Daily Calorie Intake to Lose Weight: How It Should Be

By M Edward

Many people get stuck when it comes to determining the required daily calorie intake to lose weight. The question becomes just what is too much or what is too little. At the same time our bodies are different and the calorie consumption varies in regard to this difference. That said it is also not easy differentiating between high calorie and low calorie food. Calorie intake thus becomes a hard giant to tackle and so does weight gain.

The confusion arises as we try to strike a balance between the calories we need to lose weight and the amount of calories that we need in order to survive. As much as calories are harmful to a person trying to lose weight, they are necessary for our daily survival and should not be completely eliminated from our diet. I hope this is not contradicting information but rather, an insight in to all that you should know. So do not be misled that you should keep of calories completely.

Determining your daily calorie intake

Just to give you an example, a person weighing 100 pounds will need about 1000 calories to survive. That is in the absence of exercise, just when the body is at rest. At this rate, they can maintain their weight and muscles well without unnecessary weight gain. So what if this person consumes 2000 calories per day, in the absence of exercise? What happens is that they are unable to burn these excess calories and thus add weight. In the same way, those that will consume less will be at the risk of being underweight because they are not providing the body with the necessary energy for its activities.

Thus if the initiative is to lose weight, then the amount of calories needed in the body should be a lot higher. The easiest way that is used to determine this is by measuring the percentage of fat in our body. This is quite simple, a skin caliper will be able to tell you how much muscle you have and how much fat you got. That way, you can easily determine your daily calorie intake.

Calculating your daily calorie intake

A person who weighs 155 pounds and has 15 percent of body fat has around 80 percent lean mass. That is about 25 pounds of fat. Meaning they need about 1400 of calories while at rest. That is often called the BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate. This is then multiplied with a person's activity rate. The more active a person is the more calories a person needs. This is because they need lots of energy in the body to keep it functioning.

So then you know, if you are exercising in order to lose weight, do not completely deprive yourself calories, consume enough to give you some energy. If you are at rest and inactive, limit your calories because it means you do not burn enough to cut weight.

You thus know the first step in losing weight is determining the daily calorie intake to lose weight. After doing that, you can go ahead and start identifying the foods you need for this to be achieved.