Lose Weight by Counting Calories
Friday, February 29th, 2008So you want to lose weight and want to know how many calories you should eat in order to achieve that:
First of all let’s remind us the number of calories contained in fats, proteins and carbohydrates:
1 gram of fat = 9 kilocalories ~ 37 kilojoules
1 gram of protein = 4 kilocalories ~ 16 kilojoules
1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 kilocalories ~ 16 kilojoules
And some more calorie values:
1 gram of alcohol = 7 kilocalories
1 gram of dietary fiber = 3 kilocalories
Having all these values in mind you can easily calculate the number of calories in food you eat every day. And how much calories you need a day is another question:
How to estimate your daily caloric needs
You can estimate your daily caloric intake with the Harris-Benedict formula. It helps you calculate your basal metabolic rate (BMR), i.e. the optimum amount of energy your body needs to function.
Let’s calculate your BMR
To do that you need to use your current weight, height and age in step ONE. It’s easy:
