How to eat more food and lose weight I When does your body go into starvation mode

YouTube, what is going on? And welcome back to the channel. Welcome to the video. In this video, we are going to be talking about how to eat more calories, eat more food, eat more in general, and still lose weight. You've probably heard somebody was eating 1,200 calories, they increased to 2,000 calories, and they were losing weight. You've probably heard, oh, the reason you're not losing weight is because you're eating too few calories. You need to up your calories. You're in starvation mode. You've probably heard somebody's done reverse dieting and lost body fat. You've probably heard all these things because the internet is a very fun place sometimes. I am going to, in this video, give you everything you need to understand what is going on. How can you eat more calories and still lose weight? Can you eat more calories and still lose weight? You thought you had to be in a calorie deficit. Hopefully in this video I'm gonna explain it all to you so you leave this video knowing exactly what you need to know. All right. All right? Very first and foremost though, if you have not turned on the notification bell to get notified when new videos come out, do that. If you like me, if me and you are friends, if you and I are friends, just click that notification bell. All right? Cool. So, first and foremost, I'm going to start with not eating enough and not losing weight. I get so many people very scared almost, like they're really intrigued by like, Eric, I wanna make sure I'm not eating too few calories. And I'm like, well, what do you mean by that? And they're like, well, I know if I eat too few calories, my body's gonna hold on to body fat, I'm gonna go into starvation mode, and that's why I wouldn't be losing weight. And that's just not true. I've done an entire, like, very in-depth video on this here on YouTube. I'll put it up here above. So I won't go super in-depth, but here's what I'll say: that is not true. You can't eat too You can't eat too few calories and not lose weight. That's just not a real thing. Normally what's happening in a scenario like that is some of what we're gonna talk about here today. But just think about it for a quick second. Think about people who are way less fortunate than you and I watching this video right now, who are actually starving. Like, they're not just like— like, me and you aren't starving. They're actually starving. They actually— they don't have access to food and those kind of things. Are any of those people ever overweight? Are any of their bodies ever like, oh, I'm starving in this third world country where I don't actually have food. I'm just gonna hold on to body fat. Have you ever seen that? No. Because starvation mode is not a real thing. If somebody was actually starving, they would be skin and bones, which people who are starving are in fact skin and bones. And so I could go on, and again, I did an entire video on this, but just to set the precedent right now, eating too few calories and not losing weight is not a real thing. And on top of that, where most people go wrong is— I won't necessarily touch on it a ton in this video, but most people just aren't tracking their calories correctly. And the more and more and more people I interact with on a daily basis— and trust me, I interact with a lot of people on a daily basis— the more I just truly see people just don't know how to track calories accurately. And that's okay, there's nothing wrong with that. If you don't know, you don't know. But I'll just say this very quickly. If you're not using a food scale to weigh your food out in grams, not cups, not tablespoons, not ounces. If you're not using a food scale to weigh your food out in grams, you're not actually tracking calories correctly. And that is probably why you think you're eating 1,200 calories, but in reality you're eating 1,800 calories, 2,000 calories. And you might think it sounds crazy, but it's not. I see it day and day and day and day and time and time and time again. So If you're not doing that, or if you need to know how to track calories accurately, I have an entire video here on YouTube. It's literally the same video I send to my clients that I work with, so feel free to check it out. It's totally free. But if you're not doing that, that could also be a reason why you think you're eating X amount of calories. Oh, I'm eating too few calories and not losing weight. That potentially could be why. But it's, it's not a real thing because if you are in a calorie deficit, you will lose body fat because that is the only way you are going to lose weight. That's the only way you lose weight is eating in a calorie deficit, eating less calories than what your body burns. So that first and foremost is not a real thing. And again, if you want more in depth, check out the other video. Now diving into more of what could possibly be going on and what you think, you know, how do you eat more and still lose weight and all these things. So I wanna segue this right into the next point, which is going to be the restrict And then binge cycle here. This is what normally happens, and you might be able to relate to this. When somebody tries to eat very few calories, let's just use 1,200 'cause I don't— for whatever reason, that's what, especially women, think they need to eat, to eat 1,200 calories to lose weight. I don't even know where this started from, but whatever. Let's say you're eating, trying to eat 1,200 calories, and let's say you do. Let's say you do eat 1,200 calories for 4 days, okay? