{"id":244632,"date":"2025-07-07T06:51:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T06:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/244632\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T06:51:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T06:51:25","slug":"how-many-calories-do-you-really-need-to-cut-to-lose-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/244632\/","title":{"rendered":"How many calories do you really need to cut to lose weight?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of the government\u2019s forthcoming ten-year health plan the health secretary, Wes Streeting, has announced strategies that aim to cut our energy intake by as little as 50 calories a day, thereby \u2014 apparently \u2014 slashing obesity. But Dr Paul Chell, surgeon, co-author of The Diet Whisperer \u2014 12-Week Reset Plan and co-founder of healthbuddi.com<\/a> isn\u2019t convinced. He answers the questions that you may already be asking yourself about the government\u2019s attempt to nudge the nation into better health.<\/p>\n

Q. The government\u2019s public health experts believe cutting our daily calorie count by just 50 \u201cwould lift 340,000 children and 2 million adults out of obesity\u201d. Plus, \u201cIf everyone who is overweight reduced their calorie intake by just 216 calories a day, equivalent to a bottle of fizzy drink, obesity would be halved.\u201d Is that true?<\/b><\/p>\n

A. <\/b>Lunacy. If you consume an extra 216 calories above your basal metabolic rate \u2014 or an extra fizzy drink \u2014 every day, you\u2019ll gain an enormous amount of weight. If you reduce your baseline intake by 216 calories, it won\u2019t make any difference. Your body says, \u201cOh look, Anna\u2019s cut her calories by 216, so I\u2019ll turn down all the thermostats \u2014 heart-rate, metabolism \u2014 to save the same amount of energy.\u201d It\u2019s called adaptive homeostasis, and it\u2019s an ancient protective mechanism against starvation \u2014 not a bug, a safety valve. You can reduce your calories by up to a third, so 650 if your daily intake is around 2,000 \u2014 you\u2019ll feel terrible, low mood, desperately tired and hungry \u2014 but you won\u2019t lose weight until you exceed that deficit.<\/p>\n

Q. Why do you think 216 is cited as the magic number? Is it that there\u2019s a sliding scale on overeating and half the population is doing so by a small margin?<\/b><\/p>\n

A.<\/b> Ten calories above your normal basal metabolic rate will accumulate significantly over a year. One extra Jaffa Cake daily (46 cals), you\u2019ll start to gain weight. Your body thinks, \u201cGreat, extra energy, let\u2019s dump that in the fat stores for later.\u201d Once you get above baseline, yes, there is a sliding scale for weight gain. It\u2019s related closely to the number of extra calories consumed. But the government\u2019s assumption is fatally flawed \u2014 that rule doesn\u2019t work the other way. If you reduce calories \u2014 say, you\u2019re a woman who needs 1,600 calories daily to stay the same \u2014 you\u2019ll lose no weight until you\u2019re eating around 30 per cent less.<\/p>\n

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Q. So if a man has to eat about 2,000 calories to maintain weight, it\u2019s not<\/b> <\/b>correct to say that every 10 calories per day under maintenance needs reduces weight by 1 pound per year?<\/b><\/p>\n

A. <\/b>It\u2019s piffle of the highest order. To reiterate, unless you reduce your calorie intake by around 30 per cent you won\u2019t lose an ounce, but you will feel shit. Your body will do everything in its ancient powers to hold onto its energy stores.<\/p>\n

Q. Is there a better way to tackle obesity?<\/b><\/p>\n

A. <\/b>We know that alternate day fasting can be effective. That\u2019s because it reduces your calorie intake by around fifty per cent. It will cause inevitable breakdown of fat, and that will manifest as weight loss. It\u2019s good weight loss because you\u2019re losing non-lean tissue. Whereas with GLP-1 weight loss drugs, a high proportion of weight loss is muscle loss<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Q. So it\u2019s not just about calories?<\/b><\/p>\n

A.<\/b> Calories are one side of obesity, but the other side is to do with cellular health. If you\u2019ve got healthy cells, you can take in fat \u2014 some will go to the liver because you\u2019ve been fasting, some will go to the muscles because you\u2019ve been swimming. None will go to your fat stores. But when you\u2019re swimming, pre-breakfast, you\u2019ll need energy from somewhere. As there\u2019s no insulin in your blood (imprisoning fat in fat cells) the fat will be able to flow from your fat cells, and be converted into energy by your mitochondria. You\u2019re like a hybrid car \u2014 with healthy cells you can switch between burning glucose and fat.<\/p>\n

