Everything I wish every client knew on day one: what the scale really tells you, how calorie deficits work, how to find your maintenance, and the lessons I’ve learned from coaching thousands of people.
Hey, I'm Grant, one of the owners here at K2 Fitness. I got my start as a personal trainer back when this place was still Reps Fitness, and these days I coach online with a focus on the psychology behind weight loss. Over the years I've worked with thousands of people, and the same questions and mistakes come up over and over again. So here's everything I wish every client knew on day one - how to use the scale, how fat loss actually works, how to find your maintenance calories, and some tips I've picked up along the way.
Before we dive into anything weight loss related, we need to first understand what the scale is and what the scale isn't. This might sound like a goofy place to start, but working with thousands of people I think the scale (the thing you step on that tells you how much you weigh) is often one of the most misunderstood tools out there.
What the scale is & isn't:
Quick question, if the scale is up a pound over the course of a month - is that bad? Depends on the context. The scale going up could mean you've gained fat, but it could also mean you've gained a pound of muscle. The thing I want to sear into your brain so that when you close your eyes tonight you see this on the back of your eyelids - CONTEXT MATTERS! If you've been strength training, prioritizing protein, tracking your calories, clothes are fitting better, photos are looking better, chances are the scale going up is a good thing. You've probably lost some fat and gained some muscle. Let's say in this hypothetical you lost 6 pounds of fat but gained 7 pounds of muscle. The scale will read +1 and often we start to get down on ourselves, but that isn't the entire picture. You aren't going to gain 7 pounds of muscle in a month if you were curious, just an exaggerated example.
How to use the scale
If you've stepped on the scale one day and the next you step on again and it's up 3-4 pounds, what happens? You start telling yourself you're doing the wrong things and on the wrong path. You might flock to the next diet or try and kill yourself with hours of cardio.
That's why the scale is something you should use daily or not at all. As a coach, I have my clients weigh-in every single day and when I am looking at their data to give calorie recommendations, I am using a weekly average of the 7 days of weight. Why? Simply because there are so many fluctuations that will cause the scale to do some really weird things. Have a lot of sodium today? You'll retain fluid and the scale will be up tomorrow. Feeling a bit constipated? The scale is probably going to be higher. If you're a lady and about to start your period? You got it, the scale will be up! The reason we should only look at averages is to account for as many of these variables as possible. From a coaching perspective, I could care less about what one day says, what I look at and care about is the overall trends we see. What is happening from the week 1 average to the week 2 average, so on and so forth.
Now that we've got the scale out of the way... how do we actually lose weight? Be in a calorie deficit. Yep, that's it.
Now, this is where I typically get some pushback. Grant, it's not about calories it's about what you eat, it's about your carbs, your fat, your protein, etc. Nope. It's about simply establishing a calorie deficit.
Calorie Deficit
What is a calorie deficit? In simple terms, your body needs a certain amount of energy to sustain where it's at in this very moment, we oftentimes call this your maintenance level. Basically, the amount of calories you need to stay exactly where you currently are. A deficit is eating somewhere below that amount. Think of it like your bank account and let's say you want to keep it at a steady $2,000. You have money coming in from your job and money going out to pay your expenses. In this comparison, your account balance is your stored body fat, the money coming in is the food you eat, and the money going out is the energy your body burns. If we want our account to maintain itself, we need to make sure the amount of money we spend is equal to the amount of money we have coming in. If you have $1,500 going out every month, to maintain you need to have $1,500 coming in every month. This is maintenance.
If you want your account to get bigger than that $2,000 mark, you need to either spend less or make more. If you have that $1,500 going out, you need to have more than $1,500 coming in to increase the amount in your bank account.
Now, if we want our account to get smaller (yeah we probably don't want that, but if the comparison is fat loss, let's drain that account!) how do we do this? Very simply, we need to have less money coming in or spend more. If we have $1,500 going out, but only $500 coming in, what happens to our bank account? It gets smaller. Same thing if we keep $1,500 coming in but start spending $2,500.
This is the way calories work. If you have more energy coming in than your body needs to maintain, it will store that as fat. If you have less energy coming in than your body needs, it will pull from its energy stores to make up for that deficit.
So how do you figure out what your maintenance actually is? There are calculators online, but they're just a guess. Here's what I do with my clients, and it uses your real data instead of an estimate.
Step 1: Weigh in and track for 2 weeks. Every morning, weigh yourself first thing after you use the bathroom and before you eat or drink anything. Track everything you eat in your app for those same 14 days. Don't try to diet during this time, just eat like you normally would and be honest with your tracking.
Step 2: Find your averages. Take your week 1 weight average and your week 2 weight average. Then take your average daily calories over the full 2 weeks.
Step 3: Do the math. Take the difference between your two weekly averages, multiply it by 3,500 (this is the amount of calories in one pound of fat), and divide by 14. That tells you how many calories, on average, you were in a surplus or deficit each day.
Step 4: Find maintenance. If you lost weight, add that number to your average calories. If you gained weight, subtract it.
Here's an example. Say your week 1 average was 200 lbs and your week 2 average was 199 lbs, and you averaged 2,000 calories a day:
One thing to note, from a mathematical perspective you might ask why didn't I divide that out by 7? The short answer, in a real world application with tens of thousands of data points over the years with clients this has always landed MUCH closer to the actual maintenance.
Once you know that number, you can adjust your calories based on your goals.
Keep in mind, this is just a snapshot to get you started. A few one-off days can affect this - so something you will want to continue to do on an ongoing basis!
