Are You Actually in a Calorie Deficit After 35? 8 Signs Your Body Is Finally Burning Fat

0:01 Welcome back ladies to the body recomposition revolution. Today we are going to go over 8 semi strange signs that you are in an actual calorie deficit. This episode's going to be just a little different, kind of short, kind of sweet to the point I am coming down from having a very intense illness over the last week. There was probably 4 days of absolute misery, norovirus combined with some kidney issues. So I wanted to do something just a little different. As I said, short, sweet, to the point, and hopefully helpful.

0:39 Which I think it will be because when I was compiling the list, it was honestly a good reminder for myself of these signs to kind of be aware of when you're in a calorie deficit. And next time I go into a cut, I will be looking for bad breath, among seven other signs of being in a true calorie deficit. And all of these are, as usual, research backed, which I will cite them in the show notes if you're interested. Now, if you have ever been in a calorie deficit or done a diet and been wondering, am I eating less than I need to actually drop fat, which we all have, we all want to know.

1:19 There's really no way of telling. But your body does give you signs. And I'm going to go over some of the signs that I have experienced myself as well as some not so strange, very straightforward science backed signs that you are truly in a deficit. We are starting off strong and straightforward with the first sign you know you're actually in a deficit that will be your body is dropping fat. If you are truly in a deficit, you will be dropping body fat. You will be dropping body weight. This is the first law of thermodynamics.

1:56 And I had to touch on this because a lot of influencers or health professionals honestly will say things to women like you're not eating enough. And maybe so, but if you're not losing weight, you're just not eating enough of the right things. And if you weren't eating enough, you wouldn't have a body fat abundance issue. That's not me being rude. That is truly the law of thermodynamics. And that law is energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be transferred, stored, or transformed. So in the human body that means calories follow the same rule.

2:37 It's impossible to not be losing body fat, body weight, if you are eating in a true calorie deficit. It goes against the law of thermodynamics. So what's actually happening is you're probably eating barely anything, but maybe consuming too much alcohol, consuming too many sweets, and you're thinking, oh, I barely eat. I just had 16 beers in a Snickers bar yesterday. Well, well, I'm you're not in a deficit. Maybe if you had two beers and a snicker bar, but you're not in a deficit. That's, that was more calories than your body needed to maintain your current level of body fat.

3:14 And I hear all the time, myself included, I have echoed the same complaint, which is I'm in a deficit. Why am I not losing weight? Well, there's only one way to tell and that's if you're actually tracking your food. And if you have tracked every lick, sip, bite, taste, and you're still not losing weight after a week, that means that you're not actually in a deficit. You need to reduce your calories a little bit more or increase your physical activity level 1 or the other. You can kind of, you can kind of manipulate that as you see fit, but I, I like to up my steps a bit before I decrease my calories because I like to move and I like food.

3:51 So that's the way I like to manipulate it. But sometimes, you know, I just can't get more than 15,000 steps a day. So I'll have to increase my calories and it's not fun, but it's a necessity because of the law of thermodynamics. It's also the base of our fat loss pyramid. I talk about that often, which is the one only thing that you actually have to do to lose weight, to lose fat is to be in a calorie deficit. Now here's where it gets confusing. People say, oh, then why can't I just eat a snicker bar and two beers and lose what you can.

4:22 But if you want to hold on to your muscle, I've said it a million times, I know I am a broken record. Then the calories that you are eating while in that deficit, a lot of them have to come from protein, maybe 30 to 40% for for some women who have been lifting a long time, a lot of the calories that you are consuming while in your deficit have to come from protein instead of carbs. That's muscle sparing. That means we can hold on to our muscle, and the weight we do lose comes from our fat stores instead of our muscle, instead of our lean tissue, instead of our glycogen stores.

4:55 We want it to come from our fat stores. So I want to repeat this one last time. If you are in a calorie deficit and you want to hold on to your muscle, the calories you are consuming while in the deficit have to be around 30%. OK, coming from protein. There's a lot of other information that comes with that, but you need to know that first and foremost if you're trying to lose weight to when I say that I do custom macro formulations, which I've said on many, many episodes and I do. And if you're interested, reach out to me.

5:26 But it is the most efficient way for your body specifically to lose weight because some women operate on really high carbs and they actually lose more fat by doing that. And some women operate on really high fat and they lose fat by eating more fat. But ultimately, all these women have one thing in common, and that is, again, a high protein diet. OK, we're done with #1 we have to be in a deficit. Boom #2 semi strange sign that you are actually in a calorie deficit. You have worse sleep. It's horrible.

5:59 You know, I struggle with sleep to begin with. God forbid I'm doing a summer cut and then I have to have even worse sleep. That's the first thing that is affected for me is my sleep is even more horrendous than it is. Why is that? Calorie restriction increases cortisol. OK, now cortisol signals to your brain to have kind of like an antsy, agitated, alert feeling at night. And those hunger hormones, they also signal to the brain that, hey, energy, energy availability is low, let's get stressed out.

