Diet is an important part of our life. Even models, actors and people who have a naturally thin physique sooner or later need to get in shape. However, a diet does not always imply a sharp restriction of food, intense physical activity to get rid of extra pounds before the holidays or the opening of the swimming season. A sharp restriction in nutrition can become a real stress for the body, which will not relieve you of extra pounds.
In addition, not everyone can withstand a strict refusal of their favorite foods and high physical activity. The psychological factor plays an important role here, since with great stress and insufficient preparation, it is impossible to withstand strict diet extremely problematic. Therefore, if you persistently decide to lose weight, the best solution there will be a moderate diet. Using the kilocalorie calculation system, you can forget about strict diets and exhausting physical activity. Calories are calculated individually for each person. Do you want to know how many calories you need per day to lose weight without harm to your health? In this article you can discover moderate nutrition with calorie calculations, find out positive aspects a similar system and the basic rules for calculating calories.
Each food product has an energy value coefficient, which implies an indicator of the energy contained in the food. Why do you need to know this? The calorie content of food is an important indicator for people who want to get rid of excess weight.
The energy value factor is determined by determining the number of carbon and hydrogen atoms in food. Fatty foods have the highest coefficient, so they are considered high-calorie. Thus, knowing the amount of heavy components, you can choose food with less content and, therefore, less kcal content.
It is important to take into account the energy value coefficient or the number of calories when you want to lose weight, since eating food with low calorie content, or rather with low content carbohydrates promote weight loss. This occurs due to the fact that the body receives less energy daily than it was accustomed to receiving before starting the diet. Thus, during the day he manages not only to use the received energy coefficient from food, but also to grab reserve reserves in the body. In order to promote weight loss, it is necessary to correctly calculate and consume the daily kcal norm, without reducing or exceeding it.
Calorie calculators
Calorie needs calculator:
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Calorie burn calculator:
How to determine your daily calorie intake
Calculating calorie norms involves consuming a certain ratio of energy from foods, which will be sufficient to maintain the body. For each person, the calorie intake is calculated individually, with an important role played by:
- age;
- initial weight;
- professional activity;
- health status;
- amount of extra kg.
The daily calorie intake is calculated using special formulas. When making calculations yourself, it is important to take into account the individual characteristics of the body, endurance, level physical activity.
To calculate the number of calories for weight loss, you must follow the following rules:
- take into account the state of the body and the characteristics of the person, since only a prudent distribution of calories can give positive results;
- when calculating the daily kcal norm, it is important to distribute most of them over the first half of the day, since at this time of day the body is most active;
- it is important to optimally distribute the number of calories for each meal; consuming more than half of the kcal at one meal will not ensure weight loss;
- when calculating your norm, be guided by tables of caloric content of different food products;
- for the health of the body and weight loss, it is necessary to diversify the diet, distributing daily norm calories between the most important foods for the body: milk, meat, vegetables, fruits, grains.
Energy expenditure by the body
Most people are convinced that the energy coefficient obtained from food can be used by the body only during active physical activity. However, this is not entirely true. Energy factor is a vital indicator. The body always needs energy, regardless of whether you have constant physical activity or prefer to spend time on passive work in the office. Even during deep sleep, the body does not rest, but actively works to process food and use useful energy.
Thus, even with a passive lifestyle and complete absence of physical activity, our body will use more than 65% of the energy obtained from food to maintain optimal performance all organs and the implementation of important physiological processes: muscle development, maintaining general tone, hair and nail growth, food processing and absorption of useful elements, breathing and others.
Important to consider! The transition to a nutrition system based on calculating calorie intake and its strict consumption is not an ironclad guarantee of weight loss in the complete absence of physical activity. In order for the body to lose excess weight, it needs to spend more calories than it receives from food every day.
