Hey munchies!
One question I get often regarding weight loss is CALORIES—
how many should I be eating?
Well today I’m going to provide some information to help you
determine what that number may be for yourself,
for both weight maintenance and weight loss goals.
So, how many calories do you need in a day?
Tracking calories can be helpful to some, but to some people,
it’s just anxiety-inducing and stressful.
I have been on both sides before
and I really believe that a healthy lifestyle and weight loss CAN be achieved
WITHOUT counting calories.
But, if you choose to track or just want the knowledge
so you have it—because, after all, knowledge is power,
especially when it comes to your health—I’m going to show you how to calculate
YOUR calorie needs for yourself today.
To start, everyone needs a certain amount of calories.
That number will vary from person to person, based on a gazillion factors:
age, size, genetics, lifestyle, activity level, health history, etcetera
Literally EVERY person will be different.
Even if two people are the exact same
height, weight, sex, age, they will each still need a different amount of calories.
So, how do you know what YOU need?
Your Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR, is an ESTIMATE of the amount of energy, or calories,
that your body expends at rest over the course of the day.
You might also see it referred to as REE, or Resting Energy Expenditure.
So, if you did nothing at all for 24 hours—nothing, no eating, no walking, no moving,
whatever—your BMR is the MINIMUM amount of calories
that’s needed to keep your body’s organs and systems functioning.
There are a few different formulas to do the calculations I’m sharing today,
and it’s definitely not an EXACT science, but the Mifflin St Jeor Formula
tends to be the most widely accepted for BMR, and I will link a BMR calculator below,
that way you can just plug in your information to get the number,
rather than doing the math on paper.
So, let’s say Jill is 150 pounds, 5 foot 5 inches, 30 years old and a female.
Her BMR is 1,401.
One thousand four hundred and one.
That means she needs at least 1,401 calories per day just to function,
without accounting for any movement, activity, etcetera, right?
Well, hypothetically, yes, that is what it SHOULD mean.
But remember, we’re all different, and this calculator doesn’t take into account Jill’s
health history, her diet history, her genetics, etcetera.
So this number is really just a guesstimate, BUT we can use it as a starting point,
because, when it comes to the wacky world of macros,
you’re going to see that it’s a lot of trial & error.
But, for the sake of TEACHING the process here,
we’re just going to move forward with it.
After you have your BMR, the next step is to figure out how many total calories you need,
accounting for an estimate of YOUR activity level,
also known as your Total Daily Energy Expenditure, or TDEE.
So on screen I’ve listed the standard values of different activity levels
that are used in the formula.
1.2: sedentary,
1.375 is light activity,
1.55: moderate activity,
1.725: very active,
and 1.9 EXTREMELY active.
Your TDEE, or total daily energy expenditure, is your BMR,
multiplied by your activity level.
So, that is meant to represent the energy, or calories,
that your body burns at rest AND accounts for how active you are,
in order to give you a GUESSTIMATE of the calories that YOU burn
in an AVERAGE day.
Now, there are a few problems with this:
1) The numerical values for each of these activity levels will vary
based on where you look, and it’s very subjective, which leads to problem #2:
MOST people won’t accurately guestimate their activity level.
People tend to be overly generous with their choice.
So, I recommend choosing the level that’s BELOW what you THINK you are.
And there are variables beyond that, too.
So, remember, Jane might be the EXACT same stats as June,
but each of their bodies will burn calories differently with exercise and activity,
so it’s not an exact science.
Unless you’re a training athlete, I’d say it probably wouldn’t be appropriate
to mark “extremely active,” or even “very active.”
I don’t say that to insult anyone who works out a lot, you just have to recognize
that this calculation is going to determine the amount of calories you eat.
So if you OVERestimate the activity level,
your final number of daily calories will be HIGHER than you actually need
to achieve your goal—which probably means you won’t see much progress.
So, let’s say that Jill exercises about 4 times a week for 30 minutes,
and she has a desk job so she doesn’t move much other than that.
She thinks her activity level is moderate, but will mark light to be safe—
better to UNDERestimate than overestimate.
So the ultimate equation is Jill’s BMR, which is 1,401—
let’s just say 1,400 for math’s sake—
multiplied by 1.375, meaning light activity level.