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Let's say that. By the end of day four, you are probably so hungry. You are probably so low on energy. Your sleep probably sucks. Your your workouts probably suck. You're probably so restricted on the food choices you are eating. You're probably only trying to eat plain chicken and salad and broccoli and da da da. And there's nothing wrong with those foods. Those are great foods to have. But if that's all you're eating and you're so restricted, you're not allowing yourself to enjoy. Other foods you like in moderation, and it's just this constant cycle of restricting as much as humanly possible. Yeah, by Friday rolls around, you're going off the rails, baby. You're going off the rails. There's no other way around it because you're, again, your hormones are like, you're so hungry, your ghrelin is so high, which is like your main hunger hormone. Your ghrelin is so high, you're so restricted, so low energy, which means you, again, low energy and low sleep means your ghrelin's gonna shoot up even more, you're gonna be even hungrier. And so it's just, It's gonna not end well. And if the weekend rolls around, you're going out to eat with your friends, you're going here, you're going there, you're drinking this, you're doing that. It's a perfect storm for you to Monday through Thursday eat 1,200 calories and then Friday, Saturday, Sunday eat 3,000 calories at least. And again, you may think it's like, oh, there's no way I'm eating that. Trust me, trust me. And again, I just know this from working with people. If that's what's happening with you, you're probably not tracking the weekends. You're probably not tracking the weekends. You're probably like maybe tracking breakfast, maybe, and then after that it's like, I'm not tracking lunch, I'm not tracking dinner, I'm not tracking anything, and you don't know how many calories you're actually eating. I guarantee you it's probably way more than you think it is, and you're not tracking because you probably know you don't wanna see the number that you're eating, and then you get down on yourself and you feel like crap and you say, oh my God, I'm a failure, and then you just keep going 'cause Friday night you already ruined it, so then Saturday, Sunday, I might as well keep going. Monday rolls around, I'll get back on track with my 1,200 calories, and this cycle just happens in perpetuity. It's vicious. It's a very vicious cycle unless you break it. And so that— the reason somebody would be able to eat more calories and lose weight on— let's just say, for example, you were eating 1,200 calories per day, 4 days a week, and then 3,000 calories per day, 3 days a week, right? That would total out to 13,800 calories Throughout the week. That's how many calories you would eat by the end of the 7 days, right? Now, let's say you ate 1,700 calories every single day for 7 days straight, as opposed to restricting Monday through Friday, going super low calorie, super, you know, only eating clean foods and never working in things you enjoy and doing all those things that people try to do when they go start a diet, and then you eat 3,000 calories on the weekends. If you just ate 1,700 calories Something in my eye, I apologize. If you just ate 1,700 calories every single day, you're gonna be like, oh my God, that's more food. There's no way I can lose weight eating that much food. Oh my God. 1,700 times 7 is 11,900. One more time. 1,200 calories times 4 would be 4,800 calories. 3,000 times 3 is 9,000 calories. That brings you to 13,800 calories. 1,700 times 7 is 11,900 calories. 