6:31 Our blood Sugar's going to have a bunch of fluctuations. Let's give her a restless night because we should make this as hard as possible. We should make this calorie deficit suck as much as humanly possible. Let's ruin her sleep. So when I'm in a deficit, oh, those restless nights, they're the worst because my body is very, very affected in that regard. And if you're in a calorie deficit and you notice your sleep has gotten worse, well, that's because while in that deficit, it does increase your cortisol a bit.

7:00 And that, as I said, affects your sleep. Moving right on to number three of our semi strange signs that you are actually in a calorie deficit. This one's the strangest, I think. Bad breath. Yes, this took me years to understand because I kept wondering why do I have a strange taste in my mouth of pennies that have been sitting in the ground and layered with Froot Loops for 12 years? It is so gross and unsettling to have that taste at night when I'm trying to fall asleep and already can't because of the deficit.

7:35 But I thought it was just me. And then I saw a reel a while back in Instagram Reel talking about the science behind why your breath or you have strange, a strange taste in your mouth while you're dieting or in a, you know, calorie restriction. And I thought, Oh my gosh, it's not just me. I don't have this one strange thing uniquely to myself. And yeah, I just, I had to put this on the list. It actually inspired me to do the whole episode because I've never forgot the fact that bad breath is a side effect of being in a low calorie state.

8:06 Why does that happen? Well, when you are, when your body is burning fat, that fat burning process has increased. It also produces ketones in your body and ketones exit through the breath and it has that metallic taste and there's a word for it. It's called diet breath. Breath ace tone levels increase. That's when I wrote down breath. Ace Tone levels increase during fasting, caloric restriction and higher fat oxidation periods. So weird. But also, rest assured, you're getting that summer bod. You might have the bad breath while you're doing it, but it's coming #4 sign you're in a caloric deficit.

8:46 You're hungrier. Yes, you are hungrier when you are in a caloric deficit. Another just myth from fitness people online. Oh yes, you need to eat more to Nope. If you're going to yeah, I mean you have to eat more protein essentially. But hey, you're still going to be hungry because when your body is out of energy, I eat the calories that you consumed for the day and it needs to start oxidizing your fat for energy source instead of because it doesn't have any more food to go on. It is your body's physiological response to that lack of nutrients to give you the hunger cue.

9:25 It gives you the hunger cue because it's your body's primary defense mechanism against losing weight. Your body doesn't want to. It doesn't want to. It wants to hold onto it. It's comfy there. The couch is a nice soft place. There's it's, it's warm. You know it's great. It wants you to keep it. You know it wants to stay the way it is. So when you start taking away what it needs to stay the way it is, is it's going to give you the cue of hunger. And scientifically speaking, ghrelin is the hormone, the hunger hormone that increases when your energy drops.

10:01 So when you do start experiencing those those hunger cues, ghrelin is the culprit there. That's increased. And then leptin is the hormone that signals fullness, that decreases when the fat loss oxidation process is happening. So the hormone ghrelin, the hunger hormone that's increasing, leptin, the fullness hormone that's decreasing, Isn't our body nice? It's so nice. It just, it wants us to look so great for summer. It makes it as hard as possible. So those are just things you can expect is when you're in a deficit, yeah, you're going to have a little hunger.

10:35 Does it stink? Drink a lot of water, add some flavoring to it. 0 calorie flavor of course #5 the 5th sign that you are actually in a calorie deficit. You feel colder. This is a commonality. Evidently I experienced this. Yes, it's a commonality. Many people report having colder hands, feet just needing extra layers when usually they don't. For example, me, I am the sweatiest woman known to planet earth, but when I'm in a deficit, I'm cold. I want 2 sweaters and that's strange. And at the gym I'm don't sweat through all of my clothes, that's also strange.

11:11 Nice. It's a benefit to me. I like not being the sweatiest lady in the entire world. I enjoy that. So that's a benefit. That's a good one for me. And why does it happen? I had to look this up. The body reduces thermogenesis, which is your heat production to conserve energy. This is one of those luxury processes, if you will, that your body shuts down when your calories drop. And there's some other strange ones. I'm going to go through them. But yes, you're your ample warmth will be one of the things to go for some, not everyone.

11:42 Number six of the 8 semi strange signs are actually in a caloric deficit #6 is food tastes better. This is not an opinion, this is a real thing. Many people report that simple foods suddenly taste amazing when dieting. I looked it up. That is research backed. There is a ton actually of research surrounding that entire notion. And it's because the brains dopamine which is a reward system becomes more sensitive to food. So when you eat something that may be before you didn't really enjoy necessarily or just like, oh, whoa, what a treat.

