Should you reduce calories?

I have clients who are scared to increase their calories. I get it. You’ve worked hard for this progress and you don’t want to see it undone.

But the reality is - you can probably increase your calories, stay in a deficit, and increase your energy (activity levels) enough subconsciously to make up for the added calorie intake.

This is possible primarily because of one portion of calorie expenditure - NEAT. NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis. Big name, but it just means the calories we burn from activity outside of planned exercise. Walking around a grocery store, tapping our foot at work, getting up from the couch to go to the kitchen.

NEAT is typically the biggest variable in people. It’s because of NEAT that I don’t immediately drop calories with clients. I want to see where they are at and then gradually decrease. For example - if we can lose weight at 2,000 calories, why would I want to drop to 1,500 right away? For sustainable long-term fat loss, slow is the way to go.