What No One Tells You About A Calorie Deficit
In this instructional video, the speaker (a fitness coach) reveals five often‑overlooked truths about maintaining a calorie deficit for fat loss. He first explains that mild hunger is a normal physiological response when the body’s homeostatic mechanisms detect a deficit, and offers four practical ways to lessen hunger (more protein, front‑loading calories, low‑calorie high‑volume foods, and extra water/fiber). He then cautions viewers that weight loss will not appear on the scale every week; instead, they should track longer‑term averages to see true progress. The third point warns against overly restrictive diets and the “good vs. bad food” mindset, emphasizing a moderate, sustainable calorie target rather than extreme restriction. The fourth point stresses the importance of weekend consistency, urging viewers to create a flexible but disciplined routine so that weekend indulgences don’t erase weekday deficits. Finally, he advises using a food scale for precise portioning, setting a daily calorie range (e.g., ±100 calories) to reduce anxiety, and remembering that a calorie deficit is a temporary tool, not a lifelong requirement. Throughout, the tone is supportive, conversational, and coaching‑focused, aiming to empower viewers to adopt realistic habits and long‑term lifestyle changes.
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You probably know what a calorie deficit is, but in this video, I'm going to give you the secrets to the calorie deficit that most people aren't actually telling you, that I'm going to tell you because I love you, I care about you, and I want you to win. Let's cover the first 3 points. There's going to be 5 points in total, so stick around for all 5. The first one is going to be, you will be a little bit hungry if you're on a calorie deficit, and here's why. Let's break down what a calorie deficit actually is. A calorie deficit is you are consuming less calories than what your body is burning. We have to remember your body doesn't want to lose weight. It doesn't want to gain weight. It wants to maintain something called homeostasis. This just means it stays the exact same. And so when you start to eat less calories than you are burning, your body as a defense mechanism says, oh, wait a minute, no, no, no, we want to maintain homeostasis. Then it sends you hunger cues and hunger signals to say, hey, we need to eat more food so we can maintain and get more calories to maintain the weight that we're at. So this is a completely normal part of a calorie deficit. And when you finish your meals, for example, you might not be fully satisfied after you finish a meal. You might get done a meal and say, hmm, I really think I could probably eat a little bit more right now. Or for example, when you're going to bed at night, you might have a little bit of time Tummy rumbling and you might be a little bit hungry when you're going to bed. Guess what? That is normal when you're on a calorie deficit or just throughout the day. You know, it might be 1 o'clock and you might, you know, your next feeding time, your next meal might be at 3 o'clock. You might be a little bit hungry going into that 3 o'clock, but guess what? All of this is normal. And so many people are now like, oh, you should never be hungry. Oh, you should be stuffed to the brim 24/7. Just eat whatever you want. That's not the reality if you're looking to try to lose weight and be in this calorie deficit. Now let me be very clear, you should not be starving. Like, you shouldn't be to the point where like you're gonna fucking gnaw off your arm or go like, you know, eat your neighbor's kids or something like that because you're so goddamn hungry. You shouldn't be starving, but you are gonna be a little bit hungry. And I would say on a scale of 1 to 10, you know, 10 being you're gonna, you know, gnaw off the neighbor's arm and 1 being like you're still Stuffed to the brim. You're usually probably going to fall around that like 4 to 7 range. You're going to be a little bit hungry, not starving, but not totally stuffed. And this is really important to know, I believe, because so many people hit the panic button when they're trying to lose weight and they get a little bit hungry. You think you automatically have to eat. Listen, I know and I get it's a little bit uncomfortable, but you being a A tad bit hungry is gonna be okay. We— most of us watching this live in a world where food is readily accessible to us. We are actually not going to starve. And again, I don't need you actually starving. That is not the point of this. But when you get a little bit hungry, at the first sign of hunger, it's not a, oh, I gotta go eat right now. Like, calm down a little bit. Like, accept the fact that you're a little bit hungry. Be okay with it because that is usually gonna, number one, make it way less intense because you're not like freaking out. out over it. But number 2, it's going to allow you to actually stay consistent with your calorie deficit and actually see the fat loss progress that you're wanting to make. And while we're on the topic, yes, there are ways to lower your hunger. I'm going to give you my top 4 right now. The first one is going to be eating more protein because it is the most satiating and filling macronutrient you can have. So more protein, less hunger. The second way is to eat more food, especially protein, but eat more food and more calories earlier in the day because this way by the time you get to the nighttime or the latter half of the day, you're not just like rummaging through the pantry absolutely starving. If you eat more food earlier, you'll be less hungry later. Third way is going to be low calorie, high volume foods. Things like making sure you have one big ass salad per day, making sure you load up on raspberries and watermelon and strawberries, for example. All of those are very low calorie but high volume, meaning You can eat a lot of it without eating a lot of calories with it. This helps you fill your stomach up a bit more and makes you not as hungry. Things like cauliflower rice, things like oatmeal to a degree, finding these low-calorie, high-volume foods to fill yourself up on. Number 4, consuming more water and more