A passive lifestyle, sedentary work and a complete lack of physical activity can cause many problems associated not only with excess weight. This applies, first of all, to muscle weakness, complications and abnormalities in the functioning of the heart, liver and other organs, cellulite and obesity, skin problems, metabolic problems, etc. However, on the other hand, intense physical activity is also not the norm for the body. In this case, it will consume too high a coefficient of energy, both daily and reserve. Thus, eating according to the principle of consuming normal calories with daily physical activity can lead to a lack of energy and exhaustion of the body.
Expert opinion
Smirnov Viktor Petrovich
Dietitian, Samara
Sometimes, with great difficulty, a person can apply coefficients that increase energy consumption, since he is poorly versed in the concepts of “weak,” “normal,” and “high” physical activity. To clarify this, there are various recommendations, but if you are an office worker or an accounting employee, then you need to enter the absence of physical activity into the formula. Even if you have them in small quantities, such a stricter formula will lead to a decrease in daily caloric intake, which means there is a greater chance that the diet will be useful. However, it is very important to first verify your own health, and especially the absence of endocrine pathology. It is known that patients with high level thyroid hormones have more high temperature body and more intense basal metabolic rates. In the classic case of hyperthyroidism, or thyrotoxicosis, the patient eats everything and many times a day, but at the same time body weight continues to decrease. Therefore, an analysis of the level of thyroid hormones is advisable if a person is planning to lose weight. If they are low, then we will be talking about myxedema, or hypothyroidism. Such a person will be obese, but losing weight only by reducing calories will be problematic, because basal metabolism is reduced, since it is regulated by thyroid hormones. Observation and treatment by an endocrinologist will be required.
Individual calorie calculation
Today, to calculate the daily kcal requirement, there are various calculators and formulas that calculate the number of calories taking into account a person’s gender, age, lifestyle and level of physical activity. The simplest and most commonly used formula for calculating calories is Muffin-Jeor. Developed back in the late 90s, this formula is still considered one of the most accurate. It is based on a comparison of a person’s basal metabolism with the individual characteristics of his lifestyle.
The first part of the formula is the human basal metabolic rate. It implies an indicator of the calorie norm that the human body needs every day to maintain vital functions in a state of complete rest.
Please note: the calculation of a person’s basal metabolic rate, as well as the daily kcal norm for women and men, is done differently! Thus, to determine the basal metabolic rate for a woman, it is necessary to use the formula: 10*weight + 6.25*height – 5*age – 161. For a man, the calculation is made using the formula: 10*weight + 6.25*height – 5*age + 5.
The second part of the formula includes the following coefficients that need to be multiplied by the basal metabolic rate:
- lack of physical activity – *1.2;
- low level of physical activity (up to 3 days a week) – *1.35;
- normal level of physical activity (3 to 5 days a week) – *1.55;
- high level of physical activity (more than 5 days a week) – *1, 725;
- hyperactivity (intense exercise every day) – *1.9.
If you are looking for ways to calculate calories for weight loss for a woman, you can use this easy-to-calculate but fairly accurate formula. Thus, by calculating OO and multiplying it by the coefficient of a woman’s level of physical activity, you can find out her daily kcal requirement, using which you can smoothly and effectively lose weight without harm to your health.
Nutrition by calories
Having decided to use a calorie-calculated nutrition system, you must not only know the calorie content of all foods, but also be able to balance your diet. In order to ensure weight loss without harm to health, the most important foods for the human body must be present in the daily diet. You cannot completely exclude the use of one of the products due to its high calorie content, as this can lead to a lack of useful and important substances in the body.
- low-fat dairy products (yogurt, kefir, milk, cottage cheese);
- lean meat (chicken, goose);
- low-calorie vegetables that do not contain starch (cucumbers, radishes, beets, tomatoes, cabbage);
- low-calorie fruits (pears, apples, berries);
- fish;
- healthy cereals, porridges, cereals;
- natural juices, compotes, decoctions and broths.
