How many calories should I burn a day to lose weight?

From my experience a lot of people hesitate to even try and lose weight because they don’t know from where to start. They know that they should go on a diet and exercise regime but the lack of measurable goals creates uncertainty and this leads to failure before to even begin! To bypass this problem and have clear goals on what you want to achieve, you can start your weight loss process by doing some simple calorie calculations. By calculating how many calories you should be eating per day and how many calories you should be burning per day, you can have a better picture about your daily calorie needs and a rough estimate as to when you will be able to reach your ideal weight.

Before getting into the mathematical part let me explain some basic weight loss concepts that will help you understand what these numbers mean. You do not have to keep a pen and paper because our daily calorie calculator will do the hard part.

When do you lose weight?

There are many factors that affect how much weight you can lose (and when) but in its simplest form weight loss will occur when the calories you burn are more than the calories you consume.  Food and drinks (think diet) are the only sources for calories you consume while exercise, physical activity and other body factors affect the rate you burn calories. So if you manage to control these 2 sources and create a calorie deficit you will eventually start losing weight.

How many calories are in a pound?

Let’s add one more parameter to our equation which is 1 pound of fat = 3500 calories aprx. This means that if you consume 3500 more calories than what you burn in a period of time you will gain one pound but if you manage to burn 3500 more calories than you consume you will lose 1 pound.

What is my daily calorie requirement?

Many studies have found that in general women need 1500-2000 kcal to maintain their current weight and for men the range goes to 2000-2500 Kcal. This number is also known as the Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR). In essence this figure gives you the number of calories your body needs on a daily basis in order to function properly.

Note: This is not how many calories you consume per day but how many calories your body needs to function.

Daily calorie needs to maintain current weight = BMR x Activity Factor

For example if your BMR is 1600 and you are lightly active during the day then your daily calorie requirements are: 1600 x 1.375 = 2200 kcal per day. 2200 calories are needed so that you maintain your current weight. If you want to lose weight you should be consuming less than 2200 calories per day and if you want to gain weight you should be consuming more than 2200 calories per day.

How many calories to eat if you want to lose weight?

Before getting into a real example of how to calculate the calories you should be eating per day for weight loss let me say that this is only an estimate and it is not guaranteed that by following this number you will lose or gain weight. There are many other factors involved in losing weight and the number of calories you consume is just one of the elements and since it is easy to calculate you can use it as your starting point.

Let’s assume that you need to lose 5lb in 2 months, this is how you calculate the amounts of calories to eat per day:

Step 1: Calculate your BMR and daily calorie needs

After using our BMR and daily calorie calculator you found that: BMR is 1800 calories and daily calorie needs are 2000 kcal.

Step 2: Calculate the calories you want to lose

You want to lose 5lb which is aprx 17500 calories (1lb of fat is 3500 calories)

Step 3: Calculate how many calories you need to save per day

Your goal is not lose 5lb in 2 months. Doing some basic calculations you can find out that 17500 calories in 2 months is about 8750 calories per month or 2187 per week or 313 kcal per day. So in theory, if you manage to save 313 calories per day you will lose 5lb in 2 months

Step 3: Subtract the number of calories you need to save per day (Step 3 above) from your daily calorie needs (step 1 above)

Daily Calorie needs – Calorie savings per day = 2000 – 313 = 1687 kcal per day. This is the number of calories you need to eat per day if you want to lose 5lb in 2 months!

How many calories to burn per day if you want to lose weight?

Since you know the number of calories you should be eating per day, you can use a calorie counter to calculate the amount of calories you actually eat (or drink) on a daily basis and find out the amount of calories you need to burn via exercise if you want to lose weight.

Hint: You can use our Free Calorie Counter to keep count of your meals and activities.

For example if you are consuming  1800 calories per day and in order to lose weight you need to consume only 1687 calories per day (as calculated above) then this means that you should burn 113 kcal per day by doing exercise.

What you should know when doing your calculations

1. When you start a diet or weight loss program you will not only lose fat. Especially at the beginning you will lose water weight and in some cases you may also lose muscle. So the results in the first few weeks may be misleading.
2. When you make sudden or drastic changes to your diet the body will try to adapt by lowering the metabolic rate. In other words it enters a protective mode by reducing the number of calories it needs per day. As a result weight loss may slow down, here is how to lose weight and keep it off.
3. The absolute minimum amount of calories you can consume per day is 1000-1100 kcal. It is not recommended to go beyond this number for any reason.
4. The recommended weight to lose per week is between 1 – 1.5 pounds. Anything above that can have other implications to your health and normal body functioning.
5. Do not forget that drinks also carry calories so make sure that you include drinks in your daily calorie calculations. You can read our article on the 5 best healthy weight loss drinks that work to find out which drinks are ‘weight loss friendly’.
6. You can use a technique called “calorie cycling” to make the process easier to follow. This means that once you calculate your daily calorie needs you can go above and below this range on different days of the week. If for example you daily kcal needs are 1700 you can choose to go above this number on Monday and Wednesday and below this number the rest days of the week but try to avoid exaggerations. You can also read about carb cycling to access if this is something you want to try for your diet.
7. Make sure that you give correct measurements for your weight and height when calculating your BMR.
8. Do not lie about your activity level but try to be as accurate as possible.
9. Do not decrease your daily calorie intake by more than 500 kcal per day. Better expand the time period. Reducing your intake by 500 kcal is a lot and very difficult to follow for a long time.
10. Always consult your doctor or dietician before making any changes to your diet or exercise routine.

