In this video, fitness coach Eric Roberts explains why shorter individuals often find weight loss more challenging due to physiological differences in total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). He breaks down the four components of TDEE—basal metabolic rate (BMR), non‑exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), thermic effect of food (TEF), and exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT)—and shows how each is typically lower for people with less height and lean mass. Roberts contrasts his own experience as a 6'4" male, who could sustain a 2,400‑2,600 kcal deficit, with the much tighter 1,300‑1,500 kcal range many short people need, highlighting the reduced margin for error. He then delivers six actionable strategies tailored for shorter bodies: (1) consume a high‑protein diet (0.8‑1.2 g protein per lb of target weight) to maximize TEF; (2) increase NEAT by aiming for at least 7,000 daily steps and adding 15‑30 min cardio 1‑4 times per week; (3) prioritize resistance training to build muscle and raise BMR; (4) track calories precisely using a food scale measured in grams; (5) adopt a mindset that acknowledges lower calorie needs compared to taller peers; and (6) implement periodic diet breaks (e.g., three weeks in deficit followed by one week at maintenance) to preserve mental and physical sustainability. The video concludes with a call‑to‑action for personalized coaching.
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If you are vertically challenged and you find it incredibly difficult to lose weight, then there just might be some science to prove that, and I'm going to tell you what that is and how to overcome that to still see the progress you want to see. Let's first talk about how your body burns calories in a day to give some context to why it might be harder to lose weight the shorter you are. So TDEE, this stands for total daily energy expenditure. How many calories you burn in a day? Seventy percent of this comes from something called your BMR, which is basically just how many calories your body burns at rest. And so if you laid in bed all day and did nothing, this is how many calories your body would burn that day. The next part of this is something called your NEAT, which is your non-exercise activity thermogenesis. This just means how many calories your body burns on a day-to-day basis doing just. Random movement that isn't a dedicated exercise. The easiest way to kind of think about this is just how many steps do you get throughout the day walking to work, walking, you know, to and from the grocery store, wherever the case may be. How many daily steps are you getting per day? Your TEF takes up roughly about 10% of how many calories your body burns. This is just the thermic effect of food, how many calories your body burns digesting the food you eat. And then the last 5-ish percent comes from your EAT. No, not like eat food. Exercise activity thermogenesis. This means this is how many calories your body burns on a daily basis from the exercise that you do. And so you can go through literally every single one of these and we can talk about why it might be harder for you to lose weight based on science. So for example, your BMR, which again takes up the largest portion of how many calories your body burns, For people who are shorter, they typically have less lean muscle mass, and they just have less body mass, lean body mass in general. So if they have less of this, their body burns less calories. And then for your NEAT, or how many steps you get in a day, let's say for example somebody who is 5'3 versus somebody who is 6'3. Let's say they both walk 5,000 steps per day. The person who is 6'3 inevitably is going to actually burn more calories because again, of this right here. So the activity you're doing throughout the day, if we keep it to your daily steps, that person who's 5'3 would actually burn less calories than somebody who's 6'3 doing the same amount of steps daily activity. And then if we look at your thermic effect of food, how many calories your body burns digesting food, And we'll touch on this a little bit later in the video as well. Typically, people who are shorter need to eat less calories, and you're probably seeing why already. But if you eat less calories, there is quite literally just less calorie burn coming from the calories that you need to digest. So you're get— you're— it's more difficult from that perspective. And then when you are actually doing your workouts, whether it be cardio or strength training, Smaller people burn less calories. And so for all these reasons, you would burn less calories on a day-to-day basis, which means you would have to eat less calories than the average person on a daily basis, which then makes it harder for you to get into and also sustain a calorie deficit. As an example, me, I'm 6'4. Recently I did a cut, a calorie deficit where I lost 25 pounds. For me, in that calorie deficit, my number, my goal calorie deficit was 2,400 to 2,600 calories per day. That was my calorie deficit. I know some of you are watching this and you're like, Jesus, I would love to even eat that to maintain my weight, let alone be a calorie deficit. But that just goes to show it is much easier for me, for example, to be in a deficit, whereas for you, you might have to take your calories to 1,300, 1,400, 1,500 calories per day to stick in that calorie deficit. Not only generally do you have to restrict more than the average person to lose weight, which makes it more difficult, you also have less room for error, especially if you are somebody who maybe you are tracking your calories, trying to be in that calorie deficit. For example, if I'm tracking calories or going out to eat or something like that and I have, let's say, you know, I'm 100 or 200 calories off of my tracking. For me personally, it might not be that big of a deal, and I could still probably lose weight. But for you, because you already have less calories to play with to be in the calorie deficit, that might be the difference of you either being in the deficit and losing weight or not being in the deficit and gaining. So yes, physically and mentally, it might be harder for you to lose weight. I'm gonna give you my 6 best tips that you can take