How to maintain healthy weight loss?
Now let’s talk about daily caloric needs of men and women. How many calories should i eat a day to lose weight? It is well known that the number of daily calories should be estimated individually for each person. It depends on sex, age, occupation and physical loads (if present at all), and also on some other factors.
Yet it is important to at least roughly determine your daily caloric needs, and with this in mind to adjust the diet, especially if you want to optimize your weight – lose or gain it.
The World Health Organization recommends an individual approach to the calculation of daily calories to create an effective nutritional plan. That requires data on the age and exact weight.
We encourage you to critically assess your physical activity because honesty towards yourself will help you make the right nutrition plan and achieve the best results.
What happens when we get too few calories?
It often happens that people are hungry for quick results, resort to extreme measures and greatly limit themselves to the food. Fast results only bring temporary satisfaction and cause the body more harm than good. The effect does not last long, and the euphoria of winning is followed by the bitterness of disappointment. Indeed, reduced calorie diet does not often act as we expect it to.
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)
BMR is is a required number of calories that your body needs to perform basic functions – breathing, chemical processes at the cellular level, etc. Sex, body weight, age and height have the greatest impact on BMR. (BMR calculator)
Sex: Men compared to women have, as a rule, greater muscle mass, and hence the higher BMR because muscles burn more calories than fat.
Age: BMR is at its maximum in youth, then it gradually reduces, unless one specifically builds muscle mass.
Weight: The greater the weight, the higher the BMR.
Removal of excess fat is quite a long process. Rapid weight loss is possible only due to the loss of water and wastes. It is proved that it is safe to lose no more than 2 pounds fat in a week. Speedy weight loss can affect health, particularly the skin.
Moreover, it is not necessary to seek drastic weight loss, but just slightly reduce daily calories consumed from carbohydrates by a certain amount, thus you start the long process. Determining the value of the calories to be reduced is simple. 2 pounds fat contain about 9000 kcal. In order to burn so many calories per week you need to create a daily deficit of 1200 kcal.
Of course, this value makes sense only in case of stability of your weight. Exceeding the specified value is not recommended, although you can make it lower.
Caution! When cutting off the daily caloric intake by more than 1200 kcal, there happens a reduction in metabolic rate, and hence, the body starts to save power, consuming less energy.
To maintain stable weight loss it is necessary to maintain the speed of metabolic processes at a high level. You need to have meals at least five times a day, consuming foods in small portions. Interval trainings twice a week for 10-30 minutes accelerate metabolism for up to several days. Combining all the elements together, namely, the calorie deficit of 1200 kcal. and moderate physical activity, coupled with frequent meals, will lead you to the desired goal.
