How many calories do I need to burn to lose weight?
ByI am a female, 5′6 and I weigh 145 lbs. I eat roughly 1500 calories a day. I have been burning 600-700 calories a day. Is that enough to lose weight? I want to lose about 20 pounds. How many calories do I need to burn to lose weight as fast as I can. I know I cant lose too much weight too fast, I mean I want to burn as much as I can, as fast as I can. Thanks.
600-700 a day?! Whoa! That’s intense (at least for me).
To answer your question: 1lb = 3,500 calories. So in order to burn 1lb a week, you’d need to burn 3,500 calories a week (500 a day). Clearly, you’re already doing that. But it’s also important to remember that you’re burning calories just by existing and doing normal things. If you’re in college or in you’re average day you’re walking short distances frequently to and from somewhere, or you have a job where you’re often on your feet, you’re probably burning around 1900 calories. So for you, your calorie consumption/burn looks something like this. Eat 1500 a day, burn 1900 existing, then an extra 600 with exercise I assume. 1900 + 600 = 2,500; 2,500 - 1500 = 1,000. Your calorie deficit is 1,000, which means at the end of the day after eating and existing and exercising, you’ve burned 1,000 calories.
Like I said, to lose 1lb a week, you’d need to burn 500 a day, and you’re burning 1,000 so you’d be losing rate at around 2lbs a week, which is pretty safe. Good for you! Just remember to not burn yourself out and listen to your body. Don’t overexert and end up going backwards. Your body refuses to starve and will stubbornly cling if you go overboard.
4 Comments
February 1st, 2012 at 1:20 am
3500 calories = 1 lb
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February 1st, 2012 at 1:42 am
Typically about 3,500 calories equates to one pound. So — you’d need to know how many calories you burn a day just to maintain your weight (it’ll be more than 600-700) and how many extra calories you burn exercising. Assuming your 600 calories are in excess of what you need to maintain your weight, then you should lose a bit more than a pound every six days.
If you’re eating 1500 calories a day — and are exercising 600 calories worth — you should be slowly losing weight.
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February 1st, 2012 at 2:08 am
Try to figure out how many calories your body needs to maintain weight. You can use an online body needs calculator like the one at: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
To lose one pound of fat, you need to burn or not eat 3500 calories. It doesn’t matter if you burn/not eat that many calories in one day or three days or a week or a month. If you cut 3500 calories, you will lose one pound. It doesn’t matter if you burn them up through exercise or just not eat them or a combination of the two.
A SAFE amount to cut is about 500 calories per day so that means you would lose one pound per week. You can use an online calorie tracker to help. I like the one at http://www.fitday.com.
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February 1st, 2012 at 2:17 am
600-700 a day?! Whoa! That’s intense (at least for me).
To answer your question: 1lb = 3,500 calories. So in order to burn 1lb a week, you’d need to burn 3,500 calories a week (500 a day). Clearly, you’re already doing that. But it’s also important to remember that you’re burning calories just by existing and doing normal things. If you’re in college or in you’re average day you’re walking short distances frequently to and from somewhere, or you have a job where you’re often on your feet, you’re probably burning around 1900 calories. So for you, your calorie consumption/burn looks something like this. Eat 1500 a day, burn 1900 existing, then an extra 600 with exercise I assume. 1900 + 600 = 2,500; 2,500 - 1500 = 1,000. Your calorie deficit is 1,000, which means at the end of the day after eating and existing and exercising, you’ve burned 1,000 calories.
Like I said, to lose 1lb a week, you’d need to burn 500 a day, and you’re burning 1,000 so you’d be losing rate at around 2lbs a week, which is pretty safe. Good for you! Just remember to not burn yourself out and listen to your body. Don’t overexert and end up going backwards. Your body refuses to starve and will stubbornly cling if you go overboard.
References :