Most people do not associate math with dieting. However, when it comes down to it, in most cases, weight loss is about first figuring out how many calories a person needs in order to function and then how many must be burned in order to lose weight. In this article, we will discuss how to determine how many calories you need each day.
Your individual caloric requirements will be dependent on how old you are, how tall you are, your sex (whether you are male of female) and activity level. If you are taller and have a bigger built, then you will likely need more calories then someone who is built more slightly.
Your activity level will also determine how many calories you need. Individuals who only engage in light activity (roughly 30 minutes one time a week), will need to be more cognizant of how many calories they consume. On the other hand, if a person works out moderately or a even great deal, they will be able to get away with eating more. This is one of the primary benefits of working out on a regular basis. It allows persons to “cheat” a little bit more and follow a diet that is more realistic. A diet that is not incredibly restrictive is more likely to be stuck to then one that requires that you eat very little.
Men and women will obviously have varying caloric needs. Men are able to eat more food then women and get away with it. This is largely because they have faster burning metabolisms and more muscle. The more muscle mass that a person has, the more calories they will naturally burn.
There are a number of ways to determine just how many calories you should eat each day. Once you figure out this number, you will be able to calculate how many you need to cut out in order to lose weight. Remember, you need to burn 3500 calories in order to lose 1 pound.
The first way to calculate how many calories you need to consume is to add together your basal metabolic rate, thermic food effect and the energy you exert during physical exercise. This can be a rather difficult calculation so we will skip it in this article. It is a little beyond the scope of this brief post. If you want to figure out how to do this, you can find accurate information online or you can use a calorie calculator, which is a pretty reliable shortcut.
Another simple way to figure out how much you can eat each day and maintain your weight or lose weight is to multiply your weight by either 14, 17 or 20. If you do not exercise at all, then you will use the figure 14. If you engage in moderate activity, you will multiply your weight by 17 and 20 if you are extremely active. These calculations will give you a pretty good number to work with.
Here is an example of how this number can be useful. If you weigh 150 pounds and do not work out, you would be able to eat about 2100 (150 lbs x 14) calories. If you want to lose 2 pounds in one week, you would need to decrease your caloric intake by 7000 (3500 x 2) for that week. This would require that you cut out 1000 calories a day or consume 1100 calories. This is an extremely low number and is unsafe. A better plan would be to cut out about 500 in food intake and then exercise every day in order to burn 500 additional calories. This would enable you to lose the weight that you want without starving.
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