How many calories do I need?

By: Michael Schran

Whatever they will tell you or whatever you've heard - if you
want to drop weight you simply have to cut calories to drop
weight. Read how you precisely determine your daily calorie
needs.

As mentioned in one of my earlier articles ("Weight loss myths
and lies"), there is lot of bullshit told by those so called
weight loss experts. I won't go into detail here, but you surely
heard of advice like "You can eat everything you want except for
potatoes, rice, bread and pasta".

Okay, so why don't you try this: If you're not allowed to eat
carbohydrates (which above listed foods mainly consist of) then
you could actually eat bacon, eggs, steak and butter (straight -
no bread allowed) and all those other fat-rich food you were
always afraid of (regarding your weight loss plans).

Sometimes, this might work for you (this is why those low carb
diets are so famous), for fat is the nutrient which feeds you
the best. This, on the other hand, means you eat less food at
all and might drop weight as a result. BUT (big but): this has
nothing to do with carbs being the bad boys of our food. The
only reason you drop weight (I don't say this will work for
everyone) is your reduced calorie intake.

Isn't this something you already learnt at school? If you "burn"
more energy than you get (by eating), your body still has to
provide energy. This is done by burning body fat. I'll keep it
short now.

Bottom line: the only factor deciding on your body fat is your
energy balance (calorie intake minus calorie consumption). If
you consume more energy than you "eat" (either by having more
physical activities or eating less - or both), you will drop
fat. Easy as that. Every successful diet works due to this fact
(of course they want to sell you their new terrific theories).

So how do you know how much calories your body needs per day?
Actually, your calorie needs can be determined by measuring your
body heat emission and other scientific examinations. Because
not everybody has time (and money) to ask his or her doctor for
such tests, there are approximated formulas (which use factors
like your body surface etc.) that will calculate your needed
energy at high precision.

Those formulas (for resting metabolic rates, ie. your energy
comsumption with nearly no physical activities) are:

For women: 655 + (9.6 * weight in kg) + (1.9 * height in cm) -
(4.7 * age in years)

For men: 66 + (13.8 * weight in kg) + (5 * height in cm) - (6.8
* age in years)

Those recognized formulas have been developed by J.Harris and
F.Benedict. If you are from a non-metric country, you calculate
your own resting metabolic rate by using these conversion
formulas:

weight in kg = 0.454 * lbs height in cm = 30.48*feet +
2.54*inches

For example, a 32 year old woman (155lbs, 5'5") has a rate of:
655 + (9.6 * 70) + (1.9 * 165) - (4.7 * 32) = 1490kcal

To get your daily calorie needs, we need to add the calories you
burn doing any physical activities. To keep it simple, we'll use
the PAL (physical activity level) system. Depending on your
activity you simply multiply your resting metabolic rate with a
factor which describes your daily activities best:

Very slight physical activity (mainly lying, illness): factor
1.2 Slight physical activity (reading, desk work, motoring):
factor 1.4 to 1.5 Average physical activity (assembly-line
workers, students): factor 1.6 to 1.7 High physical activity
(domestic work, craftsman): factor 1.8 to 1.9 Very high physical
activity (construction worker, athletes/pros): 2.0 to 2.4

Back to our example, if our woman mainly does domestic work, she
has a total metabolic rate of 1.8 * 1490kcal, ie. about 2680kcal
per day.

So if you want to drop weight, just determine your daily calorie
consumption per day (depending on your work etc., maybe you do
sports on some days and so on) and keep your calorie intake
below (maybe 400-800kcal per day) this rate.

For one pound of body fat holds about 3200kcal of energy, you
can expect to lose one pound (of pure fat!) in 4 to 8 days
(don't cut down calories to fast!).

About the author:
Michael Schran provides a free online activity calorie calculator tool on his site dedicated to
washboard abs, which
allows you to automatically calculate your calorie needs and
much more.