Q. Is eating a slice of extra toast the same as eating, say, 25 cherry tomatoes, if they have an equal number of calories? <\/b><\/p>\n

A. <\/b>The body reacts differently to the same number of calories from different macronutrients. Carbs fall into groups \u2014 complex carbs like cabbage, broccoli and kale, staple carbs, such as rice, potatoes, pasta, bread and cereals, and sugary carbs. Staple carbs are rapidly absorbed and so cause a rapid insulin rise. The more frequently you eat them, the more frequently your insulin rises. And insulin converts excess calories from those staples into fat. Insulin is the fat storage hormone. But complex carbs are partly chains of glucose, but also fibre. That fibre prevents such a rapid rise in glucose, and so there\u2019s a much lower insulin rise.<\/p>\n

\"Spaghetti<\/p>\n

Fancy spaghetti vongole? Exercise first<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

Q. What can we do to avoid weight gain if we love a staple carb?<\/b><\/p>\n

A.<\/b> Eating carbs like rice, potatoes and bread releases glucose in your blood, then insulin rises. Its job is to push that glucose out of your blood into your glucose stores. The first glucose store is your liver \u2014 it can accommodate up to 120g. When that\u2019s full, glucose goes to muscles \u2014 they also can accommodate around 120g. Third is your fat stores \u2014 capacity, limitless. If your liver and muscles are full \u2014 because you recently ate, and you\u2019re still at your desk \u2014 your sandwich glucose is converted into fat. But if you fasted overnight, cycle to work, then eat, you\u2019ll have depleted some liver and muscle glycogen \u2014 so the glucose from your breakfast toast goes to your liver and muscles. If I\u2019m going out for spaghetti vongole and a nice glass of wine with my partner, I\u2019ll exercise first \u2014 and even fast beforehand.<\/p>\n

Q. Were they right to single out fizzy drinks?<\/b><\/p>\n

A.<\/b> Fizzy drinks \u2014 and orange juice \u2014 are the most obesogenic foods on the planet. Second most obesogenic is anything with added sugar, not just because of the calories but because of its effect on insulin and cells. If you regularly consume fizzy drinks, orange juice, cakes, biscuits, breakfast bars, chocolate, the more you\u2019ll need \u2014 because they erode your fat-burning capabilities. Also, these foods contain fructose as well as glucose. Fructose overrides the liver\u2019s glucose storage capacity \u2014 so your liver overfills with sugar, which is converted to fat, which can lead to fatty liver disease.<\/p>\n

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Q. Is cutting 50 calories of carbs the same as cutting 50 calories of fat? Or sugar? <\/b><\/p>\n

A.<\/b> An avocado will fill your bloodstream with fats, but because fat raises insulin the least of any macronutrient, you\u2019ll use that fat for energy and very little will go into the fat stores. If you cut 50 calories worth of avocado, your body thinks, \u201cAh, Anna\u2019s cut down by 50 calories \u2026\u201d \u2014 it doesn\u2019t care what \u2014 \u201c\u2026 let\u2019s turn down her metabolism slightly.\u201d If you consumed an extra 50 calories of avocado over baseline, over months that would cause weight gain. But it will cause much less weight gain than if you ate extra biscuits \u2014 because the biscuits just push that sugar into the fat stores under the influence of insulin. Similarly, if you eat your extra avocado on toast, the toast will release insulin and force the avocado into the fat stores. Wise people eat fat without carbs.<\/p>\n

Q. If we were to change one aspect of our behaviour, what would be best?<\/b><\/p>\n

A.<\/b> Don\u2019t snack. If you\u2019re eating multiple meals and snacks each day, your insulin is always up, so you can\u2019t possibly burn fat. But if you must? Go for whole almonds or a piece of cheese \u2014 or an apple, if you really need the carbs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As part of the government\u2019s forthcoming ten-year health plan the health secretary, Wes Streeting, has announced strategies that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4318],"tags":[105,4434,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-244632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-nutrition","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114810629982433415","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}