Is eating under your calorie deficit bad? I Calorie Counting Weight Loss
In this instructional video, Eric Roberts addresses the common question of whether it’s acceptable to eat below one’s prescribed calorie‑deficit target. He begins by noting that most people who think they are severely under‑eating are actually mis‑tracking their intake, emphasizing the need for precise calorie counting (weighing food in grams rather than eyeballing portions). Assuming accurate tracking, he outlines three main points: (1) substantial under‑eating (e.g., 500‑600 calories below the target) is unsustainable and typically triggers a restriction‑binge‑restriction cycle; (2) adopting a flexible calorie range of about ±100 calories around the target helps accommodate day‑to‑day hunger variations and reduces anxiety about exact numbers; (3) the underlying reason many people stay too low is a misconception that fewer calories equal faster weight loss, which leads to metabolic adaptation— a rapid slowdown of the resting metabolic rate that makes further loss harder. Roberts argues that a moderate, consistent deficit yields slower but more reliable long‑term weight loss, preserving metabolism and preventing yo‑yo dieting. He concludes with a call to viewers to use his free calorie calculator, watch his detailed calorie‑counting tutorial, and focus on sustainable eating rather than extreme restriction.
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Should I go with the light? I'll add the light. It's a rainy day, not much natural sunlight coming in, and my ring light is not big enough. So that's what she said. All right, let's get into this, shall we? YouTube, what is going on? Welcome to the video. Welcome back to the channel. In this video, we're going to be covering, is it okay to eat under your Your calorie deficit number. So let's say, for example, your calorie deficit is 1,800. Is it okay to eat 1,400 or 1,500 or 1,600, or do you have to eat the entire calorie number that you are allotted? That's what we're gonna be discussing in this video today. A brief disclaimer, if you don't know how many calories you should be eating in order to lose body fat, I'm going to put a link up there somewhere that is going to link you straight to my totally free calorie calculator. It's here on YouTube. It's totally free. Go check it out if you don't know how many calories you need to eat. Now, with that being said, let's assume you've either got your number or you've watched that video and now you have the number. We're going to talk about 3 main things. And as always, my favorite thing ever is It depends, but I'm gonna tell you what it depends on. Alright? So, hope you like my drawings here and my, you know, contrast of colors and whatnot. I hope it keeps you engaged. First and foremost, we're gonna talk about something that I just see very commonly with this question, and that is going to be 95% of people who ask me this question are simply not tracking calories accurately. And I've had people come to me And say, Eric, my calorie deficit is 1,700. I'm only eating 800 calories. What do I do? Do I have to eat more? And I'm like, well, Susan, if you were eating 800 calories, you would be skin and bones. And my other favorite is I ask them, well, like, how hungry are you? They're like, oh, I'm good. I'm not hungry at all. I'm like, yeah, there's no way you're eating 800 calories or 1,000 calories or 1,200 calories. You'd be You'd be so incredibly hungry. So that's a telltale sign right there. If you are like, man, I can't hit my calorie goal, but you're, you're never hungry, that's probably a sign you're not actually eating the calories you think you are eating. And I'm not saying this to be mean or to like put you down or anything along those lines. I'm just saying this because most people just don't know how to track calories. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. And it's just, you haven't, if you haven't been taught, How would you know? Right? It's, it's like in school, for example, if you don't know the answer to a test because you've never been taught it, how do you expect to do good on the test? It's the same concept here. So I would say 95% of people who ask me this question are simply just not tracking calories accurately. Now I could do a whole spiel on this. I'm not going to because I did an entire video here on YouTube, exactly how to count calories step by step, what you need to do. I'm going to put that here above. Um, and somewhere up there, I'm gonna put that link to that video here above. So definitely check that video out after you finish watching this video because that is probably— I wrote here, it's, it's probably what most of you watching this video are struggling with. You're probably just not tracking your calories accurately because again, let's just say right now, like I get this often, let's say right now you're, you know, you, you weigh 200 pounds for example, and your calorie deficit number is, let's just say 1,800. So many times I have people in my comment section of whether it's TikTok or Instagram or my DMs or emails are saying, Eric, I'm struggling to hit 1,000 calories. What do I do? Is that okay? Is my— is it affecting my metabolism? I'm like, there's no way you're eating 1,000 calories or you would literally be losing weight at such a rapid, such a rapid pace that it would be insane. So you're probably just miscalculating your calories and that's okay. So just go watch that video, make sure you are counting calories accurately. And just very briefly, when I say that, I mean weighing your food on a food scale in grams. I don't just mean scanning the barcode on MyFitnessPal and inputting, eh, this looks like about 4 ounces. Eh, this looks like about a cup of rice. Eh, this looks like this or this looks like that. That's not counting calories. You're