11,900 calories. Yes. That is a difference of almost 2,000 calories. Okay? I guarantee you that 2,000 calorie difference for the week is going to put you in a calorie deficit. And that means you will lose weight by eating more food. You're not actually eating more food though. That's the thing. Because by the end of the week, You're not eating more food. You're eating less food by the end of the week, but on a daily you're eating more food. And this is where people lose their minds. They're like, there's no way I can eat 1,700 calories and still lose weight. Because, you know, let's say when you do eat 1,200 calories, you see the scale go down and then you see it go back up because you're gonna eat 3,000 calories on the weekend and you think, oh my God, the only way I'm gonna see the scale go down is is if I eat 1,200 calories. So clearly, that's what I have to do. And like, it's a very rapid thing. When you eat that few calories, the scale's gonna move quicker. And you get into this like warped cycle of like, oh my God, I have to do this if I wanna lose weight. And where people go wrong is they eat 1,700 calories and they think like, oh, the scale's not moving as fast, clearly I'm not losing body fat, whatever the case may be. And they just bail and they try to go back to 1,200 calories and they just keep doing this restrict and binge cycle we've been talking about for the past You know, 5, 10 minutes now. It's not gonna work. Whatever it is, it is not going to work. This cycle you're trying to do is not going to work. So please take a different approach. You see the math, it's right here. If you eat 1,700 calories per day, you will be eating less calories throughout the week, which means you are going to be in a calorie deficit, which means you are going to lose weight. That's how somebody would eat more calories and lose weight. You or they are not actually eating more calories. You're actually eating less calories. It's just on a daily basis in a mindset Mindset shift. You're eating more calories frequently throughout the week, which is going to not lead to the restrict and then binge and then restrict and then binge cycle, which that's a whole different topic. And I've done videos on that as well. If you're struggling with that, feel free to check out my channel. But that's how you would eat more calories and still lose weight. If somebody was actually eating 1,200 calories every single day, which I do not recommend at all whatsoever, like it's just no, like you don't gotta do that. Um, but if they were actually doing that, They would lose weight. Like, there's— that's just— you would lose weight. You just can't stick with it. It's not sustainable. You can't keep doing that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. There's 7 days in a week, so you have to take into account 7 days, not 4 or 5 days, right? So that's how somebody would eat more when they're not really eating more, but that's how they would eat more and still lose weight. So I really hope that made sense to you. And again, the math— you can do the math on your own if you want to. The math is right there. You'd be eating 2,000 calories less throughout the week, which is going to put you in a calorie deficit, which means you're going to lose body fat. So that is the first thing. Now, number 3, reverse dieting. Let's cover reverse dieting. What is reverse dieting? Dieting is when you take your calories down. So let's say the amount of calories you need to maintain your current weight is, let's just call it 2,000. Let's just for shits and giggles, let's call it 2,000 calories, right? What you would do is you would take your calories down from your maintenance calories in order to lose body fat. So let's say you go to, I don't know, just call it 1,500 calories, right? That would be dieting. You diet your calories down. Reverse dieting is working your calories back up. So if you're at 1,500 calories or 1,400 or 1,300 calories, you would work your calories back up to get to your maintenance calories. That is what reverse dieting is. There's a lot of misconceptions on what reverse dieting is, what reverse dieting isn't. I will say this first. First and foremost, I did a very in-depth article on my website on exact— covering everything you need to know about reverse dieting. I will put it here in the description of this video below, so please feel free to check that out if you want a lot of in-depth information on reverse dieting. But reverse dieting is mainly used for people who reach their goal body weight. So let's say, for example, you were 200 pounds and you have dieted down to 150. Right? Let's just say that's your goal body weight. You got that. Now you want to maintain that current body weight. What will you do? You would go from eating in a calorie deficit to lose body fat. You're not doing that anymore because you've reached your goal body weight or whatever look you desire or whatever the case would be. You're happy. You want to maintain that. Now you then work your calories back up to maintenance calories because a lot of people would just like, they would diet down and be like, huh, what do I do now? And they have no clue what to do. So they just go back to eating the way they were. And they would just regain all the weight back because it's like, oh my God, well, I don't really know what else to do now, so I'm just gonna, I guess, go back to what I was doing before. They had no clue how to maintain it, those kind of things. And so reverse dieting is basically for when you hit your goal body