Lose Weight Safely – Part 1

So how many calories do you need to consume in a day to lose weight safely? After all, one can eat 500 calories of healthy foods and burn off 250 of that, and lose weight, right? Wrong! Our bodies need a certain amount of calories to give us the energy needed to carry out basic tasks, especially when we are doing strenuous activity such as cardio and weight training. And if you aren’t getting the necessary calories in the body, then you won’t have the energy needed to lose weight safely. Now the easiest way to estimate our daily requirements of calories is to calculate our basal metabolic rate (BMR). Basal metabolic rate is the total amount of calories the body requires in order to properly carry out its daily functions such as digestion, breathing, regulating body temperature etc. In other words, our basal metabolic rate gives us the approximate number of calories needed in order to maintain our weight. There is a formula that allows us to calculate our BMR, called the Harris-Benedict Formula. Once you’ve figured out your BMR then you can plug that into the activity multiplier to determine your caloric maintenance level. Once we have all that, then we can look at how to lose weight safely and efficiently while maintaining as much as lean muscle mass as possible. This should be our goal at all times.

Calculating Basal Metabolic Rate

Men: 66 + (13.7 X bodyweight in kg) + (5 X height in cm) – (6.8 X age in years)

Women: 655 + (9.6 X bodyweight in kg) + (1.8 X height in cm) – (4.7 X age in years)

Take that number and multiply it by…

Activity Multiplier (choose only one from below)

Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little to no exercise)

Lightly Active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise: 1-3 days a week)

Moderately Active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise: 3-5 days a week)

Very active = BMR X 1.725 (intense exercise: 6-7 days a week)

Extremely Active = BMR X 1.9 (intense daily exercise and strenuous physical job)

Whatever number you get is the number of calories you should be eating everyday in order to maintain proper bodily functions. Then in order to lose weight safely we must burn off MORE calories than we are consuming through cardio and weight training. Take the number you calculated and cut off 20% of calories. This should be your daily caloric intake everyday.

In part 2, we will look at an example that you can follow.

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