Calorie Goals

What Should My Calorie Goals Be?

Some people will try to convince you that you need to do crazy things to lose weight, like cut out carbs for life, or eat nothing but cabbage, or follow a complicated regimen of shakes and pills and who knows what else. I'm not one of those people. I know that weight loss is actually very simple. If you burn more calories than you eat, you will lose weight. Tip the equation in the other direction, by eating more than you burn, and you'll gain weight. Balance the equation, and you'll maintain your weight. It's not magic — it's math.

If you want to lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficit. First, you need to figure out how many calories your body burns on a daily basis. That number also happens to be the number of calories you can eat each day if you want to maintain your present weight. If you want to lose weight, you must subtract calories from that daily total. One pound of fat is the equivalent of 3,500 calories, so if you want to lose 1 pound a week, you'd cut 500 calories each day (7 x 500 = 3,500). If you want to lose 2 pounds a week, you'd cut 1,000 calories a day. Once you make this subtraction, you have your "magic" number — the number of calories you should aim for each day to lose weight.

To make this process easier, there is a terrific online Healthy Body Calculator that can give you very accurate numbers as to how many calories you personally burn per day and what a good calorie level for you should be set at as well as other nutritional goal information http://www.dietitian.com/calcbody.php

Once you know this information, check out the website www.livestrong.com, a free site that makes keeping track of your food quick and easy. People who write down what they eat are more successful at losing weight. I constantly go back to this when I feel like I am not reaching my nutritional goals to get back on track. You can find me on livestrong with user ID fitbyfaith and you can follow my diary for food ideas.

Remember that in order to lose weight and be healthy inside and out, you must fuel your body. Dropping below 1200 calories a day can send you into starvation mode and your body wants to store fat. Eating healthy foods to lose is the key! The more high functioning your metabolism becomes, the more healthy food will be required to keep you running smooth and feeling good.

Lastly, my philosophy has always been, never make a change to your lifestyle that you cannot live with for the rest of your life. Temporary changes give temporary results. When you consider a diet pill, shake, no carb diet, etc, ask yourself, "Can I do this the rest of my life?" If the answer is no, then don't do it! You don't want to do anything long term that will ultimately harm you.

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