Tag: TDEE

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Breaking a Fat Loss Plateau

It’s frustrating to be consistent with nutrition, make amazing weight loss progress, but then for no reason hit a wall. Many give up when the scale stops moving. A fat loss plateau is disheartening.

You may be a bit relieved to hear that you’re not alone. A fat loss plateau – two or more weeks where the scale doesn’t move – is almost EXPECTED during a dieting phase. The good news is there are fundamental reasons why it happens, and there are methods to break through.

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Why We Plateau

Human metabolism is dynamic and adaptive to changes in energy intake. Total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) aka “calories out” decreases in response to a sustained reduction in calorie intake. Two adaptations are primarily responsible:

  • Reduction in basal metabolic rate (BMR). BMR is the energy we expend to breathe, move blood through our bodies, maintain organ function…basically to keep us alive. In a sustained calorie deficit, BMR slows down as we lose weight – the body is adapting to the calorie deficit. You don’t have much control over BMR.
  • Reduction in non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT).  Whether you are aware of it or not, in a sustained calorie deficit you will expend less energy throughout the day – sitting for a bit longer than normal, less fidgeting, etc.

The body is driven to maintain balance. Therefore, when we place our bodies in an energy deficit through consumption of fewer calories (energy in < energy out), there are regulatory drivers that act to restore neutrality. For example, reductions in energy intake influences the rate of release of certain hormones. Ghrelin hormone is upregulated in an energy deficit, promoting increased feelings of hunger. Satiety hormone leptin is downregulated (due to shrinking size of fat cells and fatty acid mobilization). Further, “stress” hormone cortisol increases which can lead to reduced energy expenditure, and insulin sensitivity of fat cells increases (easier to assimilate glucose and store fat).

Calories in and calories out are not independent variables – they are influenced by one another. Energy intake level impacts energy expenditure level. Fat loss is not just a matter of calorie counting, NOR can we simply blame our hormones.

As you diet and lose weight, what was once calorie deficit becomes maintenance calorie level through metabolic adaptation. Therefore, it’s expected at some point there would be a fat loss plateau. To again achieve an energy deficit, energy intake and expenditure require adjustment.

We also need to consider that downward scale movement may not be the best indicator of fat loss. If you have recently initiated resistance training, are noticing your measurements change and/or you look different in photos, you may be building muscle while losing fat. In this case, the scale is not directly providing fat loss feedback.

Overcoming the Fat Loss Plateau

Before considering adjustments, perform an audit of current dietary compliance. There’s no need to reduce nutrients if energy intake is actually higher than the calories you are accounting for.

Dietary Compliance Audit

  • “Extras”.  Assess use of condiments and sauces – these can add 100’s of calories per day.
  • Nibbles. Are you doing fly-bys of the fridge, and “just” having bites? It’s easy to lose sight of these unaccounted-for bites, but this accumulation of small amounts of additional calories throughout the day may take you out of a calorie deficit. Utilize mindfulness – all food consumed on a plate sitting down, with minimal distraction. Personally, I’m still working on this habit!
  • Variability in dining out portions. Restaurant portion size and nutrition information is not tightly controlled. It may vary significantly depending on who is preparing your food. If you are eating out frequently and the cook is regularly overserving on portions, this could also be adding 100’s of additional calories per day or week
  • Tracker inputs. Food entries in programs such as MyFitnessPal are user-generated, and potentially have errors. To be safe, double check your inputs against the nutrition information on the products you use. The USDA database is also an excellent source of nutrition information.
  • Food Measurement – there’s a tradeoff between accuracy and practicality in “eyeballing” portions, using measuring cups (volume), and weighing food. If you feel that your portions may be off, consider weighing food for a period to make sure portions are accurate.

If the scale hasn’t budged for about 2 weeks and you’ve passed your audit, it’s time to consider adjusting your plan. We don’t want to do anything extreme or non-sustainable. Rather, make small changes to energy intake and expenditure.

Adjusting Energy Intake and Expenditure

  • Small reduction in energy intake: reduce your calories in small steps versus large jumps  – 50 to 100 calories/day is a good place to start. Wait a week or so between each step before deciding on further adjustment. You may find that in order to reduce calories it will require swapping out some higher calorie density foods for lower calorie dense foods to feel full.
  • Increase daily movement (increase NEAT): it’s not sustainable to continually increase exercise to offset metabolic adaptation. You can’t out-exercise your diet. Rather, consider a few easy NEAT habits! Assuming you are sleeping 8h per day and training 1 hour per day, that leaves more than 60% of your waking hours to get in a bit more movement! Some examples of NEAT are walking when you’re talking on the phone, parking further away while out shopping, going for a dog walk, cleaning the house, and of course doing a quick happy dance for no reason. You may find that this extra movement helps your mood and overall energy stability throughout the day as well.

Final Thoughts on the Fat Loss Plateau

If you are experiencing significant fatigue and stress, gym performance has crashed, have negative changes in sleeping, or are noticing unhealthy feelings about food, a plateau may be a sign to take a break. By shifting into maintenance, you’ll provide yourself with breathing room to enjoy more flexible eating. This has physical and psychological benefit. It’s perfectly acceptable to hit the pause button on fat loss and focus on stability. Likewise, if you’ve been dieting strictly for an extended period of time, consider taking a couple of months in energy maintenance before proceeding with further fat loss.

