Calorie Calculators
So I noticed fairly early on that everyone wants to know how many calories they should be eating in order to lose X amount of weight. To make it easier on everyone out there, I’ve decided to make a page dedicated to calorie calculators. There are great, reputable websites out there that can assist you in figuring out the number of calories you need: 1. to live, 2. to maintain, 3. to lose. It’s all very simple.
[note: on some computers it takes a long time to load the calculators/sometimes they don’t load. Click “help” on the page when it is loading and it should give you some tips on how to clean your computer internet files so the program will load.]
The website caloriesperhour.com is a great resouce. Not only can you calculate how many calories you need to eat per day, but you can also figure our how many you should eat in order to lose X amount of pounds per week. There is even an option to determine how many calories you should be eating to reach a certain weight by a certain time.
The important thing to note here is that in reality, if you want to keep the weight off, you can’t expect to lose 5lbs every week. It’s unhealthy and you won’t get the body that you want. You’ll get a shrunken, flabby body with no muscle or tone. A safe range is to lose 1-2 pounds per week. That may seem frustratingly slow to you, but in the end it WILL be worth it because you’ll be able to maintain the weight loss.
On the caloriesperhour.com home page, there are a bunch of different tabs across the top.
The “Calories Burned Calculator” determines approximately how many calories you burn doing certain activities. Their list of activities is HUGE and covers just about everything.
“Food Calories and Nutrition Calculator” gives you a run-down of the calories and nutrition of food.
The “Weight Loss Calculator” offers several different options. It can calculate the time required to reach your goal weight, your required calorie deficit to reach a goal weight, and how much weight you can lose over a period of time. All of these are really helpful, especially if you want to stay motivated.
Most bodies work the same way. We may all have different metabolisms, but for the most part if you create a deficit, you will lose weight.
What’s a deficit?
First, you have the food you eat. This is the “positive” part of the equation. Then you have a certain amount of calories that your body burns every day, just by breathing and digesting food. You could lie in bed all day and still burn this amount. And finally, you have calories burned from activities and exercise.
(food you eat) - [(calories burned while living) + (calories burned from activities)] = deficit
Or at least, it should create a deficit. If the number you calculate if positive, you will probably put on weight rather than lose it. Normally a good and totally achievable deficit is around 500calories. It’s really not as hard as it seems.
1. Figure out how many calories you burn just while living using the “Calories Burned Calculator”. You can determine your BMR (basal metabolic rate) and your RMR (resting metabolic rate).
2. Subtract your calculated BMR/RMR from the amout of calories you eat per day. If the number is positive and you would like to be losing weight, consider makes some changes to your diet.
3. Keep track of your food. The simplest thing that I did was to start logging my food. By keeping a food journal (online or in paper form) you are holding yourself responsible for the food you eat and you can get a better idea of how many calories different foods have.
If you don’t want to keep a food journal, try swapping some carbs for fruits and veggies. Generally low in calories, fruits and veggies will not only provide you with energy but also with great vitamins. Or try cutting out fruit juices and non-diet sodas. These can be a killer to diets since they often include a lot of sugars and calories.
Any more questions, just shoot me a message in my Ask!
