The average American consumes 3,400 calories each day, according to 2005 statistics provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. This far exceeds the number of calories most men and women need, especially considering the sedentary lifestyle of the typical modern American, and is leading to widespread obesity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that one-third of Americans are overweight. Undoubtedly, this obesity epidemic is related to the over-consumption of calories. Decreasing daily caloric intake will drop pounds.
Daily Needs
Your daily caloric intake depends on gender, age and weight along with your activity level. For example, a young, heavy-set man who is physically active requires more calories than an older, thin woman who lives a sedentary lifestyle. Weight gain occurs when you consume more calories than your body needs.
Basal Energy Expenditure
Every diet plan starts with a calculation of how many calories your body needs each day to function, or basal energy expenditure, and how many more calories you use during daily activities, like walking or cooking, to arrive at your personal total caloric requirements. Your body needs a certain number of calories to digest food, make your heart beat, blink your eyes or even to sleep. To drop pounds, you must keep your daily caloric intake as close to your personal total caloric requirements as possible without starving your body of the calories it needs to function.
Calorie Requirement Calculation
Cornell University states men should use the equation 66.5 + (13.75 x kg) + (5.003 x cm) - (6.775 x age) to determine his basal energy expenditure and a woman calculates the minimum amount of calories her body needs with the formula 655.1 + (9.563 x kg) + (1.850 x cm) - (4.676 x age). Men and women then multiply the results by their activity level on a scale of 1.2 to 2, with 1.2 representing a sedentary lifestyle and 2 being a very active way of life. The results determine the minimum number of calories your body needs for physiological function plus physical activity.
A Pound of Fat
One pound of fat represents 3,500 calories. Lose 1 lb. in a week by creating a calorie deficit of 500 calories each day. Create this deficit by either eating less, exercising more or a combination of both.
Food
Compare the calculated minimum number of calories needed with the number of calories normally consumed on a daily basis by reading the nutrition label on the side of packaged foods. Note which foods add large amounts of calories and decide if you wish to retain these foods. Trade these weight-building foods for low calorie items.
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