Thus, calorie calculation can be a beneficial solution for people who cannot afford to go on strict diets. With the correct calculation of calorie intake, compliance with nutritional rules and moderate physical activity, this diet can have a positive effect not only on a person’s weight, but also on the condition of the body, keeping it in good shape and eliminating problems in the functioning of organs. But in order for this diet to be truly effective, it is necessary to strictly adhere to the calculated kcal norm for the day, without exceeding it, but also without decreasing it.
If we are talking about losing weight, then you need to take into account three basic rules: proper low-calorie nutrition, intense training and good rest. (recovery of the body). In this article we will not touch on training and recovery, but will only talk about proper low-calorie nutrition. Namely, you will learn: How many calories do you need per day to lose weight?
The most important rule for losing weight is: “You need to take in fewer calories than you can burn in a day”. How to understand this? This means that you need to eat less food (calories) than you can consume during the day.
Let's look at an example:
Let's imagine that you burn 2000 calories a day, but don't lose weight. (but you don’t type either). That is, you ate 2000 calories and burned 2000 calories. In order to lose weight, you need to reduce your caloric intake by 200 - 400 calories. And in the end it turns out that you eat 1700 calories per day (conditionally cut by 300 calories), and you will burn 2000 calories. And if you did everything correctly, then the body will get the missing 300 calories from subcutaneous fat.
In order to find out how many calories you need individually for you, you need to multiply your weight in kilograms by 25 (girls can even multiply by 22). For example, your body weight is 85kg (man). So, we do this: 85 * 25 = 2125 (accordingly, if it were a girl, they would do this: 85 * 22 = 1870). And this is the number (which we got)– this is an approximate value. This is like a starting point from which you need to build.
And then all that remains is to experiment and wait. In general, this is done like this: for the next 7 days you need to stick to a monotonous menu with the same calorie content (in our case, this is 2125 for men, and 1870 for women). After this, on the 8th day (in the morning, before the first meal), you need to determine the exact weight of your body and take all the necessary measurements (waist, chest, hips, etc.). When everything is done, look:
- if you have lost 0.5 - 0.7 kg and the measurements are in the negative, we don’t change anything (everything works fine)
- if your weight has not changed or you have lost only 0.1 - 0.2 kg, cut your diet by 100 - 200 calories
- if the worst happens (you gain weight) - cut your diet by 300 - 500 calories
Ideal fat loss option for men and women:
- men: 0.5 – 1kg
- women: 0.3 – 0.7kg
Women are a little more difficult by nature to lose weight, so the results will be the same for them. If you lose more than the indicated figures, then most likely it is not fat, but water + muscle mass. Also, sudden weight loss causes severe stress to the body, which can ultimately end in disaster. (or health problems or after losing weight you will gain 1.5 - 2 times more fat). Don't rush! Losing weight is not a sprint; losing weight is a long-distance race. The most important thing is to calculate everything correctly and understand it for you . You need to lose weight slowly but surely. The most important thing is not to stand still.
Fine! Everything is clear with calorie content. Now let's discuss nutrients in more detail (proteins, fats, carbohydrates).
Protein (aka protein)– the most important component in any weight loss. It is a key component for our muscles. If during weight loss there is little protein in your diet, then part of the lost weight will fall on muscle mass. For a man losing weight, the protein norm is 2g * 1kg. If you are drying out
The best sources of protein foods are: meat (chicken, turkey, beef, veal, rabbit, etc.), fish (herring, mackerel, pink salmon, tuna, hake, pollock, cod, etc.), shrimp, cottage cheese (low fat or low fat), chicken eggs.
Your diet should include various sources proteins, since each product is unique and has its own unique set of amino acids, vitamins, macro and microelements.
Fats are a very important component for our body. In no case should you completely abandon them, but it is also not recommended to eat them a lot. The daily fat intake for both men and women during weight loss is: 0.7g * 1kg
Best sources of fatty acids: olive oil, flaxseed oil, avocados, nuts (walnuts, peanuts, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, pine, etc.), seeds, fatty fish (herring, mackerel, etc.), rapeseed oil.
