How Many Calories To Lose Weight

The old school thought on how many calories to lose weight is often summed up as:
calories that are coming in ( food and beverage consumption) must be lower the amount of calories that are going out ( calories you burn through out the day). 

Traditional Model Example:

Calories In 2,000 - Calories Out 1,800 = +200 Calories (weight gain)

Calories In 1,200 - Calories Out 1,700 = - 500 Calories  (weight loss)

Well if this is the case, how come the “metabolism gifted” can eat whatever they want all day long with very little attention to exercise, while others counting every calorie and spending hours on the treadmill are still holding onto those extra pounds they haven’t been able to lose since high school? 

Obviously it can’t be as simple as just counting calories! And the traditional logic of “calories in – calories out” must be modified to fit your particular body and lifestyle.

Well, the first clue is that not all calories are created equally. 

Carbohydrates, Protein and Fats all have very different impacts on your body. One reason is simply based on how many calories it takes to break each type down (digest), and how your body utilizes or stores them at the cellular level. 

For example, if you were to drink a sugar-laden soda, your body doesn’t need to work hard to digest and has a lot of “empty calories.” This is an example of a “bad” carb source which is broken down by your body very quickly, triggering insulin release and promoting fat storage. Often times, many carbohydrate foods such as white bread, crackers, pastas, and various baked foods made from white four have a similar effect on your body.

An interesting study conducted by Kekwick and Pawan in 1956, compared three groups put on equal calorie diets of 90% fat, 90% protein, or 90% carbohydrate. Those on the high fat diet lost the most, the high protein dieters lost somewhat less, and the high carbohydrate dieters actually gained weight on average.

Without going too much into detail about this study, the main point to take away is that different sources of calories = different results on the body.

Where things start to get more complicated is when you put into the equation that every person’s
resting metabolism is different. Your resting metabolism, or basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the number of calories your body burns in a day at its absolute minimum capacity. Basically, if you do absolutely nothing all day long, literally laying in bed all day, this is how many calories you would burn just to maintain your body’s core survival such as heart beat, digestion, breathing and cellular repair.
Your BMR is influenced by many factors including age, weight, gender, environmental temperature, your diet and exercise habits. Men will usually have higher BMRs than women since men usually have a higher percentage of calorie-burning lean muscle mass.

So before you start to figure in how many hours you will need to spend in the gym, or how many calories your new meal plan must have, you should find out what your BMR is. Many places that do body fat testing, also offer BMR testing. Look in your local area for places offering body fat testing, metabolic testing, BMR, etc.

If this is not possible for you, below is a basic formula you can follow to give you a guideline to start from.  Having your BMR tested professionally is the most accurate as it accounts for more variables such as your amount of lean muscle mass and other variables that play a role in your metabolism. 

In the meantime to help figure out your calories to lose weight, a method to calculate your total daily calories burned is based on the Harris-Benedict equation, which also accounts for variables such as your sex, age, height, and activity level.

Step 1 – Calculating the BMR

Step 2 – Applying the Harris-Benedict Principle

So based on this formula, a 35 year old male, who is 6 ft 2 inches, weighs 184 lbs, who does moderate exercise would need to consume less than 2969 calories per day to lose weight. Here is the math based on the formula above:

Step 1: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x 184 lbs ) + (12.7 x 74 inchs) – ( 6.76 x 35 ) =
Which equaled = 66 + ( 1146.32 ) + (939.8) – ( 236.6 ) =  1915.52 BMR

Step 2: 1915.52 x 1.55 =  2969.056

Basal Metabolic Rate Calculator

Now that you know how BMR works and what variables
go into determining your estimated caloric expenditure,
below is a calculator you can use to make your
calculations.

Gender: Male Female

Age:

Height: ft. in.

Weight: lbs.

Activity Level: Little to No Exercise Light Exercise (1–3 days per week) Moderate Exercise (3–5 days per week) Heavy Exercise (6–7 days per week) Very Heavy Exercise (twice per day)

You Burn Around Calories Per Day

Using Your BMR Information To Burn Fat

Because 3,500 calories equals about 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of fat, you will need to burn approximately 3,500 calories more than you take in to lose 1 pound. So if you cut 500 calories from your typical diet each day, you'd lose about 1 pound a week (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories).  If you want to lose 2 pounds a week, you would need a 7,000 calorie deficit or cut 1,000 calories per day.

Please keep in mind, as discussed earlier, this is not an exact science and everyone’s body is different, and not all calorie sources have the same effect on your body. Also, don’t rely 100% on your weight scale to determine if your plan is succeeding.  If you are building muscle as part of your exercise routine, you may be gaining muscle weight at the same time as burning fat which will not be reflected on your scale.

In the coming weeks we will be exploring in more detail the science of losing weight and specifically talking more about the various topics we touched upon in this article.  If you are already a Juicing For Weightloss subscriber, you will receive an email reminder when the newest updates are available, to subscribe to our email update list click here. 

Resources:
Kekwick A, Pawan GL (July 1956). "Calorie intake in relation to body-weight changes in the obese". Lancet 271 (6935): 155–61

Harris-Benedict Equation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris-Benedict_equation

Winning by Losing, Copyright 2005, Julian Michaels