The Truth to Weight Loss

The Basic Principle to losing weight

There is no secret to losing weight, only the truth that it takes hard work and dedication. If you don’t want to work hard and you’re looking for an easy quick fix to make you thin, than please stop reading. Losing weight and keeping it off is a LIFESTYLE change, you cannot just avoid a certain food group or take a magic pill to lose weight. If that were true you wouldn’t see any overweight people, because it would be easy. The simple most effective way to lose weight is to burn more calories then you consume. Now let’s figure out how many calories YOU need to lose weight.

Calorie Deficit

Consume: 2000 Burn: 2200 Net Gain= -200=Weight loss!

Calorie Excess

Consume: 2000 Burn: 1800 Net gain= +200 =Weight gain!

That’s it, you just have to burn more calories than you consume. I know this sounds hard when looking at the numbers thinking how am I going to burn 2200 calories a day when the Stairmaster only burns 300 in a half hour?! Your body burns plenty of calories just for daily functions like rebuilding muscles, breathing, and even sleeping. Every action your body does (whether you see the action or not) will burn energy, since your body cannot just magically rebuild itself. We calculate this energy expenditure by Basal Metabolic Rate (or simply BMR).

Basal Metabolic Rate Formula:

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) – ( 6.8 x age in year )

This is a calculation of how many calories your body uses just to maintain itself under sedentary circumstances. Let’s do one example…

Sex: Female Weight: 160lbs Height: 5’4” (64 inches) Age: 27

BMR= 655 + (4.35 x 160) + (4.7 x 64) – (4.7 x 27)

BMR= 655 + (696) + (300.8) – (126.9)

BMR=1,524.9

There are also BMR calculators all over the internet if you don’t feel like doing the math.

Once you have your BMR we can then use that to plug into another equation, which uses your activity level to determine how many calories you need to MAINTAIN bodyweight. This equation is called the Harris-Benedict formula. This may sound overwhelming, but it is pretty simple just follow along.

Harris-Benedict Equation:

• If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
• If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
• If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
• If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
• If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

So let’s say we are moderately active so take our BMR of 1500(rounding is fine) and multiply by 1.55

1,500 x 1.55= 2,325

Now we have the number of calories your body needs to MAINTAIN bodyweight. So if you want to lose weight -500 calories MAXIMUM from that number to figure the amount of calories you should consume to lose weight.

2,325-500=1,825

There you have it. The basic guideline for losing weight, now if you want to know more about where to get your calories from, Click Here !