How to Actually Stick to a Calorie Deficit (Without Starving!)

In this episode, we're breaking down what it really takes to create and stick to a calorie deficit without feeling restricted or overwhelmed. You'll learn practical, science-backed strategies that make fat loss sustainable and enjoyable.

Here's what you'll learn:

•  What a calorie deficit actually is and how to find the right one for your goals without going too low.
• How to eat in a way that keeps you full and satisfied while still making progress, including how to use food volume to your advantage.
• Smart tips for sustainable fat loss from mindset shifts to simple habits that help you stay consistent long-term.

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Keep in touch! Hop on my email list and I'll send you a free 10 recipe e-book of my favorite 30 minute meals (or less!) https://wholesome-nutrition-co.kit.com/ebook

Transcript

Hey there, I'm your host, Hannah Holzum. I'm a registered dietitian who teaches busy moms how to fuel themselves well while working, running your household, and running your kids to all the activities. I share helpful and realistic tips to help you look and feel your best, and I'm so happy that you're here for today's episode. Let's get started.

Well, hi, how are you doing? Hope you are hanging in there. We're in the middle of December. It's chaos. Holiday parties and probably gearing up for classroom parties, Christmas shopping, like literally all the things. It's such a fun time of year, but also such a chaotic and stressful time of year. So today's topic, we're gonna talk all about calorie deficits. I don't even know that I've actually covered this into much detail on the podcast, which is kind of surprising for me, and I know for some of you, you might be like, I'm not ready to hear that until January, but here's what I wanna tell you. If that's you and you truly don't feel ready till January, then you can come back and listen. But. It's never too early to start thinking about some of these things. A lot of people, mindset, as you know, is everything. That was like my very first episode was all on mindset because it really does make a difference. But so many people fail because they're like, I'm waiting till Monday. I'm waiting till January. I'm waiting till life gets easier. Spoiler alert. It doesn't like all those things. And so anyway, I just thought it would be a perfect time of year to talk about this and. I wanna really dig in on it because you hear everything from calories and calories out. No, nevermind. That doesn't really matter. You need to focus on this. Oh, it's all about carbs. Oh, it's all about protein. Like, you hear all these things and you're like, what do I even believe? So here I am as a registered dietician of almost two decades, coming to you with my top advice, my top thoughts around calorie deficits and how to handle them. So. Before I dive in, anything I say is general recommendations, right? Like you have to take your own health into consideration and what you need. Not everyone needs to be in a calorie deficit. Probably a lot of people listening after the holidays feel like they do need to be in a calorie deficit. This is not medical advice, right? I'm a dietician, I am not a doctor, and I cannot see your individual needs, so I cannot give you dietary recommendations without knowing that. So this is basic information. Check with your doctor before doing anything, okay? Just had to put that in there. So let's first start by talking about what a calorie deficit actually is. So a calorie is a measure, it's a measurement of like a unit of measurement, right? It's, it's energy essentially is what it is. And so everything, the food that you eat all contain calories. Your body uses calories for fuel. We use calories to blink our eyes. We use calories for our heart to be like, that's what makes up, that's what makes us alive, right? You gotta have calories to fuel. Okay. Now there are also within those calories and there are macronutrients, and these are the different types of calorie containing nutrients. You, carbohydrates, protein, and fat. All three are important. There's not one that's necessarily superior than another, though I will say at different times in your lives, some of them may be more useful to you, for example. You are a teen athlete, you probably really need to be thinking about your carbohydrates. Let's say you are a 40-year-old woman like myself. You probably really need to be thinking about your protein. Okay? So there's different times and different situations and scenarios when some of those macronutrients might be a little bit, you might need to focus on one over the other, but. Macronutrient contribution like the, the distribution of macronutrients, that's kinda what helps make up your overall body composition, whereas the overall calories is what's, that's what the scale is going to say. So if you're gaining weight. Now, keep in mind, there's a lot of things that can affect this, okay? A lot of conditions, thyroid issues, polycystic ovarian syndrome, getting older, like all these things can affect that for sure. Right? But