The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast

172. Stop Chasing the Burn: What *Really* Impacts Your Calorie Burn + What to Focus on Instead

• Kristy Castillo

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Today’s episode was inspired by a super juicy question I got on Instagram (shoutout to Julie)! The question I knew I had to dive into here was: “Why do some people burn more calories than others?”


Our society definitely has an obsession with calorie burn AND fitness trackers. I don’t care if it’s your Apple Watch, Fitbit, or even my beloved Oura ring - NONE of them are giving you a perfect read on your calorie burn!


Your calorie burn is influenced by a variety of factors personal to YOU - muscle mass, metabolism, and stress & hormone levels are just a few. 


Continuously chasing calorie can actually work against you - especially if you have a goal of building muscle! 


So…if you’re in your muscle-building era (which I would LOVE to hear if you are), don’t sabotage it by trying to burn as many calories as possible. 


This episode is your permission slip to break free from the calorie-burn trap and chase goals that actually support YOUR body and life - I know you can do it!!


In this episode, we cover:

  • Realizing that your tracking device for calorie burn is NOT 100% accurate
  • Why your calorie burn is personal + influenced by multiple factors
  • Why chasing calorie burn isn’t an effective strategy for you
  • Choosing workouts you truly enjoy + can stay consistent with
  • Why working harder doesn’t always equal working smarter
  • Avoiding long-term calorie deficits


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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Un-Fuck-Your-Fitness Podcast. I am your host, Christy Castillo, and I'm here to give you real talk and cut the BS so you can actually enjoy building a body you love. I'm a personal trainer obsessed with giving you simple action steps to take you from feeling stuck to feeling sexy. Let's go. Hey guys, what's up?

Speaker 2:

Welcome to today's episode. I'm really excited to talk to you guys about this particular topic. It is coming from a question straight from Instagram, which I love talking to you over on Instagram. You already know this, and I love when I get specific questions and I have a couple backed up that I need to record. So please forgive me and stick with me, but this is a really good one that I felt fired up and excited to talk about. Not fired up in a spicy way, sorry to disappoint, just fired up in a way that I think this is really important and something that I enjoy talking about and I think that it's something as far as like comparison and things like that that we do and that will really make a big difference in how you view your journey. So I'm excited.

Speaker 2:

But this came from Julie, a friend on Instagram I hate to say, a follower on Instagram. It sounds so weird, but she follows me on Instagram. We've chatted a couple of times and she actually sent me a picture just not that long ago of some progress that she has made in her journey and was just telling me how the podcast has helped and just she's, you know, kept going and didn't really think she was making a ton of progress, but then decided to take some photos and realize that she is making a ton of progress. But then decided to take some photos and realize that she is making a ton of progress and shared that with me, and so I really appreciated that. And as I was scrolling back through our messages, she had asked me a question. I think it was like in January that I never. It was a podcast episode topic and, yeah, never got to it. So here I am, four months late, per usual.

Speaker 2:

But the question and what we're going to talk about was basically why someone, or why you, burn fewer calories than your friend. Why do some people burn more calories than someone else or less calories than someone else, even if they are? I mean, if someone is a different body size, right, like if there's a hundred pounds weight difference, then I think it's pretty obvious why someone is burning a different amount of calories, like if our bodies are drastically different. It makes sense. I don't think we would question that as much Like well, why are they burning 200 calories and I'm burning 50? I don't know if that's even possible, but there would be a big difference and it's, you know, obviously because of the amount of weight that a person has does make a big difference on how hard their body has to work and how many calories a person can burn during a workout.

