What Should Your Calorie Intake for Weight Loss Be?

One of the most important things to figure out when you want to lose weight is what your calorie intake for weight loss should be.

This is the number of calories you should consume in a day to help you lose weight.

As you probably know, losing weight is all about your calorie balance.

You need to consume fewer calories than your body burns in order to lose weight.

Before we look at your calorie intake for weight loss, though, let’s look at what a calorie actually is.

A calorie is a unit of energy, and all food has a calorie measure.

Food items are not, however, created equally.

The types of foods lowest in calories are carbohydrates and proteins, each with four calories per gram.

Fats contain a whopping nine calories per gram.

If you look at the food label on a product, and it has:

• Five grams of carbohydrates
• Three grams of proteins and
• Two grams of fat, you can determine that it has 50 calories.

This is figured by:

• Multiplying the five carbohydrates and three proteins by four calories each (5x4 and 3x4 is 20 and 12, or 32) and
• Adding the two fats multiplied by nine (2x9 is 18).

When considering your calorie intake for weight loss, you should note that:

• You can eat more carbohydrates and proteins than you can fats and
• Eat the same amount of calories.

In other words, a smaller amount of fats will have the same number of calories as a larger amount of carbohydrates.

By the way, alcohol has seven calories per gram, almost up there with fats.

To determine how many calories you should consume in a day, you need to consider:

• Your ideal healthy weight
• Your gender and
• How active you are.

For example:

• A woman who should weight 140 pounds and includes moderate exercise in her day can consume 2,156 calories a day.
• A man who should be 170 pounds and also includes moderate exercise in his day can consume 2,880 calories a day.

To lose one pound per week you need to cut back on your calorie intake by approximately 500 calories a day.

A pound of fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories, so to lose a pound you need to:

• Eat 3,500 fewer calories or
• Exercise enough to burn the same number of calories.

It is often best to combine these two schools of thought by:

• Reducing the number of calories you eat and
• Increasing the number of calories you burn.

For example:

• You could reduce your daily intake of calories by 250 calories and
• Exercise enough each day to burn 250 calories.

Understanding your calorie intake for weight loss is a super tool to help you lose weight.

By making sure you’re not consuming too many calories for the number of calories you burn, you’ll be making a great start toward overcoming obesity.

Here are some more tips that will get you on the right track to losing weight.

• Incorporate a proven, complete nutritional program into your daily life.
• Enhance your nutritional program with a complete mutivitamin supplement because no nutritional program is perfect.
• Use a behavior modification and motivational program that will help you stay on track with your nutritional plan.
• Exercise at home with your own:
  Treadmill

  Stairstepper

  Exercise bike

  Elliptical trainer

  Hand weights or

  An aerobic video.

• See what kinds of weight loss aids your health insurance covers such as:
  Hypnotism

  Gym membership discounts

  Nutritional counseling.

By knowing what your proper calorie intake for weight loss is and sticking to it, you will overcome your weight issues.

That is a scientific proven fact.

so, get started right now by following the tips above and begin losing the weight you were meant to lose.

Good luck with your weight loss efforts and remember: We're here to help you lose weight!