internetboyfriend666 t1_j6i9vwn wrote on January 30, 2023 at 3:09 PM

Weight loss happens when you burn more calories than you consume. It's not any more complicated than that. If you burn 2000 calories a day but only consumed 1800, you will lose weight. You burn a substantial number of calories (anywhere between 1000-2000 depending on age, weight, gender, physical condition, and other factors) just by being alive. In other words, you burn over 1000 calories a day just by laying in bed. digesting the food you eat also takes calories, and of course physical activity burns calories.

So to add that all up, let's say your basal metabolic rate is 1500 (these are the calories you burn just by being alive). Then let's say you burn 200 calories from digesting the food you ate throughout the day. Finally, you burn another 200 calories just from your physical movement throughout the day (walking around, doing the dishes...etc). That's a total of 1900 calories you burned in 1 day. If you ate less than 1900 calories that day, you will lose weight. If you ate more than 1900, you will gain weight.

KamikazeArchon t1_j6kkz1q wrote on January 30, 2023 at 11:58 PM

>Weight loss happens when you burn more calories than you consume. It's not any more complicated than that.

Well, it is somewhat more complicated than that; the devil is in the details of "burn" and "consume" (and, to a small extent, "weight").

What you've said is certainly true as a broad and general statement; this isn't a disagreement, but a point of additional detail. That extra detail is to be careful about numbers "burned" or "consumed" in practice. Because, for example, a treadmill's "calories" readout is just an estimate. A packaged food item's "calories" count is an estimate. You may actually be burning more or less than the machine says when you work out, depending on your body (muscles, heart, etc). You may actually be gaining more or less when you eat the food, depending on your body (digestion efficiency, etc).

And there's also some amount of weight fluctuation for non-calorie reasons - mostly water weight going up and down. This last part is one of the big traps for people just starting a nutrition and/or exercise path, as those fluctuations will initially be bigger than the long-term trend caused by calories.