In this instructional video, Eric Roberts explains what a calorie deficit is, why it’s the fundamental mechanism for fat loss, and how to implement it effectively. He begins by likening calories to money, clarifying that a deficit is not a diet but simply consuming fewer calories than the body expends. Roberts then provides a step‑by‑step system for tracking food intake: purchase a gram‑accurate food scale, zero it, weigh portions, and log the weight in a calorie‑tracking app (or his proprietary app). He addresses common weighing questions (raw vs. cooked, recipes, eating out) and emphasizes that consistent weighing builds intuitive portion awareness. Next, he demystifies calorie expenditure, breaking daily burn into Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), Non‑Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT), and Thermic Effect of Food (TEF), noting that exercise accounts for only 5‑10% of total burn and that wearable trackers are often highly inaccurate. He introduces the Mifflin‑St Jeor equation for estimating Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) and promotes his free online calorie‑deficit calculator, which incorporates activity level to generate a personalized deficit number. Roberts then challenges the “clean‑eating only” myth, illustrating with anecdotes (e.g., a friend eating a Big Mac daily, another eating Twinkies) that weight loss is possible on any foods as long as the deficit is maintained. He proposes a practical “300‑calorie rule” that reserves 300 kcal per day for any preferred foods while the remaining calories come from nutrient‑dense sources. He discusses handling days when cravings exceed the 300 kcal allowance, explaining that occasional over‑eating merely reduces the deficit for that day and does not erase progress. He discourages strict “cheat days” and encourages returning to the plan without guilt. Finally, he invites viewers to use his free calculator, consider his online coaching program for personalized plans and accountability, and points to a supplemental 30‑minute video covering nine years of fat‑loss advice.
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Have you ever heard about a calorie deficit but not exactly sure how to do it? Well, myself and my team have coached over 25,000 people with their calorie deficit, and by the end of this video, you'll know everything you need to know on what it is, how to do it, and what to do starting today to lose fat faster. To start, what even is a calorie deficit? Despite what a lot of people think, a calorie deficit is not a diet. Our bodies run off of energy. Energy comes in the form of calories. You can think about it like money. If you spend more money than what you make, you will lose money. If you spend less than what you make, you will save money. And if you spend the same amount as what you make, you will maintain your current level of money. Calories work the same exact way. If you eat less calories than what your body burns, You will lose weight. This is a calorie deficit. If you eat more calories than what your body burns, you will gain weight. And if you eat the same amount of calories as what your body burns, you will maintain your weight. Now, everybody's calorie deficit is different. I do have a free calorie calculator in the description of this video below where you can enter your information and it will tell you exactly what your calorie deficit should be. But once you know your calorie deficit number, how do you even know how many calories you're eating in a day? Oh, that's a great question. Let me show you. Now, you may have heard before, you need to track your calories, but no one ever shows you how to track your calories. So let me show you. Step number 1, you're gonna buy a food scale that weighs in grams. We do not want to go by cups or tablespoons or ounces because weighing the weight of a food is in grams. Grams is a unit of measurement of weight. Cups, tablespoons, ounces is a unit of measurement of energy. And if you look at food labels, you will see this Rice Krispies, for example, says 1/2 cup is 40 grams. So we always want to go by the grams of the food. So step 2, once you have your food scale, you're going to place whatever you are putting your food on, whether it's a plate, whether it's a bowl, Once you place this on the scale, you're going to zero out the scale so it reads zero. And then step number 3, you are going to add the food that you are going to eat in the portion size and quantity that you are going to eat it in. So right now this is 30 grams of Rice Krispies cereal. And then step number 4, you are going to get a calorie tracking app. Like the one I have built for all of our online coaching clients, you can then either look up the food or scan the barcode of the food to find it. And then you're going to enter the weight of the food that you see on the food scale. Once you do this, the calorie tracking app will calculate how many calories this is that you are eating. And some common questions I get on weighing food are, should you be weighing your food raw or cooked? And the answer is either one, because what you can do is specify when you track your calories whether you're eating raw ground beef or raw rice or raw pasta, whatever. You can specify that, or you can put in cooked ground beef, cooked pasta, cooked rice. The second one is, what about recipes and home-cooked food? Well, typically this is going to be a little bit harder to track. And yes, I'm pouring my Rice Krispies back in. I do not waste food around here. But I would say if you're eating home-cooked food, try to list the ingredient of all that is in there. And if you can't be 100% accurate with the weighing, you just guesstimate to the best of your ability. And the same thing with number 3. If you're eating out, you're not going to be 100% perfect with your calorie tracking, and that's okay. This is a situation where something is better than nothing. Plus, if you are consistently using a food scale and tracking your calories, you are going to learn portion sizes of food and you're going to learn roughly how many calories are in these foods. So when you have to guesstimate because you went out to eat or because you're eating something that's in a home-cooked meal, you'll guesstimate more accurately because you've been weighing your food when you do have the opportunity in normal situations. So now that you know how to track the calories that you're eating, how do you know how much calories you're burning so you can eat less than you burn? Let's talk about it. A lot of people think they need to burn more calories than they're eating on their Apple Watch to make sure they're in a calorie deficit. This couldn't be farther from the truth, and here's why. Exercising only takes up about 5 to 10% of your daily calorie burn. The rest of your calorie burn comes from something called your BMR, your NEAT, and your TEF. Your BMR is just how many calories your body burns at rest. Your NEAT is all the extraneous movement you do throughout the day, whether it's walking, whether it's fidgeting, Doing this with your hands. And then your TEF is your thermic effect of food. This is how many calories your body burns digesting the food you eat. So the majority of your