weight and you work your calories back up to your new maintenance calories in order to maintain your current weight. What reverse dieting is not is these like people on social media or the internet saying, oh, Go from eating 1,300 calories to 2,200 calories and you'll look like this and you'll be shredded and you'll lose body fat and all this stuff. Again, if you were doing this right here, like, maybe you could eat more calories, quote unquote, and still lose weight, but it would be for this reason, not because, like, you're not gonna magically lose more body fat, like, eating 800 more calories. Like, that's just not— again, unless we already— that's why I covered this first. Like, we're taking this out of the equation. Let's say somebody was actually eating 1,300 calories. They're not like mistracking their calories and they're not going off their diet on the weekends. They're actually eating 1,300 calories. If somebody was actually eating 1,300 calories, them going to 2,000 calories is not going to produce like massive fat loss progress. That's just not, it's not how this works because again, there's a calorie deficit, lose weight, calorie maintenance, maintain your weight, and calorie surplus, gain weight. There's 3 things you can do. So if you were actually eating 1,300 calories and you reverse dieted back up to 2,000, you're not gonna magically lose more body fat because that's defying the laws of thermodynamics. Like, that's just not how this works. And people, especially recently, seem to portray this as a thing where it's like, oh, just reverse diet and you'll lose more body fat. Like, it's— no, like, that's not how that works. And so I really wanna make that very clear. Now, With that being said, here's what I want you to think about. Let's say, for example, again, we're gonna take the same example, your maintenance calories are 2,000 calories, right? Let's say you're currently eating 1,300 calories, okay? You, let's say you're reverse dieting back up to 2,000 calories. And let's say each week you add 50 to 100 calories. So let's say week 1 you go from 1,300 calories to 1,400 calories, 1,400 to 1,500. 1,500 to 1,600, and you just add 100 each week, right? During that 6 or 7 or 8 week timeframe when you work your calories back up to your maintenance calories, you're still in a calorie deficit. Like, you do understand that, right? Because your maintenance calories are 2,000. That's how many calories you need to maintain your weight. So if you go from 1,300 to 1,500, That's still a calorie deficit. It's just a bit of a smaller one. Do you understand what I'm saying? So 1,300, 1,400, 1,500, 1,600, all of that is still a calorie deficit. It's just a slight smaller calorie deficit. It's not, it's not as big of an aggressive calorie deficit, for example. So you would still be losing body fat while you're increasing calories for that 6 or 7 or 8 week time period because you're not at your maintenance calories. calories yet, you're still in a calorie deficit. When you reach your maintenance calories, no, you will no longer lose body fat. But during that time period where you would work your calories back up, you would still see body fat loss during that time because you're still in a calorie deficit. And this is why, for example, if somebody comes to me and their biofeedback is terrible— and when I say biofeedback, I mean like their sleep, their energy, if a woman has lost their period, if a guy has lost his entire sex Like if somebody is in that situation, I say, hey, don't reverse diet, just jump straight to your maintenance calories because they would spend 6 weeks still in a calorie deficit and still not having their periods, still not having good sleep or good energy or good biofeedback. And again, this is people who are usually very lean. They're already at a very low body fat percentage. I say, hey, there's no point in reverse dieting because you're just going to keep these symptoms for 6 to 8 more weeks while you reverse diet. So just jump straight to maintenance. straight to maintenance, but that's why you would like eat more food and still lose weight because you're still in a calorie deficit during that period of time. So I really hope that made sense as well. And just kind of quickly circle back to this over here. Again, if you go from eating 1,200, let's, let's use this for example. Let's say you go for your maintenance calories are 2,200 calories, just for an example. Let's say you're trying to eat 1,200 calories. That is a 1,000 calorie deficit because 2,200 minus 1,200, that is a 1,000 calorie deficit. That is a massive calorie deficit. I do not recommend that at all. But let's just say you were trying to do that. Let's say you go from, again, eating 1,200 calories to 1,700 calories, right? You're now eating 2,200 minus 1,700. You're in a 500 calorie deficit per day, which means you'd lose roughly about a pound per week. 1,200 calories