Losing one pound will happen once you burn 3,500 calories or eat 3,500 calories less than your body burns to keep your systems functioning to stay alive. The amount of calories your body needs in one day to maintain your current weight is called your resting metabolic rate. You can use a calculator to discover your resting metabolic rate, and then eat fewer calories to lose weight. You can also use an exercise or activity calculator to figure out how many calories you burn per workout to hit a reasonable target goal per day to result in weight loss. For example, Shape magazine advises in an article called "Drop a Pound by Friday" that if you eat 250 calories less per day and burn off 250 calories per day with exercise, then you will drop one pound. The combination of eating 250 calories fewer and burning 250 per day in seven days will equal a deficit of 3,500 calories. However, this is just an estimate. You may be able to cut a lot more calories to reach a significant amount of weight loss.
Step 1
Discover your resting metabolic rate. Use a resting metabolic calculator like the one offered by Shape Up America (see Resources). Enter in your height, weight, age and gender. Click "Continue" and get your daily maintenance number of calories. Write it down.
Step 2
Subtract your resting metabolic rate calories by 250 to 1,000. Make this your daily goal. The American Obesity Association says that reducing your calories by 500 to 1,000 will help you lose between one and two pounds a week, which is a healthy number. Keep your calorie goal above 1,200 if you are a woman and 1,400 if you a man, as advised by University of Maryland's Joslin Diabetes Center nutritionist Andrea Wenger Hess. In an article for the University of Maryland's Medical Center called, "Common-Sense Strategies for Long-Term Weight Loss, "Wenger Hess says that eating 250 calories fewer per day will help you lose half a pound per week, which is better than losing more weight by eating fewer calories than recommended. Eating too little may put you at risk for nutrient deficiencies.
Step 3
Keep a food journal and add up your calories every day to make sure you are staying at your goal calorie number. Do not eat more, and do not eat less.
Step 4
Exercise daily with the goal of burning at least 250 calories to set yourself up for one pound of weight loss per week, or more if you are able. Use an activity calculator to figure out how many calories you have burned (see Resources). Enter in your activity and your intensity for the most accurate estimate. A light intensity will allow you to sing, a moderate intensity will allow you to have a conversation, and a high intensity will allow you to speak a few words.
Things You'll Need
- Exercise calculator
- Resting metabolic rate calculator
- Food diary
References
- "Drop a Pound by Friday;" Shape magazine; Sharon Liao; November 2009
- American Obesity Association
- Common-Sense Strategies for Weight Loss
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