The healthiest way to lose weight is by controlling your calorie intake, eating healthy foods and exercising at least three to five days a week, according to the National Institutes of Health. The American Academy of Family Physicians confirms that to drop pounds, you need to use more calories than you take in. You can do this by first establishing your basal metabolic rate.
Basal Metabolic Rate
Your basal metabolic rate, BMR, refers to the number of calories you use while sedentary. This number indicates how many calories you need to take in to maintain your current weight without exerting any energy at all. If you exercise more than three days a week, you can lose weight by taking in the number of calories determined by your BMR.
Calculating Your BMR
To calculate your BMR you need to know your weight in pounds and height in inches. ShapeFit, a health and fitness information website, explains that your unique BMR is determined by your gender, genetics, age, weight, size and a variety of other factors. Because men have more muscle mass and less body fat than women, they need to take in more calories to maintain the same amount of weight. After you hit 20 years of age, your BMR will drop about 2 percent each decade. The more you weigh, the higher your BMR will be.
Calculate your BMR using this formula if you're female:
655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years ) = BMR
Use this formula if you're male:
66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year ) = BMR
Calorie Needs
To lose weight you need to determine the number of calories you should take in daily based on a formula that calculates your BMR and activity level. Using the Harris Benedict Equation, multiply your BMR by a number that represents your weekly activity expenditure.
If you are sedentary, multiply your BMR by 1.2.
If you exercise between one and three days weekly, multiply your BMR by 1.375
If you exercise between three to five days weekly, multiply your BMR by 1.55.
If you exercise between six or seven days a week, multiply your BMR by 1.725.
If your job is physical and you exercise on top of that, multiply your BMR by 1.9.
Lose Weight
The NIH indicates that by creating a daily 500 calorie deficit in your diet, burning 500 calories a day or any combination of the two, you can drop 1 lb. a week. The AAFP suggests keeping your calorie deficit at 1,000 calories a day, which could amount to a 2 lb. loss per week. Depriving yourself of food or exercising too rigorously could cause you to lose water weight and lean muscle mass instead of excess fat.
Considerations
It's much healthier to design your weight-loss plan by calculating your calorie intake rather than following fad diets that limit calories, eliminate food groups and deprive you of certain foods, all factors that can lead to binge eating and regaining any weight you manage to drop, according to HelpGuide. According to the NIH, women should consume no fewer than 1,200 calories a day and men should consume no fewer than 1,500 calories a day. Eating too few calories, unless you're on a medically supervised diet, can be harmful to your health and cause fatigue.
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