overall, if you're gaining weight, your body's consuming more calories than it needs, typically. Okay? If it, if this is happening over a period of time. Or if you're losing weight, you're probably not eating as many calories as your body needs to function. So it's using its own fat stores to provide energy. All right. Some common misconceptions with calories. Like I would hear this, especially when I was coaching a lot, I would hear this all the time. My doctor told me, just eat 1200 calories. Okay. No, that is a very old school way of thinking. And 1200 calories is extremely low. Like that is extremely low. I could never, I could never survive. I'm gonna be way too hungry. So, no, that's not necessarily true. Okay. I, you also hear like, oh, just cut your carbs. That's also not true. I've probably talked about this on a previous episode, but when your body, A reason why when people go like keto or they may just cut their carbs, they'll see this initial weight loss. One bigger reason for that is water loss. So when you store carbohydrates in your body, you also feel like every gram of carbohydrate, you store molecule, you'll like. There's like three water. Grams that go along with it or so. So don't quote me on those numbers, but it is something like that. So when you're losing, when your body's using these stored carbohydrates, it's then pulling off this water that's attached to it. So you're gonna see some water weight that way. It's not actually fat weight that people think that it is. Another reason why people might see weight loss on a carb restricted diet is that maybe people are just eating fewer calories in general. That's a big one too. Okay. So just kind of keep that in mind. Okay, so what I typically would recommend when we're talking calorie deficit, I typically would recommend it depends on, it depends on you and where you are. If you are someone that has been eating excessively, like you're eating like 5,000 calories a day, but you only need 2000, then you probably, we can probably make your deficit like a little bit bigger because you, you probably naturally are because you've already been way overeating. But for most people, I would say I'm typically calculating somewhere like 250 to 500 calories below your maintenance calories on what your body needs. Okay? So this is gonna allow for like a half a pound to a pound of weight loss a week. The reason why I don't go higher than this is because I have seen, and I have worked with thousands of people, guys. For many, many years I have seen that when the calorie deficits are larger, people start pulling off of their lean mass, so they start losing more muscle mass. And it never fails. And that's not the weight we wanna lose. Like we wanna hold onto that while losing fat mass. And you're not gonna do that if you're not eating enough calories to sustain that lean mass. Okay? So that's typically what I would recommend. Now, there's a couple different ways that you can find your calorie needs. You could. See a dietician, right? We know we're very well versed in how to calculate those things, but you can also, if you want like kind of a quick and easy, you can even hop into like the Lose It app or something like that and type in what your needs are, type in how active you are. It'll get you like somewhere probably kind of close and you can kind of use that as a general recommendation and then cut it. It it typically, those apps will ask you what your goals are, so. It might even calculate it for you, but I'd say 250 to 500 calories below your maintenance. Now, this is going to be really hard if you aren't exercising. What exercise does is exercise gives you a little bit more wiggle room, right? Because you're expending those calories. So your body is. Letting out more calories. If you are sedentary and you are not moving, you already are doing yourself a disservice because that those are fewer calories that your body's burning. So let me just give you an example. For me, I'm five foot four. If I were to not exercise, sit all day long, like my maintenance would be probably be like 1400 calories a day and I could not, I am. I could not eat that low of calories, right? Maybe 1500, but it would be very, very low. Okay. And so for me, I'm like, I have to exercise because I'm hungry, and that's not gonna cut it for me. And not to mention the benefits of exercise too. So let's not forget that either, but that's just another reason why at. Exercise can be so helpful. Even if you're just walking and doing, doing some things like that, that can be really helpful. Okay, so don't go in too large of a deficit. You might be tempted to, some people I feel like try to punish themselves themselves and be like, oh my God, I like craps. I'm not eating anything tomorrow. I'm doing a celery cleanse or whatever. Don't, just don't, don't do that because when you have, when you are in too big of a deficit, it's gonna backfire. You're gonna pull off that muscle, which is gonna decrease metabolism. You're gonna be so tired, you're gonna have some really crazy cravings. Typically, you have cravings for like chips and sweets and things like that because