods that are higher in fiber, which I can drop some of my favorite high fiber foods in the comments section below, so feel free to go check them out. But these high fiber foods keep you way more full. They're slower digesting, so they keep you full for longer periods of times throughout the day. And so getting fiber, especially earlier in the day, whether it's for breakfast or whether it's for lunch or during your snacks, can help you be less hungry, which will help you stick to that calorie deficit. A good number to, uh, to kind of shoot for. So I usually say for women, you want to try to get around, let's say, at least 20 grams per day. And then for men, you want to try to get around 30-ish grams of fiber per day. Now, number 4, I know you're probably not going to like, but I'll just go ahead and get it out of the way now. You should probably consume a little bit less alcohol, and we can talk about why here in a second. You're not automatically going to ruin your fat loss progress if you consume alcohol. And fun fact, I don't personally drink alcohol. This beer is one that I got from my best friend's wedding in 2021 or 2022, obviously unopened, and I've done nothing with it other than use it for props for videos. But more alcohol, it is going to lead to worse sleep, which is just going to mean the less sleep you have, the more hunger you have, the more cravings you have, the less recovery from your workouts. Which means, again, all this makes things harder to stick to your calorie deficit. And then obviously, when you're consuming alcohol, alcohol, you're consuming calories along with that. Not only are you consuming the calories from alcohol, but you're also consuming calories from food. Let's be honest, you're not snacking on celery and cucumbers when you're drinking alcohol. So at the very least, I would cut back on your alcohol intake while you're trying to be in a calorie deficit. If you're somebody who you do enjoy alcohol and you like to drink it every now and then, kudos to you. I don't, I don't judge. I have friends who drink alcohol. I have clients who drink alcohol, members. It's fine. I don't care. But while you're trying to be in a calorie deficit, it's hard enough as it is, as I'm sure you probably know. Why make it harder consuming high amounts of alcohol? All right, so at the very least, cut back. If not, cut it out for a brief period of time. Now the fifth one I love, and it actually doesn't have to do with nutrition, but it is simply going to be walking more steps. And this does not have to mean like you're going on the treadmill or going outside for a 30-minute walk. Any steps during your day count. So if that means while you're cleaning around the house, if that means you're parking farther away, you're taking the stairs instead of the escalator or the elevator, just simply getting more steps in. On average, if somebody's walking 10,000 steps, which by the way, you don't need to walk 10,000 steps, and I'll touch back on that in a second, but if you're walking 10,000 steps a day, that's gonna burn anywhere from about 300 to 700 extra calories per day if you were walking, you know, only 1,000 steps, right? Not that you should be exercising for calorie burn, because I don't really think that, but it does help you with your calorie deficit equation. And so getting more steps is crucial. And again, you don't have to go walk 10,000 steps. If you're currently getting 3,000 because you work a desk job like this guy right here, go and try to get 4,000 to 5,000. Once you get 4,000 to 5,000, try to get 6,000 to 7,000. This might take you a couple of weeks or potentially even a couple of months. But the whole goal is just to do more than what you're doing right now. And that's the goal with getting more steps. And some other questions I get on this, no, you don't have to walk at a certain speed. No, like it doesn't matter if you're walking in the gym or the treadmill, or if you're doing, you know, outside in a specific period of time, like 30-minute walk. You can go take a 5 or a 10-minute walk. To be very transparent, that's the only way I get my steps in, like in between or after my meals. After my meals is a great time. I like to go get a 5 or a 10-minute walk. That also kind of helps with some digestion purposes, kind of like some insulin sensitivity purposes. But if I didn't get my 8-minute, 7-minute, 10-minute walks throughout my day, I wouldn't get any steps because I sit at my desk all day, maybe just like you do. So more steps, it's massive. And before we get into the 6th one, I do have a free calorie calculator if you would like to use it after this video. It's gonna be in the description of this video down below. And again, these things are gonna help you stick to that. But if you do want to know how many calories you should eat, use that free calorie calculator. Number 6 is gonna be getting 30 grams of protein by 10:00 AM. And I'm gonna tell you how you can