Speaker 2:

But this particular question was why would someone why am I burning less than? She was basically asking why am I burning less calories than my friends that I work out with doing the same workout? And we're just about the same height, weight size, right. So I think that's really important because you know, if you're going to group classes and you're working out with other people and you're all comparing your watches after the class and looking at how many calories you've burned, or if you're just someone who stresses out about the calories that you've burned, and you know I have a lot of clients that are like well, I burn more calories during a cardio workout than I do in a weightlifting workout, so obviously I should be doing more cardio, right, and no, that's not necessarily true. So if you're, you know, the same workout, same size, same effort, but you're burning totally different amounts of calories and you're confused about it, you're not alone, because this is a question that I do get pretty often, so I'm surprised I haven't recorded an episode about it before, but I want to break down what really affects your calorie burn and why it's not just about the workout, and I also want to talk about whether or not you should be chasing those higher burn activities. So let's first of all talk about the fact that the device that you are using to track your calories burned during a workout is not 100% accurate. None of them are Not. Even my Oura ring that I love so much is not completely accurate, and I know that. So realize that no device you're using is completely accurate. I think the more you realize and accept that probably in the beginning, the more frustrated you're going to be, because we do put a lot of faith into these devices and we shouldn't but knowing that they're not completely accurate should actually help you to not be so focused on the calories themselves.

Speaker 2:

I remember doing Beachbody workouts, and this was back in the day when it was really cool to post a picture of your watch. When it was really cool to post a picture of your watch, you know you had your hand in there and your watch and maybe you positioned it perfectly so that your workout shoes were in the photo and you, you know, proved that I did my workout today and this is how many calories I burned, and active calories and total calories, and you know it was so cool to do that. I also remember forgetting to wear my Apple Watch one time during a workout and after my workout I looked down to see how many calories I burned and realized that I didn't have it on and almost did the workout again just so I could like post it, I guess, to share on social media, which is so insane when you think about it. But this is. I know that we can become, you know, kind of addicted to these things. Once I realized that my goal was to change the look of my body. My goal was to then change build muscle and lose fat, therefore changing the look of my body that it literally did not matter how many calories I burned during a workout, because the calories that you burn all day long is so much more than what you're going to burn during a workout. Like, the calories that you burn during a workout are so small and should be so small because it's a tiny portion of your day, so chasing that calorie burn isn't great right? So just a little bit of my thoughts there on calorie burn and devices, because they're not my favorite thing, we get really not even obsessed with them, just really attached to the numbers. And I don't like that. Because then the movement, because, like for me, I was going to redo that workout just to have it on my watch and make sure that my watch logged it so that everything was, you know, accurate for the day, because I was tracking my intake, and then I was tracking my output of calories, not my output of daily calories, just my output of calorie burn during my workouts, which, again, doesn't matter. It meant literally nothing to what I was tracking. I mean, that was such useless information but I didn't know that. But when you are a tracker right, you have these devices, you have, you know, you have whatever. You have your watch on you, you have your Fitbit on you, you have your Oura ring on you and you go to a workout class or you're lifting with a buddy, or you're going for a run with a friend and at the end you're checking your calorie burn and you're like, well, why the heck did she burn so many more than me? Like what the heck?

Speaker 2:

Why it's different from person to person is because of a couple different things. Your metabolism differences, your resting metabolic rate plays a big role, which is why it's so great to build muscle, so that your metabolism is therefore more efficient and you can then burn more calories. So your metabolic differences play a huge role in the amount of calories you will burn from person to person. Your muscle mass the more muscle you have on your body is the more energy used during that workout. So if you have more muscle mass on your body, your body has to work harder all day to maintain that muscle building and repairing. And then the more muscle you have on your body, also, the more energy used, the more calories used to support that muscle. So the makeup of your body whether it's fat or muscle mostly and it differs from person to person is also why that calorie burn varies from person to person. Your hormones, your stress levels and your sleep quality all contribute to that calorie burn as well.

Speaker 2:

Training experience and efficiency. Your body gets smarter the more that you do something. So if I am lifting weights with someone who's similar size than me, but I'm lifting let's say I'm squatting 95 pounds and that's pretty easy for me. But my friend doesn't have as much muscle mass. Her metabolism is not as good. She's also squatting that 95 pounds, but it's really fucking hard for her to do that, but it's really fucking hard for her to do that. She's then going to have to work harder to be able to lift that weight harder than I would. If you're just comparing squat to squat, she's probably lifting like working a lot harder to lift that. If it's not easy for her, it's easy for me, so I'm not working as hard. It's harder for her, so she's working harder. Therefore, the calorie burn, the output, is going to be different.

