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Recommended Calorie Consumption for Weight Loss

Among the many different types of diets that people follow, the most successful ones follow a basic formula. Expend more calories than you consume. A pound of fat contains 3,500 calories, so for every 3,500 calories less you consume, you will lose a pound of weight. There are some ways to figure out how many calories you need to consume to lose weight.

  1. Calories

    • The dictionary will tell you that a calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one liter of water one degree. It's hard to see how that definition ties into weight. Instead, it's easier to consider calories a type of energy contained in food and drinks. Consuming calories give our bodies the energy they need to function. If we eat more calories than our bodies need, the excess is stored as fat. For every 3,500 calories you consume above the amount your body needs, you will gain a pound of fat if you're sedentary.

    Maintaining Your Bodyweight

    • While you can find various calorie calculators online and listed below, the rule of thumb according to the book "Mass!" is that a person needs to consume between 15 and 17 calories per pound to maintain current bodyweight. For example, a 150-pound person needs between 2,250 and 2,550 calories to remain at 150 pounds. Eat more, you'll gain weight. Eat less, and you'll lose weight. The thing to remember is that as you lose weight, you'll reset your maintenance calorie level. Say you lose 10 pounds; your new maintenance level is 2,100 to 2,380 calories. If you've been consuming 2,100 calories to lose weight, you may find that your weight loss plateaus, and you'll have to lower your consumption.

    Other Calorie Recommendations

    • The USDA recommends that Americans maintain their weight with a diet of 2,000 calories a day and lose weight with a diet of 1,500 calories. If your diet drops to 1,200 calories a day, you are getting too low. Around this point, your body will begin to react as if it is being starved and begin preserving fat and instead, burning muscle tissue for fuel. It is also hard to get all of the daily nutrition you need when the calorie level is this low.

    Factors Affecting Weight Loss

    • If you exercise regularly, you are burning more calories than a sedentary person. Because of this, exercise will accelerate weight loss by creating a greater calorie deficit. If you are trying to maintain your body weight, you will have to consume more calories if you are exercising. You metabolism will also affect how you gain or lose weight. If you are naturally heavy, you probably have a slow metabolism, which means that it will be harder to lose weight.

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