There is a lot of advice for people to lose weight. Special diets, weight loss supplements and particular exercise programs all claim to provide you with the greatest weight loss. But your weight loss essentially comes down to your caloric intake with regard to your activity level. Knowing how to calculate your caloric needs and what calories are best to consume are vital to healthy weight loss.
How You Lose Weight
Weight loss, and gain, having only to do with the number of calories you take in versus the calories you burn. If you take in more calories than you use, you will gain weight. If you consume fewer calories than you use, you will lose weight. Calories provide the body with energy. Taking in too much energy will cause you to store the excess energy as fat for later use. If you use the energy stored in the body as fat instead of consuming more energy, you will create a situation in which you will lose weight. It takes a weekly deficit of about 3,500 calories to lose one pound per week.
How to Determine Your Caloric Need
To determine your caloric need, you need to know how many calories you burn performing normal bodily functions, or your basal metabolic rate, and how may calories you use for your activity level. To calculate your basal metabolic rate, multiply your weight in kilograms by 0.9. Take that number and multiply it by 24. This is your basal metabolic rate. Next, determine your activity level. Multiply your basal metabolic rate by 30 percent if you are sedentary, 50 percent if you are lightly active, 70 percent if you are moderately active and 100 percent if you are strenuously active. Add your basal metabolic rate with your activity level and you have the number of calories you need to consume to maintain your weight. For example, the basal metabolic rate of a 59 kg female is 59 x 0.9 x 24 to equal 1,274. A moderately active individual will burn an additional calorie count of 892, 1,274 x 0.7. Add 1,274 and 892 to get 2,166 calories per day to maintain your weight. To lose weight, you will need to decrease this number in order to create a deficit.
Ways to Cut Calories
In order to lose one pound you need to create a deficit of 3,500 calories over a series of several days. If you reduce your caloric intake by 500 calories per day, you will lose one pound a week. You can also increase your activity level to achieve this deficit. Cutting calories takes some simple steps. Choosing foods with less fat will lower caloric intake, since fat contains more calories than protein and carbohydrates. Avoid consuming "empty" calorie foods that don't have significant nutritional content, as they tend to contain more calories. Avoid one extra food intake during the day such as cutting out your ice cream at night or your latte in the morning. You can also choose to cut back on portion sizes throughout the day.
Cutting Back Too Much
Avoid cutting calories too dramatically, it often backfires. Skipping meals and restricting food intake too severely will usually cause binge eating at a later time because you become extremely hungry. Taking your calorie intake too low will cause your body to go into a starvation mode that will cause you to conserve calories, or energy. Consuming less than 1,200 calories per day can be dangerous. If the 59kg female who should consume 2,166 per day reduces her intake by 500 calories per day down to 1,666 per day, she will lose one pound per week.
Good Food Choices
Good food choices for losing weight are those containing fewer calories. Check labels for unwanted sugars and fats and look for choices high in fiber and protein. Add in extra vegetables at meals instead of extra servings of protein. Choose low-fat versions of milk and cheese to reduce fat and calorie intake. Drinking water instead of high-calorie coffee drinks and fresh fruit instead of chips help to create a healthy diet with appropriate amounts of calories.
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