Here is Everything You Need To Know About Nutrition And Weight Loss. This is gonna be a doozy... but you need to know it. I have written about this a bit before... but this is the expanded version. Here we go.. Concept 1: Food is energy and nutrients. All the food and drinks you consume contain two main things: Calories and nutrients. Calories are the energy found in the food. That energy is what keeps you alive and why we have to eat. That energy is what lets your heart beat and your lungs breathe and your legs move. The nutrients in your food are what allow your body to perform specific functions. Those nutrients are what allow your body to make energy and the material you need to make new cells. Concept 2: You need enough, but not too much. Your body is like everything else in the universe, meaning it is governed by the laws of physics.That means your body needs energy coming in to keep it functioning (energy going out). If you have too much energy going in your body gains mass (weight). This can be good or bad depending on the context. If you have too little energy going in your body loses mass (weight). This can be good or bad depending on the context. To gain or lose weight you need to find the right net negative or net positive. Concept 3: The best way to change your weight is to make an educated guess and track your energy intake. Look… here is the deal. If you live outside of a scientific laboratory the best way to change your weight is to do the following 3 steps: 1) Make the best guess you can about what your body expends in a day. This is what our calculator does 2) Track your energy intake (calories) very closely for a few weeks, preferably 4-6 weeks and see if your body weight changes in the direction you want to go. 3) If it is going in the right direction, keep doing that. If it isn’t, adjust your calorie intake up or down a few hundred calories and keep going. Repeat this exercise. Concept 4: Energy is priority but nutrients matter. Remember how food has energy (calories) and nutrients? Well there are two main kind of nutrients and they are divided based on two criteria: whether they provide energy or not and how large of quantities we consume them in. Macronutrients is the first type. These contain calories and are consumed in the order of magnitude of ~10 grams to 1000 grams. Protein and carbs are 4 calories per gram. Fat is 9 calories per gram. Micronutrients is the second type. These do not contain calories and are consumed in quantities <5 grams and down to micrograms. Micronutrients may not provide energy but they are the oil to your engine. If you don’t get enough, the engine blows up. Concept 5: Energy out mattersYou can lower your energy intake down to zero if you want to lose weight but that isn’t a great idea. Your energy expenditure matters a lot. In fact, if you look at the scientific data behind why people lose weight and maintain weight loss, it is because they increase their energy output along with controlling their energy intake. This doesn’t mean you HAVE to exercise. It just means you have to increase your activity… so yes, you can just walk. Concept 6: Exercise is not about burning calories, but it does burn calories. Look… your 60 minutes in the gym represents ~5-10% of your daily calorie expenditure. Which CAN make a difference for weight loss… but the better way to look at it is that burning calories is just the price you pay to exercise.What exercise actually does is provide signals for your body to adapt.You want stronger bones, load them with weights.You want a more efficient heart, practice using it at a higher capacity by doing cardio.You want 22 in arms, curl in the squat rack. Exercise is about adaptation… movement is about burning calories. Concept 7: Calorie deficits are easy. Behavior is complicated.Here is the truth. You can lose weight following any sort of diet you can imagine if its in a deficit. You wanna lose 60 pounds eating 5 Twinkies a day. You can do that… but it is