with you to still Yeah. See great progress even if you are more on the vertically challenged side. So first and foremost is going to be sticking with a high protein diet. And maybe you've heard this before, but if we go back and think about— remember I said your body burns calories digesting food. When you eat protein, that is the highest calorie burn food. So if it's already harder for you to burn more calories being shorter, you want to be able to optimize your diet in a way to burn as many calories as you can. So eating high protein is going to be a game changer for you. How much should you eat? Generally speaking, if you want to take your goal body weight in pounds and multiply that between 0.8 and 1.2, that is roughly how many grams of protein you should be eating per day. So let's say for example, if you want to weigh 150 pounds, 150 times 0.8, Try to get at least 120 grams of protein per day, and if you get a little bit more than that, that's awesome. It's only going to help you out that much more, but a high protein diet for sure. Number 2 is going to be increasing your NEAT. So let's say your daily steps or even extra cardio. And generally, I'm not a huge fan of using cardio as a tool to lose weight because you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet. Remember that you have to have your nutrition in check. But for somebody who is on the shorter side and you already have a hard enough time, you know, burning more calories, increasing your daily steps at least 7,000 per day, especially if you are on the shorter side, at least 7,000 steps per day, and potentially throwing in 1 to 4 days a week of 15 to 30 minutes of cardio can help you burn a little bit extra calories, which means you might not have to take your calorie intake number, the amount of calories you're eating, you might not have to take that so low because you're actually burning more calories. Remember, a calorie deficit means calories in, calories out. So if the calories out is going up a little bit, that means you won't have to take your calories in so low. So I've seen that work for a lot of our clients and I think it can really work for you as well. Number 3, you want to train, so do your workouts in order to build muscle. Because remember that chart that we had where it showed how many calories you burn in a day, 70% of that was your BMR, your, you know, how many calories your body burns at rest. Muscle burns more calories at rest. So if you have more muscle, you will burn more calories. And again, you will not have to take your calorie deficit number so So low because you have more muscle mass to your body. That's number 3. Number 4 is going to be accurately track your intake. Track your calorie intake. Please, I don't know how much I have to say this, use a food scale weighing your food in grams. Do not use cups, tablespoons, or ounces. Weigh your food on a food scale in grams, especially because like we said earlier, you have less room for error. You can't just look at some food and guesstimate how many calories it is. I know, I'm sorry, it sucks, but you have to be more accurate with your calorie intake because every calorie does matter, and you have to make sure you're trying to get an accurate number of calories that you were intaking. So if you need a video on how to count calories correctly, I actually have one here on my channel. You can check it out if you'd like, but you have to track your calories accurately. Then number 5, I know sometimes it can be discouraging when maybe other people around you are eating more food, it seems like, and they're still losing weight. And again, they probably are. Like I said, I can eat 2,600 calories and still lose a considerable amount of weight. But remember, I'm 6'4. I like to think I have some lean muscle mass to me. So, the amount of calories that I need to fuel my body and maintain my weight is just more than what you need. And I know sometimes it doesn't help, but sometimes it does where it's just remembering like you don't need to eat the same as a 6'4 male or whatever the case may be because that's just not your body. So, yes, you might eat a bit less, but you're not them. You're not somebody else. Your body is you. And so, you fuel your body for what you need to do. So, Just, again, I know it doesn't always help, but at least remembering it's okay if you don't eat as much as other people. I know it sucks sometimes, but it is okay. And the last one I have found a lot of success with, with our clients, is take something called diet breaks. Because we talk about you will need to eat probably a little bit less calories in order to lose weight than the average person. So that means it's harder to eat those less calories. And so what you would do might look something like this. You would do 3 weeks on a calorie deficit where, and during these 3 weeks you are being very consistent, almost like 100% consistent, right? You're very dialed in, you're sticking to the plan. And then 1 week you take a maintenance break where you would eat around your maintenance calories instead. Because that way, because this is going to be mentally, oh, mentally hard to stick with, you are going to, you know, push yourself for a couple of weeks, give yourself a break, push yourself for a couple of weeks, give yourself a break. And this way it's not just like this endless dieting phase where you're beyond exhausted mentally and physically because you do have to maybe eat a little bit less calories. Give yourself a break, and over the long run, you will actually end up seeing more progress. You might be like, "Well, if I take this break, I'm not losing weight that week." Yeah, but if you try to just keep going, you're not going to be consistent anyway, which means you're not going to see progress anyway. So take that break and just keep repeating this cycle. Over the long run, you'll make more progress. I hope this video helped, and no, you are not crazy if you think it's harder for short people to lose weight. It is harder, but it is still possible. Still possible. And if you're interested in getting some more personalized help from myself and my team, click the link description of this video below and you can work with us one-on-one. I hope it helped and I'll see you next time.
