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If you are the quantitative type, you can calculate an estimate of how many calories you need per day and then how many you need to cut to lose a particular amount of weight over time. An easy way to do this is to use an on-line calculator. Just type “Daily Calorie Need calculator” into your search engine and you’ll have your choice of thousands, or click on one of these: American Cancer Society to 24-Hour Fitness centers to the Mayo Clinic.
As an example, let’s say Leroy is a 40-year old, 200-pound man who is 5”11.” Leroy has a light activity level as he has a desk job and doesn’t exercise much. He would need around 2,500 calories per day (when we say “need,” we mean how much would be needed to maintain current body weight). Since a pound of body fat equals 3,500 calories, he’d have to cut 500 calories a day to lose a pound per week. So if Leroy wants to lose a pound a week, he could cut his calories back to 2,000 a day. Leroy could also chose a healthier route such as only cutting his calories back to 2,250 but also exercising to burn the other 250.
A second example, Juanita, is a 25-year old, 130-pound woman who is 5’4.” Juanita has a moderate activity level because she likes to jog a few times a week. She would need about 2,000 calories per day. Again, a pound of body fat equals 3,500 calories, so it takes a cut of 500 calories a day to lose a pound per week. If Juanita wants to lose a pound a week, she could cut her calories to 1,500 a day. A better plan for Juanita might be to cut her calories to 1,750 per day and work in swimming on days that she doesn’t jog for the other 250.
But maybe a pound a week isn’t Juanita’s goal. Perhaps she only wants to drop five pounds for her wedding in six months. Using the same information above, she would only need to cut a little under 100 calories a day, cutting her total calories to just under 1,900 per day. She’d drop the weight over a longer period of time and be in the shape she wants to be for her wedding.
Our Fantasy Healthball challenge for you is to track the calories you eat for a week. Okay, let’s make it even more simple. Track them for a day. Compare that against your daily need from an on-line calculator. Does your calorie lifestyle point towards gaining, losing, or maintaining weight? If it is gaining beyond what is healthy for you, check out our Exercise section for ways to drop some of those unwanted calories. — Jim Ballard
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December 21, 2008 at 7:32 pm |
Great post. many people decide they want to ose weight and approach it with no planning. Take an inventory of what you eat, probably about a week. Then figure your average calorie intake a day. Then you can figure where you should cut down and what you need to cut down on. Sometimes people will realize that thay are not eating balanced meals throughout the day. That alone will balance out your calorie intake.
February 22, 2009 at 7:17 pm |
[...] determine your daily need estimate. As we’ve suggested in a prior post an easy way to do this is to use an on-line calculator. Just type “Daily Calorie Need [...]
March 14, 2009 at 9:38 am |
[...] you are taking in by 10-20% per day which should allow you to lose weight. You can use an on-line calculator to figure out how many calories you need per day and then you can cut that back by 10-20%. Maybe [...]
April 1, 2009 at 5:40 pm |
[...] determine your daily need estimate. As we’ve suggested in a prior post an easy way to do this is to use an on-line calculator. Just type “Daily Calorie Need [...]
April 1, 2009 at 5:40 pm |
[...] you are taking in by 10-20% per day which should allow you to lose weight. You can use an on-line calculator to figure out how many calories you need per day and then you can cut that back by 10-20%. Maybe [...]
April 5, 2009 at 5:03 pm |
[...] you are taking in by 10-20% per day which should allow you to lose weight. You can use an on-line calculator to figure out how many calories you need per day and then you can cut that back by 10-20%. [...]