fiber. You need to have both because if you only do— let's say you only eat more fiber and don't drink more water, your digestive system is not going to like you. So it has to be both, but both these 2 things can again help fill you up a lot more to make you not as hungry. So those are the top 4 ways to lower hunger. But even still, if you're doing all of these things, you still might be a little bit hungry. And guess what? That is okay. Let's move on to the 2nd and 3rd part where we're going to talk about this won't happen every single week and a calorie deficit doesn't actually work when these 3 things are happening. But first, let's talk about you will not, Lose weight every single week. Yes, even if you're perfect on your diet, even if you've gotten all your workouts, even if everything is going as it should, there are going to be some weeks where you will not see the scale go down because the scale can fluctuate for any number of reasons. It can fluctuate because of you had more carbs one night, you had a really heavy intense workout where you're super sore, so you have more inflammation, more water weight. You had more sodium, which is going to store more water weight. There's a million different reasons why the scale could kind of like fluctuate. And sometimes your body just tends to like hold onto things a bit longer. You know, you, you, you, we all get that. Like it's, there's, you're working so hard and your body just doesn't seem to be cooperating. But I promise you, this is where you have to look at the average of your weight. If let's say you have one week where you lose 0 pounds and the next week you lose 2 pounds, Well, guess what? In that, in those 2 weeks, that is an average of 1 pound per week of weight loss. Yes, even if you didn't lose any weight that one week because you lost, let's say, 2 pounds the next week, that is an average of 1 pound per week. And so I encourage you to start to look at the average of your body weight. Not to mention, I wouldn't necessarily compare today to 4 days from now and then 4 days to now from 7 days to now. I would compare, compare your body weight from, let's say, August 1st to September 1st. Now, that's not to say you can't or shouldn't take your body weight every single day. I'm actually a fan of weighing yourself every single day, and I talk about why in this video right here if you want to watch it after this video. But let's just say, for example, on August 1st, you know, you're weighing roughly about 200 to 201 pounds, right? Let's say on September 1st you're weighing somewhere around 195 to 196. Again, the scale fluctuates, but let's say you're around that range. This to me, when I look at this, I'm like, alright, this person's lost about 4 or 5 pounds in a month, which if you've lost 4 or 5 pounds in a month, what is that? That's an average of about 1 pound per week. Yes, your scale can do this up and down, up and down, but if over time it's looking like that, the trend is going down, that's how you know you're moving things in the right direction and Even though you won't lose weight every single week, over time, if you just stick with it and be consistent— and please, for the love of God, stop fucking quitting when your weight doesn't go down— you will see the progress over time. We're moving right along to number 3. Remember, there is 5 total ones, so be sure to stick around for all 5. They're all really important. But a calorie deficit doesn't work if you try to go too restrictive with your calories. And here's what I mean. If you are somebody who is trying to eat 1,200 calories per day, maybe if you're lucky, you'll be able to do that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. By the time Friday, Saturday, Sunday rolls around and you've cut out all of the foods you actually enjoy eating, you're eating plain chicken and plain broccoli and plain white rice and plain egg whites and oatmeal, and you just Hate what you're doing, there is no way you are going to stick with it. And you've probably already done this and you might be watching this being like, fuck, that's me. I know it's you. I dropped my marker. Hey, I know it's you because I do this for a living. I coach people for a living. I, this is what I do. So please stop trying to go too over-restrictive with how low in calories you go. Remember, this is not a game of how little calories can you eat. and lose the most weight as possible. This is a game of how many calories can you eat and still see weight loss progress. And then number 2, I implore you, stop with the good and bad foods. You're, you're not allowing yourself to have cookies or you're not allowing yourself to have any sort of processed food, chips, whatever it is, because it's bad and you're trying to lose weight. You're trying to eat clean. And then when the weekend rolls around, like we talked about, When you finally get your hands on a bag of chips, you eat all the fucking chips because you have just over-restricted yourself the entire week and not allowed yourself to have them. You'll never be able to be consistent this way, which means you'll never actually end up being in a calorie deficit. Because here's the thing, this kind of goes into the next point here, but if you do eat for somehow, if you do eat 1,200 calories per day, if you can't stick with that, You'll never see the progress. And so if, you know, if you do it 3 days out of the week, but 4 days out of the week you don't, it doesn't matter that you did it 3 days. You didn't do it 4 days and you won't be able to see the progress you want to see. So that's why taking a bit more of a moderate approach is a better idea. And this kind of leads into point number 2, your weekends. I have coached thousands of people by this point. We have thousands of people who are inside of my coaching program, which is my Clubhouse. You can check it out if you want to. But the number one reason why people don't lose weight is because they're not doing the things they know they should do on the weekends. Remember, there are 7 days in a week. I don't care if you're perfect Monday through Friday. If Saturday and Sunday you are not tracking your calories, you're not being mindful of food, you're going off the rails, and again, this could