How Many Calories To Lose Weight

Counting calories is a popular method of losing weight. The intention is to burn more calories than

you eat, and therefore lose weight. Of course, there is no definite number that everyone should eat

each day, and therefore no special number which we need to cut back on in order to feel the burn

and lose weight. The essential figure to consider when calorie counting is the amount of calories you

need to consume each day in order to maintain your weight as it is. This may involve a few sums,

but once you have that figure, you can work out the amount you want to reduce.

In order to work out the amount you need to maintain your present weight, you first need to work

out your BMR. There are many ways that you figure this out online, and it should not take you very

long. Once you have done this, then you need to work out how much activity you do during an

average day. If you are sedentary, times your BMR by 1.2, If you are slightly active, times it by

1.375. If you are moderately active (if, you do exercise most days a week) then times it by 1.55. If

you are even more active than that, times the BMR by 1.725, and if you perform hard labor, or are

involved in competitive sport, times the BMR by 1.9.

You may need to fetch a calculator at this point.

For example, a woman weighing 200 pounds

may have a BMR of 1675 and be very inactive,

so she would times her BMR by two, and

produce a result of 3350. This figure is the

amount of calories the woman would need to

consume if she wanted to stay at the weight she is

now.

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Once you have worked out how many calories

you need in order to keep your weight the same,

you can then start to cut back your intake in order

to lose weight. It is considerably healthier to cut

back the amount of calories you eat a little bit at a time. This is also dependent upon how much

weight you want to lose. Guidelines recommend that you should loose no more than 2 pounds each

week, and it is probably better in the long term if you only aim for one pound. Each pound is the

equivalent of 3,500 calories, which conveniently mean that reducing your intake by 500 calories a

day will lose one pound a week through diet alone.

You can lose these 500 calories purely by cutting them from your diet, or you could lose 250 from

your intake, and then burn 250 calories thought exercise. You should take into consideration how

much you exercise, as well as what you eat, and record it all in a diary. This is not there to reveal

how little you did on a certain day; it is an account of each little step you take towards losing each

pound at the end of the week.

You should try and keep your calorie reduction even: so if you can’t exercise one day, don’t be

tempted to cut back more rigorously on your eating the day after. It is far more important to

consistently lose weight, even if it is only a little, than punish yourself for small infractions. With

the latter policy, you are likely to give up before you have even reached your goal.

Once you start losing weight, you also need to remember to revise your BMR and weight loss plan.

The calorie cutback which was suitable for weight loss in a 200-pound woman will not have the

same effect on a woman who now weighs 180 pounds. If you find yourself reaching a plateau,

where you care no longer losing, consider checking your BMR – you may find yourself pleasantly

surprised.