How To Create A Caloric Deficit To Lose Weight (Understanding BMR, NEAT, and TDEE)

caloric deficit to lose weight

Once you’re finished reading this short article, you will understand exactly how to create a caloric deficit to lose weight by understanding your BMR (basal metabolic rate), your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis).

Every so often, we get some questions here that deserve a short explanation for everyone to benefit. The question email to me was the following…

“How do you burn more calories than what you consume? I eat about 1200 calories per day. To create a deficit, I have to burn more than 1200. How can I do that? I go to the gym, workout for an hour or so, and burn about 500-600 calories. After that, my activity level drops because I have a desk job. So how do I burn another 700-800 calories?”

To put this in perspective, the person writing this email was a smaller woman with a sedentary job who is exercising 3 times per week at the gym. So her overall expenditure is going to be lower than someone with an active job and training weekly at the gym.

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Get Your Butt Out of the Hole – How To Improve Your Squat

Today’s article comes to us courtesy of Jarlo Ilano, PT, MPT, OCS, physical therapist and co-founder of Gold Medal Bodies.

Squats.  I love ‘em.  There are probably some states and municipalities where they’ll let me marry them.  I’m sure my wife would understand, she knows what they mean to me.

Like with any great love, it was transformative.  I was your typical ectomorph asian kid (interesting aside, Teddy Roosevelt called Filipinos “his little brown brothers”. Hard to be offended though, since it was Teddy fricking Roosevelt).  Then came squats, like a revelation from the heavens:

“Thou shalt gain thirty pounds of muscle from putting weights on your back and bending your knees!”

Thunderbolts and lightning, it was a big thing.

Tale as old as time: Do your squats, eat more than you can stand, repeat as needed, and you’ll grow.  I was lucky enough to learn that early and not get too distracted by everything else.

I was also lucky enough to dial in my form from the start.  Attribute it to starting early enough as a kid or genetic heritage, but squatting butt to heels was no big deal.  The ability to get to the full range of motion allowed me to get maximal gains from my lifting.  Because it was so natural, I didn’t think anything of it.

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JC Deen is a nationally published fitness coach and writer from Nashville, TN. Currently living in the blistering Northeast. Follow me on X/Twitter