I am constantly asked “Adam, what should I eat to lose weight?” and “What is the diet that will help me burn fat?”

Well, the simple answer is that no diet will *burn* fat, however, if weight loss is your goal - and you want to lose “body fat” - then you are about to learn the ultimate “body fat” weight loss / gain formula to achieve weight loss using a *level 1* strategy.

Ultimate Weight Difference Formula

Energy Supply - Energy Demand = “Body Fat” Weight Difference (Loss / Gain)

Energy Supply

To understand how your diet fits into the “Energy Supply” part of this formula, lets look at how much energy is provided by food.

There is a measure of energy provided by what we eat, when our body digests food which creates heat energy (kilocalorie or calorie) and smaller properties which our body can use for activity and function. In this post we will be using the smaller measured energy amount, calorie (cal).

The following is the definition of calorie, as defined by Oxford University Press, “Despite an international convention which agreed to use the joule (J) as the standard unit for energy, work, and heat, the calorie is the unit most commonly used in written work about nutrition. One calorie is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 g of water through 1°C (more precisely, from 14.5°C to 15.5°C). It is easy to convert calories into joules, as one calorie equals 4.2 joules (more exactly, 4.184 joules). These units are very small in relation to the energy used by a person, so it is usual to use units 1000 times larger. These should be called kilocalories (often written as Calorie), but most diet and exercise books use ‘calories’ to mean kilocalories; so a 1000 calorie diet is really a diet that provides 1000 kilocalories a day.”

The Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. defines calorie as “[KAL-uh-ree] A unit measuring the energy value of foods, calibrated by the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by one degree celsius at a pressure of one atmo- sphere. The four sources from which calories are obtained are alcohol, carbohydrates, fats and proteins however all these sources are not equal. For example, fat packs a hefty 9 calories per gram, over twice as much as the 4 calories per gram carried by both carbohydrates and proteins. Alcohol has 7 calories per gram, almost as many as fat. Clearly, fats and alcohol have a much higher caloric density than carbohydrates and proteins, so it’s obvious that a 6-ounce serving of steak will be much more expensive calorically than 6 ounces of cauliflower.”

So as you can see, the energy your body is given to raise the temperature of the water in your body - and your body is approximately 60 ~ 70% water - is measured in calories. Different foods have different types of calories and Barrion’s Educational Series, Inc. broke them down nicely:

• Carbohydrates: 4 calories / gram
• Proteins: 4 calories / gram
• Alcohol: 7 calories / gram
• Fats: 9 calories / gram

So at a basic level we can see that fats provide us with the greatest amount of energy (9 calories per gram), then alcohol (7 calories per gram), then proteins and carbohydrates “carbs” (4 calories per gram).

So as you can see, the type of food can play a major role in our weight loss program. Weight Watchers understands this concept very well, so does L.A. Weight Loss, Jenny Craig, Nutri System, and many others! What they do is provide you with a strategy that makes it easy for you to follow and provides you with the weight loss you desire.

Energy Demand

Our body uses energy to “power” itself, to function and perform activities. This is what I call the “Energy Demand” of the body. Of course, the more active you are, the more energy your body demands in order to provide the power to function and *be* active!

There are three major ways your body demands energy :

• Daily Function
• Digestion
• Activity

Through the body’s demand for energy, to satisfy the above three conditions, our body creates a process called the “metabolic rate” or “metabolism”. The “Energy Demand” by our metabolism is a crucial part of any weight loss strategy - one that is commonly overlooked by many individuals and professionals.

The Minimum Energy Needed to Lose Weight

In order to lose weight, we need to calculate what the minimum energy is needed by the body in order to lose weight. This involves calculating your lean mass (taking your total weight and subtracting your body fat % in pounds), and adjusting for your daily requirements for function and activity. This can be a very complicated process and will need to be calculated by a weight loss professional - like the Weight Loss Mastery Coaches of Adam Aulenback Coaching - and even then it will be an estimate because your body’s demand for energy is always changing.

The output you are looking for is your body’s Basal Metabolic Rate or “BMR”. Your BMR is your base metabolism which your body needs to satisfy with energy. Each person’s BMR is individual and unique to their own body. In order to lose the greatest amount of weight, we MUST supply our body with this minimum amount of energy so that our body is *allowed* to lose weight.

If we do not provide the minimum amount of energy to satisfy our BMR, our body will go into what’s called “starvation mode”. This is not good. People who go into starvation mode can actually gain weight! Let me explain.

If your body does not get enough caloric energy to meet its BMR requirements, it will start to “tear down its house” (your body) in order to burn the materials (muscle and muscular energy) the house (your body) is built on to get the energy it needs. I’m sure you’ll agree it is not good when your body starts to tear itself down in order to “survive”. If your body does go into “starvation mode”, and you do sacrifice muscle to perform daily energy functions, you have instantly lowered your metabolism! That means that your body will be automatically burning LESS ENERGY! Not good, not good by any means!

I’ll explain why muscle is so important. For each one (1) pound of muscle, your body needs an average of fifty (50) calories per day to maintain that pound of muscle tissue. But for each one (1) pound of body fat, your body needs an average of ONLY one (1) calorie per day to maintain that pound of fat - a BIG difference. In fact, we substituted only 10 lbs of body fat for muscle tissue, your body would burn an average of 490 calories MORE PER DAY, EVERY DAY!!!! You would weigh the same, but you would look smaller too! The reason is that muscle is more densely compacted than fat, so it appears much smaller. And it has a better “tone” to it appearing more tight and firm.

Those 490 calories will create a difference of 1 pound of weight loss in about 7 days (if everything else stays the same in your body’s Energy Supply and Demand) - because one pound of fat equals 3500 calories.

There are MANY variables and influences that affect this basic Weight Difference formula, but this basic understanding is used by many weight loss professionals in order to achieve great weight loss results.

If you are truly serious about weight loss, and would like to have a Weight Loss Mastery Coach teach, assist and motivate you to your weight loss goal, you can view our Weight Loss Mastery packages here.

I wish you all the best on your journey to the body you deserve!