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Losing weight is a common goal for many people, but it is important to do it in a healthy and balanced way. One of the first steps to lose weight is to understand how many calories your body needs in order to maintain your current weight, and how many it needs to lose weight.
Use the calculator below to determine your daily calorie intake and find out what is the right number of calories you need to cut off to achieve a healthy and long-lasting weight loss.
Don’t forget that getting back into shape is not just a question of what you eat (calorie intake), but also of your daily physical activity (energy expenditure). Regular activity increases your Basal Metabolic Rate (metabolic expenditure while at rest) and helps you achieve long-term weight loss maintenance.
Other REGIVIA calculation tools:
- Ideal Body Weight Calculator
- Body Mass Index (BMI) Calculator
- Body Fat Percentage (BFP) Calculator
- Calories Per Meal Calculator
- Daily Calorie Intake to Lose Weight Calculator
- How to Lose Weight?
How many calories do you need a day to lose weight?
To lose weight, it’s easy to say that all you need to do is reduce your calorie intake to create a deficit, so you can lose weight with peace of mind. That’s not wrong, but it’s a simplistic view of the problem. To lose weight sustainably, it is generally recommended to reduce your calorie intake by 500 to 1000 calories a day, but this varies from one individual to another.
Don’t hesitate to consult a health professional who will be able to monitor and support you. However, it is important not to go below 1200 calories a day to avoid nutrient deficiencies and negative health effects. It’s also important to maintain a balanced diet and consume sufficient protein, healthy fats and fiber to help achieve satiety and maintain muscle mass.
How to reduce your daily calorie intake
When you want to lose weight, reducing your daily calorie intake means rebalancing your diet with a balanced diet. We’ll also see below that increasing expenditure can be an interesting factor for those who want to lose weight over the long term. Increasing expenditure does not necessarily mean becoming a great athlete, but rather being sufficiently active in our daily lives. Remember that a sedentary lifestyle is still the main cause of obesity!
To find out how many calories we need to lose weight, we also need to know our Basal Metabolic Rate (the basic caloric requirement for vital functions only) and our actual requirement (the requirement for our daily activities). This need varies from one individual to another. It is influenced by our age, height, weight and level of activity, and is not identical for men and women.
Let’s take an example:
Let’s take the example of Mrs. Durand, a 30-year-old woman, 1.70 m tall, weighing 75 kilos, with a sedentary lifestyle. Her caloric needs are 2097 kcal per day. She absolutely wants to lose 5 kilos!
Knowing that 1 kilo of fat is equivalent to approximately 7700 kcal, she will need to reduce her daily intake by 256 kcal to lose 1 kg per month, i.e. 5 months to achieve her goal. Alternatively, she could reduce her daily intake by twice that amount, i.e. 512 kcal per day, from 2097 kcal to 1585 kcal per day, in order to lose 2 kg per month and achieve her goal of 5 kg in 2.5 months.
Increase your activity levels to lose weight faster
We have seen in the example above that a reasonable reduction in food intake can help you lose weight. But to achieve her goal more quickly, Mrs Durand, who has a very sedentary lifestyle, would do well to focus on her level of physical activity. And this is essential both for her weight loss and for her general health. It’s also worth remembering that sport is an excellent mood enhancer, so Mrs. Durand will undoubtedly benefit her morale. Better morale also means less compulsive eating.
How to increase your activity levels
To increase her level of physical activity, Mrs. Durand can start by making good resolutions on a daily basis.
Leaving her car in the garage and knowing that her journey to and from work is a (15-minute) walk, she will spend the metabolic equivalent of 118 kcal/day on this (30-minute) round trip.
More energetic, Madame Durand soon decides to take up swimming again (2 h per week), at a moderate pace, for a new caloric expenditure of 945 kcal/week. She will go for a few walks at the weekend (2 h), i.e. 473 kcal/week, and go for a 20-minute walk in town during her lunch break, i.e. 79 kcal/day.
Let’s sum up the positive effects of physical activity on Mrs Durand:
- Commuting to work: 118 kcal/day = 2360 kcal/month
- Swimming: 945 kcal/week = 3780 kcal/month
- City walk: 79 kcal/day = 1580 kcal/month (see How many steps a day to lose weight?)
- Weekend walk: 473kcal/week = 1892 kcal/month
Mrs Durand’s new expenditure is 9612 kcal, i.e. a monthly loss of 1.25 kg.
To calculate your energy expenditure by sport, go to: Calculating energy expenditure in calories by sport and activity.
Remember that physical activity is also a key factor in losing weight and keeping it off over the long term. Exercise helps burn extra calories, build muscle mass and improve overall health. It is recommended that you do at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week. To find out more, take a look at our file on the benefits of walking.
3 Different ways to lose weight and reduce your calorie intake
Which method should you choose?
Approach 1: Reducing calorie intake from your diet
Reducing your calorie intake is a very good thing, because by rebalancing your diet, you’ll see results over the long term.
However, without calorie expenditure and if your diet is too restrictive, you run the risk of depriving yourself and thus putting your body into survival mode. It will remind you of this at the slightest excess, because you will have accustomed it to coping with scarcity.
Approach 2: Increasing energy expenditure
Your body needs it and you’re doing your health a world of good. Your regular physical activity allows you to work on your breathing and keep your cardiovascular system in tip-top shape.
However, if your diet remains anarchic, and you compensate for your efforts by eating more, your efforts won’t be rewarded and you’ll feel less competitive in your activities.
Approach 3: Balancing intake and expenditure
You rebalance your diet with a tenable, non-excessive program aimed at healthy eating over the medium term, while gradually increasing your calorie expenditure! This is undoubtedly the best method, and it’s the one used by athletes – don’t believe that their athletic bodies are essentially linked to training.
In short, losing weight in a healthy and sustainable way means understanding your daily calorie needs, reducing your calorie intake in a balanced way and combining this with regular physical activity. It’s important to consult a healthcare professional for advice tailored to your individual needs. By following these steps, it is possible to lose weight in a healthy and sustainable way to achieve your long-term health goals.
