Understanding Energy Input And How It Can Assist Weight Loss
By Gary Webb: Lifestyle Medicine workshop lecturer and team member.
When it comes to losing or maintaining a healthy weight it comes down to energy in vs energy out. Energy out is managed via physical activity and exercise. Energy input basically refers to the diet side of the energy equation and the amount of energy you consume through your eating habits. To get you started on your weight loss journey an easy place to start is the energy consumption side of the equation. Why? Firstly because it is easy for people to get confused about what they should be eating and second because for most people, it is easier to reduce the amount of energy consumed through improving your diet, than it is to increase energy output by doing more exercise. Don’t forget though if you don’t start on the exercise side of the equation sooner or later your chances are much less for successful weight management.
Most health professionals would define energy input as the volume of energy consumed in our diet, however for the benefit of our readers we are going to take it one step further and define it as the volume of energy that is absorbed into the body from our diet. Don’t get us wrong, yes the majority (normally >95%) of the energy we eat in our diet is absorbed into the body, but there are a few factors that can influence this. For now let’s get the basics right, factors that influence energy input include:
Energy Density - how much energy does the food contain
Portion Size - how much of a certain food you eat
Eating Frequency - how often you eat
Energy Density
Energy density refers to the amount of energy per gram that a given food contains. For most people the secret to successful weight loss is in the understanding of energy density.
Portion Size
It’s not rocket science to understand that as you continue to eat, the energy continues to be absorbed into the body and ultimately energy input increases. Therefore by reducing the portion size of any given food you can definitely help to reduce the amount of energy input. It is important however to understand that reducing energy input is not just about reducing portion size, in fact effective, evidence based weight loss programs can in fact get you to eat more, not less. How is this possible you ask? Well, by teaching you to eat the right foods you can actually eat more food while consuming less energy. You’ll never go hungry or starve yourself again!
Eating Frequency
How frequently you eat throughout the day can definitely impact on the total amount of energy you consume, but this doesn’t always have to have a negative effect. Some theories suggest that by breaking your main meals into smaller portions and eating more frequently throughout the day your metabolism stays elevated for longer and you can burn more. For most people however, it doesn’t matter so much how frequently you eat, but more what you’re eating.
Your Diet And Activity Behaviours
To get accurate advice as to where to start with losing weight based on the things you think you can easily change in regards to your diet and activity levels Try the Diet, Activity, and Behaviour Questionnaire.
For more information
To get the facts on the three components of energy input download the Lifestyle Medicine patient information fact sheets on Managing Energy Density, Managing Portion Sizes and Managing Eating Frequency.
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