How many calories do you need per day to lose weight or gain weight (calculator)

If you want to lose weight or gain weight and improve quality muscle mass, then you need to know how many calories you need consume per day. This article will tell you about this. give real information on nutrition and diets.

It will be much easier for you to calculate calories for losing weight if you know about the basic principles of energy metabolism and its impact to reduce or gain weight.

In this article, I’ll show you how to calculate your daily calorie intake, based on your goals and conditions and capabilities.

After reading, you will know exactly how much to eat. You.

Content

• Simple and accurate calorie and macronutrient calculator
• Why you should know how many calories you need to eat in day?
• Energy balance and its importance
• Calorie intake and consumption
  • Most Important Macronutrient: Protein
  • Carbohydrates are your friends, not enemies
  • Fats play a very important role in any diet.
• How to determine the right amount of calories
• How many calories do you need to consume per day to lose weight?
  • “Aggressive” (but not mindless) calorie deficit
  • Aggressive training
  • Weight Loss Supplements That Work
  • Selection of macronutrients for fat burning
• How many calories do you need to gain mass?
  • Calculation of macronutrients for muscle building
• Conclusion: how many calories a person needs per day

Simple and accurate calorie and macronutrient calculator

I decided to start the article with a calculator, because you already, probably familiar with the basic principles of proper nutrition (energy balance).

Weight
Percentage of body fat (click to read how to count)

Activity level

less than an hour of training in неделю1-3 часа тренировок в неделю4-6 часов тренировок в неделю6+ часов тренировок в неделюДругое

Multiplier activity

LBM (lean muscle mass)
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)
TDEE (Calorie Rate, based on activity level)

Choose a target	не указаноСнижение весаПоддержаниеНабор массы
Дефицит Избыток
Total calories	0

Squirrels		0 kcal
Carbohydrates		0 kcal
Fats		0 kcal

Why you should know how many calories you need to eat in day?

Imagine someone telling you that they want to travel around the country, not paying attention to fuel.

He offers to stop when you want and refuel as much fuel as you want.

How do you react?

I don’t know how you would react, but I would laugh and ask why such a crazy idea.

My opinion:

When someone tells me they want to gain or lose weight without counting calories … or that consumption and energy consumption are nothing don’t mean, I immediately understand that a person has never been engaged a set of high-quality muscle mass or weight loss due to fat.

Is it possible to lose weight or gain weight without counting kcal?

Of course, in special cases

Does this work in the long run?

Absolutely not.

The bottom line is planning the amount of food consumed and macronutrient tracking is the most reliable and effective a way to lose fat and build muscle.

But don’t worry …

I’m not talking about starvation.

I say that for a healthy body you sometimes need to eat favorite (or harmful) food.

I say that guaranteed progress will be every a week.

No more hopes. Knowledge.

And yes, it all starts with counting calories.

Energy balance and its importance

Energy balance refers to the concepts of “consumption” and “consumption” of energy.

• If you consume more energy than you burn, then your the energy balance is positive.
• If you consume less energy than you burn, then your the energy balance is negative.

This energy is measured in kcal.

And when it comes to food and metabolism, calories are the amount of energy needed to warm up 1 kilogram of water per 1 degree celsius.

Therefore, food with a lot of energy (fatty foods) contains more potential energy than food with less (green beans).

And now the unpleasant truth that many people do not want hear:

With conscious weight loss you need to consume less than you burn, and when gaining weight, vice versa.

This is not an opinion. This is a scientific fact.

Although this is not news. After a century of metabolic research and observations, there was no more room for objections.

It is the energy balance that determines the set or decrease weight, and not from the choice of food or nutrition on a schedule.

Therefore, energy is energy, and even if you eat too much healthy food, you will still gain weight.

When the goal is to lose only fat, but not muscle, you you need to consider more than just “income and expense.”

Calorie intake and consumption

When it comes to improving body quality, everything has value.

When you want to build muscle and lose fat (or minimize fat), your choice of products matters.

