Calories To Lose Weight
The single most important factor for weight loss is calorie control, period. It is basic biology and also physics. If you eat fewer calories than your body needs you will lose weight. But how can you learn exactly how many calories you need each day?
.What are Calories?
Simple, we know, but vitally important to understand. A calorie is a unit that measures energy. We most commonly see the term calorie when we discuss the energy content of the food and drink that we ingest. From a nutritional aspect, all types of food — whether they are fats, proteins, carbohydrates or sugars — are important sources of calories, which people need to live and function.
If you really want to dive deep into the history books, it starts back in 1863 when scientists first defined a calorie as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water from 0 to 1 degree Celsius. Then in 1925, calories became scientifically defined in terms of joules, units typically used by physicists to describe the amount of work needed to force one newton through one meter. That’s why here in Australia and in Europe, we utilise the term ‘kilojoules’.
.How Many Calories You Need To Lose Weight
Okay, so how many calories do I need a day to lose weight? Once you know how many calories you need to maintain your weight, you simply subtract some calories to put yourself into a caloric deficit. How many calories? Well, to lose roughly half a kilo a week (a healthy goal) you need a 500-calorie-per-day deficit, he explains. In other words, just delete 500 calories from the number you found above.
But a calorie deficit doesn’t have to (and, in reality, shouldn’t) come solely from eating less, says Valdez. Exercise can help, too. If you are game for taking your workouts to the next level, Valdez recommends decreasing your calories from food by 250 per day, and increasing the intensity or duration of your workouts so that you are burning an additional 250 calories two to three times a week through exercise.
That means if you already take a cycling class three days a week, add in a 30-minute walk two days per week to keep the calorie burn going. Or, if you currently live a lightly active life, consider incorporating a yoga class, strength-training class, or hike into your routine.
However, that does mean that on the days you don’t do any physical activity at all, you should decrease your calorie intake by closer to 500 cals, he says. Your goal is to burn about 500 fewer calories than you take in per day, through diet, exercise, or both. You do the math.
.Tips to Reduce Calorie Intake
.Eat more protein – As far as losing weight goes, your biggest friend in the endeavour is definitely protein. Adding protein to your diet is the simplest and most effective way to lose weight with minimal effort. Studies show that protein can help to increase metabolic rate, whilst simultaneously curbing your appetite. This is because protein requires energy to metabolise, so eating a high protein diet can increase calories burned by 80–100 calories per day.
.Change Your Diet
Changing your diet is by far the most effective way to losing weight. Look at your current diet and make a change towards healthy and filling foods. Foods that are healthy and filling keep you fuller for longer, and mean that you reduce the amount of food and calories you are eating.
Your diet should include complex carbohydrates such as natural oatmeal, sweet potatoes and brown rice.
Vegetables (broccoli, spinach, green beans, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, radishes, asparagus, etc) fruits and salads should make up a large proportion of your diet.
Your source of lean protein should come from egg whites, chicken, turkey, lean red meat and fish (salmon, tuna, etc). Lean protein should be eaten with every meal.
These options should keep you full and help you to avoid overeating leading to a high calorie intake and weight gain.
Try to avoid fatty, deep fried, and foods full of sugar. These are high calorie foods without any nutritional value. They will increase your calorie intake without satisfying your hunger.
.Eat a healthy breakfast
Aim to eat between 300 to 500 calories each morning, says Derocha, including a mix of complex carbohydrates, lean protein, and heart-healthy fats. “This helps rev up metabolism while keeping you focused and satisfied throughout the morning.” While coffee and a pastry is easy, your body needs protein and fiber for breakfast such as eggs with veggies or half a bagel with almond butter, explains Planells. For those who prefer a more savory breakfast, Scritchfield suggests stuffing half an avocado with tuna fish packed in olive oil.
“It’s simple, quick, and yummy, and you are getting something that is more satiating than just your latte.”
.How to lose water weight
You’ve probably heard the term “water weight,” and you may be wondering what it is and how it impacts your overall weight loss goals. “Water weight is the water that is retained by the body that normally would go to the kidneys for excretion. It could happen because a person is eating too much salt. Sodium binds with water and keeps the water inside the body,” says Escobar. “Also, an abnormal amount of carbohydrates (for example, when you eat carbohydrates after a period of restriction) can cause water retention. When we don’t use carbohydrates for energy immediately, they are stored as glycogen. Glycogen pulls water, and therefore there is more water retained by the body.”
If water weight is happening because you’re eating too much salt, a healthy way to lose water weight is—you guessed it—to eat less salt. “In fact this can be really good for you as it will lower the chances of developing high blood pressure,” says Escobar.
Keeping your carbohydrate intake consistent by eating healthy carbohydrates can also help. However, water retention may also be caused by an underlying medical condition, such as edema. This may require medical treatment and medication to alleviate, so talk with your doctor if you’re concerned.
