Fighting overweight has become the scourge of modern society and is difficult to solve a personal problem for every third inhabitant on planet Earth. Improper nutrition, work in offices, unwillingness to play sports lead to the appearance of excess pounds, which do not bother at first. When the situation is already getting out of control and becoming critical, the person rushes from one diet to another, loses weight, and then abruptly gains weight and the circle closes.
Each dramatic drop in body weight must be followed by an even sharper set, health problems, depression and, as a result, a decrease in the overall quality of life. In fact, for optimal weight loss, you don’t need to apply a lot of effort, prepare individual dishes, limit yourself to certain foods, one of the most optimal nutrition systems is a calorie deficit. Based on it, you can easily get rid of tens of kilograms and not meet them in the future.
Individual weight and height for men and women
Before calculating a calorie deficit for weight loss, you need to decide on the ideal parameters of your body and understand what weight you should strive for.
In nature, there are three types of physique, and representatives of each of them gain and lose weight in different ways:
• Asthenic. Representatives of this type have thin bones, long and slender arms, legs and neck. They are physically active, have an accelerated metabolism, slowly gain weight and are not prone to overweight. With such initial data, you can lose weight in a few months without much difficulty.
• Normostenic. The golden mean, people with such a structure were lucky most, they have an ideally proportional figure, a pretty good metabolism and not much chance to get obesity, even allowing themselves some flaws in their diet.
• Hepersthenic. Representatives of this type have a wide bone and not very high growth, due to which the figure looks stocky and plump. Such people are most prone to be overweight and should carefully monitor their nutrition. For representatives of this type, the process of losing weight is not going fast, but do not give up, a little perseverance and work will bring results.
To understand whether a particular person has an overweight problem, you can use the table of his correspondence to growth. On average, weight should be equal to height minus 110, i.e. for a person who is 170 cm tall, the ideal weight will be 60 kg. This indicator changes with age, and by the age of 50 you need to take away already 100, which means that for the same person with a height of 170 cm, a weight of 70 kg would be suitable. If the deviation from the norm is insignificant, calculating the calorie deficit and observing the nutrition system for a couple of months will help bring the body and state of mind back to normal.
How to Calculate Calorie Deficit for Weight Loss Based on Knowing Your Body Mass Index
When determining the optimal calorie deficit, it is necessary to take into account not only the general averaged tables, but also the individual parameters of the body. One of the best indicators for carrying out calculations and determining the optimal weight is considered to be a body mass index. This indicator is calculated by simply dividing body weight in kilograms by height (in meters) squared. The resulting coefficient should be compared with the norms and determine whether a diet is needed. Calorie deficiency in each case requires a different approach.
BMI indicators and weight management recommendations| Up to 16 | critical underweight, risk of health problems |
| 16-18,5 | underweight |
| 18.5-24.5 | lightweight |
| 30-39.9 | health risk obesity |
| Over 40 | morbid obesity, high health risk |
When you determine the need for weight loss or choosing the right diet to maintain optimal weight, you can calculate an individual calorie deficit. Correct calculation is the key to success in achieving a given goal for an optimal period and without harm to health.
How to calculate your calorie deficit to lose excess and maintain your ideal weight
In order to lose weight and not gain weight in the future, you need to follow a simple rule - the number of calories consumed per day should equal the difference between calories burned and their deficit. It seems not at all complicated and easy to understand. So it is, the Calorie Deficit nutrition system is simple, easy to understand and execute.
Calculation of calories burned during the day
To determine an indicator of a formula, the amount of calories burned per day is first calculated. For this there is a special formula according to Harris - Benedict. It represents the basic metabolic rate multiplied by the activity coefficient.
The calculation of the basal metabolic rate is calculated using the formulas below, where weight, height and age are indicated in kilograms, centimeters and years.
BSM (men) = 66.5 + (13.75 * weight) + (5.003 * height) - (6.755 * age)
BSM (girls) = 655.1 + (9.563 * weight) + (1.850 * height) - (4.676 * age)
Activity coefficient - a constant value and is determined by the table
Activity Calculation Table| Calm lifestyle | 1,2 |
| Light exercise 1-2 times a week | 1,375 |
| The average level of physical activity, sports 5 times a week | 1.55 |
| Extreme workout, daily workouts | 1,725 |
The resulting number will mean the number of calories spent per day, based on it and you need to calculate the calorie deficit for weight loss.
Proper Calculation of Optimal Calorie Deficiency
You can often find advice to consume 500, 700 or 1000 calories less, but this is not a good recommendation. This deficit may not be enough for one person, and he will be disappointed in the method of losing weight without seeing the result. Another will begin to lose weight too abruptly, creating a deficit that is unacceptable for the initial parameters, and will receive not a beautiful figure, but poor health and will leave the cherished desire to lose weight unfulfilled. Calorie deficiency should be calculated as a percentage of the total calories burned per day.
To understand what a calorie deficit for weight loss to take as the norm, you need to decide how intense the desired weight loss will be. Optimally, if a person will dump about 700 grams per week. This will not be a big stress for the body, and it will gladly part with extra pounds without creating additional reserves at the slightest deviations from the diet.
What is the deficit, the choice of the most suitable option
In percentage terms, calorie deficiency is divided into three types:
• Smooth weight loss - from 10 to 15% of calories burned per day. Choosing such a calorie deficit, the menu can be practically unlimited, eliminating excess sugar, fatty meat and high-calorie dairy products. Such a smooth weight loss will not cause stress in the body, it is easy to observe and not break. The only drawback is a slow weight loss, which may not please those who want a quick result. Inexperienced people may have difficulty with a diet violation, because it is “accidental” to eat the extra 200 calories much easier than 600 or 800, which means that you can’t get the result.
