How Many Calories Should I Have Each Day to Lose Weight?

The number of calories you consume will affect whether you maintain your current weight, lose weight or gain weight. Your calories, along with a few other factors, can be adjusted to help you lose weight effectively.

Reduce Totals

• Before you try to target the number of calories you consume daily to a standard chart, take stock of what you currently eat. In order to lose weight at the rate of one to two pounds per week, you'll want to reduce about 500 of your calories per day from what you currently eat because a pound is made up of 3,500 calories. A good way to take inventory of your current caloric intake is to track your eating for a week before making adjustments. The USDA offers a free tracker that will tally your calories and other vitamins, fats and nutrients at their My Pyramid site. Other sites such as The Daily Plate and My Calorie Counter provide tracking for free as well.

  http://www.mypyramidtracker.gov
  http://www.thedailyplate.com/
  http://www.my-calorie-counter.com/

Increase Activity

• Another way to reduce the total number of calories your body absorbs is to increase your activity, which burns calories. You can increase your activity with traditional exercise like weight-lifting, jogging or aerobics, or simply incorporate activity more into your daily routine. For example, take the stairs instead of the elevators, go for a walk at lunch, park your car farther away from the store entrance or get off the bus stop a few blocks early. A 150-pound person will burn an average of 150 calories in an hour of walking. If you pair that with eating just 350 fewer calories per day, you will be on track to lose one to two pounds per week.

Target Your Calories

• After you have taken stock of your normal caloric intake and begun to reduce your own calories, consult some standard charts for what your caloric intake should be. This figure is slightly different for everyone based on sex, height, weight, age and daily activity level. You can plug your own information into the calculator provided in the references below. Most adults trying to lose weight will fall between an ideal of 1,500-2,500 calories, but this will vary widely based on the above factors. As you shed pounds, reevaluate the recommended calories, as you will need fewer calories once you have lost a significant amount of weight.

Get Caloric Bang for Your Buck

• People often refer to alcoholic drinks as "empty calories" because they contain calories but not nutrients. Other foods such as sweets and fried foods are similar in that their calorie count is high but their nutrition value is low. Foods high in fiber, protein and whole grains will keep you feeling more satisfied while also providing your body with much needed vitamins and nutrients and are low in calories. Foods such as fruit and vegetables, whole grain breads and cereals, lean meats, beans and small servings of nuts all fall into this category. Be sure to check their calorie values along with other nutrient levels at the Nutrition Data site.