Good morning!

It's a new year. It's NFL playoff season. And it was just almost 60 degrees yesterday in Massachusetts. What a great start to the year!

Speaking of starting the year. Manyyy people will start to "diet" because thats always the cool thing to do in January of 2024. THIS is the year, right? But, before you dive in on your weight loss journey (again) this year, let's think about it in a different approach. An approach that I use with clients and an approach that is PROVEN to work because it's science 🤓. That's the buzz word these days right...TRUST THE SCIENCE. I don't care which side of the coin your on, many of you took the COVID vaccines and still do. Cool. You do you boo boo. You trust that science then, right? SO trust the science below with what I'm going to explain about calories. Because thats all calories are, a unit of energy, science, and a way for us to finally UNDERSTAND that weight loss and weight gain are just energy balance. 

We have three ways we can "change our body". We are going to use 2000 as a baseline because it's easier for you to understand with nice round numbers.

1. Calorie maintenance: This is EQUAL energy balance. Think, 2000 calories per day. You are burning the same amount of calories that you are taking in. You are not losing weight, nor are you gaining weight. You are staying a consistent weight all week, month and year with no change. This is great if you are happy with your body, want to build more muscle or if you want to get your body on the right track. Maintenance calories should not be strenuous for you. This is something you can do day in and day out and not worry about losing or gaining weight. This is where you should spend MOST of your time throughout the year. About 8/12 months should be spent in maintenance to give your body nourishment and the food it needs to survive and thrive. This is also a great time for your body to get a consistent amount of calories, a way for you to learn nutrition and understand you need to be in maintenance more often. For guys, most of you are over 2000 calories per day...for females, most of you are under 2000 calories per day. (depending on your height, those numbers can fluctuate). 
2. Calorie deficit: This is a NEGATIVE energy balance. Think, 1800 calories per day. You are taking in less calories throughout the day. You will lose weight while in a calorie deficit. If you are not losing weight, then you cannot possibly be in a calorie deficit no matter what you say. Remember, its science. This is a phase where you cannot build muscle because your body is not being supplied with enough calories. This is why intaking A LOT of protein is very important. We want to save as much muscle as possible while in a deficit because thats the whole reason we are in a deficit in the fist place, to reveal all of our muscle! This is also why we cannot stay in a calorie deficit or "diet" all year. Our body does not like this. Our body does not like be unnourished. So it will do what it can to fight back. Yes, that means your body will shed stuff like muscle first if it is not adequately fed. Muscle is "expensive" for the body to keep around. Hence why we should only be in a deficit about 2/12 months out of the year. This is where most people FAIL and where most diets FAIL. They fail to explain that you cannot "diet" all year. It's impossible to continually lose weight. If you lost 1lb per week you would lost 52 lbs per year...that AIN'T realistic people. You need to go through periods of deficits, not all the damn time. 
3. Calorie surplus: This is a POSITIVE energy balance. Think, 2400 calories per day. You are taking in more calories than your body is burning, leading to weight gain. Just look around America, a lot of people are in a positive energy balance all year. However, if we are strategic about calorie surplus', they can actually HELP us. Being in a surplus allows you to pack on muscle. The more calories you eat, the more energy you have, the stronger you can get and the more recovered your body can be. This is something a lot of people do not want to do because "OMG I'll gain weight!". Yes, Becky, you will. But you want that toned look? You want to look like your favorite athlete? You want muscle? Then you need to feed it. Muscle requires CALORIES so in order to build it we need to eat. Being in a surplus for 2/12 out of the year sometimes does a body GOOD.

Now, the above is very subjective to the individual. Of course everyones body is different...thats why we usually need to take a different approach with everyone. This is why mainstream "diets" do not work because everyone is starting from a COMPLETELY different place. Before some of you can lose weight, you may need to be in a maintenance phase for a while so your body can be happy, it can understand what you are trying to do. Some of you may need to actually be in a surplus to gain weight and ACTUALLY build some damn muscle. Then, ALL of you should be able to get into a maintenance phase at one point during the year just so you can sustain something and your body can be properly nourished + happy. 

And if you don't care about learning any of the above, then it seems to me like you don't give two flying fucks about changing your body, you just like the idea of it😇😇. And that is very, very sad. You are never going to get to your goals if you think "diet" all the time. You are never going to be happy with your body if you think "lose weight" all the time. It's not sustainable. It's not realistic. "Diet" culture is fucking stupid. 

This is a lot of info. Reach out to me...I'll identify where you are, what you need right now and where you need to go🤘.

Much Love,

Nick✌🏻