• Moderate weight loss - from 15 to 25% of calories burned per day. The faster you want to get rid of extra pounds, the greater the deficit should be. When choosing a moderate option, the weight will be reset faster, but dietary restrictions are much more significant. You will have to completely review your diet, determine which foods on the menu are the most high-calorie, and minimize their consumption. You can allow yourself an extra dose of food by increasing physical activity, this will increase BSM, and hence the allowable number of calories. The advantage of this option is a fairly rapid weight loss and the fact that the allowable rate is more difficult to break. The downside is enhanced self-control and more stringent restrictions.
• Accelerated weight loss - from 25 to 50% of calories burned per day. This option is suitable for people who need to lose weight on medical grounds in a short time. People with great weight will see a pleasant result and will be stimulated to continue successful work on their bodies, but you need to stop in time and switch to a more gentle mode. Determine what the deficit of calories should be in the new weight, and conduct a calculation from it. The advantage of this method is a quick and sharp result, minus the constant feeling of hunger, which cannot become a constant companion of human life.
An important rule, which is recommended to strictly adhere to, figuring out for yourself how to create a calorie deficit for weight loss, suggests that you can not eat a little and exercise a lot. If a decision is made not only to fight excess weight, but also to tighten muscles through active training, then you need to consider the number of calories consumed. They should be enough for intensive power and cardio loads offered by instructors in gyms and aerobics. It turns out that if after a successful start to the diet loads were added, then you need to count the number of calories burned and their deficit, respectively.
Calorie Control Options, Calculations, and Food Diaries
In such a difficult matter as losing weight, self-control is very important, but for a person who allowed himself to gain excess weight, this is not easy. And in life there are many daily worries, among which it is easy to forget how many calories are in which product and how much more can be eaten today. To facilitate the task and maintain self-discipline, it is recommended to keep a food diary.
What it will be, depends on individual wishes, it can be a regular notebook or notepad, where you can write down what you eat per day. Maybe a regular Word document or an Excel spreadsheet on your home or work computer, or maybe a special program on your smartphone.
The first two methods require additional time in the form of calculating calories in each finished dish. That is, during cooking, you must first weigh on the kitchen scale, preferably electronic, the exact weight of all products. Then add up all the indicators of each of them, determine the calorie content of the prepared dish and already from this value the calorie content of its individual portion. This is a rather troublesome and difficult task, and there is a high probability of calculation errors. To simplify the task, you can use the tables.
Specialized programs to facilitate calorie control
The easiest and easiest way to control are special programs - calorie diaries. You can install them on a regular computer, tablet or smartphone. In the first version, they are downloaded through any browser, for mobile devices can be downloaded from PlayMarket (for Android devices) or iTunes (for Apple devices). The meaning of these electronic diaries is that all the information about ready-made dishes is already sewn there, just select the right one, enter its weight - and the calorie content and calculation of the BJU will be automatically added to the calendar. Some of them work only with dishes from their database, but most allow you to compose and save their individual recipes.
Important points and possible problems in losing weight
When a lot of information has been read, it has been found out how to create a calorie deficit, a diary has been set up or a program has been installed, it seems that everything is ready and you can start losing weight. But on the very first day, an inexperienced person faces two categories of problems:
1. Too much was eaten for breakfast and lunch, and in the evening hungry and the whole diet went downhill. The permissible norm is exceeded, followed by disappointment and even greater self-doubt.
2. The second option for more persistent people. It starts with the same high calorie intake for breakfast and lunch and their lack of dinner. This category of people will not exceed the norm, will endure a hungry evening, and at night they will become ill from the symptoms of hypoglycemia. So the hospital is not far.
How to deal with the difficulties in planning a menu for the day
What to do? How to prevent an unpleasant situation fraught with health problems? Pre-planning of the menu for the whole day becomes the defense of future healthy and slender people. If the nervous system allows you to think about food before bedtime and not run to the refrigerator, you can do this in the evening. Decide what dishes will be for all meals and snacks, write them in a diary, leave about 200 free calories for impromptu in the form of fruit, a piece of chocolate or cookies. And the next day, just follow the pre-planned menu and stick to the set weight of the dishes. If in the evening there is no strength, time or desire, you can plan the menu in the morning, before breakfast, so as not to accidentally go over it.
Conclusions and final recommendations for a successful start and quick achievement of the result
In the struggle for the beauty and harmony of the body, many diets were invented, but the calorie deficit is considered the simplest, most affordable and easily executed. Reviews in LiveJournal and on the personal pages of celebrities once again prove the effectiveness and safety of this method. From all the information about this effective method of losing weight, there are several recommendations with which the start will be successful, and the result will be quick and lasting.
1. Calorie counting is not exactly a diet; it is a proper nutrition system. At first, everything seems very complicated, but getting used to a reduced diet, for several weeks a person who has parted with several kilograms no longer understands how he could eat such an amount of food earlier.
2. The system does not prohibit the use of fats, carbohydrates, sweets, fruits or flour. The main thing is the number and not exceeding the permissible calories. Even with the biggest shortage, there is room for a few squares of chocolate for tea.
3. Do not reduce the number of calories very sharply, you need to start smoothly, so as not to provoke the body to accumulate reserves.
4. No need to be upset if in the first few days the weight will go away rapidly, and then everything is slower and slower. At first, water and excessive puffiness leave, the true weight begins to disappear later and little by little.
Observing these simple rules and recommendations, you can part with bored excess weight in just a few months. During the observance of the diet, the rules of proper nutrition are so rooted in the head that compliance with the regime will be a simple task even without the use of diaries and special programs. So, a happy life of a healthy person is waiting ahead without excess weight and associated problems.