I speak to a lot of people (both clients and non-clients) about fat loss on a daily basis and something I continue to witness is misplaced efforts between the gym and their activity outside of the gym, in relation to fat loss.
Let me first refresh your memory on the basics of fat loss, just so we’re all on the same page..
Fat loss occurs when the body burns more energy (through activity) than it consumes (through food), we call this being in a calorie deficit. Although there are numerous ways in which you can create a calorie deficit, the mechanism by which fat loss occurs remains the same; when you’re in a calorie deficit, your body will begin to use stored fat as energy to make up for said deficit, thus decreasing the amount of total body fat over time (providing the deficit is maintained).
For a calorie deficit to be created, it’s likely you will have to make changes to both the energy you take in through food and the energy you expend through exercise. In this article, I’m going to be focussing on the energy you expend (more on food intake another time).
Total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) has 4 main components. These 4 components make up varying amounts of the percentage of energy you expend throughout the day.
Let’s look into each one in more detail;
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
This is the energy expended by the body at rest to maintain vital functions such as your breathing, heartbeat and body temperature. Even if you spent the day on the sofa, these functions would still need to happen and so there is little variance day to day. BMR accounts for roughly 70% of your TDEE.
Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT)
NEAT encompasses the energy we expend through day to day activities such as walking, fidgeting and doing chores. How much of these things we do, will influence the amount of energy expended. As you can see above, NEAT accounts for about 15% of our TDEE.
Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)
The energy required for digestion, absorption and processing of food comes under TEF and can be influenced by a few dietary factors including protein intake. TEF accounts for roughly 10% of TDEE.
Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT)
Finally, EAT is the energy expended through structured exercise like going to the gym, it accounts for the remaining 5% of TDEE, depending on your level of physical activity.
So, what do I mean by misplaced efforts?
Most people, when embarking on a fat loss journey think they need to start going to the gym more. They might come to the conclusion that they’re usual 3 workouts a week aren’t enough and they need to ramp it up to 5. Couple that with coming home and sitting at a desk all day, after a few weeks of training 5x a week and minimal fat loss progress, they’re left confused. This is often when they’ll reach out for help; “I’m tracking my calories and I’ve upped my training to 5 days a week and I haven’t lost any fat, what’s going on?”
Let me preface this by saying, if you’re not losing fat, you’re not in a calorie deficit.
However, in the example above, what so many people fail to recognise and/or aren’t aware of is the fact that structured exercise (EAT), i.e. planned exercise performed in the gym, has a very small (<5%) effect on total daily energy expenditure.
So while their workouts are likely benefitting them in other areas like building muscle, improving bone and mental health, they aren’t having a whole lot of influence on energy expenditure and thus, creating the deficit needed to elicit fat loss. While I’m definitely not discouraging going to the gym (it is 100% something I actively encourage as part of a healthy lifestyle), when it comes to fat loss, your efforts would be better spent focussing on NEAT, which includes things like walking and accounts for 15% or more, in some cases, of the total daily energy expended throughout the day.
How many steps should I be doing?
You’ve probably all heard of the recommended 10,000 steps a day, this was set by the World Health Organisation to promote overall health and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. In comparison, The American Heart Association recommends aiming for 7-8,ooo steps a day.
For most people, a step count of between 8-10k is great. If you’re not currently there, look at your average and aim to increase slowly. A study in the American Journal of Health Promotion found that overweight individuals who increased their step count by 2,000 a day for 16 weeks, lost an averge of 3.5 pounds of fat.
My take home message..
Get into the gym a few times a week and lift weights, if you can. If fat loss is your goal, don’t forget to consider your step count outside of the gym (use a weekly average, rather than comparing day to day).
3 weights sessions a week and an average step count of 8,000 will be far more beneficial than 5 weights sessions with an average step count of 3,000 for fat loss.
