Finding out your daily calories requirement

January 6, 2009 | By Valen | In Weight loss plan

Once you found out how much weight you need to lose, the next thing you’d want to do is to find out how much is your daily calories requirement.

If you are using this calorie counter for men or calorie counter for women (cool tools!), by the end of answering 4 questions, you will get a whole bunch of information about your own calorie needs. You will know:

1. How much calories per day is required to maintain your current weight without exercise.

2. How much calories per day to reach your goal weight slowly and maintaining it without exercise.

3. How much calories to reduce to lose one pound per week without exercise.

4. How much increase in your current caloric intake will cause you to gain one pound per week.

5. How much caloric intake you can increase to maintain your current weight if you exercise for 30 min or 60 min each day.

6. How much caloric intake per day to reach your goal with 30 min or 60 min of exercise daily.

In The Diet Solution Program, Isabel also has a simple formula to calculate your daily calories requirement in order to lose weight healthily.

Based on both ways of calculation, I found out that I need to reduce my caloric intake to around 1,300 per day to lose weight slowly if without exercising. If I couple my weight loss plan with 30 min of exercise every day, then I will still be able to lose weight by maintaining my daily caloric intake at around 2,000.

After knowing my daily calories requirement, the next step will be to ensure that I don’t consume calories more than I need. This started me wondering–how would I know how much I’m consuming in each meal? Do I need really need to count my calories every time I eat? What should I do if I still feel hungry after I’ve reached my daily calorie limit? I supposed you are asking the same questions in your mind, too!

Perhaps I’ll let Isabel explain what all this calorie counting is about. You’ll be able to read her opinions on the calorie issue in my next post. So stay tuned!