Yes, you read that right. It only takes an excess of 200 calories per day to gain 20 pounds of fat in 1 year!
Don’t believe me? Keep reading. This post will explain how that’s possible.
According to the World Health Organization an estimated of 35% of adult population is obese.
In the current times that we live in, we rely so much on high calorie, high fat, and sugary food.
Excessive body weight combined with physical inactivity is the SECOND leading cause of preventable deaths. Just right behind smoking.
So how can we fix this problem? Food availability is not the problem, the problem is OVERCONSUMPTION.
Here’s the breakdown!
When you eat 1000 calories and only expend 800 calories. That means your body is storing 200 calories per day in excess.
So what does that mean?
1 pound of fat contains 3500 calories.
Let’s do the math.
If you have 200 calories in excess everyday for the whole year.
200 cal x 365 days = 73,000 cal/year in excess
Now, in pounds of fat…
73,000 cal / 3,500 = 20.9 lbs a year.
It’s crazy to think with JUST over consumption by 200 calories per day will make you gain about 21 pounds of fat. That also means with just an excess of 100 calories per day YOU WILL GAIN about 10 pounds of fat per year.
It’s not the diet’s nutritional content that dictates your weight gain or weight loss. It’s the excess amount of calories. That means no matter how good you’re eating, if you’re overeating and not burning enough, YOU WILL gain weight.
Granted, nutritional content is very very important. But for the sake of calculating your Estimated Energy Requirement, we’re going to keep it simply about energy consumption.
Advantages of calculating your EER
By calculating your EER:
You will have the total calories that you should be consuming daily
You will have better awareness about overeating
You can manipulate the macro nutrients within the calories for your specific goal
Whether it’s to gain muscle, get leaner, or get stronger.
You can estimate volume of workout to expend a specific amount of calories
Your weight loss goal becomes achievable
No more guessing on what and what not to eat