do this, but I'm first gonna explain why I want you to do this. I have seen just through coaching our clients inside of the clubhouse, those who eat protein more protein earlier in the day are much less hungry. Much like we talked about fiber, protein is very satiating. It fills you up for a very long time. So if you eat more earlier in the day, the rest of the day you are not going to be as hungry. You're not going to have as much sugar cravings, which means you will eat less overall calories, which will help you stick to your calorie deficit. A lot of people get to 3, 4, 5 PM and you're probably starving, or it's 7, 8, 9 PM and you're probably starving, but yet you look at your MyFitnessPal or whatever you're tracking in and you've eaten 60 grams of protein by 6 PM. Of course you're gonna be hungry. Of course you're gonna have those cravings, and of course it makes it incredibly hard to stick to your calorie deficit. Not to mention, you only have but so much willpower in a day. So if you're like relying on willpower to like get you through the nighttime when you have those cravings after a long day of work, after dealing with your kids or studying or, you know, sitting in traffic, whatever it is that you do, you've been up all day, you've already gotten a workout done, just relying on willpower alone, it's not gonna cut it. It's— how's it working out thus far for you? Probably not very well. So more protein earlier in the day. I like 30 grams by 10:00 AM and the way that you can do this is, Let's say maybe you'll have some Greek yogurt in the morning, right? Let's say maybe you have a scoop of protein, scoop and a half of protein. Let's maybe say you do some eggs and egg whites, right? Or you could do a combination of all these things. You could do some protein and put— I'm sorry, put Greek yogurt and put some protein powder in that. That is actually right there a great combination. I just had actually, quite transparent, I just had this because it's super quick and super easy. This could be cottage cheese or whatever it is that you want to make. So a couple different ways. I did a separate video on how to get more protein. You can check that out on my channel if you'd like, but start this. And I actually have one more for protein. Start looking for low-fat protein sources. Let me explain what I mean. Instead of getting the 80/20 ground beef when you buy it, maybe you opt for the 93/7 ground beef. Why would you do this? Typically, the leaner the protein, so the lower the fat, So 80% lean, 20% fat. This is 93% lean, 7% fat. The lower the fat, the lower the calories, and usually the higher the protein. Or maybe you swapped for chicken breast instead of chicken thigh because again, this is lower calorie, higher protein. When you're doing your Greek yogurt, maybe you go for the low-fat or no-fat Greek yogurt Because it has less calories. And again, by no means are any of these other foods bad. If we're just trying to stick to our calorie deficit and we can only consume a certain amount of calories to do that, usually the lower fat options are going to work best. And the last little one I have for you is if you are doing eggs, there is absolutely nothing wrong with eating whole eggs. But what I— a little trick I use for a lot of our members in the clubhouse is if you do 1 to 2 whole eggs, And let's say you do 2 to 4 egg whites, whether you only use the whites, whether you buy the liquid egg whites. This way you can get more protein and you cannot have more calories because the egg whites are like, they're next to no calories and they're pretty much just all protein. So a couple different extra ways to buy some low-fat protein sources for your calorie deficit. The next one people sometimes bitch at me for as well, but oh well, because That's life. Using low sugar or low calorie condiments. And then let me explain and show you what I mean. So, every single night I have— well, usually every single night, I have this Hershey's zero sugar syrup. 5 calories per serving, okay? Again, oh my God, artificial sugar sweetener, whatever. We're trying to be in a calorie deficit. And again, if you're having some of this to like replace the, you know, the 150-calorie-per-serving regular syrup and it helps you be in a calorie deficit and lose 50 pounds, that's going to be healthy. You can also use the zero sugar, sugar-free maple syrup, for example. Again, 5 calories per serving. We are trying to be in a calorie deficit. These things will help you. Or for example, if you're doing ranch dressing— who doesn't love a good ranch dressing? But if you bathe yourself in ranch dressing on your salads, You are going to not be in a calorie deficit, unfortunately. I like to have a side of salad with my ranch dressing, but again, you can go for the light ranch option, any one of these, just to still enjoy some of the things that you enjoy— the chocolate syrup or the, or the maple syrup— but do it in a way