Try to diversify your diet with various fatty acids, as each product is beneficial in its own way. The most valuable fats are Omega 3 fatty acids, which are found in fatty fish and flaxseed oil.
Carbohydrates are the simplest and main source of energy for human body. Exactly carbohydrates (in most cases) are the cause of obesity. If we must eat proteins and fats exactly according to calculations, then we need to “play” with carbohydrates. Also, when you stop losing weight, your diet is usually reduced due to carbohydrates (proteins and fats do not change). If you know in general, how many calories do you need per day to lose weight, then it won’t be difficult for you to find the daily carbohydrate intake . In general, according to average statistics, the initial daily carbohydrate intake is 2–4g (for men) and 1.5–3g (for girls). Well, then you look: You are losing weight - everything is clear! If you don't lose weight, cut down on carbohydrates!
Best sources of carbohydrates: cereals (buckwheat, various varieties rice, oatmeal, barley, millet, corn, barley, wheat, etc.), fruits (apples, oranges, bananas, kiwi, grapefruit, tangerines, etc.), berries, vegetables (a must have in your diet as it is an excellent source of fiber), honey
Focus on various grains, as these are sources of complex carbohydrates. Such carbohydrates do not provoke a large release of insulin into the blood and are able to saturate the body with energy for a very long time. You need to eat different grains (the ideal option would be to alternate days), since each cereal is unique and has its own positive properties for the body. Also, in addition to cereals, your diet should contain simple carbohydrates. From simple carbohydrates (fruits, berries, honey) it is impossible to refuse completely, since this best source energy for the brain. I recommend reducing simple carbohydrates to 20% per day (that is, per day you eat: 20% simple carbohydrates and 80% complex carbohydrates).
I would also like to touch on several reasons why the weight loss process stops (even if you don't eat much).
Reason #1: You do everything by eye
Most people who go on a diet do not control their diet and do everything by eye. This is why their calories change every day.
As it usually happens:
The girl (or guy) went on a diet, gave up fried and sweet foods, and only eats boiled food. (buckwheat, meat, fish). Everything seems to be correct, but there is one BUT! Today she ate one amount of these foods, and tomorrow she ate another amount. (more than usual), and it turns out that today she received 1500 calories, and tomorrow 1800 calories.
This diet doesn't work! You need to know exactly what and how much you eat every day. This is necessary so that you can manage the process of losing weight. You should write a monotonous meal plan and eat exactly in grams (buy a kitchen scale).
Reason #2: Few meals and large portions
Why is it so important to eat often and in small portions during a diet? It would seem, what is the difference between 2 - 3 meals and 5 - 6 meals, the calorie content will still be the same (both in the first case and in the second). But not everything is as simple as it seems, fractional nutrition has many benefits, and the most important benefit is accelerating metabolism (although there is an opinion that fractional meals do not speed up metabolism).
It is very important that during weight loss the metabolism does not slow down, but even accelerates! Because the faster the metabolism, the faster the fat burning process occurs. If the metabolism has slowed down, this means that the body has switched to a mode of saving all resources (including fat reserves).
Fractional meals (5 – 6 times a day, every 2 – 2.5 hours) as if constantly spurs metabolism, and does not give it a chance to slow down. Also, such nutrition allows you to maintain amino acids in the body at the same level. (no ups and downs).
But this does not mean that you need to eat a large amount of food. This means that the initial daily amount should be divided into as many daily servings as possible.
Reason #3: Incorrect distribution of nutrients (proteins, fats and carbohydrates)
Very often you can hear that many girls try to lose weight on cereals and vegetables, while the diet contains a minimum of protein foods and no fat at all. As a result, they either do not lose weight at all, or lose weight to a greater extent due to muscle mass. After losing weight, the body takes on a “flabby” appearance. And all this happens because people do not understand what the correct ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates should be.
How many calories do a man and a woman need per day to lose weight and what should be the correct ratio of Protein – Fat – Carbohydrates?
