Here's your start - Read!
Nutrition For Weight Loss
I believe this is the most important factor in weight loss. The main principle is to lose weight you need to burn more energy than you consume. However this gap cant be to big because you body will go into starvation mode and you will start burning lean muscle mass. So, how do you know how many calories per day you should consume?
Estimating Your Daily Calorie Requirement
Its important to know how many calories you should consume per day to achieve the maximum amount of weight loss while maintaining your lean body mass. If you eat too few calories you lose muscle, if you eat too many you don’t make progress or even go backwards. Previously when I’ve gone on a diet I’ve tried to eat healthy and eat less without actually recording what I’ve eaten. The problem is I eat too little because I am so anxious to achieve my goals and I end up losing muscle mass and not much fat because my body goes into starvation mode.
Below I’ve listed the equations necessary to estimate (its impossible to be spot on) how many calories you should be eating per day. Your Basal Metabolic Rate is the number of calories your body uses when at rest to perform vital bodily functions. We start off by calculating your BMR and then you times it by an activity factor. I’ve used some of my stats to demonstrate.
If you need to convert any of your measurements, check out this site:
My Stats
Height – 178cms
Weight – 77kg
Age – 21yrs
Harris Benedict BMR Formula For Men
BMR = 66 + (13.7 X weight in kgs) + (5 X height in cms) – (6.8 X age in yrs).
Harris Benedict BMR Formula For Women
BMR = 655 + (9.6 X weight in kgs) + (1.8 X height in cms) – (4.7 X age in years)
So to calculate my BMR I do the following: 66 + (13.7 X 77) + (5 X 178) – (6.8 X 21)
BMR = 66 + 1054.9 + 890 – 142.8
BMR = 1868
Now we need to take into account the amount of energy burned through activity.
1. If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) – BMR X 1.2
2. If your are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days a week) – BMR X 1.375
3. If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days a week) – BMR X 1.55
4. If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) – BMR X 1.725
5. If you are extra active (very hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or training twice daily – BMR X 1.9.
I fell into category number 3 therefore 1868 X 1.55 = 2895.4
Therefore 2895.4 is the number of calories I need per day to maintain my current weight. As you know to burn fat I eat less than I consume. So how many calories do I take off this figure without the risk of burning muscle.
They recommend that a person lose 1-2 lbs per week maximum. The example I’m going to use is for my aim to be to lose 1 lb per week. I believe this is fast enough and I won’t be losing any muscle. 1 lb of fat is 3500 calories. Therefore to lose 1 lb a week you do the following: 3500 divided by 7 = 500 cals. I then minus 500 from 2895.4 = 2395.4. So to burn 1 lb of fat per week I must consume no more and no less than 2395.4 calories per day.
Now that you know how may calories per day you should be eating, where do you get these calories? You can’t just go down to McDonalds and eat your required amount of calories and think your job is done. You need to be eating the correct percentages of macronutrients and then you need to know the best foods with which to get these macronutrients.
