How many calories are in a pound of body weight? It’s a question health experts had been asking for years. In 1958, they finally got an answer. The 3,500-calorie rule has been influencing nutrition trends ever since, but there’s a problem. Despite being one of the most popular rules of weight loss for decades, losing weight isn’t actually quite so simple.
Northside Hospital Orthopedics registered dietitian Lauren Cicinelli — a specialist in sports performance, weight management and body composition changes — broke down why the 3,500-calorie rule isn’t a great way to think about weight loss.
What is the 3,500-calorie rule?
The 3,500-calorie rule can be traced back to a landmark paper penned by Dr. Max Wishnofsky in the late ‘50s, the “Caloric Equivalents of Gained or Lost Weight.” In it, Wishnofsky attempted to answer a question: “What caloric deficit will determine a loss of one pound of body weight?” His answer — approximately 3,500 calories — has influenced nutrition for decades, with his paper cited thousands of times throughout scientific literature.
“One pound of stored body fat is about 3,500 calories,” Cicinelli said. “On the flip side, our body isn't a perfect math problem.”
Why the 3,500-calorie rule is a myth
If weight loss was a simple math problem, creating a 500-calorie deficit every day would lead to 3,500 more calories being burned than consumed every week. This would then translate to a pound of lost weight every seven days. It doesn’t, but why?
"If we create a 500-calorie-a-day deficit, it doesn't automatically mean that we're going to lose a pound of body fat a week,” she said. “Our body is really smart, and it adapts.”
One of the primary issues with the 3,500-calorie rule is that — as research has since pointed out — the body’s energy output is not a constant rate.
“Our energy expenditure —how much we're actually using each day — tends to decrease a little bit,” Cicinelli said. “We don't have an exact number of how much that decreases. It probably depends on a lot of different factors.”
From resting metabolic rate to non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), weight loss is dictated by many more variables than just the calories.
“This is why someone who tries to follow this myth is going to find they're not losing as much weight as they'd like to,” she said.
A healthier way to eat
If the 3,500-calorie rule is not a great way to lose weight, what is? Counting calories is not enough.
“Because if we are eating not great food to begin with and we just reduce how much not great food we're eating, that doesn't really make us healthier on the other side,” she said. “Whereas if we're incorporating nutritious foods that have vitamins, minerals, fiber, a variety of protein, carbs and healthy fats, that's going to not only help us from a weight perspective potentially but also improve our health.”
A healthier diet filled with weight loss potential starts with a well-balanced plate.
“One of the big things that I recommend with almost all of my patients is using the plate method,” she said.
Half of your plate each meal should have non-starchy vegetables, a quarter of the plate should have a protein and the final quarter should have carbohydrates.
"From there, we adjust based on that person's individual needs, but that's our starting point so that we know we're getting lots of fiber, vitamins and minerals,” Cicinelli said. “We're still getting the protein and carbs. We're not cutting anything out, but we have a good balance of nutrients there.”
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