Department of Health and Human Services , the average adult woman expends roughly 1, to 2, calories per day, and the average adult man uses 2, to 3, calories per day.
The average adult woman is 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs lbs, while the average man is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs lbs. Yet age, activity level, body size, and body composition all influence how many calories a person burns through each day. To get a more accurate idea of your daily caloric requirements, you can turn to an online metabolic rate calculator.
These determine basal metabolic rate BMR , which refers to the number of calories that the body burns every day for energy just to maintain basic biological functions. When multiplied by an activity factor how much you move in a day , you get your daily metabolic rate, an estimate of how many calories you actually burn in 24 hours — and how many calories you need to eat every day just to keep your weight constant, says Sari Greaves , a registered dietitian nutritionist at LBS Nutrition in East Brunswick, New Jersey, and the author of Cooking Well Healthy Kids.
But using such a calculator, while more accurate than calculators that do not take into account your body fat versus lean mass will require that you have a tool like calipers those fat pinchers your doctor may have used on you in the past or a smart scale to estimate your body composition.
Once you know your current daily caloric requirement, you can create your own formula for losing weight. Simply put, as long as you are eating fewer calories than that number, or you increase your daily caloric burn with exercise, you will lose weight, explains Audra Wilson, RD, CSCS, a bariatric dietitian and strength and conditioning specialist at the Northwestern Medicine Metabolic Health and Surgical Weight Loss Center at Delnor Hospital in Geneva, Illinois. For example, you might eat fewer calories, work off more calories through exercise, or do any combination of the two actions to achieve a deficit of calories.
For example, you might choose to eat calories fewer than your daily caloric requirement and then do a workout that burns another calories, she says. In terms of the 3,calorie rule, that would mean that if you achieve that calorie deficit at the end of each day, you would lose 1 lb of fat in seven days. While the math is complicated, the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, one of the top nutrition research centers in the United States, has created a weight loss predictor to help you more closely estimate how much weight you would lose with a given daily calorie deficit.
It uses mathematical models based on your age, height, weight, and biological sex, as well as the size of your daily caloric deficit. It also provides an estimate of how many calories you need to maintain your body weight and likely are consuming right now.
The size of your caloric deficit affects how fast you lose weight, with larger deficits leading to faster weight loss. Yet experts typically agree that losing 2 lbs per week is the healthiest and most sustainable pace of weight loss , Wilson explains.
If you are losing more than that in a given week, it is likely that you are significantly cutting into your lean muscle mass. By lowering your metabolic rate, this sets you up to eventually regain all of the weight you lost, and possibly then some.
A study published in January in Nutrients analyzed three commercial diet plans designed to result in rapid weight loss, and authors reported that participants experienced deficiencies in nutrients such as vitamin D , B vitamins, vitamin E , selenium, and zinc. However, even with a conservative caloric deficit of a few hundred calories per day, if you are drastically cutting down on processed foods or carbohydrates, you may quickly lose water weight , Greaves says. Whatever your weight loss goal may be, losing 1 lb should ideally involve both diet and exercise.
Pursuing one without the other is setting yourself up to regain the weight later on. Not to mention, most people find it easier to cut calories from their diet than to burn calories through exercise. Counting calories can help raise awareness of different types of foods, the number of calories they contain, and how these calories have a different effect on a person's feelings of satiety. Once a person has a better understanding of how many calories are actually in that bag of chips that they can so easily inhale within minutes, how much of their daily caloric intake it consumes, and how little the chips do to satiate their hunger, portion control and avoidance of foods with empty calories tends to become easier.
Having actual caloric measurements can also assist in weight loss, since tangible calorie goals can be set, rather than simply trying to eat less. Also, although this is not necessarily directly related to calorie counting, studies have shown that portion control by simply eating from a smaller plate can help reduce calorie intake, since people tend to fill their plates and eat everything on their plates.
Many people do not realize that they are overeating, since they have become accustomed to restaurant-sized portions being the norm, when said portions can be up to three or more times larger than necessary for a typical meal. Once a link is made between the amount of exercise that some snack equates to, many people find abstaining from that bag of chips to be the preferred option rather than performing an equivalent amount of exercise — which can lead to healthier eating habits.
In the end, however, what's important is picking a strategy that works for you. Calorie counting is only one method used to achieve weight loss amongst many, and even within this method, there are many possible approaches a person can take.
Finding an approach that fits within your lifestyle that you think you would be able to adhere to is likely going to provide the most sustainable option and desirable result. Zigzag calorie cycling is a weight loss approach that aims to counteract the human body's natural adaptive tendencies. Counting and restricting calories, as described above, is a viable method to lose weight, but over a period of time, it is possible for the body to adapt to the lower number of calories consumed.