For a losing weight man, the protein norm is 2g * 1kg (for a losing weight girl – 1.5g * 1kg). If you are drying out (have built a lot of muscle mass and are trying to burn fat without losing that mass), then the protein norm for men is: 2.2 – 3g * 1kg, and for women: 2 – 2.5g * 1kg.
The daily fat intake for both men and women during weight loss is: 0.7g * 1kg
The initial daily carbohydrate intake is 2–4g (for men) and 1.5–3g (for girls). Well, then you look: You are losing weight - everything is clear! If you don't lose weight, cut down on carbohydrates! Carbohydrates are the ones you need to play with. (more - less).
Reason No. 4: Weak physical activity (or its complete absence)
Well, of course, where would we be without training?! Diet is diet, but training is also important! It accelerates metabolism and helps get rid of subcutaneous fat in the shortest possible time.
There are 2 types of loads:
To achieve maximum results, it is recommended to combine these two types of training. Each of them is effective in its own way, and they differ in that they burn differently body fat. Let's take a closer look.
Cardio workout:
much more energy-consuming than anaerobic, and uses fat as fuel! But the body does not use subcutaneous fat, but muscle fat. And already in the process of recovery (rest), subcutaneous fat from your problem areas replenishes spent reserves of muscle fat (this is how fat burning happens). In addition, you do not need to wait 30 - 40 minutes for the fat burning process to start, since this process starts approximately 60 seconds after you start doing cardio.At the moment we are talking about long-term low-intensity cardio, when the pulse zone is in the region of 120 – 140 beats per minute. If we exceed this pulse zone, the body switches to using glycogen as fuel (the main source of fuel during strength training) and then cardio loses its maximum effect. If you want to maintain muscle mass, then I do not recommend doing cardio for more than 60 minutes at a time, since during these 60 minutes the body will use up muscle fat and may later use some of your muscle as fuel.
Strength training:
less energy-consuming than cardio, and uses glycogen as fuel. But strength training has a number of advantages:- After completing a workout, anaerobic exercise creates a greater calorie deficit than aerobic exercise (that is, a cardio workout “such as running” will burn more calories than strength training, but if you take into account the whole day, then strength training will burn more calories due to the energy that muscles require for recovery)
- the more muscle, the better fat burning (muscles are very gluttonous and they will burn a lot of calories even when you are sleeping)
Due to a calorie deficit, the body begins to eat not only fat, but also muscle mass, and strength training prevents this (it kind of gives the body a signal that the muscles should not be touched, they are needed for hard work).
As you can see, both types of loads are important, but still, strength training comes first.
For example, to lose weight, it is enough to do 3 strength training sessions a week and follow a diet. If you have time, you can add 2 more cardio workouts (this will only speed up the fat burning process). You can do this:
- Mon, Wed, Sat – strength training
- Tue, Fri – cardio
- Thu, Sun – rest
Or, if you don’t have enough time for separate cardio, you can do it immediately after strength training (first 40 minutes – training with iron, next 20 minutes – cardio).
Well, I hope I've made everything clear about... how many calories do you need per day to lose weight. Select, count everything and try. The first week is always “estimated”... it is needed to evaluate the starting point. And, as a rule, you can expect a positive result from the second week (since after the first “estimated” week you have already clearly set up your diet).
Sincerely,
To feel well and maintain vital functions, a person needs a source of energy. You can get it from various foods that contain useful substances– fats, proteins and carbohydrates. The indicators of these components affect the calorie content of food. To calculate how many calories a person needs per day, you need to know your activity level, that is, energy expenditure.
Basics of Dietetics
Dietetics is the science of proper nutrition. The essence of energy balance is as follows:
- Admission food products into the body must be equal to their consumption.
- Food must contain carbohydrates, proteins and fats in the prescribed proportions.
- It is imperative to have vitamins and microelements in your daily diet.