to 1,700 calories is still a calorie deficit and it's actually a very sustainable, healthy calorie deficit. But just because you're increasing calories doesn't mean you're not still in a calorie deficit. And that's why, again, this, for example, you can see over the period of time you would still have X amount of calories, right? So keep that in mind for both those scenarios. Just 'cause you slightly increase calories, whether it is through reverse dieting or whether it's 'cause you wanna find something more sustainable and get out of the restrict and binge cycle. Just 'cause you increase calories doesn't mean you're not still in a calorie deficit. And this is also, just as a side note, really important because let's say one day, God forbid, you go 300 calories over your limit, right? Another great example. Let's say, for example, your deficit is 2,200 calories, right? Let's say you were trying to hit 1,700 calories. Let's say, God forbid, you eat 2,000 calories one day. You do know 2,000 calories is still a calorie deficit. It's just a smaller one. You do understand that, right? So you're not doing anything wrong. You didn't fuck up your diet. You didn't ruin all your progress. You're actually still in a calorie deficit. So you'd still lose body fat. It's cool, right? It's interesting because your maintenance calories to maintain your weight is 2,200. If you eat 2,000, You're still in a calorie deficit. It's just a bit of a smaller one. That's all. You're going from a 500 deficit to a 200 deficit, but you're still in a calorie deficit. So you did not ruin all your progress. So keep that in mind as well as kind of like a sidebar. Really hope that helped you. So those are the two right there, the two main things how somebody can increase their calories and still lose weight. Because remember, it's all about consistency and it's all about, again, consistency right here where if you're eating 1,200 calories 4 days a week, but 3,000 calories 3 days a week, you're being like 50% consistent, 55%, 60% consistent. That's not good enough to see progress. Whereas opposed to if you increase to 1,700 calories, now you're gonna be, let's just say you're 85%, 90% consistent. That's what's gonna get you progress. And so consistency, and again, remembering just 'cause you slightly increase calories doesn't mean you're not still in a calorie deficit. So really hope that made sense. Last but not least, I wanna cover this very quickly. Volume. How can somebody eat more and still lose weight? Volume eating. This is where like, for example, let's take an Oreo, right? Let's take 2 Oreos, right? Let's take 2 Oreos. Let's just say I have no clue how many calories those are. Let's just say 300 calories. 300 calories of Oreos is 2 Oreos, right? Think about 2 Oreos going into your stomach. Your stomach's right here, you have these 2 Oreos, right? That's it. That's what you have in your stomach right now. If you were to compare that with 300 calories of, let's say, a huge salad with all these greens and all these vegetables and all that kind of stuff in there, and let's say you put some chicken on top of it, imagine this huge bowl of salad with chicken now going into your stomach and filling up your stomach as opposed to 2 Oreos. Both are 300 calories, but the— what is in your stomach is absolutely different. You're eating more food. For less calories. That's how you can eat more food and still lose weight. And this is why, like, for example, when people start out eating more protein, which by the way, protein is very important for weight loss. When people start out eating more protein, they increase their protein, they're like, dude, I'm full. Like, I'm stuffed to the brim. And this often passes after roughly 2 to 4 weeks, but they're like, dude, I am freaking full, Eric. Like, I'm almost like gagging, I'm so full. I'm like, yeah, like, That's the protein for you. It's going to keep you full. Like protein is the most satiating macronutrient, which means it's going to fill you up the most. And so if you like radically increase your protein, you're going to feel like you're eating more food, but you're still going to be in a calorie deficit. So you would still lose weight. But again, you're going to feel like, oh my God, I'm eating so much more food. How am I losing weight still? You're not actually, you're eating more food, but you're not technically eating more calories because remember, It all comes down to calories, right? Calories in versus calories out, being in a calorie deficit. But that doesn't mean every calorie is created equal. Like, for example, think about a whole pound of watermelon. A whole pound of watermelon is roughly 150 calories, and a pound is a lot of food. So let's take 150 calories from a pound of watermelon versus 150 calories from a donut. You might eat like 1 or 2 bites of a donut and that's gonna be 150 calories, right? Or a Big Mac, for example. You