How Many Calories a Day Should You Eat to Lose Weight?

Everybody is made differently, so there is no universal amount of calories that you can eat each day to lose weight. In order to know how many calories you should eat a day, you need to know your body rather well. Once you calculate your metabolic rate and understand your physical activity, then you can begin calculating how many calories you should eat. But even when you do this, take some exercise into consideration, as this will help you lose weight in a faster and healthier fashion.

Average Calorie Intake

Most people eat about 2,000 to 2,500 calories a day, but fewer or less may be needed depending on each person. There are many factors that determine how many calories you should eat each day. Your gender, age, height, weight and physical activity are all major factors you have to consider. The idea behind losing weight is to eat less calories a day than your body needs for simple living. This is called your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).

Basal Metabolic Rate

The BMR is the rate at which you burn calories while performing daily functions like sleeping and breathing. These are the calories your body needs just to lay down all day. This is the largest factor in understanding how many calories you need to eat to maintain, gain or lose weight in a healthy way.

There are several different formulas that are used to calculate BMR since it is based on a number of factors, like age, sex, weight and height. You can go online and find a BMR calculator that will do this calculation for free. Here is an accurate formula that is widely used.

Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X weight in kg) + (5 X height in cm) - (6.8 X age in years)

Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X weight in kg) + (1.8 X height in cm) - (4.7 X age in years)

After you find your BMR, you're going to want to take your daily activity into account to get a more accurate reading. Use this formula:

Activity Multiplier
Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extr. active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)

Here's an example to make things less complicated:
-30 year old woman
-150 pounds
- 5'6''
- No exercise

BMR = 655 + (9.6 X 68kg) + (1.8 X 167.64 cm) - (4.7 X 30 yrs)
655 + (652.8) + (301.752) - (141) = 1468
Activity Multiplier = 1468 (BMR) x 1.2 (sedentary) = 1762

This person uses 1762 calories a day for routine maintenance.

How to Lose Weight

Now it's the easy part. In order to lose weight, you have to take in fewer calories a day than your BMR. About 3,500 calories equals 1 pound of body weight. So if you want to lose 1 pound in a week, you should eat 500 fewer calories each day. A person who has a BMR of 1,762 should eat about 1,262 calories a day if she wants to lose weight.

You can also increase your activity rate to help you lose weight. A person who is eating 500 fewer calories a day can also add a workout routine that burns another 500 calories a day. This will help you lose weight faster and maintain a healthy lifestyle. You shouldn't eat less than 1,200 calories a day without consulting your doctor first.