Speaker 2:

And then genetics yes, it matters. You can weigh the same, you can be the same height, all of the things but your genetics matter, how in shape you are. And then, yes, all of these other things matter too. So it's not just the workout. You can't just look at it as well. We're doing the same exact workout and we're both 130 pounds and we're both 5'2", and I understand that that's frustrating, but you have to think of the body composition, the hormones, the stress levels, muscle mass, metabolism, whether that workout was harder for her or you, and then just your genetics and how your makeup is. So there's a lot of things that come into play.

Speaker 2:

So let's also talk about why chasing that calorie burn isn't the best thing. Okay. So a high calorie burn doesn't equal better results. Just because you are looking at your watches and you're comparing and saying, oh, I burned 450 and the other person only burned 200. I'm so much better because I burnt more calories, it doesn't mean that you're going to get better results, because what does that even mean? And maybe you don't even know. Maybe you just think I don't know. I just thought it was cool that I was burning more calories than them. Or I was pissed that they were burning more calories than me and you don't even know why than them. Or I was pissed that they were burning more calories than me, and you don't even know why.

Speaker 2:

Think about that for a second. Okay, if you are the one burning more calories, but then you're not eating enough to repair your muscles, or you're not eating enough to give your body the energy that it needs, your body's going to store the fat regardless, because it needs it, and now you're just burning useless calories that don't even need to be burnt and your body's still not going to change. So it doesn't necessarily matter if you don't know what your goal is, if you're not specific about do I even want to burn more calories or am I trying to balance it out and live at maintenance here, right? Or am I trying to be in a surplus? Then you really don't want to burn more calories. So a higher calorie burn does not equal better results. Sweating does not equal better results. Being exhausted and super, super sore the next day doesn't equal results, and neither does a high calorie burn during your workouts.

Speaker 2:

Strength training may burn, usually does burn less during the workout. So if your friend is there doing, you know, running on the treadmill for an hour and you are there lifting weights, strength training for an hour, you are probably going to burn less calories than your friend during that hour. But the strength training pays off more over time because you're building muscle. The muscle has to repair itself, so you have more muscle mass on your body. Therefore, your body is burning more calories all day long, every single day, over weeks, over months. It pays off.

Speaker 2:

So, depending on what your goal is, is the answer to should you do more of that? Right, focusing on building lean muscle, improving your strength and feeling good, not just burning calories. So that's what I mean by it doesn't necessarily mean that you're getting better results, because what results are you even wanting to get by burning more calories. What do you think is going to happen if you burn more calories? Realistically, you probably think I'm going to lose weight, like I burned 400 calories today during this workout. That's a lot. That's a lot. That's so good. I'm probably going to lose weight Like I burned 400 calories today during this workout. That's a lot. That's a lot. That's so good. I'm probably going to lose weight. No, not necessarily, because maybe you're still eating too much. You don't know how to move your body. You have no muscle mass. You're just focusing on the calorie burn. So instead, focus on lean muscle, focus on improving strength and focusing on feeling good. So if you get to the end of the workout, you did the same exact weightlifting workout and your friend burnt more calories than you and you're feeling shitty about it. Think did you lift more? Did you lift more than her? Did you lift more than you did last week? Did you out-muscle yourself? Right? Think about those types of things and focus on those types of things because, honestly, that calorie burn to me it means very, very little to nothing.