that allows you to be in a calorie deficit from consuming less calories. Now, speaking on salad from the last point, I truly like having what I call one big-ass salad per day, and I almost don't want to share this with you because I don't want you to go buy it and I won't have it, but this Mexican Street Corn Salad, quite possibly the best salad I've ever tasted and had in my entire life. But I use these pre-made salad bags because— all right, it's only you and me here, so I'm gonna be honest with you— I'm lazy. I'm not gonna take the time to go cook my, you know, chop up my veggies and do all that stuff. If you do it, that's incredible. You can do it. But this is what works for me. So I buy one of these salads. I have them at dinner every single night because going back to the volume eating that we talked about earlier with fruit, you can have a lot of food volume with a salad for not a lot of calories. Now on the calories part of it, some people might ask, well, Eric, what about the dressing? Or what about the condiments? How do you track it? All these things. Listen, the dressing, I typically use about half of the dressing just because it's— unless it's ranch. I don't like my salad completely doused in dressing, so that automatically takes away some of the calories right there. And usually if I don't like something in the condiments, I'll either just have less of it or I just won't eat it. Like this usually comes with, I think it's, yeah, Parmesan cheese. I don't put the Parmesan cheese in it because I just don't really like Parmesan cheese that much. And so I just I don't eat it. And like, I know that's probably bad and you're gonna yell at me for wasting food, but it is what it is, man. Like, I don't like it, so I don't eat it. So that also kinda takes away some of the calories. And so if you do have the condiments inside, just use half of them. That way, when you look at this serving, this container here, it says it's 150 calories for 3.5 servings. 3.5 servings per container. I'm sorry, one more time. 150 calories per serving. There's 3.5 servings per bag. Let's say you're only using half of the condiments. That's gonna be 150, and that's gonna be half times half of 3.5. So, what the hell is that? Quite frankly, I don't feel like doing math. I think it's what, 1.75, if I'm not mistaken? So, you take 150 times 1.75. If that's not correct, grill me in the comments section. I don't care. But that's how you would figure out the calories. But nonetheless, It's a salad. Like, you're not gonna— you don't get fat from eating greens. And as long as you're not just, again, dousing this with, you know, all the condiments and like you're adding on things on top of that, and if you're doing all this other stuff that we talked about, you having this one pre-made salad with like a little bit of the condiments and the dressing is not gonna kill you. So one big-ass salad per day. Now, the last one, tip number 10. When you're going into a calorie deficit, a lot of people have this complexion about it that like you have to be perfect. And if there's one last thing I want to tell you is you do not have to be perfect. Sometimes you're gonna go out to eat with your friends at a restaurant. You might not be able to track your calories perfectly, but guess what? If you go out to eat at a restaurant and like maybe you choose the fruit option instead, maybe you choose the lower fat protein source, maybe you choose to get a big-ass salad, maybe you make sure to get your walks in, have a protein shake, get some fiber, like It's not gonna kill you, man. And the biggest part about a calorie deficit is you need it to be sustainable. You can— you've probably done this— you can do any diet that you want to. You can do all these things that lose weight very quickly. They're not sustainable. So what happens? You stop doing it and you gain the weight back. So if God forbid you go out to eat, or if God forbid you go over your calories one day, like, you're not gonna be perfect with your calorie deficit. I'm not, and I'm the coach, and I'm the guy who's teaching this stuff. So if I'm not perfect, why are you expecting yourself to be perfect? So do not expect that, because then going into your journey, when you go out to eat and you can't track perfectly, guess what? You just get right back on track the next day. When you go over on your calories, guess what? You just get right back on track the next day. Maybe when, like, you don't have a food that I said here, maybe you don't hit your protein goal for that day, or whatever the case may be, that's okay. Because you do not have to be perfect in order to lose fat. I promise. I truly hope this helped. And I mentioned a few times that I and my team, we do coaching. So if you would like to learn more about our coaching, get some help with your calorie deficit, the link is going to be in the description of this video. Thank you for watching, and we'll chat next time.