Calorie Deficit vs. Fat Deficit: What People Actually Want (Pt. 1)

For decades, mainstream health and fitness education has clung to a single, oversimplified idea: that the only way to lose weight is by being in a calorie deficit, to “eat less and move more.” Most practitioners still operate from this model, placing clients on restrictive diets to control intake and pairing that with some combination of walking and strength training.

Cardio, ironically, is often demonized. It’s criticized for supposedly increasing hunger and spiking cortisol, but the truth is quite the opposite. When not combined with chronic under-eating, aerobic exercise actually helps regulate appetite and lower baseline cortisol. But in the diet-focused world, anything that doesn’t directly suppress calories is seen as a threat.

This highlights a strange pattern in the industry: the very tools that could help people sustainably lose fat and heal their metabolism are dismissed, while approaches that harm long-term health are normalized and promoted. It’s a frustrating reality, and part of why I write articles like this.

Because if dieting to create a calorie deficit worked, wouldn't it have worked by now for everyone, long-term?

Study after study and millions of lived experiences show that over 90% of people regain the weight they lost on diets within two years, often gaining back even more. You can see this in the real world all the time: people lose weight, only to slowly gain it back.

What’s even more telling? This rebound weight gain happens at the same rate within the health and fitness industry. You’d be surprised (or maybe not) how many trainers, nutritionists, and influencers set out to “cut,” lose a bit of fat, stall, and then go in the opposite direction. Even people who live in the gym often struggle to get lean or just avoid being overweight using the same calorie-tracking and restriction methods they promote.

Watch closely, and you’ll see it: they’ll post about their fat loss progress during a cut. But when the results stall or reverse? Radio silence. I see it constantly and I remember who does it, even when they hope you don’t.

Mind you, these are disciplined, consistent individuals — people who train hard, move well, and stay committed to their routines. And yet, somehow, they can’t stick to the calorie deficit they claim is the key to fat loss?

So the questions become:

Is forcing a calorie deficit really a reliable or natural method for fat loss?

Is tracking every calorie even compatible with how the human body is designed to operate?

And when does it stop being about “discipline” and start being about a broken method?