In cases where this happens, a plateau in weight loss that can be difficult to surmount can result. This is where zigzag calorie cycling can help, by not allowing the body to adapt to the lower calorie environment. Zigzag calorie cycling involves alternating the number of calories consumed on a given day.
A person on a zigzag diet should have a combination of high-calorie and low-calorie days to meet the same overall weekly calorie target. For example, if your target calorie intake is 14, calories per week, you could consume 2, calories three days a week, and 1, the other four days of the week, or you could consume 2, calories each day. In both cases, 14, calories would be consumed over the week, but the body wouldn't adapt and compensate for a 2,calorie diet. This also allows a person more flexibility in their diet, allowing them to plan around occasions, such as work or family gatherings, where a person may consume more calories.
Consuming a lower number of calories on other days can allow a person to enjoy these gatherings or even have a "cheat day" where they eat whatever they want without feeling guilty, since they can make up for the excess calories on their low-calorie days. There is no concrete rule or study that dictates the most effective way to alternate or spread out calorie consumption.
How to vary calorie intake is largely up to personal discretion. Depending on a person's activity, it is generally recommended that the high-calorie and low-calorie days vary by approximately calories, where the high-calorie day is often the number of calories a person needs to consume to maintain their current weight. For a person with a higher activity level, the calorie difference should be larger.
The calculator presents two zigzag diet schedules. The first schedule has two higher calorie days and five lower calorie days. The second schedule increases and reduces calories gradually. In either case, the total weekly calorie consumption is the same.
In the end, regardless of what method you choose to use when approaching weight loss, what's important is picking a strategy that works for you.
Calorie counting and zigzag calorie cycling are only two methods that are fairly interrelated used to achieve weight loss among many, and even within these methods, there are many possible approaches a person can take. Finding an approach that fits within your lifestyle that you think you would be able to adhere to is likely going to provide the most sustainable and desirable result. Many people seek to lose weight, and often the easiest way to do this is to consume fewer calories each day.
But how many calories does the body actually need in order to be healthy? This largely depends on the amount of physical activity a person performs each day, and regardless of this, is different for all people — there are many different factors involved, not all of which are well-understood or known. Some factors that influence the number of calories a person needs to remain healthy include age, weight, height, sex, levels of physical activity, and overall general health.
For example, a physically active year-old male that is 6 feet in height requires considerably higher calorie intake than a 5-foot-tall, sedentary year-old woman. Though it differs depending on age and activity level, adult males generally require 2, calories per day to maintain weight while adult females need around 1,, according to the U. S Department of Health. The body does not require many calories to simply survive.
However, consuming too few calories results in the body functioning poorly, since it will only use calories for functions essential to survival, and ignore those necessary for general health and well-being. If you choose metabolic testing in a health club, make sure your trainer or technician is qualified to perform the test. When you get re-tested to measure progress, it is usually smart to have the same technician re-do the tests and to use the same equipment.
And since your body weight can vary by several pounds from morning to evening, it's also best to do your re-test at the same of day as the previous test s. Devices by brands like Polar, Garmin, and FitBit and are widely available online and in sporting goods stores. The gadgets monitor your daily movements to determine an estimated number of calories burned each day.
Some independent tests have shown that the devices are not completely accurate at providing an accurate number of calories burned. Calculators like the one above can estimate your daily energy expenditure. Of course, the number is simply a guideline, but it's a good place to start if you want to maintain your weight.
If you want to gain or lose weight, use a weight loss calorie goal calculator to calculate your daily caloric needs by adjusting your daily calorie count goal down or up. To reach your negative energy balance and lose weight successfully, try to increase the amount of energy you use each day. Of course, there are some components of your TEE that are hard to change.
Increasing your resting metabolic rate, for example, is fairly difficult. And increasing the number of calories you burn when you eat food isn't an effective way to reach your negative energy balance, either.
But you can change your daily physical habits. Learn how to plan consistent workouts that are vigorous enough to burn fat but also allow your body enough time to recover , rebuild, and stay healthy. Between workouts, stay active. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk to the store instead of taking the car and stay active at home to burn calories.
You'll boost your calorie-burning potential and you may be able to increase lean muscle mass on your body, which can boost your resting metabolic rate.
Remember that all calorie counts are estimates. Even the calorie counts on food packages are estimates. So, if you're trying to lose weight, expect that you will need to take some time for trial and error before you find the numbers that are right for you.
Use several different methods to find out how many calories you burn each day. Then experiment with food intake to find the right balance to meet your goals. Looking to lose weight? Our nutrition guide can help you get on the right track. Sign up for our newsletter and get it free!
0コメント