The Concept of Calorie Management - 02 | Total Calorie Count







Content: 
  • Step 1: Calculating the BMR 
  • Step 2: Total Calorie Count
  • Step 3: Calorie to Weight Relationship
  • Observation
  • How to adapt to a 500 calorie deficit program?




Food on our table plays a key role in controlling our body-weight as well as fights with a number of health and appearance issues that come with aging and obesity. If you can control your diet, it can change your life forever. Today we will see how many calories in our food is necessary for a balanced diet and also how to control the body-weight by simply controlling calories.  


This article is in continuation with the BMR concept from Part 1. If you are new to this forum, please check the previous part here - 





Step 1: Calculating the BMR 



In the previous part, the discussion was revolving around Basal Metabolic Rate(BMR) and we saw how to calculate an individual's BMR using the Harris-Benedict formula.  Put your details in the boxes provided below and hit the calculate button to get your BMR.



 

Age (in years)   :    

Height (in cm)  :    

Weight (in kg)   :  

                                                                   Result :

 


Step 2: Total Calorie Count



Apart from BMR, our body needs extra calories to function with food digestion, daily job, other co-curricular activities, etc. After getting the total no. of calories we burn, we will simply subtract it by the number of calories we feed ourselves in a day.



[ Total Calorie Expenditure = BMR + Calories you burn in a day(say x) - total calories in your food/day(sayY) ]



If the value comes in positive, you are on a calorie deficit plan, which means your total calorie intake is lesser than you burn. And this is going to result in weight loss.

If the value comes negative, you are taking more calories than you burn which are going to result in weight gain.



Step 3: Calorie to Weight Relationship



According to the experiments and observations performed by a medical researcher Max Wishnofsky in 1958, the mathematical relation between calories to body-weight(in pounds) is stated below - 


1 pound of weight = 3500 calories in total 


That means 3500 calories are needed to burn or add in order to lose or gain weight by 1 pound. If we are working on a Calorie deficit program, and able to cut somewhere 500 calories for a day, this is going to take -



3500/500 = 7 days to lose 1 pound of weight 



Observation:



Considering an example, a 22-year-old male, Alex, (height=175cm, weight=80kg) wants to lose weight by 10 kgs(equivalent to 22 pounds). His 1-day average diet holds around 2500 calories for a day and now he wants to know how much time it is going to take when he plans to go on a 500 calorie-deficit program.

Now using the BMR equation provided above, we get -

BMR = 1893 calories 

Weight to lose = 10 kg(22 pounds)

22 pounds of weight is equivalent to: [22 x 3500] = 77000 calories to burn

Now, 1-day calorie deficit in total = 500 calories
 
Time of course - 77000/500 = 154 days (Around 5 months)



Note: Recent studies have found that the 3500 calorie-per-pound rule slightly varies from person to person depending on the individual's BMR, body metabolism, and other factors. (source)




How to adapt to a 500 calorie deficit program?




Take a look again at the "Step 2 Formula" mentioned above, for the total energy expenditure. Now there are two ways (shown as X and Y) to control the total deficit in calories - 

1. By burning through exercise as well as non-exercise activities etc.(increasing the X value)  
2. By adopting a low-calorie diet (decreasing the Y value) 

While the best option is to practice both at the same time which will cut out excess weight and also help you shape yourself better. 



In the next part, we will see a few food sources and exercises that will help in cutting the desired number of calories which will include a full-day diet plan with necessary workouts promoting intense burning in lesser time.

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