just guessing and guessing is probably what's getting you to this question right now. So make sure you are tracking calories accurately. Now, under the assumption that you've done that and you are now tracking your calories accurately, which you will start if you have not, under that assumption we're gonna go into the next 2 biggest points here. And that is number 2, it depends on how much. Like, for example, if your calorie deficit number is 1,700 calories and you're eating 1,200 calories, I'm going to tell you, yes, you need to eat more calories. And we're gonna talk about why here later. But I'm gonna tell you, yes, you need to eat more calories because eating 1,200 calories is not going to be sustainable. And again, if you're sitting there like, no, it is, I'm not hungry, you're probably going back to point number 1 there. So under the assumption you're tracking calories accurately, no, you know, being 500, 600 calories under your limit, that's, that's not okay because that's gonna backfire. That's gonna lead to the cycle of restricting and then binging. And I can tell you this, If your calorie deficit number is 1,700 and you're eating 1,200 calories, I can assure you after 4 or 5 days of you eating 1,200 calories, you're, you are going to eat much more than 1,700 calories because you're going to be so famished, so hungry, so over-restricted on foods. And it leads to that cycle of restrict and then binge and restrict and binge, which again, we'll talk about a bit later here in this video as well. So if it's a substantial number you're undereating, I would say yes, eat more calories to get to your goal. Now, if your goal is 1,700 calories and you're eating, you know, 1,618, like, okay, that's not as big of a deal. And to kind of help yourself here, 'cause I know sometimes that exact number sometimes messes with people's heads, so pro tip, what I would do is simply just give yourself a range. So let's just say your deficit is 1,700 calories. I would give yourself a range from, let's call it, 1,600 to 1,800, anywhere in between that range. It's what I do for all of my online coaching clients. I give them a range because number one, you're never gonna be perfect and like that's— you can't hit 1,700 calories perfectly every single day. But more so number two, there's probably gonna be days where you're just maybe not as hungry as other days and that's normal and that's okay. On the flip side, there are probably going to be some days where whether you overestimate how many calories you were eating or underestimate, or maybe you were a bit hungrier, you might drift more towards north of that 1,700 calories. But point being, if you're within the range of 1,600 calories to 1,800 calories, as long as you're in that range, you will be good to go. It's not as serious as, oh, once I go to 1,712, then, you know, my progress is ruined. You eating 1,747 calories is— you're going to be just fine right now. Do give yourself some guidelines because you can't just keep saying that forever. And that's why I said give yourself about a 100-calorie range either way. This way, if you fall anywhere in between that range, you're good to go. And if you know that you're going under that, like 1,300, 1,400, you probably want to get more towards your calorie deficit range. Stay within your range. It's not the end of the world if you go under in calories. But again, you have to be conscious of what that might potentially then lead to. I see so many times people will have a day where they just weren't that hungry and they ate, you know, 1,300 calories when they were supposed to eat 1,700 calories. And the next day they're like, oh my God, I am starving, Eric. What do I do? I'm like, well, like you're hungrier because you underate that day and now you're going to be conscious of making sure you stay within your range and so on and so forth. Right? So just kind of think about the repercussions of undereating as well. We'll talk about those here in a second. So that is number 2. Now, number 3, I have to ask you, why are you not getting to your calorie range? Again, under the assumption that you now know how to track calories accurately, because I would say the majority of people watching this video, that's probably what's going on. If you are and you know you are and you know that you are eating less than what you should be, I would ask you why. And I would ask you why because most people think they need to eat 1,200 calories to lose weight. And they think, if I eat more than that, I am not gonna lose weight or I'm gonna gain weight. And it's simply Just not fucking true. It's not true. Like, for example, if you head to that calorie calculator I gave you on YouTube here and you watch that, it's probably going to give you more calories than what you may even thought. Like, I have a lot of people come to me and say, wow, I'm shocked at how many calories I'm allotted to eat. And that's because you don't have to eat so few calories in order to lose body fat. You don't. Despite what, what you might see on the internet, despite what you might see on social media, you can probably eat much more calories than you think and still lose weight. Here's the issue. Most people tell me, well, Eric, the only time I lost weight was when I ate 1,200 calories. And my response is, great. Why did you lose weight and not keep it off? The reason is, yeah, you might lose weight eating 1,200 calories for a week or 2 weeks. You very well If you, if you're actually eating that few calories, you will lose weight. But what's going to happen is what we talked about earlier, which is you are going to get into the cycle of eating so few calories and then you're going to be so hungry, so starving, so famished, so restricted. You are going to say, fuck this, and then binge for a few days and you're going to try to get back