Speaker 2:

I have not tracked my calorie burn during a workout in years, years and years and years. When I first got my Oura Ring, which was over like a year and a half ago. I would try, I would look at it. So I would go for a walk and then I would, you know, just to kind of experiment with my Oura Ring I would look at it and try to figure out like how many calories did I burn during that walk, how long was the walk, how many steps, just trying to figure it out. And then I would do the same thing for a workout. It would track my heart rate and all of that and it does tell me how many calories I burned during the workout. But I don't care, like it doesn't matter. So I did look at that a little bit when I first got my Oura Ring, like I said because. So I did look at that a little bit when I first got my Oura Ring, like I said, because I hadn't tracked in a while and I was curious. But it's most of my clients, my ladies, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2:

If you have something that does track your daily overall calorie output, that's nice, especially if you're tracking your daily calorie input. Neither one are going to be perfect, but if you can try to get them aligned and balanced, that's when you'll see the best results, whether you're trying to go for maintenance or whether you're trying to eat in a deficit. You'll see the best results whether you're trying to go for maintenance or whether you're trying to eat in a deficit. So if I know that my body burned 2,400 calories that day just living and going, hitting my steps and all the things, if that's what I burned and I only ate 2,000 calories that day, I know I'm in a 400 calorie deficit for that day anyway. Right, I have to do that over and over and over to be in a consistent deficit, but that's how I would know.

Speaker 2:

So should you do more of what burns more? So another question that Julie had on Instagram when she asked was I think and I don't have it in front of me and I should something like basically running hills or trail running burns more calories. Basically cardio burns more calories for her than a weightlifting workout does. So she was asking should I do more of what I know burns more calories? So if you're sprinting, for example, if you go out and run a mile straight, you start and finish. You just run a mile, doesn't matter. Slow, fast, you can see how many calories you burned If you do a mile of sprints. So you sprint 100, you walk a 100. You sprint a 100, you walk a 100. Maybe see then after that mile which one you burn more calories. I might actually do that soon to see, just to see where I'm at for calorie-wise too, just to see where my metabolism is.

Speaker 2:

So let's say you do that and you realize that you burn more sprinting, walking, sprinting, walking, sprinting walking. Then you would think, if you're only concerned with calories burned, that, oh, that's a better workout. I should do that workout, not necessarily. There's a couple of things that you want to think about, and just very simple things are if you enjoy the thing that burns more calories more than something that you hate and it doesn't burn as many, then yeah, if you enjoy it and it aligns with your goals, go ahead. But if not, you might be trading sustainability for some short-term numbers.

Speaker 2:

So if you are, you know, let's say in this example and this is not what Julie was saying in this message but let's say she's working out with her friends lifting weights, she burns 200 calories, but she goes for a run, sprinting hill, work, whatever, and she burns like 400. So she's like well, I'm not lifting weights anymore, this is stupid, I'm just going to run because I'm burning more calories. Well, is that sustainable? Do you enjoy it? And if your goal is to build muscle, then you're not even gonna get to your goal. So it might not be sustainable, you might not enjoy it. And if your goal is muscle, then you're not gonna put on muscle. Then what is the point? The point that's not good. There is no point. Then, right, it's like sometimes we don't think it all the way through.

Speaker 2:

So the best workout is one you can show up to consistently and recover from properly and do that and like, maintain that, not forever, but I'm going to say forever. Okay, for as long. Like, honestly, I'm just going to say forever, even though I don't actually mean that you're going to have to do that. You know, when you're 95 years old, you're obviously not doing these things. But like, that's how I like to look at things. Like, can I do this consistently or is this something I just want to implement to? Yes, burn 200 more calories a day. That way I can continue eating the same. I can do this mile, you know, sprint work and I burn an extra 200 calories a day. That puts me in a 200 200 calorie deficit. And I didn't change anything else. My steps are the same, my lifting is the same, my food's the same, but I added in this sprint work and it's 200 calories a day and I can do that every other day for 12 weeks and I've got myself in a little bit of a cut and then I'm going to stop.

