- Calculate your BMR.
- Determine how many calories you burn during daily activity.
- Add #1 and #2 to get your total calories, i.e. how many calories you need each day to maintain your current weight.
- Reduce that amount by approximately 500 calories (not going below 1200 calories or life will really suck for you). This amount is what it takes to safely lose fat.
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Record how many calories you eat and how many you burn each day. If that number is higher than your total calories, you will NOT lose weight.
The Simple Truth
To lose a pound, you have to burn approximately 3500 calories. If you burn a total of 400 calories with exercise AND diet each day, you'll lose a pound in about 8days.
- If you're eating more calories than you're burning, you need to either workout more, eat less or a combination of the two.
Example:
If my BMR is 1500 calories and I burn 500 calories while exercising, I need 2000 calories to maintain my current weight. To lose a pound a week, I'll need to eat about 1500 calories a day and burn 500 calories a day with cardio and weight training.
Quick Tips:
- Eating a balanced diet means getting all the nutrients you need so that you feel good all day and your workouts don't completely bite.
- Keeping track of what you eat will help you avoid mindless snacking and eating when you're not really hungry
- Stay hydrated. Thirst sometimes presents itself as hunger pains.
- A complete workout includes strength training, cardiovascular exercise and flexibility exercises.
- If you're hungry throughout the day, you're either not eating enough or your meals aren't satisfying you. A combination of carbs, protein and fat will help you feel full for a longer period of time.
