How to Count Calories in Order to Lose Weight

Counting calories to lose weight may be a tedious and challenging process, but it can be highly effective. The key is to understand that there are 3,500 calories in 1 pound of body fat. You can eat 3500 excess calories and gain a pound of body fat or burn 3,500 calories more than you ate and lose a pound. Knowing that number will allow you to understand how to manipulate this unit of energy (called a calorie) to work in your favor.

Things You'll Need

• Notebook
• Pen
• Nutritional information (all foods consumed)

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Instructions

Counting Away the Pounds

• 1

  Figure out what your basic metabolic rate is. See Resources for a link to a basic metabolic rate calculator. This is the number of calories you burn each day when you are doing nothing. In order to gain weight, eat more calories than your BMR. To lose weight, eat fewer calories than your BMR.

  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 )

• 2

  Determine how many pounds you plan to lose and how many calories you need to eat in order to accomplish your goal. For example, you want to lose 5 pounds of fat. You must create a calorie deficit of 17,500 total calories (3,500 calories X 5 pounds). If your BMR is 1,500, you will burn 10,500 calories each a week doing nothing.

  Now let's say you instead eat 1,250 calories per day in that same week. Multiply 1,250 by 7 and you will have consumed 8,750 calories. Subtract 8,750 from 10,500, and you get a deficit of 1,750 calories burned in a week. Since 3,500 calories equal a pound, a 1,750 deficit means you lost half a pound in a week by just eating smart (without exercise). That's 26 pounds a year. At this rate, you'll reach your goal in 10 weeks.

• 3

  Add an exercise plan to this formula if you want to speed up the weight loss. If you choose to walk for 30 minutes a day, you will burn approximately 250 calories. Use a heart rate monitor for more accurate readings. If you did this for 7 days a week, you will burn another 1,750 calories. Add the exercise calories (1,750) with your low calorie diet (1,750) and that's 3,500 calories. One pound gone in just one week.

• 4

  Start slow. To begin, just keep a food journal of what you eat and the number of calories you consumed. Get a feel for how many calories you eat in an average day. Get used to finding out calories for everything you eat. Many restaurants now provide nutritional info for their menus, making your job easier. Slowly march down your daily calorie limit over the course of a couple of weeks until you reach your daily calorie goal (1,750 to 1,500 to 1,250, for example).

• 5

  Keep track of all of your calories each day. Keep track of how much you eat and how much you burn with exercise. If you lose quite a bit of weight, you may have to recalculate your BMR accordingly to stay on track.