12:20 That's your body rewarding you. Like, yes, you see, this is good more more it wants. It's an evolutionary mechanism and it helps humans find food when resources are scarce, taste perception becomes more rewarding to encourage eating. I think that's so cool. The body is just cool. You know, it senses that it is lacking the nutrients it wants. You know, we're going to tell it no because swimsuit Susan's around the corner. It's sensing it's lacking that. And so in turn, it's going to send you more rewards when it gets what it wants.

12:53 In the in the classroom, we call that positive reinforcement #7. Now this one is a strange sign that you're in a calorie deficit. And it's another one of those luxury processes that your body forfeits when its energy is low. When it's available energy, meaning the calories are low, your nails grow slower. They do. This is true. Hair and nails are non essential tissues so growth can slow during prolonged energy restriction. I noticed that a long long time ago when I was doing my figure show, my first and only figure show figure show and I thought why is my hair so horrendous looking?

13:32 This is when I was in college and all my hormones were perfection. Why did my thick long blonde hair look like it did every time I had a kid? It was measly course and wasn't growing for anything. I didn't know that. I read this research and that makes sense to me. Yes, it's a luxury process. Your body foregoes peripheral tissues like nails, hair receive fewer resources during a calorie restriction restriction because the body prioritizes vital organs and metabolism. So do we want long nails and hair or if we want our heart to function?

14:06 Your body chooses heart and other priorities above the luxury ones #8 In the final one of our semi strange ways, you can tell you're actually in a calorie deficit. I saved this one for last because I thought it was incredibly interesting. Is almost as interesting as the bad breath I'm getting More interesting to me #8 is your personality can temporarily change when you are in a calorie deficit. It is a surprising psychological effect. Think about that. Your personality is actually different while you're a deficit.

14:38 And I thought about this for a while as I was looking through this study. It it was the study I was looking at was a Minnesota deterioration experiment. And I just thought it was super interesting because people notice that they are more rigid with their routines and they have an emotional tolerance that is lower when they are in these diet time, you know, these calorie restrictive times, the brain requires large amounts of energy. So restriction effects mood regulation. In another study it was combing through called the Psychological Bulletin, participants in prolonged calorie restriction became more irritable, socially withdrawn and food focused.

15:16 Well, obviously, yeah. So it also talked about how your social battery winds down a lot quicker. And I definitely experienced that hardcore when even when I go into just a mild deficit, I don't have any energy reserves left for fun. I just don't. I don't want to go there. I don't want to do that. I don't want to talk on the phone. I will because it's at this point just an incessant habit of mine to gab all day. But I don't necessarily think I'm very good at it. I'm in. I have noticed a couple of my podcast episodes while I'm recording and hungry are not good.

15:55 My thoughts are not fluid. I don't have any jokes that come flying out naturally. I'm just kind of mechanically going through my notes and regurgitating them. And there's no me. My personality is dissipated. I would say when I'm in a diet phase, I hate using the word diet, but calorie deficits A mouthful. So when I'm dieting, I definitely lose a little bit of my sparkle, a little bit of my little bit of my shine. And so if you're in a calorie deficit and you're being a complete bear to everybody, it's science and you can tell them that.

16:23 So I hope these 8 semi strange signs that you're actually in a calorie deficit are helpful to you, if not entertaining. And I hope that you can share them with a friend, a family member, or someone who's trying trying to do a little spring shred with you as we come upon the 12 week mark of summer. Now in the beginning, I mentioned I do custom macro formulations. It's just a series of three quizzes and you will get a two page PDF that is from me. It will go through your results from the quiz because as I said, some women need more carbs, some women need more fats.

16:58 We all need more protein than you're probably getting. And those quizzes take me about 72 hours to go through and then put all the results into a really visually and aesthetically pleasing PDF for your eyes. If you're interested in that, you can e-mail me. It's RAC [email protected]. So, so Rack [email protected], those are $59. Again, they are a 72 hour turn around and right now I do have a waiting list for them. So you might, if you do send me an e-mail and you don't hear back from me for a few days.

17:34 I saw your e-mail, I start it, I put it in my very organized e-mail inbox for macro formulations and I will get back to you. I promise you. In the meantime, you can find me on Instagram. That is Rack Fitness under score. That's my Instagram RAC fitness under score. I do little fun videos just kind of talk about my day Gab. You see my food. Sometimes you see my kids, sometimes you see workouts, but a lot of times you just see my face gabbing about my macros. So if that's of interest to you, check it out.

18:05 And last thing, thank you for the e-mail. I've got an abundance of emails this week. I love them. Thank you. They just make me so happy, especially when I was on my deathbed with Norovirus. Thank you for those. Thank you. And also if you have questions, put them in the comments on Apple Podcast or Spotify. There is no bad question except for the one on asked, except for the one on asked. So please do everybody in the world a favor and ask your question publicly so I can answer it publicly and we can serve everyone.

18:34 All right, thanks again. Ladies. Talk to you next week.