How do you calculate the 3500 calories needed to lose 1 lb.

Hi All,

I'm just wondering when your counting for your 3500 cals/ each week to lose 1 lb. do you just calculate all the calories you burned during your workouts each day or do you count in the calories you burn altogether?? eg) I burn 784 cals for 65 min. cardio  which equals 3920 cals/wk. or would I add together all my cals for each day all week so 2880 multiplied by 5?? that seems like way to many calories, and I would be super skinny by now if I burned off that much each week.  Also  as some of you know I'm trying to lose the last 60 lbs. I've started eating more calories and every 3-3.5 hrs and it seems to be helping my metabolism (I'm usually hungry by the time its time to eat again) this is good right? Anyways I joined this "biggest Loser' at work and after 3 months whoever lost the most weight wins the pot.  However I've been doing this for over a yr. nwo and my weight loss is slow.  I've switched up routines etc... I've only been losing .5lb. per week and last week I lost .5 inch around waist and stomach.  A girl I work with was telling me she lost 4 lbs. last week :( I really want to win this but I'm doing everything I can I'm hoping that eating more will target my weight loss again, funny how that could work.  Any input would be greatly appreciated thanks :).

Total calories consumed - total calories burned = your deficit/surplus.

ok thanks! So If I have a defecit of around 500 everyday thats only 2500/wk? and thats why I'm not losing, but I thought your not supposed to have more than that.  I thought if I work out and by the end of the week I burn 3500 calories thats my "1lb" so to speak.  I"m so confused, I can never figure this out.  Thanks

There are 7 days in a week, so 7*500 = 3500 = 1lb of fat.

I get that, but I only work out 5 days/ wk. 

Original Post by meagang:

I get that, but I only work out 5 days/ wk. 

Right, but you burn calories all week long.

Deficit is based on your total calories in and total calories out.

So I burn, say, 1700 calories a day, just being me, sedentary. Then I burn an extra 300 calories from going to the gym. So my total burn is 2000 for the day. If I eat 1500 calories, my deficit is 500 for the day. Do that every day = 1lb lost.

But maybe on the weekends I don't exercise, so I only burn 1700 then, but during the week I do 400 calories from exercise (2100 total burn). So during the week I've got a 600 cal defict, and on the weekend, only a 200 deficit. Add it up after 7 days (600*5 + 200*2) = 3400 cal deficit = just about 1lb/week lost.

Just remember...there is sooooo much human error when trying to get this equation right....like you didn't factor in this or that when counting the calories or your calorie burn for an exercise session was an estimate....the goal is to get close to the 500 kcal deficit a day....and because of water retention and metabolic factors that are unique to each person, you may not see the scale move per week, or you might see sudden drops in weight...it just depends...its really a trial and error process to get it just right so that you consistently lose weight without destroying your metabolism or plateauing.