How many calories should I be burning?

Question

Ok... if I am eating 1400 - 1600 calories a day,
should I be burning 1400 - 1600 calories a day...
or would burning 500 - 1000 calories a day be enough to lose weight?

(Some say I could be burning about 500 calories a day through exercise, and cutting back on calories [but not too many], which I have been doing... would be enough to lose weight.
Others say I should be burning more calories then I take in.
Which is it??)

Answer 1

You just have your facts a little twisted here. If you were to consume 1600 calories a day, then burning 1600 calories a day will only maintain your current body weight. To lose weight you would want to aim to burn 500 calories more than you consume, so for instance 2100 calories. Over the course of 1 week that would mean you burned 3500 more calories than you consumed, which is equivalent to 1 pound of weight loss.

It's easier than you think. You burn calories just doing normal activities, so don't think you need to go out and burn 2100 calories by exercise alone. At the same time exercise is an important factor because you can burn upwards of 500 calories in an hour of moderate exercise. Go on Google and check out websites that allow you to calculate how many calories you burn each day just doing normal activities like sleeping, eating, etc. If you find that you're burning 1600 calories a day normally, then aim to burn 500 calories through exercise.

Hope that helps answer your question.