How Many Calories Can I Have and Still Lose Weight

Written by Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP


How to Estimate How Many Calories You Can Have and Still Lose Weight

To figure out how many calories you should have, first start with where you are. In other words, figure out how many calories it takes to maintain your present size and then reduce from there. You can go about this in many ways. Most people simply choose an arbitrary number like 1200 calories and that's what they eat, but in nearly every case that's not nearly enough calories to ensure adequate nutrition, not to mentionrepparttar deprivation that sets up.

While losing weight and to this day, I eat over 2000 calories a day on average and I've maintained a good weight for my height for over 17 years. Remember, your body requires calories to maintain itself.

Basic Calorie Requirements Calculation Based on Activity Level:

Sedentary : 13 X Weight = Avg. cal/day Sedentary is not exercising at all

Moderately Active: 16 X Weight = Avg. cal/day Moderately Active is exercising approximately 3-4 times per week

Very Active: 19 X Weight = Avg. cal/day Very Active is 5-7 strenuous exercise sessions per week. If you weigh over 200 pound now, and you'd like to weigh closer to 150, here is a calculation you could use to get started: Assuming you are going to be adding enough exercise to quality as Moderately Active, we'll use 16 as our modifier:

150 pounds X 16 calories per pound = 2400 calories Less 500 (Usingrepparttar 131168 common 500 calories per day reduction) gives us a total of 1900 average calories per day

If you started to incorporate a plan that allowed an average of 1900 calories every day, you'd start to lose weight. The mistake most people make is to reduce calories too much, which ultimately sacrifices muscle plus sets you up for feeling deprived. It's far better inrepparttar 131169 long run to go more slowly, keeping as much muscle as possible while burning calories via exercise. Remember too, even if you don't eat quite that many calories on many days, you might eat more onrepparttar 131170 weekends for instance, so it ends up being closer to your goal of 1900 average per day. Takerepparttar 131171 total calories forrepparttar 131172 week divided by seven.

Remember, this average calorie number gives you plenty of wiggle room duringrepparttar 131173 week. You can have some treats along with everyone else, or add more on weekends. Instead of constantly saying, "I can't, I'm on a diet," now you can say, "Thank you, that looks delicious," and enjoy some. It doesn't ruin your diet plan because you've got a large enough calorie allowance that if you are more careful some days than others, it will work out torepparttar 131174 average number of calories you want. I tend to eat far less calories duringrepparttar 131175 week than on weekends and my totals generally average out to 2000 to 2200 calories per day.

The 500 calorie reduction is a well accepted amount. You can reduce your calories further, but I wouldn't recommend it. It doesn't benefit anyone to try for faster weight loss, in fact, if you reduce your calories too much you end up wasting muscle inrepparttar 131176 process, which is exactly what you do not want to do. If you want faster results, it's better to add more activity, thereby burning more calories at rest.

You may be thinking I'm nuts, recommending 1900 calories per day, but I can say for a fact that if you eat too little (1000 - 1200 calories is too few, IMO) then you set yourself up for all ofrepparttar 131177 following:

Deprivation. You're going to feel deprived, mentally and physically. 1000 calories isn't enough for your basic metabolic needs, much less to fuel yourself for your activity needs. Add more food! Just have a bit more than you're already having, so for instance, if you are allowed 1/2 cup of vegetables is a whole cup going to ruin all your progress? I doubt it. Eat a whole cup, or go ahead and have two oranges. Fruits and vegetables are very low calorie but provide high nutrition.

Why Dieting is Keeping America Fat

Written by Virginia Bola, PsyD


There are literally hundreds of diets available to suit everyone's taste: Atkins, Zone, South Beach, low carb, low fat, liquid mixes, vegetarian, all protein. Millions of us are on these different diets. So why are we still fat?

The key is our relationship with food. There is just so much of it available: fast food outlets clog our streets, television commercials and 24 hour cooking channels whet our appetites, super chefs tempt us to labor long hours inrepparttar kitchen to create our own culinary masterpieces. The different diets all have one enormous component in common -they continue this infatuation with food. What can I eat? How many carbs? How many calories? What is allowed? How can it be made to taste as good as possible?

Our behaviors continue, evenrepparttar 131165 self-destructive kind, because we receive some pleasant reward known in psychology as reinforcement. We continue to overeat because ofrepparttar 131166 emotional satisfaction of devouring good tasting food. We will never slim down until we find satisfaction in something other than food. Young lovers forget to eat because they are consumed with other passions. Gamblers neglect meals becauserepparttar 131167 psychological thrill is in their games. Alcoholics and drug addicts almost never eat because their primary relationship is with their drug of choice. Corporate ladder climbers and entrepreneurs are slim because they are emotionally invested in their careers and their business and nothing else matters.

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