How to Calculate My Calorie Needs and Calorie Deficit?

It’s actually real simple to find out your calorie needs and calorie deficit if you want to lose weight. The following calculation works for most people. Like I said before, weight loss boils down to simple math. We lose weight by burning more calories than we take in. But you should never be fasting to lose weight. I tried that before and it worked for that short period but the weight shot backup to where I was and more. It’s not worth it to fast. A proper and balanced diet coupled with exercise like P90X, Insanity, and etc. is the way to go.

So How to Calculate Your Calorie Needs?

Just follow these easy steps:

STEP 1
RMR or BMR
= Current Weight x 10

STEP 2
TDEE for sedentary lifestyle (avg 20% of RMR; some people is only 15%)
= RMR x 1.2

STEP 3
Maintenance with exercising
= TDEE for sedentary lifestyle + average workout burn**

** Avg workout burn is calculated from (600 calories/workout x 6 days)/7 days = 514

To lose 1 lb/week with exercising
= Maintenance w/ Exercising – 500 calories

ASSUMPTIONS:

• Assumed that you workout 6 days a week doing programs like P90X, Insanity, and etc. and rest one day per week.
• Some days the workout will burn more or less than 600 so we use 600 as the avg.

For Example:

If you weight 150 lbs.

RMR (resting metabolic rate)
= Current Weight x 10 = 1500

TDEE for sedentary lifestyle
= RMR x 1.2 = 1800

Maintenance with exercising
= TDEE for sedentary lifestyle + average workout burn = 1800 + 514 = 2314

Lose 1 pound/week with exercising
= Maintenance w/ Exercising – 500 calories = 1814 <– this is how much you should be eating a day.

Four things to keep in mind if you want to lose FAT:

1. Don’t eat lower than your BMR or RMR especially when your body fat% is less than 15%. Not to starve yourself or over eat.
2. Higher protein-to-carb ratio in your daily diet. Check out the P90X Fat Shredder Diet.
3. Workout as hard as you can to burn the extra calories to create greater calorie deficit and also to at least maintain your muscle mass.
4. You MUST incorporate weight training in your routine to avoid losing muscle mass which is prone to happen if you’re cutting your calorie intake.

If you have any questions at all, email me or post your in the comment section below.

Cheers,
Coach Al

Like what you see?

Subscribe below and be notified of similar posts in the future.

Summary

Reviewer

Al Lee

Review Date

2013-03-29

Reviewed Item

Calorie Calculator

Author Rating

4