How to Figure Out How Many Calories You Need to Lose Weight

New Year, New You, but where to start? Everyone knows that in order to lose weight you need to reduce your calorie intake, but just how many calories should you be consuming? Here's an easy way to find out!

Things You'll Need

• Scale
• Food journal

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Instructions

• 1

  To start, you'll need to weigh yourself to get your starting weight. Then decide how many pounds you want to lose and subtract that from your starting weight. You now have your goal weight. In order to lose weight you'll need to find the ideal number of calories you can consume in a day.

• 2

  Find out which of these describes you:

  Sedentary..........little or no activity..........10

  Slightly active............some mild activity.......13

  Moderately active.......exercise 3 to 5 times per week......15

  Intensely active.......physically demanding lifestyle.....18

• 3

  Find the description of yourself from Step 2 and locate the number associated with your description. Then multiply this number by your goal weight and you will have your total calories needed to lose weight. For example, if you are sedentary and want to weigh 140 pounds you should aim to consume 1400 calories per day (10 x 140=1400).

  You should lose between a half to a pound of weight each week.