As explained above you can use these calculations to give you an idea where you stand and how much effort you need to make until you meet your goals and target weight. Weight loss depends on a lot more factors and calculating the calories you need per day is just your starting point.

Comment below if you found this helpful, and let me know if you have any tips to burn calories.



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How Many Calories Should You Eat to Lose Weight?

Flummoxed by what you need to eat to lose weight? We can explain it all for you, as well as how to exercise to drop those kilos.

It doesn't matter how many kilograms you want to lose, whether you're trying to shed 5kg or 50kg the way to get there is exactly the same.

Remember the simple weight-loss mantra: calories in versus calories out.

In other words, the number of calories you eat has to be smaller than the number of calories you burn in order for you to lose weight.

How Many 'Calories In' to Lose Weight?

One of the first questions people embarking on a weight-loss journey ask is: exactly how much should I eat a day to lose weight?

12WBT's experts suggest that women eat 1200 calories a day and men eat 1800 a day when they're trying to lose weight.

For women, that means three 300-calorie meals and a total of 300 calories in snacks during the day, whereas for men meals can be 450 calories each, with snacks adding up to 450 in total.

Even if you're feeling extra motivated and want to fast-track your weight loss, don't be tempted to eat less than the recommended amount of calories a day.

If you go too low, your body might think you're trying to starve it and it could hold on to fat stores as energy reserves, which will actually slow down your efforts to lose weight.

Plus, you need enough energy (in other words, calories) to get through all the intense workouts you'll be doing!

You can either count your own calories using a calorie calculator or sign up to 12WBT to receive meal plans with all the calories calculated for you.

If you choose to count calories on your own, keeping a food diary is a must.

While you might think you've taken into account all your meals and snacks, it's easy to forget the calories in those little extras you can consume over the course of the day without even realising it.

Extras include your morning coffee (milk and sugar have calories!), the two chocolates your work colleague offered you and the packet of nuts you found in your car when you were driving home from work - and the calories from healthy foods like nuts still need to be counted.

Even if you've developed some healthy eating habits and are cooking healthy recipes, you need to make sure you're not over-eating.

Any extra calories can make a huge difference when you're trying to lose weight.

Keep in mind that as you lose weight, your calories need to decrease.

Think of your body as being like a delivery truck: the heavier the load, the more fuel it needs - but as it makes its deliveries and the load lessens, so does the required amount of fuel.

That means that as you get lighter, you'll feel more satisfied with less food and therefore fewer calories.

How Many 'Calories Out' to Lose Weight?

Now for the second part of the equation: calories out. In other words, burning calories through exercise.

Aim for four or five workouts a week during which you burn 400 to 800 calories (or 600 to 1000 calories if you weigh more than 100kg) and an extra-big Saturday workout in which you torch 1000 calories (or more if you weigh more than 100kg).

These calorie numbers should be a bare minimum for men - don't be afraid to burn even more!

The important thing for both men and women is to give each workout your 100 per cent best effort and walk away knowing you emptied your tank.

The harder you work, the more calories you'll burn and the quicker the fat will melt off. So forget all those excuses and push your calorie-burning to the limit!

How Quickly Will I Lose Weight?

The speed at which you lose weight depends on a number of factors, including your age, gender, height, current weight, proportion of lean muscle mass, current level of fitness, the amount and type of exercise you do, the intensity with which you exercise, and more.

But as a general rule, you can expect to lose 0.5kg to 1.5kg per week if you weigh less than 100kg; 1.5kg to 3kg per week if you weigh between 100kg and 129kg; and 1.5kg to 5kg a week if you weigh more than 130kg.

It's worth noting that losing weight at this moderate rate means it is much more likely to stay off than if you were to try to lose it quickly on a very low-calorie diet that slashes your calorie intake to drastically low levels.

Calories and the Weight-Loss Plateau

You might find that you hit a weight-loss plateau, but don't let that discourage you.

It's just because the calories you're burning through exercise now balance the calories you're consuming.

In that case, mix up your exercise by increasing the intensity of your cardio or increasing the weights or number of reps in any strength training you're doing.

You'll find your calorie burning goes up, but whatever you do, stick to your 1200-calorie-a-day eating plan (or 1800 calories for men) while you wait to start losing weight again.

In the end, your dedication and perseverance will pay off when you achieve your goal weight and you can finally look in the mirror and feel proud of the person who's looking back at you. Don't give up!

