For all of you who need it explained. (really basic and simple)

Ok. So I write a post about how to lose weight and apparently there were some issues. Let me clear things up.


STEP 1:
http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.htm l.
Go to the above site and enter your stats.
It will give you a number that says BMR.
Under the activity section, find the activity level that best describes your daily activitys.
(For example, if everyday you walk back and forth at school you'd pick sedentary.)
This will give you your adjusted BMR.
This number will tell you how many calories to eat so that you keep your current weight.

My adjusted BMR happens to be 2500.
If I eat 2500calories everyday for the rest of my life I will not gain or lose. I eat 2500..I burn 2500. Therefore I dont burn any of my fat reserves.

STEP 2:
So what if I decide to exercise?
Ok so on days that I exercise, like today, I try to do about 500cals on the treadmill. So how many calories did i burn?
Well 2500 from typical activities and 500 from exercise. Therefore I burnt 3000 calories today.
Ok so to keep my weight at the same level Id have to eat 3000 calories...but I want to LOSE weight. So I'd eat 2000-2500 calories today.

STEP 3:
Ok, what did that do?
Well I ate 2000 calories and I burnt 3000. Where the hell did my body get those extra 1000 calories? FAT RESERVES!

IMPORTANT:
3 important tips:
1)Dont burn 1000 more calories than you eat. Why?
So I eat 2000 calories and burn 4000 calories.
That means I burnt 2000calories on the day. DONT DO THIS.
Your body will think hmm Im not getting the calories I need to do the work I need help!
Let me start eating away at muscles and organs to help me work.
As you can see the above is BAD! Stay between 500-1000 calories burnt for the day.

2)MINIMUMS:
Ok so your adjusted BMR is 2000. And you decide not to exercise. To get 1000 calories burnt you SHOULD eat 1000 right? WRONG.
Males should always eat 1500+ calories.
Females should always eat 1200+ calories.
If your adjusted BMR is 2000 and your a male youd eat 1500 and stay 500 calories burnt for the day.
If your a female and your adjusted BMR is 2000 youd eat 1200 and stay with 800 calories burnt for the day.

Ok so your a male and your adjusted BMR is 2000. But you want to burn 1000 for the day...HOW?
Exercise for 500 calories..this means you burnt 2500 for the day.
Then eat 1500 calories..this means you burnt 1000 in total for the day.

3) Try to lose only 1-2lbs per week - this is the healthy amount. Slow weight loss will lead to a lifestyle change..not a fad diet. This will help you keep the weight off.

Putting it all together:

How much did I burn(adjusted BMR+any exercise you did)
How much did I eat (1200+ females 1500+ males)
How much did I really burn? (burnt calories - eaten calories)

My BMR is 2500. And I exercised for 500calories on the treadmill.
I burnt 3000 calories today.

I ate 2400calories worth of food today.
Burnt 3000 - Eaten 2400 = 600 burnt for today!

Repeat these 3 questions to urself at the end of everyday and answer them. Write these numbers down.
At the end of the week add up how much you really burnt for every day.

Example: Monday I burnt 700. Tuesday I burnt 500. Wednesday I burnt 300. Thursday I burnt 900. Friday I burnt 700. etc etc

When you burn 3500 calories you have lost 1 pound!
When you burn 7000 calories in 1 week you have lost 2 pounds!

Final Advice:
Dont worry to much about fat, sugars, sodium, all that stuff to start. Worry just about calories.
It's common sense that 200 calories of carrots is better than 200 calories of chips. It's also common sense that grilled foods are better than fried.
Make healthy choices and healthy substitutions.
One I've found really amazing is substituting mayo for mustard.
Mustard is like 5cals per tablespoon.

Eat 5 times a day: Your body stays in a constant fat burning mode.
(Metabolism increase).

Weight lifting: A little more muscle never hurt anyone. It helps raise metabolism.

Activity Level: Adjust your calorie intake based on your acitivity level. If you decide to play a 5hour game of soccer with friends..your gonna have to eat A LOT more food than on a normal day.

I've lost 10lbs in 5weeks. Just wanted to share what I've learned. Keep it simple, count your calories.
Keep your total calories burnt for the day between 500-1000.
Keep your intake above 1500(males), 1200(females), even if it means your calories burnt for the day will drop 1000 to 500.
Your body needs energy to function!
Dont starve yourself.
Feel free to mail me if you want some more help.

That was very well said. I hope alot of people just starting out will read this. Thank you. The only thing that I would differ from you on, is that I think it does make a difference what kind of calories you eat. A lean meat and veggies vs fatty meat and pasta. I don't know why the difference exactly, but the book I am reading and following as directed by my doctor explains all that, and it really is working better for me to make the healthy choices as well as counting the calories.

Thanks again for your post.

