How to calculate your calorie intake for weight loss?

The basis of any suc­cess­ful diet is the cor­rect manip­u­la­tion of the calo­rie con­tent of the diet, or rather, the ener­gy con­sumed and expend­ed. If you want to lose weight with­out harm to your health and not lim­it your­self in your favorite foods, learn how to cal­cu­late your basal metab­o­lism, as well as the intake of pro­tein, fats and car­bo­hy­drates.

What is basal metabolism (resting metabolism)?

Even when you lie in bed all day and are too lazy to reach for the TV remote con­trol, a lot of process­es are going on in your body. Basic metab­o­lism is the amount of ener­gy (kilo­calo­ries) required to ser­vice all vital sys­tems at rest. Breath­ing, the work of inter­nal organs, the pro­duc­tion of hor­mones are the basic needs of the body that help you stay healthy.

Read more: 5 weight loss mis­takes

Any diet whose calo­rie con­tent is below the rest­ing meta­bol­ic rate will soon­er or lat­er neg­a­tive­ly affect your health. In addi­tion, such a strong deficit will lead to the fact that the body acti­vates the “emer­gency” mode, start­ing to store fats “in reserve”. The meta­bol­ic rate will slow down to the extreme, and the weight will begin to go away due to the deple­tion of mus­cle tis­sue. Iron­i­cal­ly, the greater the calo­rie deficit, the less like­ly you are to lose weight. There­fore, you can not focus on uni­ver­sal diets. The most effec­tive diet is the one that you can make your­self based on your height, weight, age and dai­ly activ­i­ty. Don’t wor­ry, it’s easy!

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How to calculate your basal metabolic rate?

Today, the two most pop­u­lar for­mu­las for cal­cu­lat­ing rest­ing metab­o­lism are Har­ris-Bene­dict and Muf­fin-Jeor.

Read more: Healthy Break­fast: Healthy Ingre­di­ents

Harris-Benedict basal metabolic rate formula

For women: 655 + (9.6 * weight) + (1.8 * height in cm) — (4.7 * age)

For men: 66 + (13.7 * weight) + (5 * height in cm) — (6.8 * age)

Exam­ple. The basic metab­o­lism of a 26-year-old girl with a height of 167 cm and a weight of 67 kg will be: 655 + (9.6 * 67) + (1.8 * 167) — (4.7 * 26) = 1471.2 kcal.

It is this min­i­mum ener­gy that a par­tic­u­lar girl should con­sume dai­ly to main­tain all body func­tions. Going below this lim­it is not only dan­ger­ous for health, but also not effec­tive for burn­ing fat.

Read more: 5 main habits of a slim woman

Muffin-Jeor Basal Metabolism Formula

For women: (10 * weight) + (6.25 * height) — (5 * age) — 161

For men: (10 * weight) + (6.25 * height) — (5 * age) + 5

Exam­ple. This for­mu­la is con­sid­ered more mod­ern. Accord­ing to cal­cu­la­tions, the basic metab­o­lism of the same girl, 26 years old, 167 cm tall and weigh­ing 67 kg, will be: (10 * 67) + (6.25 * 167) — (5 * 26) — 161 \u003d 1422.7 kcal.

You need to under­stand that no for­mu­la will give an absolute­ly accu­rate fig­ure. This is a land­mark that can shift to one side or the oth­er by 100–200 kcal. The only way to deter­mine the ide­al val­ue is to test it empir­i­cal­ly.

Check your progress once a week. Choose a day on which you will weigh your­self — prefer­ably at the same time of day (for exam­ple, in the morn­ing before break­fast). Start with 1600 kcal / day, and then check the result in a week. If the weight is worth it, next week reduce the calo­rie con­tent by 100–150 kcal. Con­tin­ue until you reach a dai­ly caloric intake that will allow you to lose an aver­age of 0.3–0.8 kg per week. Yes, the process will not be fast. But the result is long-term, not short-term. Most impor­tant­ly, a smooth weight loss will ensure good health and prop­er oper­a­tion of all sys­tems, and will not be a tor­ture for your psy­che. After all, there is no need to have a strict­ly defined list of prod­ucts. Even with weight loss, you can include your favorite treats in mod­er­a­tion in your diet — the main thing is not to for­get to count them in your dai­ly calo­rie diary.

