Caloric Intake To Lose Weight

Counting Calories To Lose Weight

Do you know what your caloric intake to lose weight is?  No? then read these guidelines. 

Counting calories to lose weight is a pretty surefire way to lose those unwanted pounds. 

By keeping tabs on how many calories you are consuming each day will help you control how much you eat. 

But How Many Calories?

You obviously need to know how many calories you need to consume in order to lose weight effectively.  A good calorie intake to lose weight effectively is approximately 2000 for women and approximately 2500 for men. 

However, this is only a guideline as it depends on other factors such as:

Examples

For Women:

1. If you are a women who is middle aged (beween 35-50) are petite in height (under 5ft 4") and are quite active then you would should be on approximately 1700 calories per day.
2. If you are a women who is middle aged are tall (over 5ft 4") and are very active you need to consume 1950 calories a day.

For Men:

1. If you are a man who is middle aged (between 35-50) are small (under 5ft 4") and are quite active, then have 2290 calories per day.
2. If you are a man who is middle aged are over 5ft 4" and are very active either doing a lot of sport daily or have a physical job, then you should consume approximately 2700 calories a day.

Please also bare in mind the following points whether you a man or a women:

• You should not go any lower than 1400 calories each day;
• You should not go any higher than 3400 calories each day;
• If you are breastfeeding you should have a higher number of calories
• If you are under 16 you also need to have a higher number of calories
• If you don't do any physical activity at all and are sitting down most of the time, then reduce your calories by 250 a day.
• Have approximately an extra 180 calories a day if you are under 35
• If you are in your senior years (older than 50), then reduce your calories by 180 per day.

What Weight Loss To Expect

Now that you know what your approximate calorie intake to lose weight is, you should expect to lose around 1-2lb per week.  This will be a steady weight loss and will be pure fat coming off your body.

However, if you are currently eating hundreds of more calories a day, before starting your calorie controlled diet, and will now be consuming 1,000 calories less each day, then you will lose around 2-3lbs per week.

What To Do

In order for your calorie controlled diet to work, you need to do the following:

1. You will need to know, or be able to find, out what calories are in all food and drinks.  You can find this out on most foods by looking at the label on the packaging.  If there is no label, then it would be a good idea to get yourself a good comprehensive calorie counter book or chart which lists all the foods and drinks along with their caloric intake.
2. Concentrate on healthy eating and cutting down on fatty foods, sweets and alcohol.
3. You then need a blank lined book or jotter where you can write down the calories you have consumed each day.  I would suggest you write the calories down as you eat them.  This way you won't forget what you have eaten and this will give you an accurate total of calories per day.
4. If you don't do any exercise, then I strongly suggest you start.  It doesn't mean that you have to join a gym.  You can start walking or go swimming two or three times a week.  See exercies to lose weight to give you more information on exercising for weight loss.

Good luck!

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