How Many Calories Do You Need?

Now that you know a bit about energy balance, and if you don't you will need to read this article first, let's take a look at some other very important things when it comes to energy balance and staying healthy.

As you may recall, we discussed how using more energy than you consume will eventually lead to weight loss. Before you begin starving yourself, however, there is more that you ought to know when it comes to the Caloric deficit we went over last time.

Remember that we said that your body uses a fair amount of energy and burns a certain amount of Calories every day just from the body keeping itself alive. Some of you may find other involuntary things that you do, such as bouncing your leg while you sit in a chair at your desk. This type of thing, of course, burns Calories as well.

The body is an amazing thing. It will make adjustments to any change in its environment. Therefore, while we are talking about energy balance, the body will actually adjust the amount of energy it uses based on the amount of energy it has to manage. When you try to lose weight by going into a drastic Caloric deficit, your body will automatically slow down its metabolism and conserve as much energy as it can.

If you cut your Calories too much, you will start to find yourself being tired and unfocused, possibly get headaches and many people get pretty irritable. That's not a pleasant situation for anyone. So, if you are going to cut Calories, let's do so responsibly.

My recommendation is that you first determine about how many calories you burn in a day. The folks with all the letters after their names will often refer to that as "Daily Calorie Expenditure" or DCE. Others prefer "Total Daily Energy Expenditure" or TDEE. They basically mean the same thing. You can figure out your TDEE by going to https://tdeecalculator.net/ and plugging in your numbers. You will need to know a pretty close estimate of your body fat percentage to use that site.

If you don't have that (because who really does? I mean, seriously!) you can use one of the following formulas to get a decent estimate of your Caloric usage.

For men: (<Weight in lbs> x 6.25) + (<Height in inches> x 12.7) - (<Age> x 6.76)+66)

For women:

(<Weight in lbs> x 4.35) + (<Height in inches> x 4.7) - (<Age> x 4.68)+655) Now, take that number and multiply it by an "activity level" multiplier:

Sedentary = 1.1

Lightly Active = 1.2

Moderately Active = 1.35

Very Active = 1.5

Extremely Active = 1.65

The Activity Level is a pretty subjective thing. So realize that this is not an exact science. Don't let the numbers with decimal points fool you into thinking that this sort of thing has more precision than it does.