Last week’s post made the point that weight loss is all about calories: In order to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume. This week we’re going to get into the actual numbers so that you can plan your diet and activities and reliably predict your weight loss.
You only need to understand two fundamentals: 1) One pound of body fat is equal to 3500 calories, and 2) Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) plus the number of calories you burn in your daily activities determines your body’s daily caloric needs. With these two facts, you can determine how many calories you need to consume and burn each day in order to lose a particular amount of weight.
Let’s start with Basal Metabolic Rate. BMR is the number of calories your body burns in one day while at rest. Everyone’s BMR is different because it varies with age and gender. Your BMR tends to decrease as you age because people generally lose muscle mass as they age, and men tend to have a higher BMR than women because men normally have more muscle than women. Click here to calculate your BMR: http://health.discovery.com/centers/heart/basal/basal.html
Once you know your BMR, you can plan your weight loss. Here’s how:
1. Determine how many pounds you’d like to lose, and then divide the number of pounds by 1.5. This will tell you how many weeks it will take you to reach your goal weight if you lose an average of 1.5 pounds per week.
Note: You may want to lose more or less than 1.5 pounds per week. You shouldn’t really go below 1200 calories per day if you are a woman or below 1800 if you are a man. This, along with the fact that you can only burn so many calories a day in exercise, is going to limit most people to an average 1 to 2 pounds per week of weight loss. You may be able to lose more if you have a great deal of weight to lose.
2. Next, multiply your BMR times the appropriate “activity factor” to determine what your daily caloric intake should be. Click here to see the list of activity factor multipliers:
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/
3. Now subtract 750 from the figure you arrived at in Step 2. This is how many calories you need to take in, allowing for your indicated activity level, to lose 1.5 pounds per week (750 calories x 7 days = 5250 calories, which is equivalent to 1.5 pounds of body fat).
Now you know how many calories to consume in order to lose the weight you want, and how long it will take to get there. But that may bring other questions to mind, such as “Is my goal weight realistic?”, or “How many calories am I really burning with the exercise I’m doing?” or “How come I’ve sometimes gained or lost 5 pounds in a week if most people can only realistically average 1 to 2 pounds of weight loss per week”?
Good questions. We’ll answer those (and more) on the next post.
OK, this is great. Real, definitive information and step-by-step calculations. I can’t wait for the next blog! Are we going to do anything regarding actual food information that we can work the same way?? I would love to see conversations about incorporating healthy eating into family menus. There is only so much I can do to get family on the bandwagon. There is just no chance that I am going to be the only cook in the house and we all know that non-dieters are not as motivated to delete those fattening recipes from their repotoir (sp?).
Hey Tapelady! Yes, we’re going to be covering that info when we get to talking about strategies. Once you know WHAT to do, then its a matter of coming up with a plan that addresses your particular weaknesses and circumstances, so you can avoid or work through the things that tend to trip you up.
Yay! I’m ready to go! I am soooo tired of all the gimmicky diet ideas and just ready for good old common sense along with a game plan.