flutrbug

I am currently finishing my Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN) and we had to take a Nurtirition course and in order to lose 1 pound of fat you have to either cut out (calorie reduction) or increase activity level (which burns more calories) so that your total calorie deficit has to be: 3,500 calories!

So in summary: 1 pound of fat = 3,500 calories!

That is why weight loss is slow moving and in order to lose weight in a healthy manner that will stay off, they say you should only lose an average of 2 pounds a week. (Which is a deficit of 7,000 calories a week).

But as the orginal poster stated you do burn calories just by being alive/awake and breathing (called your Basal Metabolic Rate) and its based on your weight/activity level.

Here is a step-by-step of the calculations: 163 x 10 = 1630 Activity level: 163 x 5 = 815. 1630 + 815 = 2445. Total: 2445 calories to maintain current weight. So if I decrease my daliy caloric intake to 1500 calories that is a difference of 945 calories
(2445 - 1500 = 945). And if I manage to maintain the 1500 calories everyday that is 945 x 7 = 6615.... Which equals almost 2 pounds of weight loss!

I hope this helps you understand the weight loss process!

Lizzycritter

It does change your calorie requirements, as long as you keep up the weight entry. Also I've found FitDay's calories are too high unless I add sleep to the activity log. When I log sleep, it's fairly accurate.

samantha761

I recently heard to multiply your goal weight by ten to find a basic calorie goal for weight loss. If you exercise, divide the number of calories burned by two and add that number to your calorie intake. For example, I'l like to weigh 120, so that would be 1200 calories, then say I burn 600, I add 300 and come up with 1500 calories for that day. Just something I picked up, I don't know how valid it is.