The number of calories you need on a daily basis is determined by your gender, height and weight. A formula known as basal metabolic rate (BMR) calculates the number of calories you’d burn if you remained completely inactive for an entire day. This number amounts to the calories you need just to maintain your current weight. According to Discovery Health, your BMR decreases every year, meaning that as you age, you require fewer calories to maintain the same amount of weight. Some moderate exercise, however, can increase your BMR.
Step 1
Determine how many calories you should consume each day to maintain a healthy weight. Go to a website like the Calorie Counter Calculator at Cancer.org (see Resources). Type in your age, weight and gender. The number returned to you is the total number of calories you should consume each day based on the factors mentioned above along with your activity level.
Step 2
Count your daily calorie intake. In a diary, record all the food you eat. Go to a website like the USDA National Nutrient Database, which lists thousands of different fresh and packaged foods and beverages. It even offers calorie information based on how you prepare your food, for example, whether you ate fried chicken or roasted chicken.
Step 3
Cut certain foods from your diet. If your daily calorie intake is more than the number of calories you should consume, begin making simple sacrifices. Avoid eating empty calories. Diet Bites, a weight-loss website, explains that empty calories refer to snacks, prepackaged foods and beverages loaded with sodium and sugar and very little nutritional value. In other words, junk foods and soft drinks are high in calories but offer few, if any, vitamins and other nutritional essentials your body needs for energy and basic functioning.
Step 4
Exercise at least five days a week. If you decrease your sedentary ways, you can raise the number of calories you can eat each day. The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) indicates that burning 500 calories a day amounts to losing one pound of fat in one week. For an adult weighing about 130 lbs., only 30 minutes of moderate stair climbing will burn 174 calories. Use an activity calculator like the one at Changing Shape (see Resources) to estimate the number of calories you burn during exercise.
Tips and Warnings
- By exercising, you can avoid eating less to hit your calorie goals. Instead of high-calorie snack foods, eat healthy foods that make you feel fuller longer, such as celery topped with peanut butter, which is about 86 calories.
- The AAFP warns that you should not lose more than 2 lbs. per week. More than 2 lbs. a week means you’re likely loosing water weight rather than fat.
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