Ever wonder how many calories you need to be consuming to lose weight?
Step 1.
Calculate your BMR (basal metabolic rate)
Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years)
Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in year)
Step 2.
Multiply your BMR by your activity level, this will give you your total metabolic rate, or TMR (total metabolic rate)
Little to no exercise BMR x 1.2
Light exercise (1-3 days per week) BMR x 1.375
Moderate exercise (3-5 days per week) BMR x 1.55
Heavy exercise (6-7 days per week) BMR x 1.725
Very Heavy exercise (twice a day, high intensity workouts) BMR x 1.9
Or…… You can just go to BMR Calculator (this one is a bit easier to do than my hand)
So once you know how many calories you need in a day, you may think twice before having something sweet and sugary. Even a small, 12oz milk shake at a fast food chain has about 550 calories. Let’s say you are 50 year old woman who is 5′ 4″ and weighs 150 lbs and doesn’t workout much, you only need about 1650 calories in a day and you just drank 1/3 of them.
To lose weight, you need a deficit between your calories you take in and calories that you burn. A pound of fat has about 3500 calories, so you should have somewhere between 500 to 1000 calories a day deficit to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week. However, do not eat too few calories and starve yourself, this will lead to a lose of muscle mass and may hinder your body’s ability to burn fat at rest! A great method would be to eat slowly, till only 80% full at each meal. Also, drink LOTS of water!
A good tool to log your calories with is myfitnesspal
I recommend that you log all your meals and snacks for a whole week to get the picture of what is going on with your eating habits. This will give you great results when combined with exercise.
Fitness & Nutrition Coach 