The Great "Calorie Balance" Swindle

We’ve all heard the ‘Energy Balance Equation’ (or ‘Calorie Balance Equation’). You know the one: “energy in - energy out = weight gain or loss”. Every single piece of fat loss and muscle building advice you read comes back to this simple equation. And yet despite its simplicity and popularity, in the real World, it never works as planned or expected!

Technically, the energy balance equation is 100% accurate and true! The equation is rooted in the laws of thermodynamics: “energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only change form”. So to argue against the truth of the ‘energy balance equation’ is to argue against the nature of the Universe. However you position your argument, you are wrong! Lyle McDonald offers a great explanation of the equations perfection here on his website

Truth and accuracy, however, does not make an equation useful or relevant. Consider the algebraic equation: A+B = A+B. It is 100% true and accurate. It is also entirely redundant. You cannot use it for anything because it cannot help you calculate either ‘A’ or ‘B’. And an equation that cannot be used to calculate or predict something is, by definition, useless.

And thats the issue with the ‘energy balance equation’. The only interest any fat (or skinny), non-physicist might have with the Energy Balance Equation is to PREDICT a change in bodyweight from diet and exercise. And for this purpose, the equation is completely and utterly useless! For proof of this, have a read through the plethora of respected research articles here at PubMed. Its really no secret that you cannot use the Energy Balance equation to reliably predict future weight gain or loss!

At Biologic Labs, to help our overweight clients lose weight, we typically feed them MORE calories than they were eating before! In fact, we feed them a LOT more! And generally, the more quality nutrition that we feed them, the more weight they lose; all of it from fat! And all with only 2-3 workouts per week and zero cardio.

According to the energy balance equation, increasing calories should ALWAYS cause weight GAIN; and yet, successful trainers can consistently increase calories to cause quality fat-weight loss. The difference is in the QUALITY of what is being consumed.

The reason this occurs is quite simple: your body is an adaptive organism. Read that again:

YOUR BODY IS AN ADAPTIVE ORGANISM!

This is the most critical point to understand about your body. It is NOT a machine! It doesn’t burn a fixed number of “kilometers-per-litre” of fuel. Take less energy in, and your body adapts by expending less energy out. Perform an activity for the purpose of burning energy and your body adapts by becoming more energy efficient; it begins to use less energy for that activity. And your body is almost infinitely adaptable in both of these regards. You absolutely cannot win against it!

But more importantly, your body uses the nutrients you feed it to manifest physical changes in itself to better fit the purpose for which you use it.

Read that one again too:
Your body
uses the nutrients you feed it
to manifest physical changes in itself
to better fit the purpose for which you use it.

Did you get all that? Let me break it down into its 3 essential parts:

Your body is literally comprised of the nutrients you feed it! Your liver isn’t made of ‘calories’! Your heart isn’t made of calories! Your muscles aren’t made of calories! They are all made of complex protein and lipid structures while functioning on a constant supply of dietary elements. Regardless of how many CALORIES you eat, if you don’t supply the necessary components to proper bodily functioning and repair, then your body won’t function or repair properly!!! 


Your body manifests changes in itself. Your body constantly builds-up and breaks-down physical tissue as part of its ongoing maintenance. Any net changes in your form are always the net result of BILLIONS of biochemical processes constantly taking place. Basing your actions on assumptions you make about just 1 or 2 biochemical reactions will ensure you fail!


Your body changes to better fit its purpose. Or, as the Bulgarian Olympic Lifting Coaches used to say: “the body becomes its function”. So if your bodies function is to lift ludicrously heavy weights, then it will try to become muscular. If your bodies function is to run fast for 6 hours per day, it will try to become light and lean. Your supply of the nutrients necessary for the adaptations determines whether your body will succeed. And, of course, if your purpose is to sit at a desk all day and occasionally shuffle on a treadmill for 30 minutes, your body will try to become a lump of fat; and it will probably succeed.

The point of all of this is that the Energy Balance Equation is almost completely irrelevant in the pursuit of a great body. Nutrient supply matching your physical purpose is the key! If your physical purpose doesnt require the body you want and/or your diet doesnt supply ONLY the nutrients necessary to look that way, then you won’t have the body you want! Its obvious, really.