Lose 65 kgs while eating donuts? Know all about calorie deficit

A video by Realistic Fitness Coach Kols, an Instagram user who provides fitness advice and shares tips for weight loss, is currently drawing eyeballs for claiming that “YOU DONT HAVE TO STOP EATING YOUR FAVORITE FOODS TO SEE RESULTS (sic).” In the trending video, Kols claims, “You are never gonna be successful on your weight loss journey if you keep telling yourself that you can’t eat the foods that you love.”
She opined, “If you are a normal person like me, okay, and you just wanna start a weight loss journey, keto is not the solution for you, okay? Carnivore is not the solution for you. Vegan is not the solution for you. Why? Because these are diets that tell you that you cannot eat the foods that you love. If bacon is your favourite food and you love eating bacon and you’re like, ‘I’m gonna go vegan for weight loss’, babe, you are going to miss that bacon and you’re gonna think about it all the time and then eventually you’re just gonna give up being vegan.”
The Instagram influencer revealed how she loves an old-fashioned donut but decided to do the carnivore diet and as a result, could not have that old-fashioned donut. She recalled losing her mind and ended up eating 12 old-fashioned donuts when all she actually needed to do was eat in a caloric deficit.
Kols shared, “I did it. I lost 65 pounds eating a donut every single Saturday morning because you don’t have to cut out the foods that you love in order to be successful on your journey.”
For the uninitiated, a calorie deficit occurs when we consume fewer calories than that our body needs to maintain its current weight. To create a calorie deficit, we can either eat fewer calories – by choosing lower-calorie foods or reducing portion sizes or increase our activity level – to burn more calories through exercise or daily movement.
It’s a fundamental principle for weight loss because, to lose weight, the body must burn more calories than it takes in. For example, if our body requires 2,000 calories per day to maintain its weight but we only consume 1,800 calories, we would create a 200-calorie deficit.
Over time, this deficit can lead to weight loss because our body begins to use stored fat for energy however, sustainable weight loss usually involves a moderate calorie deficit, ensuring that we still get adequate nutrients and energy. A calorie deficit is vital for weight loss but many people forget that weight loss is effective when we burn more calories than consumed.

Hence, keeping a track of our nutrient intake for the day can go a long way in losing fat but going into extreme calorie deficit can further aggravate the further health condition and breaks the body’s metabolism completely. Instead, we should focus on nutritious food.
Nutrition is not about counting calories; it is about micros and macros. For instance, vitamin deficiencies and metabolic or hormonal disorders like PCOD and thyroid cannot be managed if we blindly follow the concept of calorie counting.
Weight loss is driven by energy balance, calorie in vs calorie out and if we tend to eat more than we burn, it will lead to weight gain over time. Balancing energy expenditure and energy intake is the most critical factor for sustainable weight loss but there are various techniques for burning calories without dieting.

As for dietary restraint and emotional eating, researches from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition highlight how diets that restrict favourite foods can increase stress and negative emotions, leading to emotional eating. This behaviour often leads to a rebound effect where individuals give up on dieting and revert to previous eating habits to satisfy emotional needs.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.