Eat Less Calories Than Your Body Burns for Weight Loss

Lots of Calories and Carbs are Needed If You Do Lots of Running

Calories represent the amount of energy contained in different foods.  As you eat food your body utilizes the energy or caloric content of that food as fuel for basic functioning.  If you consume more calories than your body needs to function the excess energy is stored as fat. If you consume less calories than is required by your body you will begin burning fat stores to make up the energy deficit. The number of calories to lose weight depends upon many factors specific to you.

It is because of this that some experts talk about weight loss as a mathematical equation:  Caloric Intake – Caloric Need = Fat Gain.  It may seem simple but determining your specific diet and exercise levels can be difficult. The key to finding out how many calories to lose weight you need to consume you need to find two key numbers; caloric intake or diet and caloric need or metabolic rate.

Diet or Caloric Intake

Determining your diet and caloric intake is easy and requires nothing more then keeping a record of what you eat and then looking up the nutritional and caloric content of that food. This is an objective measure and so easily quantifiable. If There are many Calorie Counter tools available to help you find the content of different foods and dishes.

Metabolic Rate or Caloric Need

Your metabolic rate or caloric need is the rate at which your body burns calories for fuel. our metabolic rate depends on a person physiology and how active they are. Some people have high metabolic rates and their bodies require a large amount of fuel while others may be said to have low metabolic rates requiring less food.

Determining your metabolic rate can be very difficult. Unlike calorie counting which is the same for everyone no two people have identical metabolic rates all the time. All people have different metabolic rates and wide variety in caloric need. People who are very active require more fuel than individuals who are not as active.

Experts estimate that on average one pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories.