Number of calories?

Question

I've been in reading a lot about how many calories people should include in their diet, and the most common number has been 1,500. I visit the gym once a day and burn about 300 calories on the treadmill, then do some weight training for about 20 minutes. Books and websites say that you need to burn more calories than you consume to lose weight. With visiting the gym, going to school, and having a job where I walk around a warehouse for the majority of four hours.....do I even come close to burning those extra 1200 or so calories needed to lose weight? Is there somewhere I can visit online that will show what activities burn a certain amount of calories?

Answer 1

Do calories matter or do you simply need to eat certain foods and that will guarantee you’ll lose weight? Should you count calories or can you just count “portions?” Is it necessary to keep a food diary? Is it unrealistic to count calories for the rest of your life or is that just part of the price you pay for a better body? You’re about to learn the answers to these questions and discover a simple solution for keeping track of your food intake without having to crunch numbers every day or become a fanatic about it.

In many popular diet books, “Calories don’t count” is a frequently repeated theme. Other popular programs, such as Bill Phillip's "Body For Life," stress the importance of energy intake versus energy output, but recommend that you count “portions” rather than calories…

Phillips wrote,

"There aren't many people who can keep track of their calorie intake for an extended period of time. As an alternative, I recommend counting 'portions.' A portion of food is roughly equal to the size of your clenched fist or the palm of your hand. Each portion of protein or carbohydrate typically contains between 100 and 150 calories. For example, one chicken breast is approximately one portion of protein, and one medium-sized baked potato is approximately one portion of carbohydrate."

Phillips makes a good point that trying to count every single calorie - in the literal sense - can drive you crazy and is probably not realistic as a lifestyle for the long term. It's one thing to count portions instead of calories – that is at least acknowledging the importance of portion control. However, it's another altogether to deny that calories matter.

Calories do count! Any diet program that tells you, "calories don't count" or you can "eat all you want and still lose weight" is a diet you should avoid because you are being lied to. The truth is, that line is a bunch of baloney designed to make a diet sound easier to follow.

Anything that sounds like work – such as counting calories, eating less or exercising, tends to scare away potential customers! The law of calorie balance is an unbreakable law of physics: Energy in versus energy out dictates whether you will gain, lose or maintain your weight. Period.

I believe that it's very important to develop an understanding of and a respect for portion control and the law of calorie balance. I also believe it's an important part of nutrition education to learn how many calories are in the foods you eat on a regular basis – including (and perhaps, especially) how many calories are in the foods you eat when you dine at restaurants.

The law of calorie balance says:

To maintain your weight, you must consume the same number of calories you burn. To gain weight, you must consume more calories than you burn. To lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than you burn.

If you only count portions or if you haven't the slightest idea how many calories you're eating, it's a lot more likely that you'll eat more than you realize. (Or you might take in fewer calories than you should, which triggers your body’s "starvation mode" and causes your metabolism to shut down).

So how do you balance practicality and realistic expectations with a nutrition program that gets results? Here's a solution that’s a happy medium between strict calorie counting and just guessing:

Create a menu using an EXCEL spreadsheet or your favorite nutrition software. Crunch all the numbers including calories, protein, carbs and fats. Once you have your daily menu, print it, stick it on your refrigerator (and/or in your daily planner) and you now have an eating "goal" for the day, including a caloric target.

Rather than writing down every calorie one by one from every morsel of food you eat for the rest of your life, create a menu plan you can use as a daily goal and guideline. If you’re really ambitious, keeping a nutrition journal at least one time in your life for at least 4-12 weeks is a great idea and an incredible learning experience, but all you really need to get started on the road to a better body is one good menu on paper. If you get bored eating the same thing every day, you can create multiple menus, or just exchange foods using your primary menu as a template.

Using this meal planning method, you really only need to “count calories” once when you create your menus, not every day, ad infinitum. After you've got a knack for calories from this initial discipline of menu planning, then you can estimate portions in the future and get a pretty good (and more educated) ballpark figure.

So what’s the bottom line? Is it really necessary to count every calorie to lose weight? No. But it IS necessary to eat fewer calories then you burn. Whether you count calories and eat less than you burn, or you don’t count calories and eat less than you burn, the end result is the same – you lose weight. Which would you rather do: Take a wild guess, or increase your chance for success with some simple menu planning? I think the right choice is obvious.

For more information on calories (including how calculate precisely how many you should eat based on your age, activity and personal goals, and for even more practical, proven fat loss techniques to help you lose body fat safely, healthfully and permanently, check out my e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle at

http://www.fightfatphilly.com/tom_venuto_fitness_articles.html

Answer 2

First of all if you break it down this much you will drive yourself crazy. In order to make your fitness plan work you have to keep it simple or you won't be able to stick to it.

Yes it's true to lose weight you need to burn more calories than you consume but you will never find a true number of what you burn because we are all different. Also consider that you burn calories while sitting, sleeping and even digesting your food. Just make sure you aren't consuming empty calories and eat a good balanced diet. If you are very concerned and know you've eaten 500 calories of Ben & Jerry's then it wouldn't hurt to burn some more calories at the gym. I would assume that cutting your calories and working, going to class and the gym should be MORE than enough to help you reach your goals.

Answer 3

You don't need to burn those extra 1200 calories. Start with your basal metobolic rate. I'm sure there are websites out there that calculate it for you. For me, it is about 2200 calories. This is the calorie intake you need just to maintain your weight everyday by being you (sitting, standing, eating, sleeping, etc.) Wait - I just found a link to it on Wikipedia.

Usually when it calculates it, it takes into account the amount of exercise you do (whether you are a sedentary person, or do a lot of walking, etc.)

THEN take into account that your exercise will just help you lose the weight that much faster.

For example...if I am 2200 BMR and eat only 1500 calories in a day, I'm at -700 for the day. Let's say I burn 300 on the treadmill, then I'm at -1000 for that day.

Answer 4

The average adult burns around 2000 calories a day. This is just by sitting around!!! You do not have to exercise. You could probably find a website that shows you how much calories you burn based on your height and weight. Bodybuidling.com is a really great resource to find out activities that burn certain amounts of calories

Goodluck

Answer 5

remember that you're not just burning calories while you're working out. your body will keep burning calories at the same, or close to the same, rate as when you are exercising. i'm not sure for how long, but i've heard as many as 24 hours. so with what you're doing, you're probably burning enough calories. just remember to stick to a reasonable diet and you should reach your goal weight soon.

Answer 6

there's a great website called http://www.caloriesperhour.com where you can find lots of different calorie calculators. you can calculate the calories burned in different activities, but you can also calculate how many calories you would naturally burn at rest (without doing any physical activity). they have information about weight loss too.

Answer 7

specialk.com has one under their tools