Not specific products per se, but how they break down into the body.

Many people have a goal – to burn fat, not muscle or build muscle and lose fat.

In such cases, some types of products are much more important. others.

For example, one gram of protein contains about the same amount of calories how much one gram of carbohydrate (~ 4), but much more important for muscle building and fat loss.

A macronutrient is any of the nutritional components of a diet, which are required in relatively large quantities: protein, carbohydrates, fats and minerals such as calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium and phosphorus.

(Most people think of “macronutrients” as protein, carbohydrates and fat, but technically they include macrominerals).

When it comes to diet and nutrition planning, the macronutrients that you pay most attention to are protein, carbohydrate and fat.

Let’s go over each of them.

Most Important Macronutrient: Protein

The calories you get from protein are in many ways much more important for your body composition than those that you get from carbohydrates and fat.

There are several reasons for this:

• A high protein diet is best for muscle building.
• Protein helps maintain muscle deficiency.
• A high-protein diet is best for fat loss, including abdominal.
• Protein is very full, which helps you better stick to your diet.

A high protein diet is even more important for people who exercise regularly because their body needs more to recovery.

Carbohydrates are your friends, not enemies

If you do not know whom to believe in the days of these “carbohydrate wars, “I understand.

But it all boils down to the fact that:

Many “experts” say that a low-fat diet carbohydrates – the only reliable way to become thin and muscular … And people like me say the opposite: a diet with a higher carbohydrate content is probably best suited to your needs.

Here is my position:

If you are healthy and physically active, and especially if you regularly do strength training, you will seek much more with enough carbohydrates.

This tip applies to both muscle building and fat loss. A high carbohydrate diet offers many benefits in every case.

Fats play a very important role in any diet.

Not so long ago, a diet without a fat component was undeniable weight loss champion.

“Eat fat and get fat” – this is an ordinary mantra.

Black and white thinking easily copes with everything, but not promotes logical decision making.

And especially when it comes to diet.

You see, there’s no “one true diet” that is best Suitable for everyone under any circumstances.

There are undeniable foundations, such as energy balance, to be respected and flexible guidelines exist principles that can be shaped according to personal needs. And dietary fat intake is one of these malleable factors.

You see, it cannot be denied that fats play a vital role. in the body.

They are used in maintenance processes. cell activity, hormone production, sensitivity to insulin, etc.

This is why medical institutes recommend that fat in adult nutrition accounted for 20-35% of total calorie intake.

However, these percentages were calculated for the average person with a sedentary lifestyle, who often eats a lot less than someone who regularly trains (and especially if this person has a lot of muscles).

For example, an average man weighing 86 kg s a normal amount of muscle mass would burn about 2000 calories in a day.

Based on this, research says he will need between 45 up to 80 grams of fat per day.

I also weighed 86 kg … but I also have much more muscle than an ordinary person, and I train about 6 hours a week.

Thus, my body burns about 3000 calories per day, and if I blindly apply the results of the study, then mine recommended fat intake will increase to 65-115 grams per day.

But does my body really need much more fat just because I’m muscular and burn a lot of energy when regular workouts?

Not.

Based on studies, if fat is between 20 and 35% from your main metabolic rate (about 0.3 grams per 0.5 kg of mass), then you will be fine.

How to determine the right amount of calories

Now that you understand the basics of good nutrition (energy balance and the breakdown of macronutrients), let’s let’s talk about how to determine how many calories you need to eat in day.

Well, it revolves around how much energy you burn every day, what is called your “total daily consumption energy “or” OERE “.

Your OERE consists of your basic metabolic rate (BOOM) plus additional energy burned through physical activity and the food you eat.

Let’s look at each of these points separately.

1. Your basal metabolic rate is the amount energy that your body burns at rest.

This is the minimum amount of energy to stay alive.

2. When you move, the body burns energy (regardless from duration).
3. Energy is burned during consumption and digestion. food.

This is called the thermal effect of food or TBP.