calorie burn, overwhelming majority, comes from stuff that is not exercise. So if you're focused on, I gotta burn 1,000 calories during this workout, you're never going to burn your way to a calorie deficit. Not to mention the watches that you're using are up to 93% inaccurate on the calories burned of a workout. So now you're probably like, Eric, well, how do I know my calories burned? Well, there are multiple equations that you could use to figure out your daily calorie burn. For example, if you look up the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation, this will give you your TDEE, your total daily energy expenditure. You can also think of this as your maintenance calories. How many calories does your body burn in a day? So if you ate that many, you would then maintain your weight because you're eating the same as you burn. But as mentioned, if you use my free calorie deficit calculator in the description of this video, that will do all of the work for you. So it'll take into consideration your calories burned and then it will create a calorie deficit based off of those calories that you burn on a daily basis. And a common question I get is, well, Eric, if I go exercise and I burn X amount of calories, should I then eat more calories or can I eat more calories? And like we talked about in the previous part of the video, the answer is no because number one, you're not actually burning that many calories. You might be burning half of those calories. So if you go and eat back those calories you burned, you'll then be overeating and take yourself out of the calorie deficit. But number two, when you use the free calorie calculator in the description of the video, it will ask you your weekly activity. So if you put in, hey, I work out 3 to 4 times a week, I get 5,000 to 10,000 steps per day, this is a moderate level of activity, your TDEE and your calorie deficit have already taken into consideration your weekly activity. So if you eat more, you are then eating more calories than what your calorie deficit, your TDEE, already accounted for, which again will take you out of the calorie deficit. So We always tell all of our online coaching clients, don't worry about how many calories you burn during the workout. Just get your calorie deficit number and try to stick to that number no matter what. So now that you know about calories eaten and calories burned, what about the exact foods you should eat in a calorie deficit? Most people think if you want to lose weight, you should only eat clean and healthy foods. That's bullshit, and here's why. We said as long as you're in a calorie deficit where you're eating less overall calories than what you burn, you'll lose weight. So this means you can eat bread, pasta, cereal, fast food, cookies, chocolate, and still lose weight. In fact, somebody did that by eating Twinkies all day, every day. He was still able to lose weight. One of my good buddies, his name is Jordan Syatt, he ate a Big Mac every single day for 30 days and lost 7 pounds. And I was able to lose 25 pounds in 10 weeks eating sugar Oreos, going out to eat 1 to 2 times a week and still losing that amount of weight. And this is the beauty of a calorie deficit and why we have all of our online coaching clients do this, because you can still eat the foods that you enjoy and still see fat loss progress. It's a crazy concept. I know this also makes it realistic and sustainable and make you not hate your life. Now, does that mean you should eat nothing but Twinkies and Big Macs and Oreos and chips and cookies? No, because number one, that's not healthy. This isn't just about losing weight. We are also trying to be healthy. And number two, it's gonna make your calorie deficit harder if you don't eat any clean, healthy foods because you'll be more hungry, you'll have low energy, you'll have poor sleep, poor workout performance. So what we advise for our online coaching clients is something called the 300-calorie Rule. And this is where every day you can allot 300 calories per day towards whatever food that you want. Ice cream, pretzels, cookie, bread, pasta, doesn't matter. 300 calories, eat whatever you want. So let's say your calorie deficit is 1,700 calories per day. 1,400 of those calories should be coming from lean protein, fruits, veggies, good fiber, good carbs. But then the other 300 can come from whatever you want. This way you're still getting all of the healthy, nutrient-dense vitamins, minerals. You're still keeping yourself full and satisfied, but you also get to indulge in some foods you enjoy without ruining your progress. But what happens when you're like, Eric, I want more than 300 calories of my favorite food one day. Should I then have a cheat day? Let's talk about it. When people think of a cheat day on their diet, they think eating all of the bad food and eating way more food than they probably usually do because they're going to go back to not being allowed to do that. And remember, with a calorie deficit, there are no good and bad foods. You can eat whatever you want at any time, which usually helps you not need a cheat day because you're not over-restricting yourself from these foods. But what happens if you go out to eat and you just want something that's higher in calories and it's going to be more than 300 calories? Well, you could either A, eat it and still just try to fit it within your daily calories. Maybe it's you eat 1,500 calories that day of pizza, burgers, fries, whatever it is, but you still stay in your calories, so you're still gonna lose weight, isn't the end of the world. Or option B, you just have a day where you go over in your calories, and when that happens, most people think you ruined progress. You had one day where you overate and then progress is gone. No, because here's what most people don't know about a calorie deficit. It isn't just one So if you use my free calorie calculator, it will create a 500-calorie deficit. That means it's 500 calories less than your maintenance calories. So if your calorie deficit is 1,700 and you ate 2,000 calories one day, not only is that not ruining all of your progress, you're still in a calorie deficit. It's just a little bit of a smaller one. And so that means you will still lose fat eating 2,000 calories because you're eating less than your maintenance calories. And even if you ate 2,200 or 2,300 calories that day, you wouldn't gain all of your fat. You would just maintain. So it isn't the end of the world and you don't need to say, I ruined all of my progress, so I might as well keep going. That's what ruins your progress. Not overeating one day. Just get back on track and I promise everything is going to be okay. And speaking of getting back on track, if you're like, Eric, this info is great, but I really need some personalized help and some accountability to keep me on track, can you help me? Well, of course we can help you because this is what we do. You can click the link in the description below to learn more about our online coaching program where we build you a personalized workout and nutrition plan and check in with you one-on-one to hold you accountable. And after you do that, you can then watch this video here for 9 years of honest fat loss advice in 30 minutes.