potentially play into the first point, which is why I made the first point the first point, So if you're over-restricting yourself, then we got to stop doing that. But nonetheless, like the weekends aren't a free-for-all. I know you might not have work. I know you might have a different routine. You have some more flexibility, you can sleep in. I get all of that, but that's not an excuse for you not to stay on top of your diet and do the things that you know you need to do because you just won't see any progress if you continue going down that route. You have to be able to put your foot down on the weekends. Create it might look different, but you got to create a different routine. Everyone's like, "Well, I don't go to work and I don't do this and I'm out and about." Fine, but you got to create a new routine. You can't just say, "Well, it's the weekend, so I'm not going to do it." That's the because again, if you think about it like this, if let's just say you're eating the calories you're supposed to be eating Monday through Friday, let's just say it's I don't know sixteen hundred calories. Okay, that's amazing. But then let's say on Saturday Sunday. You end up eating 3,000 calories per day, which by the way is very easy to do, your overall weekly calories would end up at 2,000 per day. Because yes, even though you ate 1,600 Monday through Friday, if you eat 3,000 Saturday, Sunday, that brings your weekly average up because again, there are 7 days in a week. You need to be in a weekly calorie deficit. So that would bring your calories up to 2,000 per day, so you would not lose weight that way. And last but not least, number 3, if you're not using a food scale to weigh out your food in grams, not cups, not tablespoons, you're not using ounces, you're not using the little cup tablespoon things, if you're not using a food scale to weigh your food in grams, you have to start. And if you're asking me why, I've already done an entire video on my channel. I'll link it right here on why you should be using this food scale. Please watch that video after you watch Now, moving on to the 4th thing with the calorie deficit secret, please give yourself a range of calories. So many people freak out if they go 30, 50, 70 calories over what their calorie deficit was supposed to be, and it causes you a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress, a lot of pressure. You feel like you fucked something up. You feel like a failure. So then, If you feel like a failure and if you feel like you're not being perfect with it, then you're automatically going to just say, fuck it, why would I keep going? I already messed up. I already went over. I'm already not going to lose body fat. So you'll just keep going. Please, to avoid all of this, if your calorie deficit is supposed to be, let's say 1,500 calories per day, I would give yourself a range of 1,400 to 1,600 calories per day. Because the God's honest truth is your calorie deficit just isn't one number. If your maintenance calories, how many calories you need to maintain your weight, is let's say 2,000, anything under 2,000 is going to be a calorie deficit. Now, if you don't create a big enough calorie deficit, you probably won't see any substantial progress. But if let's say it's 1,500, you're supposed to be eating for your deficit, Being 1,400 to 1,600 is fine. You're not going to be perfect. We wanna fight against this perfection, this all-or-nothing mindset, right? So just because you go a little bit over in calories one day or maybe a little bit under in calories one day, it's fine. Just give yourself a range and everything will be good, I promise. Number 5, please remember it's not forever. I also get a lot of people, I've coached a lot of people who they get very overwhelmed with tracking calories or trying to change their habits or, you know, not eating as much food or whatever it is. It's because they think it's going to be like this forever long thing. Just because you're doing it right now, you're going to lose the weight. You're going to change your habits. You're going to change your lifestyle. You won't have to count calories anymore. You won't have to be in a calorie deficit anymore. I just talked about there's a difference between your maintenance calories, what you would need to maintain your weight and your calorie deficit calories. The calorie deficit is for you losing weight. You're not going to be losing weight your entire life. I know it might feel like you have thus far because maybe you've done this yo-yo thing back and forth and I get that, but if you do it correctly, if you do it right, if you do it with a proper program and proper guidance, you won't need to be in a calorie deficit forever. You'll end up like 60 pounds. Like you don't need to do that. It's for a short period of time, do what you need to do, and then you can live around your maintenance calories, eat more food, and not have to be so dialed in. Not to mention, the more you work on it, the more it's— the easier it's going to become, the more habits you're going to change, and the more you're going to just incorporate these kind of things into your lifestyle. So please don't let the thought of like feeling like it's going to be forever overwhelm you from even starting or from being consistent because again, people will not be consistent because like they just, oh my God, this is never going to end. Like I'm going to be doing this forever. What's the point? You know, who cares if I go off track this day and off track that day? Who cares if I don't do my workouts and who cares if I don't meal prep? I'll have to do it forever anyway. So what's the difference? It's not forever. I often tell people it's like if you're going to college, you go to college to learn for 4 years, 8 years, whatever it is, and you use the skills for the rest of your life. You know, counting calories, being in a calorie deficit, you do it for a short period of time. You— if you do it correctly, you gain habits, you gain knowledge, you gain skills, and you'll be able to use that for the rest of your journey. All right, I hope the video helped. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and watch this video if you want to learn more about a calorie deficit.