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Read more: Top 10 life hacks to help you burn fat faster

How much protein, fat and carbohydrates should you eat to lose weight?

Ade­quate frame­work for pro­tein intake is from 1.3 to 2.2 g per 1 kg of body weight. The low­er lim­it of the norm is suit­able for those who lead a seden­tary lifestyle. Upper — for ath­letes with an intense load. If you are still quite active or attend fit­ness train­ing sev­er­al times a week, it makes sense to use an aver­age val­ue of 1.7.

The formula for calculating daily protein intake for weight loss

To under­stand how much pro­tein you need, use a very sim­ple for­mu­la — weight * 1.7.

Exam­ple. 67 kg * 1.7 = 113.9 g of pro­tein. Since 1 g of pro­tein is 4 kcal, it is easy to cal­cu­late how many calo­ries are required dai­ly to meet the body’s need for build­ing mate­r­i­al.

113.9 * 4 = 455 kcal.

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The formula for calculating daily fat intake for weight loss

Next, we cal­cu­late the rate of fat. Today it is not news to any­one that fats bring tremen­dous ben­e­fits to our body. With­out their ade­quate amount, it is impos­si­ble to talk about the nor­mal con­di­tion of the skin, hair, nails, joints. Remem­ber, the right fats are your friends, not ene­mies.

A healthy approach to dai­ly fat intake is from 0.8 to 1.5 g per 1 kg of body weight. The gold­en mean is 1 g per 1 kg of body weight. That is, the for­mu­la for cal­cu­lat­ing the amount of fat intake is sim­i­lar to pro­tein — weight * 1.

Exam­ple. 67 kg * 1 = 67 g of fat. Since 1 g of fat is 9 kcal, a girl with this weight will need to eat at least 67 * 9 = 603 kcal from fat dai­ly.

The formula for calculating the daily intake of carbohydrates for weight loss

Before pro­ceed­ing to the cal­cu­la­tion of your car­bo­hy­drate norm, you need to get the val­ues ​​\u200b\u200bof pro­teins and fats. Made? Then add up their calo­ries. We take the same exam­ple in which the girl weighs 67 kg.

455 kcal + 603 kcal = 1058 kcal

The result­ing amount must be sub­tract­ed from your dai­ly caloric intake.

1600 kcal — 1058 kcal = 542 kcal — that’s how many calo­ries you should get from car­bo­hy­drates. To under­stand how much it is in grams, divide the result by 4 (after all, 1 g of car­bo­hy­drates \u003d 4 kcal).

542/4 = 135 years.

Sum­ma­riz­ing all of the above, a 26-year-old girl, 167 cm tall and weigh­ing 67 kg, for weight loss should con­sume 1600 kcal dai­ly, of which pro­teins — 455 kcal (113.9 g), fats — 603 kcal (67 g), car­bo­hy­drates — 542 kcal ( 135 g).

We have repeat­ed­ly talked about which foods are rich in pro­tein, healthy fats and car­bo­hy­drates in our arti­cles.

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Is exercise necessary for weight loss?

Exer­cise along with a well-planned diet will allow you to achieve results faster. 2–3 hours of strength train­ing per week and 30–180 min­utes of aer­o­bic exer­cise will increase the calo­rie deficit and make it pos­si­ble to lose weight faster. In addi­tion, exer­cis­ing in the gym will help pre­serve mus­cles, which means that the body will draw ener­gy not from mus­cle tis­sue, but from body fat.

Did you man­age to lose those extra pounds and achieve seduc­tive out­lines? Share your recipe for the per­fect fig­ure in the com­ments!

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