How many calories do I need?

I am totally confused about how to work out how many calories I need to lose weight? Can anyone help?

It depends on your weight. If you dont' mind me asking, how much do you weigh? I've always heard a healthy calorie intake was 2,000 a day.

[RWF]

Here's the easy answer for you: (Thanks to Musceandstrength.com)

Basal Metabolic Rate and Daily Calorie Calculator | Muscle&Strength.com

You can use this to work out approximately what your body needs in terms of calories. Then subtract 500 per day for weight loss. You may need to take off more or less, you just need to test for yourself really.

Remember that's it's just as important where your calories are coming from as how many you're getting!

[pascalevdb]

To loose 1 pound of fat = 3500 calories. Lets say you want to loose 5 pounds, that means you need to put your body in a deficit of 17,500 calories. Can you do that in a week? No, not without loosing muscle and becoming dehydrated. As an earlier post noted, by depleting your body of 500 calories a day, you can safely loose the weight in about 35 days (35 x 500 = 17,500 calories.)

Pascale

View the posting Passing It Along # 2, I just posted it today. The information might help you a little. Good luck!

[daisy]

I suggest instead of counting calories, you can go for a good diet program. My trainer recommended the Bistro MD diet program. It’s a low calories diet - delivered directly to my door. I've lost 14 pounds in 2 months with light jogging. What I like the best about Bistro MD is that it comes straight to my door and I don't have to worry about counting the calories.

[5kgLifter]

Originally Posted by daisy

I suggest instead of counting calories, you can go for a good diet program. My trainer recommended the Bistro MD diet program. It’s a low calories diet - delivered directly to my door. I've lost 14 pounds in 2 months with light jogging. What I like the best about Bistro MD is that it comes straight to my door and I don't have to worry about counting the calories.

Personally, I think these meal plans delivered direct to people's doors are justa sking for trouble. They encourage a lack of awareness about what foods are being eaten, they discourage cooking and food preparation (I mean your stuffed if you want to go on holiday!), they discourage people walking to the shops, they cost a fortune, they are way too few calories per day. And not to be funny, but anyone following a sensible diet plan at home, shop bought and prepared by themselves (cooked) can still easily lose 16 lbs in two months which is in fact more weight than you lost on an expensive low-calorie programme...which left you energy depleted and with a lot less cash than had you just gone and bought veggies and meat etc and made your own meals.

If anyone ever wants to consider this expensive option, try this: see what meals they do every day, then just go and make them yourself, much cheaper

[makayla88]

Hi I also think you must take a healthy diet instead of counting your calories.You should avoid oily foods or diets as it contains a lot of calories which will increase your weight.

[dreamchaser214]

The number of calories the body consumes in a day is different for every person. You may notice on the nutritional labels of the foods you buy that the "percent daily values" are based on a 2,000 calorie diet -- 2,000 calories is a rough average of what people eat in a day. But your body might need more or less than 2,000. Height, weight, gender, age and activity level all affect your caloric needs.

__________________