on track and you're going to eat 1,200 calories, lose weight, And then binge and gain weight. And then you're gonna do the cycle over and over and over again. And that's why you never can actually lose weight. Losing weight isn't the hard part, keeping the weight off is. So if you are one of those people who are essentially afraid to eat more calories 'cause you think you won't lose weight or you think you will gain weight, I'm here to tell you, eating more calories consistently is going to lead to greater progress in the long term. And you have to think long term. Because again, I know it's probably very tempting to try to eat as few calories as possible to lose weight. You probably think in your head, well shit, if my goal is 1,700, if I eat 1,200, I'll just lose weight that much quicker. In theory, it sounds great. In practicality, that's not how it works out because again, it is not sustainable. So if what you are doing to, to get the results is unsustainable, the results are going to be unsustainable as well. And that's why people get into Possibly yourself get into the cycle of yo-yo dieting is because they try to go so restrictive and then they binge and then so restrictive and then they binge and it happens over and over and over. As opposed to trying to lose weight as quickly as humanly possible and thinking about how few calories can I eat to lose weight as quickly as possible, I need you to start thinking about how many calories can I eat and still lose weight because that is going to be what is the most sustainable. And that's what's gonna lead to the most long-term progress. And I said long-term progress because think about if you in 6 months, let's say the first month of a super restrictive diet, you lose 15 pounds. Okay? Second month you gain 8 pounds 'cause you're like, oh shit, this is not very sustainable. Third month you lose, let's call it 6 pounds. Fourth month you gain 10 pounds. Fifth month gain 5 pounds. And then 6 months gain 2 pounds. At the end of those 6 months, your chart of weight would probably look like this, to where you started at 200, you ended the 6 months at 224. You lost weight very quickly, but in the long term, you actually gained weight. As opposed to if you took a slower, more sustainable route, month 1, you're 200, month 2, you're 197, month 3, you're 194, month 4, You're 190. Month 5, 185. And month 6, 181. As opposed to in 6 months weighing 224, you weigh 181 because consistently over time you ate more calories consistently, stopped trying to be so restrictive. You lost weight at a slower, more sustainable rate. And in the long term, you actually saw quicker progress because you took a slower, more sustainable approach. So That being said, if that's why you are eating too few calories and you're going under your calorie limit, again, assuming you are counting calories accurately, you have to understand that in the long term it is going to backfire on you. And you can eat more calories than you think and still lose weight. I promise. I see it every single day. Again, despite what your friend might tell you or you might see on social media, get out of the very quick unsustainable weight loss and come over to the good side of slower, steady, more sustainable weight loss progress. All right, so those are my 3 main points. I want to cover one last thing, which is going to be metabolic adaptation. Again, let's assume you are counting your calories accurately. Eating too few calories, eating under your calorie limit— listen, when you go into a calorie deficit Your metabolism is going to slow down. I don't care what anyone tells you, your metabolism has to slow down in order for you to lose body fat. That is the only way you are going to lose body fat. I did a whole video on this on my channel here. I'll link it here above. So I'm not going to go too in depth. But that being said, let's say again your deficit is 1,700. If you are eating 1,200 calories consistently, you are going to slow down your metabolism that much quicker. Quicker than if you were eating 1,700. So let's say your maintenance calories are 2,200 calories, right? That's how many calories you need to maintain your current body weight. Let's say your deficit is 1,700, but you are trying to eat 1,200. So you're eating 1,000 calories under your maintenance calories. Number one, just absolutely unsustainable. Number two, you're going to speed up the process of slowing down your metabolism. And lowering your maintenance calories. So for example, let's say your maintenance starts at 2,200. Let's say by month 2 of you eat— trying to eat 1,200 calories, your maintenance drops to 2,000. So now you're not losing weight as quickly and your metabolism is going to drop and it's going to keep dropping, keep dropping, keep dropping the lower calories you eat. This is why once again, this is not a game of how few calories can I eat to lose weight. This is a game of how many calories can I eat and still lose weight? Number one, to make it more sustainable, and number two, to keep your metabolism at a higher clip for a longer duration of time. Because metabolic adaptation is a real thing. I wouldn't be overly concerned with it, like I said in that video, but it is a real thing. So to slow down that process, stop trying to eat so few calories and make sure you're eating more calories on a more consistent basis and steadily losing body fat. So that is the video for today, guys. Hope you at least learned something. Hope this answered your question. It is a common A very, very common question that I get. So hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions, feel free to drop below. I'd be happy to answer them. Other than that, thank you for watching and we will talk soon, okay? Oh, by the way, thank you for watching. Thumbs up, thumbs up the video and subscribe, all right?
