The fight against excess weight is not easy to win, you will need a lot of strength and will power. And only those who believe in what they are doing and how they are doing it will achieve positive results.
Quite often, you hear women telling excuses for having excess weight, they justify it by their weak will power, and some health problems, genetic predisposition, a spike in hormones – anything that will keep her in the bubble. The “I could lose weight, but this or that thing stands in the way” bubble. Because boy it is difficult to admit that the inability to lose weight is nothing more than laziness!
The main thing you need is to outlines the goal. For starters, make a list of things that will definitely keep you motivated in your losing weight journey. For example, it can be fitting in some gorgeous dress that has been sitting in your closet for months waiting for you to slim down, meeting with some handsome man or a stunning girl, a healthy body, etc. Also, make a list of things that you think could prevent you from achieving this goal.
They may include weakness or lack of will power. If you always see these two lists and correlate obstacles and the possible outcomes, you will surely succeed in your efforts to lose weight.
Keep in mind that the calories are essential for maintaining vital functions in our body: function of cardiovascular system, respiratory, excretory, and other functions. And even in complete rest during sleep our body consumes calories. Now let’s talk about the safest minimum of calories in the body per day.
You have probably heard it, but I will say it one more time: women need to consume approximately 2,000 calories per day, while men at least 500 more (2,500 calories). But, as for women, especially with a sedentary lifestyle, it should be said that this figure is somewhat exaggerated.
In order to determine exactly how many calories your body needs for weight maintenance or weight loss, it is necessary to do simple math calculations. Nobody likes math, I know, but in this case you just need it! So what you need to do is measure your height, weight, take a calculator.
According to a highly-respected sports website Bodybuilding, the most accurate formula is the following. The formula was developed by Bahareh Amirkalali, a medical scientist, in his “Comparison of Harris Benedict and Mifflin-ST Jeor equations with indirect calorimetry in evaluating resting energy expenditure.”
- for women [9.99 x weight (kg)] + [6.25 x height (in cm)] – [4.92 x age] – [161];
- for men the same formula, just add + 5.
According to this formula, we calculate how many calories we need to keep the weight and not get excess kilos. In order to calculate how many calories you need to consume per in order to lose weight, you must first know how much energy is spent per day.
If you have low physical activity (sedentary lifestyle) and you don’t do any types of fintess, you need to multiply the resulting figure by 1.2. If you do exercises at least 1-2 times a week, you should multiply the resulting figure by 1.375. If your daily activity is moderate, that is, if you exercise 5 times a week, multiply that figure by 1.55. Higher rates of activity must be multiplied by 1,725. Are you a professional athlete? Then multiply it by 1.9.
Let’s try to calculate how much energy is required to not gain weight, and also how many calories a day should be burned in order to a significant amount of weight.
Let our example be a girl of 29 years old, and her weight is 81 kg, while the height – 160 cm. Her excess weight is around 15-20 kg. Activity during the day is low. So:
- [9.99 x 81] + [6.25 x 160] – [4.92 x 29] – [161] = 809.19 + 1000 – 186.96 – 161 = 2 kcal;
- 2 x 1.2 (low activity) = 1753.5 calories to provide the body with the necessary energy and not gain weight (for those who have never follow a diet).
In this case, the girl has excess weight, so she needs to reduce the caloric intake and increase the rate of her physical activity. In order to lose weight, it is recommended to reduce the intake of calories by 10-15%. So, in our example it constitutes 175-260 kcal.
So, for our girl, the most preferable caloric intake for weight loss will constitute the range from 1493 to 1578 kcal. That is her caloric deficit will be 175-260 calories a day.
Remember, in no case should you reduce the caloric content of lower than 1200 kcal per day (for males not lower than 1600 kcal), because you will cause lack of energy and make your body always demand food. However, many modern diets keep the caloric intake between 500 and 1000 kcal, which a wrong approach to losing weight.
How much calories you need to burn per day to lose weight?
It is believed that in order to burn 1 kg of fat you need to burn 7700 calories. Nutrition experts advise to lose weight by no more than 2-4 kg per month (meaning fat mass). Accordingly, in order to lose 0.5 kg of fat per week (please note that the weight lost will be slightly larger at the expense of lost water, muscle, etc.), you have to burn 3,850 calories per week, that is 550 kcal per day (3850 : 7).
Such a calorie deficit is needed in order to remove 2 kg of fat per month.
You cannot lose weight only with the help of your diet. You have to stick to a well-thought through and balanced diet. Therefore, you have to obtain a calorie deficit by reducing the caloric intake and by increasing physical activity. An active lifestyle promotes metabolism acceleration, while the body burns calories faster during everyday activities.
Accordingly, the girl in our example will be advised to reduce the calorie intake by 175-260 calories a day and keep calories at a range of 1493-1578 kcal. And daily physical activity will help to burn an additional 290-375 calories, achieving a calorie deficit of 550 calories a day.
It will be enough to even just walk 50-80 minutes a day, but if you start going to the gym and hitting the treadmill, it will be just wonderful, as it will allow you to burn the needed amount of calories in 10-15 minutes.
Remember that the less your weight is, the fewer calories your body needs for general exchange. Therefore, you have to recalculate the range of calories after the loss of every 5 kg.
So, we have learned how to calculate how much calories your body needs to burn per day to launch the process of losing weight. While calculating calories, you don’t have to deprive yourself of a variety of favorite foods.
How can you burn calories with the help of physical activity?
Calories are burned most effectively with the help of jogging, running, swimming, cycling and other active kinds of sport. I hope everyone will agree with the fact that swimming indeed does burn calories, judging by the looks of bodies of professional swimmers. This sport allows you to vary the exercises, choosing a certain style of swimming.
The amount of calories you burn when you are swimming, for example at front crawl style, will be approximately 570 kcal per hour. It is the most energy-intensive style, so learning how to swim the crawl is very useful for those who want to lose weight. Breaststroke swimming style will allow you to get rid of 450 calories per hour.
However, swimming burns calories even when you swim freestyle. During swimming, the back muscles, arms and legs are strengthen. Swimming is suitable to all, without exceptions, since it does not put too much stress on the joints, such as running or jumping. And swimming burns calories, no less than any other intense physical activity.
The number of calories burned while running equals to about 300 calories per hour for a person weighing 90 kg. As you can see, this is much less than during swimming. And the number of calories you burn during cycling will be about 600 calories at a rapid pace. Of course, there are other sports that may help burn calories, but these three are the most effective ones for a modern and busy lifestyle. Therefore, if you are thinking about how to burn calories, you should carefully consider how to do it best.
The fight against obesity is a long process and you should remember that getting rid of the extra kilos will not be fast. Before you decide to burn calories, you need to make sure that the calories are not coming into the body with food, that is, you must change your diet. Those who really want to change their lives by slimming down will have no problem changing the lifestyle, diet and introducing some kind of physical activity into their lives.
If you’re motivated by this articles and are ready to change your life, let me know in the comment section below what will be your first steps in achieving your weight loss plans.
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