When Losing Weight, What Is A Safe Amount Of Calories To Eat?

When Losing Weight, What Is a Safe Amount of Calories to Eat?

Nov 11, 2010 | By Ronny Marie Tucker

Losing weight requires a healthy amount of calories each day to provide energy and assure proper function of your body. A small deficit of in food consumption, coupled with an increase in energy expenditure, can lead to long-term healthy weight loss, according to the resource manual for "Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription" by the American College of Sports Medicine."

Amount of Calories

When losing weight, women should consume at least 1,200 calories per day, and men 1,800 calories per day, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. Cutting an extreme amount of calories from your daily diet significantly slows down your metabolism, making it difficult or impossible to lose weight.

Misconceptions

A low-calorie diet is not always required to lose weight. As long as you are burning more calories than you consume, weight loss will occur. Because 3,500 calories equals 1 pound, you need a weekly deficit of 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound. For example, if you consume 2,000 calories per day, you need to burn 2,500 calories per day to lose 1 pound per week.

Considerations

Make sure you are burning a sufficient amount of calories each day. At least 3 to 5 days of physical activity, for 20 to 60 minutes, may be necessary to achieve weight loss, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.