How Many Calories Should I Eat To Lose Weight?

To work out the amount of calories you need in a day, calculate your BMR.

But what IS a calorie?

A calorie is a unit of energy. We eat calories in order to produce enough energy to go about our daily lives.

Soooo, what's BMR?

BMR stands for - Basal Metabolic Rate. It's basically, the amount of calories your body burns by simply surviving. If you were in a coma, your body would burn this amount of calories through organ function, digestion etc.

I tend to eat close to my BMR, but you can play around with your calories to see what works for you. Just don't dip below 1200, your metabolism can slow down, and fat loss slows down! PLUS, you could lose important Fat Burning muscle!!

1 lb of fat is equal to approximately 3500 calories. So to lose 1 lb a week, eat 500 calories less a day!

How do I calculate my BMR?

There are a few different formulas that you can use. They involve your height, age, sex, weight, and activity level. But the easiest way, is to visit websites such as -

www.myfitnesspal.com

www.caloriecount.com

www.bodybuilding.com

Or good old Google. You'll probably get slightly different numbers from each one, but go with the average amount to start with.

So now we have our BMR worked out, (Mine being roughly 1452) we can begin to look at our food. We need to spread our calories over breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.

But wait! There's more!

To be sure that we're creating a 500 calorie deficit each day, in order to lose 1 lb a week, we need to calculate our TDEE!

Oh c'mon! You're messing with me right? What the heck is TDEE?

TDEE = Total Daily Energy Expenditure!

To work this out, do the exact same thing you did to determine your BMR, just with a TDEE calculator!

My TDEE is around 2248. So subtract 1452 from 2248 = 796 calorie deficit! So potentially, I could lose just over 1 lb a week, as my total calorie deficit for 7 days is 5572!

Bottom line, eat clean, and stay active. Lift heavy weights, ladies, trust me, we won't get bulky as we lack testosterone! Those female body builders? Yeah, they probably do steroids! Supplement strength training with cardio - 10 minutes of interval training to warm up, and cool down is a good start. 30 minutes at the same pace on a bike/cross trainer/treadmill isn't just boring, it's a waste of time! It's a bit like walking in circles, we never get anywhere!

But anyway, the amount of calories I eat is around 1400-1600 a day, eating closer to 1400 for the majority of the week, and including a cheat day with a few extra calories! It might not sound much, but by making healthy choices, it can be a lot of food!

I hope this helps :)