When you become a weight-loss warrior, you also sign up for calorie counting or the practice of regularly keeping track of how many calories you are consuming per day.
According to experts, though, more than calorie counting, you still need to familiarize yourself with quality eating and nutritious food, because weight loss isn’t just about losing weight: it’s becoming fitter and more robust in the process in the process.
According to a dietitian based off Miami, Betsy Klein, you get the highest form of nutrition by eating more fruits and vegetables, and we also have to remember that fat provides the highest number of calories per serving compared to protein and carbohydrates.
Food items like cheese and bacon can cause you to accumulate plenty of calories, even if you are just having your breakfast. This becomes problematic as the day wears on, and your hunger begins to creep up on you by midday, and especially during the evening.
How many calories should I eat a day by age?
The average number of calories needed by adult men and women is 2,000 calories. However, this is not a hard and fast rule. To obtain the correct figure, you need to input your height, weight, age, and sex to an accurate calorie calculator so you can receive an average.
But then again, whatever calorie count you get from such a calculator will only be an average at best.
The process of weight loss can be simplified to this: you need to eat just enough calories for your needs, and your caloric expenditure for the day should be slightly more than the calories you are consuming.
The caloric deficit and the extra calories that you burn per day will kick-start your weight loss, assuming that you don’t have any metabolic problems or hormonal issues, and you can expend calories naturally through exercise and just going about your day.
How many calories should a woman eat a day to lose weight?
You might be wondering how many calories do I need to burn to lose weight and how many calories should you be consuming if you are a woman? The answer to these questions is: it depends.
How many calories should I eat a day to lose 2 pounds a week?
The exact number of calories needed to burn off two pounds a week will be dependent on your level of physical fitness, the intensity of your exercise, the regularity at which you exercise, the nature of your days (i.e., how you spend your days at work and home), what you eat, etc. If you have been adjusting your daily caloric intake for some weeks or months now and you have not seen results, the general recommendation is to cut down your caloric consumption by at least 500 calories.
So if your current caloric intake is 2,500 calories, it should be gradually reduced to 2,000 calories. One pound of fat is equivalent to approximately 3,500 calories. To lose two pounds per week, you need to cut your caloric consumption and exercise to create a total deficit of 7,000 calories every seven days. This is a considerable feat, considering that most exercises burn only calories in the hundreds per hour.
Now, if you still want to see more progress and your physician approves a calorie-restricted weight loss plan for you, then you can shift to an even lower threshold of 1,200 calories.
Just a note on a 1,200-calorie weight loss plan: the average number of calories required by a healthy, adult woman is 1,600 calories per day. So this is 400 calories less than the minimum.
When you shift to something as drastic as this, and you are engaged in intense exercise, you may feel some side effects in the process. So we highly recommend that you consult with your doctor first if you are going to lower your caloric intake even more.
One thousand two hundred calories per day may be ideal for some people who want to lose weight, such as women who are already in their fifties, as they generally move less and don’t have much to do for the rest of the day.
People who are mostly unmoving or sedentary for most of the day will, of course, require less energy. Because not much caloric expenditure is taking place, a lower-calorie threshold makes sense.
Why am I not losing weight eating 1200 calories a day?
Our bodies are complex systems with their own rules. Weight loss is governed by many factors, not just our caloric intake. One of the most common reasons for delayed weight loss or even plateauing is the body has gone into emergency or crisis mode, and it is refusing to burn off fat.
Water retention may also have something to do with the slowing down of weight loss. If this is the case, you may be doing too much and eating too little.
The body will do what it can to protect itself when it feels that not enough nutrition is coming in. In many cases, the body will begin consuming its protein stores (in the muscles), and it will retain fat and water to “save itself” if it feels that starvation is imminent.
Of course, we don’t want this to happen, so what we’d like to do is to balance the weight loss effort and healthier eating. Otherwise, you might end up with complications and poorer health, which is the complete opposite of what we want to achieve when we aim to lose weight for general wellness.
Now, if you have done everything possible to lose weight and the pounds are still holding on for dear life, you may want to consult with your physician again as you may be suffering from a hormonal or metabolic condition that is preventing you from burning off fat and shedding bodyweight efficiently.
This is not your fault: hormonal issues are common in both men and women. If you get checked out sooner, you will also find out more quickly what’s stopping your body from shedding all those excess pounds.