If a person does not receive enough natural active substances, he begins to develop various diseases (hypertension, obesity, diabetes and others), which leads to a decrease in average life expectancy.
Rational nutrition
To know how many calories you can consume per day, you need to know your energy expenditure (metabolic rate). The general metabolism in a person depends on the main and additional ones.
Basic metabolism is the number of calories the body expends to perform all important functions. How many calories a person normally needs per day depends on the main metabolism and the following factors:
- height;
- body constitution;
- level of hormone production.
Accordingly, the calorie intake per day depends on the listed criteria. For example, in men chemical processes occur faster in the body than in women. Young people spend more energy than older people. The average daily metabolism in the adult population is 25 kcal per kilogram of weight.
How much protein should a person consume per day to be healthy? Athletes and active young people should consume 1.5-2.5 grams per 1 kg of body weight per day. A person weighing 80 kg can eat 200 grams of protein daily. People with moderate activity can consume up to 1.5 grams per 1 kg of body weight. If sedentary lifestyle life, then it is enough to eat up to 1 gram per 1 kg per day.
Where do calories come from?
As mentioned above, food contains carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, microelements and water. The last three components do not provide energy to the body. The calorie content of food is expressed in the energy value necessary to maintain life in the human body.
Human body consumes food to implement a variety of functions, such as heat generation, respiration, blood transport through cells, for rest and work, and sports. If a person consumes more than he expends, then some of the calories are stored as fat, and the person gets fat.
What are they spent on?
Calories are consumed when next steps:
- Warming the body. To warm up, a person uses up fat reserves.
- The process of movement. When a person moves, his muscles contract, so when playing sports or when cleaning the apartment, the body spends energy.
To find out how many calories a person spends per day, you need to know his active activity: studying, working, professional athlete, housewife, etc.
What happens when you don't have enough calories?
When calculating the daily norm, you need to take into account every little thing: putting butter in porridge or mayonnaise in a salad. An excess of calories, just like a deficiency, is fraught with consequences for the body. If there are few nutrients coming from food, the body begins to use energy from muscle tissue, and not at the expense excess fat.
Lack of fats and carbohydrates in the diet can reduce basal metabolism. The body, maintaining a constant supply of sugar to the brain, uses up its own supply of glycogen, which is stored in the liver. Glycogen is gradually removed from muscle tissue, and as a result, a person begins to lose weight. If reserves are depleted, a person stops losing weight.
Fat tissue is not used to nourish the brain. During the period of weight loss, the body uses fat deposits as energy, but the decrease in these reserves is much less than the loss of muscle and bone tissue. If a person deprives himself of fatty foods, weight loss occurs due to bone and muscle tissue. This is fraught with danger for the body, as it threatens exhaustion.
Formula for calculating daily value
How many kilocalories does a person need? The norm is determined based on the following data:
- basal metabolism is the cost of living important functions body: breathing, digesting food, supplying organs with blood, and so on;
- daily expenditure on physical labor.
- OM for women = 6.26*(height in cm) + 10*(weight in kg) - 5*(age in years) - 161;
- OM in men = 6.26*(height in cm) + 10*(weight in kg) - 5*(age in years) + 5, where (OM) is general metabolism.
Norm for women
Young women aged 18-30 spend an average of 2000 kcal. If a woman is actively involved in sports or works a lot, the daily norm increases.
The norm of kilocalories per day for a woman depends on the same parameters as for men:
- Sedentary lifestyle or no physical activity – 1300-1500 kcal per day.
- Low physical activity – 1500-1700 kcal.
- Moderate activity – 1800-2000 kcal.
- Heavy loads – 2000-2400 kcal.
These are approximate values. How many calories a woman needs to consume per day can be calculated using a formula that takes into account weight, height and index (physical activity value).
Harris-Benedict formula:
447.6 + 9.2 * weight in kg + 3.1 * height in cm – 4.3 * age.
The result obtained must be multiplied by the activity index.
