Research shows that individuals who count calories lose twice the amount of weight as individuals who don’t. This research is strong evidence that counting calories is a good thing if you’re trying to lose weight. If you’re not counting calories, it’s just too easy to grab a muffin or a latte here or there without giving it much thought. This “harmless snacking” doesn’t seem like much, but it can add hundreds of calories to your daily intake. That’s just enough to sabotage your efforts, and leave you feeling frustrated and wondering what went wrong. If you want to lose weight by counting calories, here are some steps to take to make it happen.
Calculate Your BMR
BMR stands for Basal Metabolic Rate. Your BMR is the number of calories (energy) your body needs to operate. On average, most adults use approximately 60% of their daily calories for basic functions. You need to know your BMR in order to establish your baseline. Once you know your baseline, then you can focus on cutting calories through diet and/or exercise to create a caloric deficit that leads to weight loss. To calculate your BMR, there is a simple formula to follow. If you rather use our BMR calculator, click here.
Women:
655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years)
Men:
66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in years)
After you have calculated this number, you need to factor in your activity level. This requires a little more math:
For inactive people – BMR x 20%
For slightly active people – BMR x 30%
Active people (exercise 3-4 days per week) – BMR x 40%
Highly active (exercise most days of the week or for very long periods) – BMR x 50%
You then add the number you get to your BMR. Let’s try plugging in some numbers to see how the formula works for a 30-year old male that is slightly active, is 5’10” and weighs 190 pounds:
66 + (6.3 x 190) + (12.9 x 70) – (6.8 x 30) = 1962 calories.
The number of 1962 calories is how many calories this person needs to consume to maintain his current weight of 190 pounds. If he wants to lose weight, he will need to create a calorie deficit by consuming fewer calories, exercising, or a combination of both.
Creating a Calorie Deficit
The next step to lose weight by counting calories is to create a healthy calorie deficit. Cutting back your calories too drastically is harmful and unhealthy. Keep in mind that 3,500 calories is the equivalent of one pound. That means in order to lose one pound, you have to create a deficit that reaches 3,500 calories over a period of time.
Most experts say that losing 1-2 pounds per week is healthy. That means you have to create a weekly deficit of anywhere from 3,500 – 7,000 per week. To achieve this weight loss, you would have to cut 500-1,000 calories per day. The easiest way to accomplish this is through a combination of calorie restriction through diet along with burning calories via exercise. If you’re trying to lose one pound per week, you could cut back 250 calories from your diet and burn 250 calories exercising per day. For two pounds per week, you would double that to 500 each.
If we look back at our example, we see that his calories needed to maintain are 1962. Let’s say he wanted to lose one pound per week through a combination of diet and exercise. First he would cut his daily calories by 250, which equals (1962-250=1712), then he would have to burn 250 additional calories through exercise.
If he kept up this pace for a period of seven days, he would lose one pound of fat. The key component in this scenario is accurately tracking the number of calories he is eating to make sure he is not consuming more than 1712 per day. That means you have to measure the calorie content of every piece of food you put in your mouth. There are several internet sites that have the caloric values of food based upon weight and serving size. You’ll need to invest in an inexpensive food scale and a journal to accurately track your progress.
Seeing how losing weight is strictly a numbers game, you may feel tempted to cut your calories way back and to exercise for long stretches. This can be dangerous and ineffective according to weight loss experts. Experts recommend never consuming less than 1,200 calories per day because of the chances of malnutrition. Besides, going to extreme measures usually means you’ll gain the weight back and more in short while.