Studies show that TBP accounts for about 10% of the total daily energy costs, and the amount varies in depending on the composition of macronutrients.

So … when you summarize the energy that your body burns, to stay alive (BOOM), and the energy burned through physical activity, digestion and absorption of food … you Come to your OERE.

And if that sounds complicated, don’t worry.

Metabolic researchers have already done all the hard work for us.

The first step in calculating your OERE is calculating your BOOM.

There are several equations for this, but I recommend the option Ketch McArdell, which is as follows:

(Where LBM is muscle mass in kg)

Now, here are the standard factors of Ketch Mac Ardell’s formula:

1.2 = sedentary (little or no physical activity)

1.375 = light activity (light exercise / sport from 1 to 3 days a week)

1.55 = moderate activity (moderate physical activity / sports 3 – 5 days a week)

1.725 = very active (hard training / sport 6 to 7 days a week)

1.9 = extra active (very severe physical exercise / sport 6 to 7 days a week and physical Job)

However, you need to know about activity multipliers:

They probably overestimate the actual amount the energy you burn.

I have no research to directly prove it statement, but I worked with thousands of people and constantly discovered that it is so. It is also well known to experienced bodybuilders.

Simply put, if you use the above factors, you, probably put yourself in too little calorie deficiency when drying (resulting in low fat loss) and too much excess with muscle building (as a result, gain more fat).

And this means that, in general, they decrease over time. returns from your efforts.

That’s why I recommend you use smaller multipliers. activity when calculating your OERE.

Here is how I do it:

1.1 = sedentary (little or no physical activity)

1.2 = light activity (light exercise / sport 1 to 3 days a week)

1.35 = moderate activity (moderate physical activity / sports 3 to 5 days a week)

1.45 = very active (hard workouts / sports from 6 to 7 days a week)

1.6 to 1.8 = extremely active (very severe physical exercises / sports 6-7 days a week and physical work)

These factors should give you a more accurate starting point, and this is what is built into the calculator.

How many calories do you need to consume per day to lose weight?

Finally, we have come to the most probable reason why you read this article:

You want to know how much you should eat to lose weight.

Now you already know that you need to burn more energy than consume.

But how big should the deficit be?

Different people will respond differently.

Some fitness people advocate “slow” approach when you use a moderate calorie deficit (5 to 10%, usually) to reduce body fat in for several months.

The reasons for this approach are preventing muscle loss, the ability to eat more food and not do so much exercise, but I do not recommend it for most.

In fact, I think most people should do the opposite:

They should be “aggressive” in losing fat and doing everything possible to lose it as quickly as possible (but without muscle sacrifice).

Aggressive fat loss usually comes down to three things:

1. Be “aggressive” (but not recklessly) with deficit.
2. Be “aggressive” with your workouts.
3. Use nutritional supplements for fat loss, which really work.

“Aggressive” (but not mindless) calorie deficit

If you eat too little, you will inevitably lose muscle and will feel bad.

With a calorie deficit, everything is the same as with protein. He is for athletes will be much different from the deficit for the average full person.

In a study conducted by scientists, sprinters with low fat (10% or less).

Researchers divided them into two dietary groups: deficiency in 300 kcal (about 12%) and a deficit of 750 kcal (about 25%).

Both groups ate a high-protein diet.

And the results?

After 4 weeks, athletes using a deficit of 300, lost very little fat and muscle, while the group, using a deficit of 750, lost an average of about 2 kilograms fat and very little muscle.

Combined with a high protein diet and a reasonable schedule workout calorie deficit of 20 to 25% allows you to quickly lose weight without any negative side effects.

Aggressive training

Unfortunately, the bulk of the recommendations on the Internet to reduce weight will make you lose muscle and stay the same the amount of fat that will make your body even less attractive.

What I’m talking about:

• Do an excessive amount of cardio.
• If you are doing strength training, then be sure to small weights, but lots of repetitions.
• Perform long (about 2 hours) workouts.
• Exercise 6-7 days a week at maximum intensity everyday.