For example: a 26-year-old girl, 163 cm tall and weighing 64 kg. Goes to the gym two to three times a week.
447.6 + 9.2 * 64 + 3.1 * 163 – 4.3 * 26 = 1430 kcal.
Let's multiply by the activity index (1.375) and get a daily requirement of 1966 kcal.
Women over 50 need slightly fewer calories as their basal metabolism declines.
A woman during pregnancy and lactation needs more calories. But this does not mean that pregnant women should eat for two; in case of edema or excessive weight gain, they may prescribe a diet. With a normal initial weight before pregnancy, pregnant women should consume from 2500 to 3500 kcal per day.
Norm for men
A man's diet should be high enough in calories to maintain all functions in the body. The daily calorie intake per day for men with moderate activity is 2500-2800 calories. If there is no physical activity, energy is consumed differently.
There is another formula for calculation: (13.4 * weight in kg + 88.37 + 4.8 * height in cm – 5.7 * age) * activity index.
The daily calorie intake per day for a man depends on his activity. The result must be multiplied by the index, which corresponds to the level of physical activity:
- sedentary work or no activity - 1.2;
- light physical labor – 1.4;
- moderate physical activity – 1.55;
- heavy physical work – 1.7;
- hard physical labor + active sports training – 1.9.
Here is an example of calculating the amount of kcal per day for men:
A man with a height of 181 cm weighs 88 kg, moderate activity. Substituting the values into the formula, it is easy to calculate how many calories a man needs per day: 6.25*(height in cm) + 10*(weight in kg) - 5*(age in years) + 5 = 1781 kcal.
When asked how many calories a man needs to consume per day if he wants to lose weight, the answer is that he must reduce his diet by 20%.
Weight correction
Systematic consumption of calories less than the daily norm promotes weight loss and weight correction, especially if you combine a diet with sports activities. The daily calorie intake for a woman when losing weight is 80% of the usual per day.
The same indicator is used when you need to calculate the daily calorie intake for men. For harmless weight loss, nutritionists advise reducing the calorie content of food gradually. If the norm of kilocalories per day is 2000, then using 1600 kcal per day, you can achieve gradual weight loss.
The norm of kilocalories per day for men to maintain weight is 1800 kcal. It is not recommended to reduce this value below to avoid health problems. The daily calorie intake for weight loss depends on the individual intake of a particular person.
Required nutrients must be contained in the exact ratio:
- proteins – 30%;
- carbohydrates – 50%;
- fats – 20%.
With classic weight loss, all these components should be present in the diet of any person. The lack of one of these components will negate all efforts. You need to plan your daily diet taking into account physical activity, and then your body will delight you with beauty and grace for a long time!
Video
You will learn a lot more useful information about nutrition and calories from the video.
Diet is determined by various factors. The most important are age, gender, level of physical and intellectual activity, lifestyle, temperament, the presence of certain diseases, financial capabilities, and goals. Therefore, the answers to the questions - how many calories to consume per day to lose weight or increase body weight - have different people are very different.
An easy way to determine your base calorie intake
Food supplies the body, first of all, with energy. After consuming a product, a certain amount of heat is released in the body, which is measured in calories. One gram of carbohydrates produces 4.1 calories, one gram of fat produces 9.3 calories.
To calculate how many calories enter the body every day, just look at the corresponding table of calorie content (energy value) of foods. In addition, calorie content is usually indicated on the packaging.
Body weight correction should begin with determining the basic calorie content of the daily diet, at which the body does not lose weight or gain weight. Then, depending on your goal - to lose weight or gain weight - adjust it according to the menu.
First way. For a week or two, leading your usual lifestyle, write down the amount of food you eat every day. Then, using the calorie tables, determine the average daily amount of calories.
Second way. It is believed that approximately 30 kcal is required for every kilogram of body weight. Thus, to determine how many calories you need to consume per day, you need to multiply 30 kcal by your body weight in kilograms.
