Maintaining or losing weight does not mean you should deprive yourself of calories or burn off all the calories you consume. Severely restricting calories can lead to health complications such as malnutrition and heart problems.
General Recommendation
To calculate the total amount of calories you need each day, you need to weigh yourself and assess your activity level. If you are relatively inactive, multiply your weight by 12; if you're moderately active, multiply it by 10, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. You are relatively inactive if you have a sedentary lifestyle; you are moderately active if you do some exercise but not a great deal.
Recommendations for Weight Loss
Women should not consume fewer than 1,200 calories, reports the National Institutes of Health. In some cases, women may be able to consume between 500 to 800 calories on special low-calorie diets. However, these diets should be medically supervised.
Weight Loss and Maintenance
You are most likely to gain weight slowly over time. According to the "Dietary Guidelines for Americans," cutting 50 to 100 calories per day can help to prevent weight gain; cutting up to 500 calories per day can help you lose weight.
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