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Understanding Daily Calorie Burn

A breakdown of how your body expends energy. How can we manage calorie burn to our advantage?

On our pursuit to achieve health and fitness goals – whether it be to lose fat, increase muscle, or maintain healthy weight, control of daily calories consumed (energy intake) is critical to the process. We manage this by the quantity, type, and quality of foods we eat. Energy expenditure, or daily calories burned (total daily energy expenditure aka TDEE) is equally as important. We do have some degree of control over calorie burn, so let’s take a closer look at the four key contributing elements of TDEE and understand what we should focus on to gain the most advantage.

Basal metabolic Rate (BMR)* contributes ~70% to total daily energy burn. It represents the number of calories the body consumes at rest to perform essential functions such as breathing, circulation of blood, brain function, temperature regulation, and cell turnover. You burn this energy 24h/day, whether awake or asleep.

Day to day, you cannot influence BMR. The primary factors dictating BMR are height, weight, age, and gender. Smaller people have a lower BMR than larger people. Body composition and hormones also exert influence; leaner individuals have a higher BMR.

Over longer periods of time, BMR can change. As we lose weight our BMR decreases and as we gain weight our BMR increases. However, in the grand scheme we should not look to BMR as a significant factor to manipulate total daily energy expenditure.

Nonexercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) contributes ~15% to total daily energy burn. It represents the number of calories your body consumes through general movement (excluding intentional exercise). Examples include fidgeting, walking around throughout the day, taking the stairs, and running errands.

Daily activity level has an enormous impact on the calories you burn. Studies on people who have sedentary office jobs versus people who have physically strenuous jobs have indicated a 2-3X difference in NEAT – upwards of a 1000 kcal difference per day! It is the main reason why it seems some people can eat more without gaining weight.

Focus on NEAT if you are seeking to lose weight. During a fat loss diet, the most effective and proven way to create a calorie deficit is through reduction in food intake combined with additional movement. Additional calories burned by simply walking around more can be a game changer to maintaining an appropriate calorie deficit. It’s absolutely an element to evaluate if weight loss has stalled – as we continue long enough in a calorie deficit, we are inherently inclined to move around less. NEAT is decreasing as we move through the diet phase and we probably hadn’t even realized it.  Given that is it so important, I’ll have a separate post on NEAT soon.

Buddy’s Spaghetti and M&M’s dinner are probably not the best choice……

The thermic effect of food (TEF) contributes ~10% to overall daily calorie burn. It represents the energy used (beyond BMR) to extract and process nutrients from the foods we eat – digestion, absorption, and excretion. At face value it doesn’t appear to be something that we have much influence over. However, we do have some degree of control over TEF through food selection. 10% is a general estimation and will be higher or lower depending on the relative amount of protein, carbohydrates, and fat you consume, as well a person’s fat free mass (leaner individuals generally have a higher TEF).

  • Protein is the most energetically costly macronutrient for our bodies to process – 20 to 35%. For example, if I were to eat 350 kcal worth of protein, I need somewhere between require around 70-120 kcal to digest it.
  • Carbohydrates require 5-15% of their energy to process. Fiber-rich carbohydrates will be on the higher energy burn end of the spectrum – think vegetables, fruits, rice, and whole grains – versus simple or highly processed sources.
  • Fats require a minimal amount of energy to process – 0 to 5%. This doesn’t mean that we should avoid them to keep our TEF higher; fats serve and important role in the diet. Rather, we should focus more on unsaturated sources that can provide the most health benefits, e.g. olive oil, nuts, seeds, and omega-3 rich sources found in many types of fish.

Note: TEF is an area where the basic “calories in – calories out” equation is an oversimplification. Because we all use different amounts of energy to process the foods we eat, we cannot simply say that 100 calories worth of peanut butter is equal to 100 calories worth of chicken – once ingested they have different energy costs in our bodies so net calories will be different despite having an equivalent 100 calorie absolute energy value pre-ingestion.

Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT) contributes ~5% to total daily energy burn. Although EAT usually contributes a lower percentage of your total calorie burn compared to NEAT, it is strongly influenced by exercise modality, duration, intensity, body size, and genetics. Try to get an hour of exercise 3 – 4 days a week. The health benefits extend far beyond basic weight management.

Bottom Line

As it relates to total daily calorie burn and fat loss, focus on what you can exert the most control over!

NEAT: Increase your general activity level during the day – if you have a sedentary job, dedicate specific times of day that you will stand up and walk around.

TEF: Your diet should contain adequate protein (0.8 -1 g/lb. of bodyweight) and contain carbohydrates sources that are high in fiber and minimally processed.  Fats should remain in your diet from healthy sources.

EAT: Get some form of dedicated exercise 3-4 x week. Ideally, incorporate resistance training in your routine to support lean mass retention and fat loss/muscle gain, which will drive further increases across all key elements of total daily energy expenditure.

*You may also come across the acronym RMR, or Resting Metabolic Rate. BMR and RMR are slightly different, but for the purpose of this post they can be used interchangeably.

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