We end up with: 1,925 calories.
So, this is Jill’s Total Daily Energy Expenditure—
the amount of calories needed to maintain her current weight,
accounting for her activity level.
If Jill’s goal were to lose weight, she would want to eat LESS
than her maintenance level of calories.
If she wanted to gain weight,
she would want to eat MORE than this.
If she is happy with where she’s at,
she can aim for that number… sort of.
So keep this in mind: it’s not an exact science.
This number may be way too high,
or even too low for Jill.
And the only way to know is trial and error.
For instance, if Jill has been eating significantly less than around 1,900 calories
for an extended period of time, her body may have adjusted to eating less,
and that means that eating 1,900 calories may actually cause her to GAIN weight
because she’s lowered her body’s baseline needs.
Or, if she typically eats
a lot MORE than 1,900 calories but hasn’t been continuing to gain weight,
she may have trained her body to that higher number,
and 1,900 may be enough for weight loss.
It depends on each individual person.
Also, there are macro calculators online that will do this for you, too.
BUT you’ll probably find that different ones are giving you different numbers for TDEE,
and the reason for that is that they probably have slightly different numbers plugged in
for activity level options.
Just keep that in mind.
If Jill did happen to match this exact calculation—which most people won’t,
but for the sake of educating here—If Jill DID actually need 1,925 calories,
how much LESS does she need to eat if her goal is weight loss?
Well, it depends how quickly she wants to lose weight.
Most nutritionists suggest losing between 0.5 pound and 2 pounds per week.
I know for a lot of people that feels too slow and discouraging,
but any faster than that, and the weight probably
just isn’t going to stay off once it’s lost.
So if you can find the discipline to go a little bit slower,
then that will help you maintain your weight loss in the long run.
1 pound of body fat is around 3,500 calories.
So, if you want to lose 1 pound per week,
you’ve got to consume 3,500 calories less PER WEEK, or about 500 calories less per day.
So Jill’s maintenance calories would be 1,925, but if she wants to aim to lose
1 pound per week, she would need to eat 1,425 calories so she has a calorie deficit.
If she wanted to lose 2 pounds per week, she’d need to knock off 1,000 calories per day,
bringing her to only 925 calories.
Now that is s pretty low—
I would guess that Jill is going to end up hungry,
and then the plan won’t really be sustainable long-term.
Plus, Jill risks damaging her metabolism by eating at such an extreme deficit
for an extended period of time.
So, that’s another reason we keep the weight loss slow.
Keep in mind I’m not saying that eating too little or too much for a day or two
is going to hurt you, but LONG TERM our bodies will adapt to what we do regularly.
BUT, now you at least know the science behind calculating out the caloric needs.
So is it an EXACT science?
No.
Are those numbers written in stone?
DEFINITELY not.
But it’s a starting point, so if that number HELPS you on your journey, great!
If it doesn’t help, then don’t worry about it.
I don’t think it’s necessary to track everything we eat to be healthy,
or even to lose weight.
I always encourage people to focus on WHOLE foods,
and eliminating processed foods as much as possible,
rather than focusing on calories.
Plus, I really believe the QUALITY of food matters far MORE than the quantity.
And, there are other factors at play when it comes to weight loss, like hormones.
But, knowledge is power, and learning how calories and macros works
is only going to help you make some more informed decisions,
whether you count calories or not.
You guys!
I have a SPECIAL announcement.
So, a lot of you know my friend Sara Lynn from the channel The Domestic Geek,
we have collaborated many times, you guys always love when we're together.
We have decided to start a YouTube channel TOGETHER!
We have a new series called Friday Night Supper Club,
pretty much we get together on a Friday night, we make a really challenging recipe,
and we drink some adult beverages, which is very different from this channel.
It’s SO much fun.
The first episode went live TODAY.
So in the description you’ll find a link for the new channel and social media information,
subscribe, watch the new video, let us know what you think,
we’re so excited to share it.
Every Thursday we will have a new episode.
If you have an interest in taking this a step further
and learning about HOW to calculate macros and macro ratios,
leave me a comment and let me know!
Maybe I can do a video on that, too!
I’ll see you next week, and remember, it’s all a matter of Mind Over Munch!