might take a bite or 2 of a Big Mac and that would be 150 calories versus this huge pound of watermelon over here that is 150 calories. And so that's how you can eat more food, so to speak, and still lose weight because your calories would actually be in check still. You're just getting more food volume into your stomach. You're actually consuming more food, which is going to fill your stomach up more. And although you're eating more food, You're not technically eating more calories, right? So, I really hope that made sense. If you have any questions, drop some questions below down in the chat box, or what is it? Comment section, chat box, comment section. Comment section of this video, I would be happy to try to help you as much as I possibly can, but I really hope that made sense. And again, think about that visual of like 2 Oreos in your stomach for 150 calories versus this huge salad in your stomach for 150 calories. It's just, it's different, right? You'd eat more food. And still have the same calories and still lose weight. So food volume, a big one as well. Just kind of keep that in mind. I've done some videos on food volume here on this channel, so feel free to check those out as well. And last but not least, what I wanted to kind of just touch on very quickly, I want to kind of circle back to this really quickly. Um, when people think they're eating like too few calories and not losing weight, again, it could be you, you were not tracking calories correctly. It could be you're restricting and binging. And one of the things I see see a lot is you're in a dieting mindset. Like, you think in your head, oh my God, I'm eating 1,200 calories, I'm not losing weight, what is going on? And this is— it's consuming your entire life. Like, let's just be honest, it's consuming your entire life. And what happens is you often just like— you get so consumed with that thought that you forget on Thursday night you went out to eat with the fam and you had 2 margaritas and you had all those chips and Walk and you had this and that and that shot your calories through the roof. Like you don't, you don't intentionally forget it, but you're like, you don't focus on that as much as you focus on, oh my God, I want to lose weight. I'm dieting, I'm eating 1,200 calories. And so you kind of forget about that. You forget about the Saturday when you went out to eat with your friends. You didn't track that dinner, right? Like I said, you track breakfast, you track lunch, but you didn't track dinner and you probably had a lot of calories at dinner and you just kind of like shrugged that off and be like, oh well, I've been dieting all week. I've been eating such few calories. all week and you get into this mindset where you don't really know that these other things are going on. So what I would say is just number one, track your consistency. Like, you know, go back and look at the past 31 days. How many days have you hit your calories? How many days have you either not hit your calories or not tracked your calories? Both those things. Because if you're not tracking, I can pretty much assure you you're probably going over in calories, which isn't a bad thing, but you're probably doing that. So if you tally up those days and let's say you have 15 days where you tracked and hit your calories, And you have 16 days where you did not track or did not hit your calories, well, you're just not being consistent enough, that's all. And it's not objective, right? It's like, it is objective, it's not objective. It's not objective, it's right there, it's black and white. The X's, like, you know, put a check mark if you got your calendar good, hit an X if you did not hit your calories, right? It's right there in front of you. There's no ambiguity. It's like, count up your days. I had 15 days where I hit my calories. I had 16 days where I did not hit my calories. That is not good enough if you wanna see progress. And so you just track your consistency to where you won't have to wonder like, oh my God, like what's going on? No, like it's right there. Like you're just not being as consistent as you thought you might have been. 2 things we do as humans, we overestimate our consistency and we underestimate how many calories that we eat. So we're very, we're very good at doing those 2 things. So it's kind of, you know, start tracking your consistency. Look at your past 31 days. How many days did you hit your calories? How many days have you hit versus not hit calories? All that kind of stuff. So, I just wanna end on that. Hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, again, feel free to like the video, subscribe to the channel, and click that notification bell. I don't really know where these things are, but they're probably somewhere over here. So, click those things, and I really hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, drop them below, and we will chat soon, okay? Woo!