If you find this helpful please post a reply to it so it will be bumped up. Many people ask these questions over n over each day.

Bump! Wish it could be made sticky.

burningflame that was a really insightful post. And you really sound like you know what you're talking about. I'm currently trying to drop 10lbs and knowing that you did it in 5 weeks while sticking to this method has made me feel better about sticking to a 1200-1400 caloric intake while I'm seeing other people post about staying between 600-800.

Hope more people keep all this in mind :)

Bump!  Great Explanation!

I think that you have a calculation problem in the above explanation (which, by and large, was clear except for this important point).  You are adding your burned calories from exercise to the "adjusted BMR," which factors in a certain amount of exercise, depending on your level of activity.  This is true even for sedentary people, whose unadjusted BMR is multiplied by a factor of 1.2 to account for everyday activities other than exercise.  Therefore, by using the adjusted BMR in this calculation you are double-counting calories burned from exercise and/or daily activities to varying degrees, depending on your activity level.  I think that the correct calculation would be to take the unadjusted BMR (or, what your body burns daily from doing absolutely nothing but resting) and adding calories burned from exercise to *that* total in order to get a more accurate accounting of what you are realistically burning in a day. 

For example, here is an example of the error I believe is in your calculation using adjusted BMR:  My adjusted BMR (which includes an allotment for being "very active" and doing hard exercise/sports 6-7 days per week) is 2300.  If I add in 500 calories a day of additional exercise, I get a total calorie burn of 2800 calories a day--but this double-counts calories burned because my adjusted BMR already factors in hard exercise of 6-7 days per week.  If I go with the double-counted 2800 calories burned per day figure, then I would need to consume 2300 calories per day to create a 500-calorie deficit and lose weight.  I believe this calculation inflates both the number of calories one actually burns and the number of calories one should actually consume per day, again, due to this double-counting in the use of the adjusted BMR.

Here is an example of what I am proposing in terms of my revised calculation, using the unadjusted BMR:  My unadjusted BMR is 1500.  That means I burn 1500 calories a day just to exist, even if I am totally resting for 24 hours straight.  If I burn 500 calories per day through exercise, this increases my total calories burned to 2000.  To create a 500 calorie deficit and lose weight, I would need to consume 1500 calories per day.  Yes, there will be some excess calories burned through other non-exercise activity (e.g., walking, taking stairs, etc.) but I would consider those extra calories burned as offsetting any measurement errors in exercise calories and/or calories consumed per day.

I hope that this revision is helpful! 

Newbie on the block!  Just signed up today. Thank you  for breaking things down with such clarity.  I love the scenarios and examples especially so I know how it  applies to my personal situation.  Your posting is not only helpful but inspiring as well because of your simple down to earth way of communicating.  And with you success thus far - you are one to watch.  I just hope to be posting my weightloss successess and helping others too.  Keep up the good work!!

what a great explinatin

hope it helps everyone -it certainly is me.

*smacks head*

OMG

I finally GET IT.

thank you!

bump

bump!

Loved it!

great site but i must say i was shocked at there calculation of my ideal weight im 5 '2 and light frame and the said i should weight no more than 8 st 9 llb and lightest 7 st 3 lb jeez size 0 or what. that was the lowest ideal weight i have been given on any site.

 What if I don't have the appetite to eat as much as I should according to my daily activity's I should eat around 2300 calories to lose weight . But my gut won't let me eat that much. I even tried to break up the meals into smaller portions but sometimes my schedule does'nt permit that. Also i have been keeping track of my calories on here since feb and have only lost 3 pounds. I think it is  because I am not getting enough calories. Do you have any suggestions?

Bump,

I use that page myself.  Great information and activity calculator.

BUMP!!

bump! bump! bump!
Great explanation. I'm a newbie and this information is extremely helpful. Thanks!

GREAT STUFF!!!

Took me a while to learn but when I did it made a lot of sense.  Wish I saw this 2 months ago I wouldn't of been so confused and drive everyone crazy. 

Thanks again...

I've been here for about a month. And it seems that almost everyday this topic comes up -- and I'm glad!! It's good to read almost daily :)

I'm confused though. I hear people say that one's deficit doesn't need to be too big. Isn't more than 500 too big of a deficit? For discussion sake, let's assume no exercise is involved.

Most of you say that for most people 1200 is actually too low. Well, the website mentioned above says my BMR is 1400. The reason I haven't been successful losing weight the past 5 years is I starve if I eat less than 1400!!!!

So now I'm frustrated! I'm honestly not sure I can be successful trying to eat less than 1400.

Bump!! Love this post

crystalb1

maybe trying to eat foods with more calories would be easier.  try eating nuts and avacados, if you drink skim milk go to 2%.  eat cheese or a small amount of red meat.  eating more calorie dense foods will help you up your total calorie intake for the day without stuffing you.