- Find out how many calories you need to gain weight, lose weight or maintain weight
- How to know my daily caloric expenditure
- How to spend more calories to lose weight
The secret to not getting fat is to eat the same amount of calories you spend each day. On average, a 35-year-old woman, who weighs 60 kg, does not practice any type of physical activity and who works sitting down needs about 2000 calories to survive and this we call basal calorie expenditure.
This amount is what your body needs to ensure the functioning of all organs and systems and whenever it ingests a greater amount of calories, it will put on weight and if it consumes a smaller amount, it will lose weight, because weight variations are directly related to amount of calories eaten daily.
Find out how many calories you need to gain weight, lose weight or maintain weight
How to know my daily caloric expenditure
To find out how much calories your body needs to maintain health, you can use the following mathematical formula:
Women:
- 18 to 30 years old: (14.7 x weight) + 496 = X31 to 60 years old: (8.7 x weight) + 829 = X
Next, it is necessary to take into consideration the type of activity that you practice daily and therefore you must multiply the value found in the above equation by:
- 1, 5 - if you are sedentary or have a light activity1, 6 - if you practice physical activity or moderate tasks
Men:
- 18 to 30 years: (15.3 x weight) + 679 = X31 to 60 years: (11.6 x weight) + 879 = X
After finding the value of X you must multiply the value found by:
- 1, 6 - if you are sedentary or have light activity 1, 7 - if you practice physical activity or moderate tasks
Light physical activity should be considered for people who do not practice any type of physical activity, who work in offices and who sit for a long time. Moderate tasks are those that require a greater physical effort, such as dancers, painters, loaders and masons, for example.
How to spend more calories to lose weight
To lose 1 kg of body weight you need to burn about 7000 calories.
It is possible to spend more calories by increasing your level of physical activity. Certain activities burn more calories than others but it also depends on the person's effort to perform the activity perfectly.
For example: An aerobics class uses an average of 260 calories per hour while 1 hour of zumba burns around 800 calories. Check out the 10 exercises that use the most calories.
But there are small habits that you can change to make your body use more calories, such as preferring to change the TV channel without using the remote control, washing the car and also cleaning the interior with your own hands and doing household activities like vacuuming a rug, for example. Although it seems that they expend fewer calories, these activities will help the body burn more fat and help you lose weight.
But in addition, if you need to lose weight, you must also reduce the calories you eat through food and that is why it is recommended to avoid fried foods, sugar and fat because these are the most calorie-rich foods.