you're hungry and sugar is the fastest energy source. Okay? So if you're noticing you're craving some of those things, you're probably not getting enough to eat. Okay. So that's kind of the basics there of a deficit. So I've been trying cure hydration with my family lately, and I've gotta say I feel really good about it. Cure checks all the boxes, their hydration packs are plant-based, have no added sugar and only 25 calories. I love using them after my workouts or on days when I'm slashing on drinking my water. I've been loving the berry pomegranate flavor. It's super refreshing and it doesn't have that artificial taste that so many electrolytes have, and knowing it's science backed gives me so much confidence in using it. And for my mom listeners, they even have cure kids mixes. They're formulated with pediatricians made with no artificial ingredients or added sugars, which I love. They've been great for my kids after games and practices because staying hydrated isn't just about water. You also need electrolytes. That's why my family loves cure. It's clean, it tastes great, and my kids even love it. You can get 20% off your first order at cure hydration.com/wholesome with code wholesome. And if you get a post-purchase survey, make sure to let them know you heard about cure right here on my podcast. And bonus you can use your FSA and HSA savings to purchase cure hydration. Real ingredients. Real hydration. Ready for the whole family. Let's talk about ways to be in a deficit. If you're someone who's wanting to be in a deficit, let's talk about ways to be in a deficit without being absolutely miserable. Now, listen, you're probably gonna be a little hungry when you're in a calorie deficit because your body's hungry, right? It's like, Ooh, I don't have enough energy in here. Creepy. The goal is to let some of that fat feed you, but still while still nourishing yourself. Okay? So you kind of just keep and think of it as like a balance scale. You just want it slightly different. You don't want a huge difference, but just slightly enough to use some of that stored those stored calories that your body doesn't need. So some of the things that you can do, one of the biggest things I would recommend is think volume. Volume, eating. So higher volume, lower calorie foods. If you look at, I used to do this a lot. I really like to do more of it, but I would show like, here's what a plate of vegetables look like. Oh, here's a tiny, teeny little dollop of peanut butter. This whole giant plate of broccoli is the same as this tiny little teaspoon of peanut butter. You know what I mean? So like, which one is gonna be more filling? Probably the broccoli not gonna be as enjoyable, likely, but just kind of think that way. Now, that's not to say you can't have the peanut butter, I'm just saying, I'm just giving that to you as a visual to think about, like, okay. I'm gonna try to eat these bigger bulk foods like lower calorie, bulk like veggies, lean protein, Greek yogurt. Even popcorn. Popcorn, you can have like a whole plate of popcorn or you can have like five tortilla chips. You know what I mean? So which one are you gonna pick? So just think about volume like that and trying to focus on the volume foods first. Like put those in first. So try to eat your vegetables first. High fiber foods, they're very filling. High protein foods are filling and satiating as well. Eat those things first, then eat your carb foods and you will be a lot more satisfied. Don't forget, protein and fiber are like king and queen. I'm telling you people, I've been saying it for years. I finally feel like I've been seeing it more and more out there, like on social media. More people are getting on board with it. Do not sleep on fiber. We all know protein's important, but sometimes I think people forget about fiber. It is so helpful not only for keeping you satisfied and a healthy gut, but it also is really good for heart health. Like it can help lower cholesterol levels. So if you have a family history of heart disease, like you need to be thinking about this now because all heart disease starts. I mean, thirties, forties, it's already gone. So be thinking about that too. Also, don't forget about water and staying really good and hydrated water helps with lip lipolysis, the breakdown of fat. You have to have water molecules present to break it down into, let the fatty acid and the glycerol break off. You have to have water on board to make that happen. So make sure you're drinking plenty of water. You don't need to be drinking gallon after gallon. Typically, I recommend a great starting place is half your body weight and ounces of water. You weigh 150 pounds, 75 ounces of water a day. Now I would like to see that. As pure water as possible, so do your best with that. If you hate water, then maybe do some flavored water and then half flavored water, half normal water, and see if you can do that. Okay? So make sure you're staying really good and hydrated. The other thing too, some things that can just help with this, I know we're all busy and we probably are eating on the. But if you can sit down, use a real plate. I know I