It's not possible to determine how many calories you need to lose 2 lbs. a week without knowing your current weight, age and activity level. Even then, the caloric intake that would allow you to lose weight might be too much or too little for your best friend, even if you have the same vital statistics. Some people have a naturally faster metabolism and burn more calories than others. You can, however, figure out how many calories you need to cut from your current intake to lose 2 lbs. if you don't make any other changes.
Calorie Intake and Weight
If you did nothing but lie in bed all day, you would still need a certain number of calories per day to maintain your body functions. For example, if you're over age 55 and not very active, multiply your current weight by 13, MedlinePlus explains. If you're moderately active, meaning you do 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity such as swimming, jogging or fast walking every day, multiply your weight by 15. If your activity consists of changing the remote or you're very overweight, multiply your weight by 10. Very active people can eat 18 times their current weight in calories for maintenance. To lose weight, you must take in fewer calories than you expend.
Calories for Weight Loss
To lose 1 lb of body weight, you must cut 3,500 calories from you calorie intake. To lose 2 lbs., cut 7,000 calories per week, or 1,000 calories per day. If you eat 3,000 calories per day at your current weight, cutting 1,000 isn't as difficult as if you only consume 1,500 calories per day now. In that case, losing 2 lbs. per week by cutting calories might be impossible, since eating less than 1,200 calories per day could cause nutritional deficits as well as fatigue. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends never falling below 1,200 calories a day for women and 1,800 calories for men.
The Impact of Exercise
If you've determined than the intake of calories you need to lose 2 lbs. per week wouldn't keep a starving rabbit alive, don't despair. You can eat more calories and still lose weight by increasing your activity levels. The impact of exercise on weight loss isn't as easy to determine as cutting calories, because different activities burn different amounts of calories. The same exercise can also cause different calorie expenditures, depending on how strenuously you exercise and for how long. Your current weight also affects your calorie consumption. If you weigh 130 lbs., for example, one hour of aerobics burns 384 calories, while you burn 605 calories in that hour if you weigh 205 lbs.
Considerations
Cutting calories too much may actually backfire and cause weight loss to stall as your body becomes more efficient as conserving calories. If you don't have much weight to lose, losing 2 lbs. per week might not be possible without compromising your health. The idea that your body goes into "starvation mode" when you cut calories may not hold true unless you cut your calories below 800 per day, Weight Watchers website states.
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