How Many Calories Should I Eat to Lose Weight?

Losing weight is never easy. You have to do a lot of things such as exercise, eat the right foods, and while at the same time face the challenge of never losing site of your goals. Otherwise, you will just stop and start any kind of weight loss programs with the added disadvantage of gaining weight, instead of losing, weight.

When I joined up with the How To Burn Calories (I know crazy name)...I found out the basic human weight loss principles which were staring me right in the face each day...It is so easy, but only if you know how. If you want to take a look at their awesome information site, click the How To Burn Calories link at the bottom of the page to get started right away

What do I need to eat lose weight?

To lose weight, you have two major questions to ask. One is, "How to burn calories should I eat to lose weight?" and the other is, "What foods do I need to eat to meet the calories that I need?" As you can see, it is not about prohibition of certain foods.

It's more on which food to eat to come up with the number of calories that you need. Clearly, you can eat just about anything when you want to lose weight as long as they all sums up to your daily calorie requirement.

Why Calories?

First of all, you have to know that calorie in layman's language is "energy". It is found in certain percentages in food. Some foods have it in high content while others have it in small amounts.

The second thing you should know is that supplying your body with calories is a must. You and your body need it in order to do the things you want to do and get through the day. Without calories, or having it in low levels, will result to you complaining of fatigue or having no energy to do anything. This is just one of the reasons why you need to eat.

Third in the list of getting to know calories is getting your supply according to your energy output. Simply put, if you exercise a lot, you need more calories. If you have a sedentary lifestyle or have no time to exercise, then you should take only average amounts of calories. As have been said, calorie intake should match your energy output.

The fourth important thing that you need to know is that carbohydrates and fats have large amounts of calories. As have been said, you need to match your calorie intake with your energy output. Why? When your body lacks calories, it will look for other sources for it. It will tap the fat reserves in your body as well as the protein.

When your body gets its energy from your fat, this is okay if you have excess fats to burn. But if you don't, this will have bad consequences since your body needs fat for its primary function which is to be one of your body cells' cell wall components as well as insulate your body heat.

Once your body attacks the fat and depletes majority of it, it will next go to your protein stock. No matter how much you have, protein being broken down and used as energy in your body is never good.

Its primary function is to build and repair cells and never to give you energy. It only does so when your body really needs energy in order to function normally and this is what happens when you deprive yourself from calorie intake.

How many calories do I need to lose weight?

Another thing that you should put into mind when you want to lose weight is that the more you take in calories, the more you have energy to burn. If you don't make use of them, the calories will be stored in your body in the form of fat. In fact, 3,500 excess calories is stored as 1 pound of fat. On the other hand, if you burn 3,500 calories, your body will use 1 pound of fat thereby making you lose 1 pound off your body weight.

In order to get the number of calories you need to lose weight, you need to calculate it and create a calorie deficit. To see how much calories you need per day, you need to consider your BMR, your physical activity, and your food's thermic effect.

Thermic effect simply points to the amount of energy your body needs in order to digest a certain food. The more your body uses energy to digest food, the more you calories you burn, and the more pounds you lose.

Your questions "How many calories do I need" and "How many calories should I eat to lose weight" should now be answered. When you want to lose weight the healthy way, you need to keep count of your calories. Not only is this the fast track to being fit, but it's a safe and healthy way too.

It may sound complicated but once you see how it works it becomes second nature, when I joined How To Burn Calories I learned all the secrets to eating the right amount of calories each day and I was soon losing the weight I desired.