love paper plates too, but use a real plate. Sit down and put food on your plate, even if you're home by yourself. Put the food on your plate and enjoy it. Taste it. Think about it like sounds woo woo, but like. We fly through our eating and we're not supposed to. And so think about how you feel. Check in on your fullness levels, like really slow yourself down and enjoy the food that you're eating. If you still feel hungry, wait 10 minutes and see if you're still hungry. At the end of the 10 minutes, if you are, get a little bit more to eat. If you're not be done when you're in a calorie deficit, you could feel like you could keep eating, but also that you're not like starving. So. Remember that too. Some people have to relearn. Like I've had clients in the past say, I don't even know what it's like to feel satisfied. I have stuffed myself full for so long that I like that feeling. I like that feeling of being so stuffed because it makes me feel comfort. If that's, you just slowly start working on retraining yourself, like remind yourself there's. Hopefully there's always food there for you, right? If you need to, you can always go get a little bit more, but really try to focus in on enjoying your food, telling yourself like, I'm satisfied, but I, I could eat more, but I also could stop right now and hopefully keep myself in a little bit of this deficit. Okay. One huge tool I would recommend, and maybe some people are gonna like roll their eyes, tracking your food. I am telling you, you do not need to do it forever. In fact, I do not recommend doing it forever. But if you are trying to lose weight, track your food, it will be eyeopening to you. As a matter of fact, I went to the doctor just for a general checkup. I had put on more weight in the past year. I knew I had, like, I just, I have felt, I have felt 40 and I think last year I had tore my calf muscle. I wasn't exercising as regularly. And then it kind of is just domino from there. Like, yeah, I'm still wearing the same clothes, but they just feel more snug. That kind of thing. And I had put on a little bit of weight at the doctor and so I actually now am starting to track. I was like, okay, well. I've gotta start tracking my food, and even me who knows what the nutrition facts are. I mean, I can pretty much look at a food and pretty much tell you. I have been tracking and like, it's actually kinda shocking to me. I'm like, how hungry I feel on how few calories, but also it's still plenty of calories. I'm just like, wow, I must have really been overdoing it and, and most of it's just like the running from here to there and I grab some stuff in the car and I take it to go and, or maybe my protein in my fiber wasn't like spot on. And so anyway, I'm just telling you this. Like personally to tell you, like even as a nutrition expert, sometimes it's good to come back to those things when you're noticing those changes. Okay, so track your food. Unless you have an unhealthy relationship with that, or you've had an eating disorder or something, don't go back into that old head space. But maybe even like, if you don't wanna track, maybe even just being aware of what is on your plate. And making sure you have a vegetable or a fruit and making sure you have your lean protein and like sitting down and doing that too. That works great. I've had some clients take pictures of their plate and that's kind of the way that they track for themselves, and so you could do that too. I. When the holidays wind down, what's the one thing you crave most? For me, it's rest that deep, cozy kind of rest that makes home the best place to be. And that's exactly what my cozy earth bamboo sheet set delivers. These sheets are truly the gift of better sleep. They're made from this coast from bamboo, so they feel unbelievably soft like sleeping in a cloud. But they also keep you from getting too hot. Seriously. They help you sleep several degrees, cooler, and the best part you can try them completely risk free. You get a 100 night sleep trial. So if you don't love them, which trust me, you will, you can send them back hassle free. Plus they come with a 10 year warranty. So give the gift of everyday luxury and make every moment a little more comfortable. Head to cozy earth.com and use my code wholesome for 20% off. And if you get a post-purchase survey, be sure to mention you heard about Cozy Earth right here on my podcast. Give the gift of comfort that lasts beyond the holidays and carries into a toy new year. Other things that help making sure you get plenty of sleep limit stress, the best that you can. Probably a funny time of year to to say that, but it's the truth. Also, exercise is really important. I think you're not really doing any of the above. Then get really good on your nutrition first, and then add the strength training in. And I wish to also think about some other roadblocks that I think of when you're thinking about a calorie deficit, and I mean, hello this time of year, but like social eating parties, all or nothing mindsets like all of these things. There's so much on the mental side when it comes to nutrition and it can really come, it can