!: How Many Calories Do You Need to Reach Your Weight Loss Goals?

Anytime you face a weight loss goal the first thing you need to figure out is how many calories you need to consume on a daily basis to reach your weight loss goals. This is a relatively easy process that involves finding your ideal weight range, finding the number of calories you need per day and figuring out how much weight you want to lose safely.

Your ideal weight is based on your height but isn't simply a single weight at each height. Instead a number is assigned to the middle of the pack to allow for different amounts of muscle and different frame sizes. Someone who is 5' 8'' and has an 8 inch wrist is obviously going to have a different ideal weight than someone who is the same height but has a 6 inch wrist.

Males, the calculation for your ideal weight is: 106 lbs for 5 feet of height plus 6 pounds for every inch over 5 feet. For instance, a 5' 8'' male's ideal base weight is 154 lbs.

Females, the calculation for your ideal weight is: 100 lbs for 5 feet of height plus 5 pounds for each inch over 5 feet. For instance, a 5' 4'' female's ideal base weight is 120 lbs.

Taking into account that everyone is different, you should be within 10 percent of the ideal weight. The above example would put the ideal weight for a 5' 8'' male between 140 lbs and 170 lbs and the ideal weight for a 5' 4'' female between 108 lbs and 132 lbs.

Determining how many calories you need daily

Now that you have your ideal weight it's time to figure out how many calories you need on a daily basis. Your basal metabolic rate / resting metabolic rate (the number of calories you expend by simply being alive) is your weight x 10. If you weigh 150 lbs, your BMR is 1500 calories. However to truly determine the number of calories you'll burn on a daily basis you need to determine your level of activity. Below are the levels of activity and their respective percentage to add to your BMR.

Sedentary / Lazy Bum - This is someone who barely moves at all at work (programmer, phone agent, etc) or at home except to walk to their car, walk into McDonald's or walk to get their mail. Multiply your BMR x 10 percent. 150 lbs x 10 x 10% is 1650 calories.

Moderate / Prison Inmate / Walker - Someone who either has a job / activity that requires some movement like carpentry, someone who exercises lightly everyday like 30-60 minutes of walking or someone who is trying to avoid being shanked in the prison yard. Multiply your BMR by 20 percent. 150 lbs x 10 x 20% is 1800 calories.

Very active / Hard laborer - Someone who either has a job doing hard labor like laying brick, on a chain gang or someone who works out very hard. A very hard work-out is either 60 minutes of weight training or 30-60 minutes of running. Multiply your BMR by 40%. 150 lbs x 10 x 40% is 1950 calories.

My suggestion for finding a way to workout is to find a local adult rec center that offers basketball, tennis, raquetball, etc. It's far easier to get a good workout when you feel like you're playing.

Now that you have the number of calories you'll burn on a daily basis it's time to figure out how many calories you need to consume to reach your weight loss goals.

The 1 pound per week / rapid method

With this method you're going to create a daily caloric deficit of 500 calories. That will create a weekly deficit of 3,500 calories. The reason for this is that it takes a deficit of 3500 calories to lose one pound. Taking the above example a person weighing 150 pounds with a moderate activity level will burn roughly 1700 calories per day. In the 1 pound per week method they will consume 1200 calories per day. This method is the hardest to stick to as it creates the most severe calorie restriction.

The 2 lbs per month method

With this method you're going to create a daily caloric deficit of 200 calories. That will create a weekly deficit of 1400 calories. The person weighing 150 pounds will consume 1500 calories. The caloric deficit will cause you to lose roughly 2 lbs per month. The reason this method is tough is that most people want to see instant results. You will not see a significant difference for a few months but this is generally the safer of the two methods.

Keep in mind that these methods aren't an exact science. Your weight loss is going to be a trial and error process. This means if you find that on the 1 pound per week program, you're not losing any weight, you're going to drop the calories by 100 per day until you start to lose 1 pound per week.

Also keep in mind that this isn't the end all, be all, of eating plans. There are many varieties that I suggest you take a look at if this particular eating plan doesn't work for you. There isn't a magic bullet.

With this knowledge the next step in the process is to figure out what foods to eat. In my next article I will explain what foods are best and how much to eat of each type of food.