Speaker 2:

So if you have a plan and you have a purpose and you have a goal, then it's fine to maybe add on those extra calories. But in her example she was talking about in the message, like my goal is to build muscle and be stronger, so should I do this activity that is causing me to burn more calories? And the answer to that question is no. You should not do something that is having you burn more calories. If your goal is muscle building Not right now, not while that's the goal anyway While your goal is to build muscle, you should be eating at maintenance or in a slight surplus and you should be worried about your calories just being that, just maintenance calories. You don't want to be in a deficit, you don't want to chase the calorie burn. You just want to show up and do the things that are going to get you to your goal. And if your goal is muscle building, then you don't want to be running necessarily.

Speaker 2:

Now, sprinting is better at building muscle than just jogging a mile, because it does recruit those fast twitch muscle fibers and you know, if you look at a sprinter's body, it's much more muscular than a distance runner's body. So there is some truth to saying, okay, yeah, if you do want to build muscle, you could sprint Absolutely. But in the example she was talking about where the question is, you know, I'm lifting with my friends and they're building or they're burning more calories. Why is that? So we answered that. And then should I do more of these activities that burn more calories instead of the ones that burn less? No, you shouldn't. You should honestly be doing what you enjoy and what aligns with your goals, period, and then you should tweak your steps and you should tweak your food to align with that. Because if we're not, if we're only worried about calorie burn and we're only worried about those trivial things, it's not going to work because it's not aligned with your goals anyways.

Speaker 2:

So I thought this was a really, really good topic, because I do find that there's a lot of group classes out there where people are just chasing that number and your number is going to be different. And I remember those days. I remember it was in my Beachbody days, like I said. So you know I would have accountability coaches and you know other coaches that did Beachbody with me and we would all be doing the same workout program and we would be posting our the same workout program and we would be posting our calorie burn for the day. And I remember thinking, well, why are we all burning a different amount of calories if we're all doing the same workout? They must be doing something extra. They must be doing something different. I have to work harder. This isn't fair and in reality, I just didn't know what the hell I was doing, to be honest. So I think this is a really, really good conversation and since we've been on the conversation of body recomp lately, this ties right into it because we have learned over the years somewhere.

Speaker 2:

I don't know if we've been taught on purpose. I always say this. I don't know if we've been taught on purpose or if we just kind of gathered. I think a lot of it just is like well, if I want to lose weight, I need to work harder. If I want to burn more calories, I need to work harder, and calorie burn equals weight loss. You know, we have that in our heads and I guess it you know. When you say it like, yeah, calorie burn equals weight loss, I mean it should you know. You say it like that and you think, yeah, that tracks, that sounds right, but sounds right, but it's not. That's not right.

Speaker 2:

And so this is why it's so important that I talk about these things on here and cut the BS for you, and it's also important that I teach this to my clients. I don't just want to be a coach that holds you accountable and makes you do the thing. I want you to know these facts so you can start to change your mindset, like I was talking about in the last few body recomp episodes. Because you have to change your mindset because if you are continuously chasing calorie burn, you're going to continuously be chasing weight loss and weight gain and weight loss and weight gain. That's going to be the cycle that you're stuck in, whereas if you pivot and you think I have to gain muscle right now, I'm in a muscle building era. This is my muscle building time. I have to gain muscle right now, so I have to eat right and gain muscle. Then, when you go into a cut or a deficit, you can pivot and say, okay, my goal is not to build muscle right now, my goal is to maintain my muscle and I want to burn a shit ton of calories so that I can lose some fat, lose some weight only for six weeks and then I'm going to go back to maintenance and build more muscle, because if I continue living in a calorie deficit, that's not going to work.