The resulting figure will allow you to adjust your daily diet depending on your goal:
- if body weight remains constant, nothing needs to be changed: the body spends as many calories as it consumes;
- in case overweight, the tendency to increase it is worth reducing the calorie content of the daily diet, but not completely giving up food;
- if excessive it is worth increasing energy value daily diet.
Even with a slight imbalance of calories - for example, taking in just 100 extra calories each day - 4.5 kg of body fat accumulates over the year. That is why it is so important to return not only optimal body weight, but also to maintain it at this level, completely expending all calories, preventing them from turning into fat.
Having determined basic calorie content nutrition, to lose weight you can reduce your daily diet by 200-300 kcal. In any case, you should not lose weight faster than 100g per day. Otherwise, the body will not have time to adapt to changes, and malfunctions may occur. internal organs and systems.
Formula for calculating calorie intake per day
Even at rest, the body requires energy for metabolic reactions, the functioning of the heart muscle, kidneys, stomach, liver, brain, and the functioning of internal organs and systems.
It is believed that basal metabolism requires about 70% of the energy supplied with food. On average, 1 kcal of energy is required per kilogram of weight every hour. Digestion and assimilation of food requires another 10% of basal metabolic energy.
Thus, every day with a weight of 80 kg it is required
80 kg x 1.1 x 24 hours = 2112 kcal.
The resulting figure for the body’s unregulated costs shows approximately how many calories should be consumed per day to prevent a malfunction of the internal organs.
These costs are called unregulated, since they are determined by the metabolic rate, temperament, and the characteristics of food absorption, i.e. are quite constant and practically impossible to change.
The relevant literature uses a more precise formula to determine how many calories you need to consume per day to cover your basal metabolic costs:
655 + (9.6 x weight, kg) + (1.8 x height, cm) - (4.7 x age, years)
For example, with a weight of 80 kg, a height of 180 cm, and an age of 30 years, the basal metabolic rate requires
655 + (9.6 x 80) + (1.8 * 180) - (4.7 x 30) = 1606 kcal
To the resulting figure it is necessary to add the costs of performing this or that work during the day. These costs are called adjustable because they can be increased or decreased.
Calorie consumption tables
When compiling a daily diet, it is necessary to take into account both the calorie content of foods and physical activity, consuming the incoming energy.
The costs of some household chores are presented in Table 1:
To calculate it is necessary to determine the duration of one or another homework how many calories per day were spent on its implementation, add the resulting figure to the result of the basal metabolic rate.
For example, if during the day 0.5 hours are spent on dusting, 1.5 hours on washing floors, an hour on ironing, an hour on washing dishes, two hours on sewing, an hour on reading, then to the main exchange you need to add:
(0.5 x 100) + (1.5 x 270) + (1 x 60) + (1 x 60) + (2 x 30) + (1 x 30) = 665 kcal
Execution costs physical exercise, other cases are presented in Table 2:
| Type of activity | Energy expenditure (kcal per hour) |
|---|---|
| Running fast | 950 |
| Running slow | 490 |
| Ice skating | 480 |
| Driving a car | 80 |
| Rowing | 820 |
| Riding in transport | 50 |
| Cycling | 500 |
| Charger | 270 |
| Swimming | 500 |
| Weight lifting | 190 |
| Working while standing | 30 |
| Mental work | 8 |
| Walking (fast) | 530 |
| Walking (medium pace) | 200 |
| Skiing | 800 |
For correct calculation, how many calories per day should be consumed, it is worth further increasing the figure of regulated expenses depending on individual life activity:
- by 20-30% with a sedentary, home lifestyle;
- by 30-40% with average activity (washing, cleaning, cooking, etc.);
- 50% high activity (regular exercise).
To lose weight, it is necessary to reduce the calorie content of the daily diet to the level of basal metabolism and at the same time increase energy expenditure for physical activity. Otherwise, the excess energy received is stored in the form of fat reserves.
Modified: 08/11/2018