What do you get when you combine all this with a very low-calorie diets and dietary restrictions?

Everything will be very sad.

1. You will get tired.
2. You will be hungry.
3. You will not have the desire to train.
4. You will have an acute craving for carbohydrates.

Instead of this:

Do strength training several times and no more than 1-2 hours HIIT cardio workouts every week.

Weight Loss Supplements That Work

Fat burners are one of the most controversial foods. in the market, and for good reason:

Most (but not all) are worthless, and some are even dangerous.

You see, when it comes to pills and powders that help lose weight, I have good and bad news for you.

Let’s start with the bad:

No amount of diet pills or powders by themselves yourself will not make you slim.

Believe me.

There are no safe, natural “fat burning” substances powerful enough that they themselves lead to significant weight loss.

Now the good news:

If you know how to lose weight with proper nutrition and physical exercises, then some supplements can speed up the process (approximately 30-50%).

That is, if you can lose 0.5 kg of fat per week with proper nutrition and exercise, you can lose from 0.6 to 0.8 kg of fat per week by adding the right supplements.

Fat burning supplements will also help fight stubborn areas. body fat: stomach – for guys; hips – for girls.

Selection of macronutrients for fat burning

If your goal is quick fat loss, I have several tips for you:

• Protein intake – 2-2.3 g per kilogram of mass body.

If you have a very large weight (a man with 25% + fat or a woman with 30% +), I recommend that you set your protein intake to 40% of total calories.

• If you exercise regularly and don’t have any medical contraindications, set your fat intake to 0.4-0.5 g per kilogram of body weight.

It gives your body what it needs for basic purposes. physiology, and leaves a lot for carbohydrates.

• Distribute the remaining calories to carbohydrates.

Trust me.

Eating plenty of carbohydrates won’t make fat, and will not prevent fat loss.

Keeping plenty of carbohydrates will help you in many ways: improve your workout, improve your nutrition plan, improve your mood and energy level and much more.

• If you are a sedentary person or you have a disease, such as diabetes, then you are probably better off reducing carbohydrates.

How many calories do you need to gain mass?

When you want to lose weight, you eat less than you burn.

And when you want to gain weight, you eat more.

Calorie balance is crucial to maximize muscle gain but a big excess is counterproductive because it leads to too much increase fat.

Therefore, I recommend a “mild” excess of calories – about 10%.

Eat about 110% of your EPE every day and you will give to your body everything you need to build muscle without gaining fat.

Calculation of macronutrients for muscle building

I recommend that you configure your diet as follows:

• Protein – 2 g per kilogram of body weight.

You do not need more.

• Fat – 0.6-0.8 g per kilogram of body weight.

This leaves a large amount for your carbohydrates.

• Get the rest of your calories from carbohydrates.

This high-carb approach will help you faster build muscle in several ways.

Together

• The most important aspect of the diet is energy. (energy balance).

A deficiency of energy leads to weight loss, and a surplus to excess.

• The breakdown of calories into proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
• Quality products providing energy and macrocells.

The reason for eating the right foods is not helping weight loss, but to provide the body with vital trace elements.

It supports and maintains health.

Thus, a general strategy appears:

Calculate your calorie intake, “divide” it by macronutrients and make a nutrition plan.

This is the essence of a flexible diet. With this approach, losing impossible.

Conclusion: how many calories a person needs per day

Many people find that counting and tracking is enough burdensome.

The idea of ​​controlling quantity at the same time proteins, fats and carbohydrates seem unbearable.

But this is really not the case. It only costs a little practice and it will become your “second nature”.

And, more importantly, the benefits are huge:

• You can eat foods that you like.
• You improve body composition.
• You do not need to fight overwhelming hunger or craving for favorite foods.
• You do not need to hope for luck. It will work for sure

Therefore, even if you are still skeptical, discard this. Follow the tips in this article and in a couple of weeks you will see real results in the mirror.

Source: https: //legionathletics.com/how-many-calories-should-i-eat/