LoveToKnow Diet:AllComments

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Hi Anna,

The amount of calories for each individual differs. For you to learn what it takes for you to lose weight, first you need to track how many calories you're taking in on an average day. Once you have that amount, you know the amount of calories you need to eat to lose weight will be less than that. Cut those calories by 100-200 per day for a week. If you maintain your weight, you need to cut again. Reduce calorie intake by another 100 calories per day. Continue this process until you find the calorie total that allows you to lose weight.

I recommend regular exercise, too. It will help you burn calories and thus lose weight faster.

-- Contributed by: Donna Sundblad

How do you know how many calories you need to burn to lose weight? How do you find this out?

-- Contributed by: Anna

Good point, KT. The bottom line is, if you are trying to lose weight and aren't, you need to burn more calories--or eat less.

-- Contributed by: Donna Sundblad

I had not seen the Harris Benedict formula before, but I would guess it correctly predicts the decline in metabolism among older sedentary adults. However if you are a fit older adult (and many heavy people are still relatively muscular), your larger proportion of muscle mass will have an increased BMR, so it follows your minimum caloric requirement will also be higher than the formula predicts.

-- Contributed by: KT Richmond

Hi Melanie,

I came up with the same number. Remember, your BMR is strictly composed of the number of calories needed for your involuntary systems and not the energy needed for physical activity. That means the number of calories needed for any other activity still need to be added to your diet. Does that make sense? Let me know if you have further questions.

-- Contributed by: Donna Sundblad

I think your Harris-Benedict formula for females is wrong. If it were right, then my body would only need 857.3 calories within a 24-hour period to sustain itself. I am a female, 30 years old, I weigh 150 pounds (68 kg) and am 5 feet 4 inches tall (165 cm).

65 + 652.8(weight in kg = 68 x 9.6)+ 280.5 (height in cm = 165 x 1.7) - 141 (4.7 x age in years = 30) = 857.3

Is there a way to see if the calculation is correct? I would like to figure out how many calories I need per day to lose weight and also see how many calories I will need to maintain my goal weight.

Sincerely, Melanie Dodd

-- Contributed by: Melanie Dodd
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