Calories
Needed to Lose Weight
Meal plan examples
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Once you know the number of calories needed to MAINTAIN
your weight, you can easily calculate the number of calories you should
consume to achieve your weight loss goal.
To lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficit.
How? By reducing your calorie-intake slightly below your maintenance level.
Alternatively, keep your calorie-intake static and increase your activity
above your current level.
A Calorie (Energy) Deficit is
Essential to Lose Body Fat
Calories determine fat loss. If you eat more calories
than you burn, you will not lose fat, no matter what foods or food
combinations you consume. True, some foods (e.g. dietary fat) get stored as
fat more easily than others (carbs), but even healthy food is converted to
fat tissue if it is surplus to your energy needs. It's not possible to
circumvent the laws of thermodynamics and energy balance. To burn fat you
must create a calorie deficit between calories-in and calories-out. This
calorie deficit forces your body to use stored body fat to find the required
energy and make up the deficit.
Lose One Pound of Body Weight by
Reducing Calorie Intake by 3500 Calories
There are approximately 3500 calories in a pound of
stored body fat. So, if you create a 3500-calorie deficit through diet,
exercise or a combination of both, you will lose one pound of body weight.
(On average 75 percent of this is fat, 25 percent lean tissue.) If you
create a 7000 calorie deficit you will lose two pounds and so on. The
calorie deficit can be achieved either by calorie-restriction alone, or by a
combination of fewer calories-in (diet) and more calories-out (exercise).
This combination of diet and exercise is best for lasting weight loss.
Indeed, sustained weight loss is difficult or impossible without increased
regular exercise.
How Few Calories to Lose Weight
If you cut calories too low, your body thinks there is a
food shortage and slows down your metabolism to eke out the calories. As
well as causing this slower metabolic rate, eating too few calories may
decrease thyroid output and cause loss of lean body mass. In addition, you
may feel extra tired, irritable and completely de-motivated to follow any
weight loss diet plan. All this is bad news for weight loss, which
invariably slows down and may even stop completely.
Lose Weight Too Fast and You'll
Lose Water
Many weight loss diets and diet plans involving weight
loss pills or supplements encourage very fast weight loss - often in excess
of 3-4 pounds per week. This is both unhealthy and ineffective. The average
healthy human body simply will not shed more than about 2 pounds of fat, per
week. But it will shed water, which is what most fast weight loss is - just
water loss!
Lose Between 1 and 2 Pounds of
Weight, Maximum
If you want to lose fat, a useful guideline for lowering
your calorie intake is to reduce your calories by at least 500, but not more
than 1000 below your maintenance level. For people with only a small amount
of weight to lose, 1000 calories will be too much of a deficit. As a guide
to minimum calorie intake, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)
recommends that calorie levels never drop below 1200 calories per day for
women or 1800 per day for men. Even these calorie levels are quite low.
Calorie Deficit Based on
Percentage of Body Weight or Daily Calorie Maintenance Needs
An alternative way of calculating a safe minimum
calorie-intake level is by reference to your body weight or current body
weight. Reducing calories by 15-20 percent below your daily calorie
maintenance needs is a useful start. You may increase this depending on your
weight loss goals.
Healthy Weight Loss and Calorie
Reduction is Combined with Exercise
In order to lose weight, calories should not be your only
concern. Exercise is vital, too. So if you want to lose fat, maintain your
energy and improve health, get active and take regular physical exercise.
Metabolic test example.
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