really get you right and sometimes it's hard to say no, but sometimes if you're in a calorie deficit, you probably have to say no to dessert. For a little while or like change up the dessert, like maybe rather than a piece of cake, you're gonna have a little bit of chocolate. Or maybe rather than appetizers, you're gonna have to say no and just enjoy your dinner. Like there's some things like that that you might have to just be okay with doing temporarily while you're in this deficit. Because remember, eventually whenever you get to a place where you feel really, really good, you probably are gonna have a few more calories to work with in your maintenance. Okay. So just kind of keep that in mind. Okay. So I hope this has been helpful in thinking about, just remember when you're in a deficit, make it moderate. This is not a, we're not speed racer here. Uh, the tortoise and the hare. Okay. Like, it's okay to go slow, but make it consistent. My most successful clients that I've ever had are the ones that go slow and consistent, so do that. We're not, you're not, like if you're, if you are putting yourself in a huge deficit, you're not losing the kind of weight that you really wanna be losing. So keep that in mind. I also want you to be really gentle with yourself, very compassionate with yourself. And just remember, like if you are to a point where you're like, wow, I don't even really recognize myself. I feel so chubby. Should I be on the GLP one? Should I do this? Like, and you're having all these thoughts, just slow yourself down for a minute. And I truly believe that everyone, before you ever even would consider a peptide like a GLP one or something like that, try it. Through food and exercise first. Okay. Chances are you're probably gonna make a little bit of progress and there are no side effects to that, right. Besides being a little uncomfortable, which we can all handle. Okay. If you are struggling with like just food, meals and trying to cut back on your meals, don't forget my meal app. It is fantastic. There's a reason I've had hundreds and hundreds of people sign up for this. Like it's, you will love it. It's great. It's so helpful. Your kids will love it. Like it's wonderful. I have more info on that in the show notes. Okay. And then last, I wanna leave you with a little bit of an announcement. I am gonna do a little hiatus on the podcast, and so I am planning to come back, but I need to take a little bit of time to work on some other things in my business. So I have been doing this podcast for a year and a half, and since I started the podcast I have. I have created a meal planning app. I have completely redesigned my website and switched over into doing a little bit more with blogging, and I've just, I've really kind of revamped some things and I'm a one man show here. Like I don't have an assistant. I do everything by myself. I do have a podcast producing team that will load things for me, but it's a lot of work if I'm being honest. It's a lot of work to run a podcast and to come up with ideas and write show notes, and submit stuff and work with podcast sponsors and all that stuff. It's a lot of work. But that being said, podcasting is one of the my favorite things that I do in my business. I really love doing it, but I am going to take a little break, probably for the spring. I'm thinking when I come back, I might even release it in seasons and just have like a 12 week season, take a break, a 12 week season, something like that. I'm not totally sure yet, but. In the meantime, I have 60 episodes. You can go back and listen to these if you find them helpful. Re-listen to some if you need a little reminder, but just wanted to let you know about that. But yes, I will be missing it. So I'm sure I'll be back soon. But just taking a minute to go work on some other things in my business for the time being. So thank you so much for being here. For all of my listeners who are so loyal and come and meet with me every week or every other week, I love you so much. Feel free to share some of these episodes with a friend if you feel like it'd be helpful, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday season. Okay. Also. Last, I'll leave you at this. I'm gonna leave a link to hop on my email list. If you want to keep up with me, make sure you're on my email list. I try to share really helpful things that don't take like too terribly long to read 'cause none of us have time for that. Or make sure you're following me over on Instagram, apple, some nutrition co. Keep in touch with me over there too, just while I am on this little break from my podcast. Okay? Okay. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. I love you. I will talk to you soon. Thank you so much for listening in. If you love this episode, it would mean a ton if you left me a five star rating and review, so others can find me too to discover ways to work with me and to view my services. Check out the show notes. Don't forget to subscribe and follow so you never miss an episode. You can also follow me over on Instagram at wholesome nutrition co for more nutrition tips and recipes. I'll see you next time.