You either move more or eat less.
What do all the common diets have in common? Weight Watchers, keto, intermittent fasting, paleo, Whole30 - they all aim to put someone in a calorie deficit.
As a coach, it's about what's sustainable. You might be able to stick to keto for a while, that's fantastic, hell it might even work for you long term, but all you are doing is creating a calorie deficit. What I've found to work with most of my clients is calorie tracking. There are plenty of free apps out there like MyFitnessPal or MacrosFirst you can use to help you track your calories. Once you've figured out your body's maintenance calories, all we do is eat below that. Say 300-500 calories below that.
Some quick information - there are 3,500 calories in one pound of fat. Meaning, if you want to lose 1lb of fat per week, you would need to eat 500 calories below your maintenance, every single day and that will roughly translate into ~1lb of fat loss.
Now with that in mind, the next most common question I get is, can I be in a 1,000 calorie deficit per day to get quick results. I'm not your coach, but my recommendation no matter who you are is DON'T DO IT. Fat loss isn't a race to the finish line, it's about what's sustainable. The people I've worked with who have tried to do the extreme thing generally have one thing in common: they don't stick with it long enough to see results or they don't know how to maintain it once they have done it because they didn't change their habits along the way. My recommendation, do a deficit of at most 500 calories per day. Slow and steady wins the race.
1. This is a marathon, not a sprint
How you get to your goals will ultimately dictate whether or not you stay there. Doing extreme protocols and extreme deficits may work in the short term (and truthfully could be lasting for some), but from my experience, it doesn't work.
2. Use a food scale
Tracking calories isn't fun, let's just put it out there. It doesn't take long, but it's not an enjoyable thing. So if you're going to do it, be accurate in what you do. I can't tell you how many times people eyeball things and think they are in a deficit but aren't. They do enough to frustrate themselves but not enough to see progress - and this causes people to fall off.
3. Stop trying to be perfect
Now, I know I just told you to be accurate, but accurate doesn't mean perfect. Did you know the FDA allows a 20% margin of error on nutrition labels? Meaning that 200 calorie protein bar you think is 200 calories could actually be closer to 240 calories and you won't know the difference. This is why you need to track to the best of your ability, but quit trying to be perfect. I've never once had a client be perfect - perfection IS NOT a requirement to hit your goals.
4. Stop tracking all your macros, just track protein
From my experience, universally across the board, almost every single person I work with is fine on carbs and fats but drastically undereating on protein. I'm not saying carbs and fats don't matter, they absolutely do - but if you are overwhelmed with tracking and it's stress inducing trying to figure out how your last meal of the day is going to hit exactly 705 calories with 30g of protein, 37g of carbs and 48.6g of fat, you're going to drive yourself crazy. Oh sure, let me just whip up something with exactly 48.6g of fat, that'll be simple and not stressful at all. Maybe I'll just drink a little olive oil straight from the bottle to round it out.
So how much protein? Typically I recommend 0.8-1g of protein per pound of your target weight. If your goal is to weigh 160 pounds, that's 128-160g of protein per day. If you want to get in even more, you can do 0.8-1g per pound of where you currently are.
If you want to track carbs and fats, do it. Experiment with it, try different things, and see how you respond to higher carbs or higher fats. Some people prefer higher fats, others prefer higher carbs - do what works for you. It's not black and white.
5. Carbs are not your freaking enemy
This one needed its own line. Don't fear carbs, they don't magically store fat. That's all.
6. Fat loss can happen without the scale moving
I can't tell you how many clients I've worked with who haven't budged on the scale, but their progress photos look night and day different. Another reason to remember, context matters - it's not JUST the scale.
7. Your dream body is heavier than you think
The scale is a tool. It's not a measurement of your happiness or self worth, and it's not the only measurement of your progress. We use it to establish a deficit and to track that deficit. Just because you weighed 115 pounds in high school doesn't mean you should weigh 115 as a 42 year old. For the ladies out there in particular, I promise you - your dream body is going to be heavier than you think.
8. Social media doesn't equal reality
When people start making good progress, I often hear that it isn't fast enough or they aren't happy with themselves. Understand that social media doesn't equal reality. Your favorite fitness influencer probably is not what you think.
9. Understand your patterns
If you go over on calories, stop casting judgement and stop attaching a meaning to it. Just take a step back and look at it as data. What is my pattern? Maybe you go overboard on Friday and Saturday with calories, that throws you out of whack, and then the "start over again Monday" mentality is in full swing. Don't attach meaning, don't judge yourself, don't try and do something extreme to compensate. Just walk away from it understanding your pattern so that you can put a plan in place for the next time it happens.
10. You didn't fail, you found what doesn't work
Going nerdy with this and throwing out a quote from Thomas Edison:
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Failures are not a death sentence, and I personally hate even using the word failure. To go back to the pattern bit - say you tried something to make your Friday nights more calorie friendly and it didn't work. Awesome, you found something that didn't work for you. Don't give up, you just have to find the one thing that DOES work.
If you need more help putting all of this into practice, check out our personal training options or give us a call at 765-349-5645 during staffed hours. We have some great coaches here at K2 Fitness who would love to help you reach your goals.
I'm not taking on clients, but I will be sharing what I know through posts like this one. So if you liked this, share it with a friend and be on the lookout for more to come!
Product names mentioned are trademarks of their respective owners. K2 Fitness is not affiliated with or endorsed by these companies.
Written by the team at K2 Fitness, Martinsville's locally owned 24/7 gym.
More articles