As always guys, comment below! Let me know what you think! Did you find this helpful? Do you calorie count? How has it worked for you so far? Let me know :)


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How Food Diaries Work

I don't know why frosted cinnamon rolls call my name from behind glass bakery counters, or why, even as I write this, I can't stop obsessing about the leftover pizza in the kitchen just a few yards from my desk. Introspection has its limits, though — you can try to understand why you overeat, but sometimes it's more useful to figure out how to keep yourself from doing it. Zorba the Greek overcame his cravings for cherries by gorging on them until he got sick. I settled on a less indulgent approach to shed my food obsessions: I started a food journal.

The point wasn't just for reminiscence. A food journal is a confession; you tell the truth about eating half a pizza for breakfast because, well, you always know when you're lying. Journaling felt weird at first — I had a hard time even remembering what I had eaten by the end of each day — but after just one month of telling all to my food diary, I had dropped five pounds. It turns out lots of people lose weight this way. A new study by Kaiser Permanente in the August issue of theAmerican Journal of Preventive Medicine confirms what my own self-study suggested: among dieters who were trying to lose weight, those who wrote down everything they ate lost twice as much as those who did not.

I'm no fan of self-deprivation. I drink gimlets, eat cookies and wolf down the occasional late night snack. And while regular exercise has made me fitter, it hasn't made me thinner. Like many people past their 20s, I'm about 15 lbs. heavier than I was as a teenager. I'm not fat (my body mass index is normal), but I'd still like to drop a few pounds. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to look like Posh Spice — who is rumored to nibble on frozen grapes as a treat — but I don't want to look like Oprah either.

Losing those five pounds may not sound like much, but it was a personal triumph for me. It wasn't the first time I'd set my mind to losing weight, but it was the first time I actually succeeded. Where sheer willpower and daily exercise had failed, writing it all down worked like a charm.

Here's the best part about keeping a food journal: I never felt like I was on a diet, and I never had to rule out any specific foods. I didn't cut out carbs altogether, but I got better at remembering to replace bread with fruit and vegetables for at least one meal a day. I ate less meat and less junk food. I felt absolutely virtuous as I scribbled down every healthy ingredient in my salads and wrote the word "small" to describe the slice of blueberry pie I had on the Fourth of July (and the two pieces of cornbread I had for breakfast last Saturday).

Self-indulgence may have worked for Zorba, but moderation is my secret ingredient. I'm eating healthier without resorting to some extreme menu plan. And I've never really blown it — not even once — since I started my journal in June. Sure there are moments when I'd love to gobble down "11 chocolate chip cookies and a pint of ice cream for dessert," but I just can't bring myself to have to write that down after listing my healthy salad. Maybe it's a kind of self-brainwashing (salad = good), but it works. And I bet many of the diarists in the Kaiser Permanente study kept their mouths closed for the same reason.

So grab a pen and start taking notes. It may not be as fun as stuffing yourself with cherries, but I promise you'll feel a whole lot better afterwards.

Source
http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1821349,00.html

Almond milk — Best milk for weight loss

The creamy nutty flavoured almond milk has become a popular beverage for those who avoid dairy because they are lactose intolerant or simply because they are vegan. Almond milk contains the same amount of essential minerals as whole milk and skimmed milk but offer greater benefits, especially when it comes to weight loss. Let us look at factors that make almond milk acceptable as a part of a weight-loss diet.

Has fewer calories

For effective weight loss, it is necessary that you eat fewer calories than you burn through your daily activities. Opting for unsweetened almond milk over whole milk or skimmed milk will help you achieve this. A glass of unsweetened almond milk contains only 43 calories which is half of the calories found in skimmed milk. Find out thenumber of calories in different types of milk.

Contains healthy fats

Almond milk is lower in fat than cow’s milk.  A cup of unsweetened almond milk contains only 3.5g of fat. However; it may contain a higher percentage of fat than skimmed milk. But the good news is that the fat present in almond milk is unsaturated and thus there is no reason to avoid it. Foods high in unhealthy or saturated fats can increase your abdominal fat that may surround your vital organs. Follow these 5 tips to burn belly fat. Almond milk is also low in cholesterol and can be an appropriate milk substitute for those on a heart-healthy diet.

Low in carbohydrates

A low carb diet is always recommended for weight loss. If you are following a low-carbohydrate diet, almond milk would be a better choice as it contains only 2 grams of carbohydrate per cup compared to skimmed milk which contains 12 grams. Being low in carbohydrate it can also improve your triglyceride or high-density lipoprotein or good cholesterol levels in your body. Here are 5 carbs that can actually help you lose weight.

Rich in vitamins

Most of the almond milk products found in the market are supplemented with vitamins A, D and B12. Vitamin B12 plays a vital role in your body metabolism which in turn can burn calories and help you lose weight. Vitamins A and D play a direct role in performing physiological functions and also helps in the development of the central nervous system.

Tips:

• Almond milk is available in grocery stores in a variety of flavours and brands. While purchasing almond milk, make sure that you buy the unsweetened one as the sweetened almond milk contains added sugar and is higher in both carbohydrates and calories.
• Also, do not opt for flavoured almond milk as it can contain as much as 90 calories per cup.

Source
http://www.thehealthsite.com/fitness/almond-milk-best-for-weight-loss-ta0215/