Tuesday, March 04, 2014

How many calories per day is enough, how many is too much?

Calories, calories, calories

Every person that has ever started weight loss knows that in order to lose weight successfully one must create a caloric deficit. This caloric deficit depends on every individual alone. There are factors such as height, weight, age and gender to take into account when calculating how many calories should I eat in order to lose weight.

Age, height, weight and gender

Women:
Women are physically weaker than men and therefore need less calories per day than man do. So, for a diet to be effective, women should eat less calories per day than they can burn. How much? About 20% less than daily maintenance is. How do you calculate daily maintenance value? It's simple - simply add to BMR you daily calories consumed for activities such as running / jogging / yoga or whatever it is that you do during the day. This is your daily calorie consumption. Take 20 percent off this value and there is your value. For example if you daily burn 2000 calories than you should eat 1600 calories per day to lose weight effectively.

Men:
It is very similar for men, too. Simply get your daily calorie consumption and get 20% off that value. Why 20 percent? 20 percent calorie deficit is recommended by professionals. If you go lower than that (30% or more) you might run into some problems, one of them being slowed down metabolism. Slowed down metabolism means a slower fat burning rate and this really isn't something you would hope for. So if you are still wondering how many calories should you consume per day your simple answer would be 20 percent less than you need per day.

How to create a caloric deficit without being hungry?

You can create caloric deficit in two ways. Either by eating less calories (less caloric foods) or by being physically active. But caloric deficit means you will be hungry as you eat below the maintenance rate (maintenance rate is the caloric intake at which you neither lose nor gain weight).

The solution is to eat fiber rich foods as such food will make you feel satisfied and not hungry for longer period of time.