.Choose snacks that satisfy
Snacks are an important part of our daily caloric intake and can help prevent overeating, says Derocha, “But be careful—healthy snacks should be no more than 200 calories.” Avoid the sugary, carb-laden foods and vending machine staples and opt instead for nuts, fruit, or protein. “Some of my favorite snacks are roasted chickpeas, a hard-boiled egg, a piece of cheese with apple slices or a home-made energy bite.
.Steer clear of carbs – Reducing your carbohydrate intake is a highly effective method for cutting your calories. Eating a low-carb diet has been shown to help people lose weight more efficiently. Additionally, low carb diets have also shown to have many other benefits for health, especially for people with type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome.
.Exercise and lift weights – In order to offset the reduction in calories you are consuming, your body will do this tricky thing where it compensates by saving energy, making you burn less. To combat this, you must exert your muscles by lifting weights. Lifting weights has been repeatedly shown to prevent muscle loss and stop your metabolism from slowing during long-term calorie restriction.
HOW MANY CALORIES TO EAT IN A DAY TO LOSE WEIGHT.
The amount of calories someone should eat in a day to lose weight is different for everyone and varies greatly depending on gender, age, weight, height, and activity level.
To lose weight, you simply have to eat less calories than the amount of calories you burn in a day.
So to know how many calories you should eat in a day to lose weight, you have to know how many calories your body burns in a day and consume less calories than that.
.Eat fewer calories than you burn each day Keep in mind that your body burns calories all day long as part of your basal metabolic rate (BMR), because it takes energy (calories) for your body to perform basic functions that are necessary for life—breathing, digesting, circulating, thinking and more. It’s important for you to know what your BMR is so you can estimate how many calories you burn in an average day. In addition to that, you also burn some calories with normal daily activities like bathing, cleaning, walking, typing and exercising (which uses even more calories each day). So by simply taking in less calories each day, that means less excess calories you have to burn off. Easy ways to do this include: eat less fast food or junk food, eat more fresh vegetables and fruits, eat lean protein, reduce the amount of bad fats, and drink more water.
.Track your calories
“This is a classic idea for a reason: It works. Taking a few minutes before your meal to be mindful of what you are about to eat can help you to make more deliberate decisions about what you are about to put into your mouth,” says Wilson. “Sometimes it just takes that extra minute to consider whether your choice will be beneficial in supporting you in getting to your weight loss goal. You by no means need to be perfect—aim for the healthier option about 80% of the time—but many times we eat without thinking and this results in excess calorie intake.”
.Counting calories for weight loss and weight gain
Weight management is simply a game of calories in and calories out. A calorie is a unit of measurement that describes how much energy a given food or drink has. The same unit of measurement is used to describe how much energy you exert in a day (calories burned).
To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume, and to gain weight, you must consume more calories than you burn. If you’re interested in changing your weight one way or the other, you’ll need to create a calorie deficit or a calorie surplus — and to make sure you stay in your desired surplus or deficit, you need to keep track of the calories you eat and burn. You can create the calorie balance you desire by counting the calories you eat and burn.
Say you want to lose 10 pounds over 10 weeks (one pound per week). One pound of body fat is roughly equal to 3,500 calories, though there is potential for variation among individuals depending on the density of body fat and how your body composition changes over time.
.Based on the 3,500-calorie estimate, you need to create a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories each week to lose that one pound. You can do this in a few ways:
.Reduce your calorie consumption by 500 calories per day
.Increase or intensify exercise to burn 500 calories per day
.A mix of the two, e.g. reduce your calorie consumption by 250 calories per day and burn an additional 250 calories per day through exercise
The bottom line of all weight-loss programs is a change in your calorie balance through dietary habits and exercise, though that bottom line might be disguised by other tactics, like intermittent fasting or food group exclusions.
Here is everything you need to understand calorie control and estimate your exact calorie needs for weight loss.
.Burn more calories than you consume by increasing your physical activity. If you eat enough calories to support your BMR, but add more exercise, you’ll create a caloric deficit simply by burning extra calories. This only works if you’re not overeating to begin with. Example: If you exercise more to burn an extra 500 calories each day, you’ll lose about one pound of fat in a week (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories). You can workout more or just add more movement into your daily lifestyle. Some ideas: ride your bike walk rather than driving places, always take the stairs, move around at work rather than sitting a desk, play with your kids or dog, do squats while watching TV. Get creative with your day, the possibilities are endless.
.Logging packaged foods
Counting the calories in packaged foods is easy: Just look at the nutrition label and write down the calorie amount. Don’t forget about serving sizes, though — if you eat two servings, double the calorie count that’s on the label.
.Logging fresh foods
Tracking fresh foods is a little harder than tracking packaged foods because there’s typically no label. But it’s easy to find calorie data online. You can search virtually any food on the FDA’s FoodCentral database to find complete nutrition info. Most food-tracking apps have massive databases of foods, too, so don’t let the lack of a nutrition label deter you from eating fresh foods.