Speaker 2:

On that note and I've been talking to a lot of clients about this, let's chat about that for a minute and this kind of yeah, this goes along with the episode this kind of is going to be out of left field, but this is a situation that and it could be caused from, honestly, this obsessive calorie burn which I think we've gotten into kind of our whole lives you think if you work out and you burn more calories, you'll lose weight and if you eat less calories you'll lose weight. Well, what happens is, if you eat less calories and let's just do that, let's not even talk about the calorie burn during a workout or anything If you eat less calories, so you're going on a diet, right, we start to eat less calories If your body's used to living on I don't know. Let's say 2000 calories and you're not. Maybe you're not tracking them, them, maybe you know this is before you heard about macros. You're not tracking anything. You're just eating like a, like a normal quote, unquote, normal human right. You're just eating and then you've realized, oh my god, I've gained 20 to 30 pounds. I'm overweight. I hate my body. I've got to cut out all this fast food and cut out all this processed food and start to eat clean and blah blah. Eat clean and blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2:

So your body is used to living on, let's say, 2,000 calories when you're not paying attention. All of a sudden, you cut your calories to 1,200 calories. You're like I heard 1,200 calories is good, I'm going to starve myself and eat 1,200 calories. Well, gradually, your metabolism is used to 2,000 calories, because you weren't given a shit and you were just living. But that's where your metabolism was. Your metabolism was up here, trying to use all of those 2000 calories. It couldn't because you weren't moving enough and you weren't active enough. So it was trying though. Okay, so your metabolism's up here at 2000 calories.

Speaker 2:

You start to eat 1200 calories and slowly, yes, you're like oh my God, this is working, I'm losing weight. I'm losing weight. I'm losing weight so amazing, feeling great, looking good. Actually, you're not probably feeling great, you're probably feeling really hungry. You probably feel like shit. But you're thinking, oh, this is working. 1,200 calories works, this is it, this is the end, all be all. I figured it out. This works.

Speaker 2:

Your metabolism is slowly decreasing, decreasing, decreasing, and eventually your metabolism has now come down to 1200 calories and you're like, oh, I hit a plateau, now I have to cut even more, because now your maintenance, your body, is only functioning on 1200 calories and your metabolism has slowed down and now it's only using 1200 calories. So now you're screwed, because now your maintenance is 1200 calories, when it was 2000. You could have just kept it at 2,000 and started lifting and walking more, maybe doing a little bit in between, maybe between 1,200 and 2,000. But no, you went straight for 1,200. So now your metabolism is caught up. Now, instead of 2,000 being your maintenance calories, now 1,200 is your maintenance calories. Now you have to go into and now you're eating 800 calories because you need a new deficit. So now you're eating 800 calories and, yes, you are starving and you are so hungry. You know this can't be sustainable, but you're losing weight again and you're losing weight. And you're losing weight for a while, your metabolism again tanking, tanking, tanking. And now, if you let it get there, your metabolism will now have died down to 800 calories. That's what happens. So your deficit calories are not your deficit calories. Long term, your deficit calories have to only be six, eight, 12 weeks max, because then we need to start eating more to get your metabolism to keep guessing and move back up. So I hope that really helps.

Speaker 2:

If you are someone who is obsessed with chasing the calorie burn and obsessed with these calories and obsessed with eating less and all of that, think about that when you're doing those things, your metabolism is going to catch up, it's going to slow down.

Speaker 2:

Your body's goal is to keep you alive by basically doing the least amount possible. Right, and that's what's going to happen. And we want to keep your maintenance higher. That's why you go down and you crash 1,200 calories and then you're like, oh my God, I can't do this anymore. Then you start eating more and your metabolism's like whoa, I'm only ready for 1200 calories and you're giving me 2000 again. I have to store this as fat. That's why you gain fat. That's why you gain your weight back plus some, because your metabolism is so screwed up. Your body doesn't trust you. That's why this body recomp slow and steady journey is so freaking good, and that's why I'm obsessed with it, and that's why we're talking about it so much so freaking good, and that's why I'm obsessed with it and that's why we're talking about it so much. So I hope this episode was really really helpful, as I hope they all are, and I will talk to you in the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to today's show. Go ahead and leave a rating and a review and, of course, follow the podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes. And I would love it so much if you came to connect with me over on Instagram at Christy Castillo Fit. I will see you next time. Bye.