Your Recommended Daily Calorie Intake for Weight Loss

How many calories needed to lose weight?

The recommended daily calorie intake for weight loss varies depending on the age, sex, activity level, and size of your body. Follow the steps below to calculate your calorie intake to lose weight:

Step 1: How many calories a day you need to maintain your current weight and your current BMI.
Step 2: How many calories per day you will need when you reach your target weight and your target BMI.
Step 3: What is your recommended daily calorie intake to lose weight.
Step 4: How to count calories and how many calories burned off.

Step 1: How many calories a day you need to maintain your current weight and your current BMI.

Use the daily calorie calculator to check “Your Average Daily Calorie Need is” - This is the amount of calories you need every day for your activity level to maintain your current weight.

For example: Emily is a 36 year old female with little or no exercise activity level, 5 feet 5 inches (or 164 cm), weight 160 pounds or 72.73 kg and she aims to lose some weight.

Emily’s Average Daily Calorie Need is: 1695 calories or kcal – the number of calories she needs each day to maintain her current weight of 160 pounds.
Her current BMI – (Body Mass Index – which measures your body fat based on height and weight) is 26.6 which falls in between 25-29.9 –which is “Overweight”.

Use the BMI calculator to find out your BM.

Calculate Recommended Daily Calorie Intake for Weight Loss

Step 2: How many calories per day you will need when you reach your target weight and your target BMI.

Your target weight should fall within the Body Mass Index (BMI) normal range of 18.5 to 24.9. This is how to calculate the weight, for the body you would like to have, using the BMI calculator: In the BMI calculator, enter your height and your target BMI number and click on “Weigh in pound” box – You will receive the weight for your target BMI.

In our example: Let’s say Emily’s target BMI is 23. We entered height - 5’5” and 23 in the BMI box and received her target weight of 138.2 pounds.

Find out your average daily calorie needs for your target weight using calorie needs calculator.

In our example: We entered 138.2 pounds in the “Weight” box, “Age” – 36, “Gender”- female, “Height” - 64.566 inches. The Average Daily Calorie Needs for Emily’s target weight of 138.2 pounds is 1576 kcal - Her recommended daily calorie intake to maintain a weight of 138.2 pounds is 1576 kcal per day.

The difference between her current calorie intake and the calorie intake for her target weight is: 1695 - 1576 = 119 kcal a day, which is equivalent of 1.2 tbsp of butter, slice of toast with jam or 1 biscuit.

There are 3,500 calories in one pound of fat, a reduction in 119 kcal a day will cause loss of 1 pound in weight in 29 days:
3,500/199 = 29 days;

or Emily can lose 21.8 pounds (160 – 138.2 = 21.8 pounds) in 1year and 7 months just by cutting out the junk food with calorie equivalent of 119 kcal:
(21.8 x 29) / 365 days in a year = 1year 7 month;

or if she is over eating 119 calories a day she will gain 21.8 pounds in 1 year and 7 month accordingly.

Step 3: The Recommended Daily Calorie Intake to Lose Weight

In order to lose weight faster you can reduce your calories further but you should never go below 1200 kcal for women and the 1500 calories diet plan for men. The USDA suggests “a reasonable rate of weight loss is 1 to 2 pounds per week”. A reduction of 500 calories per day will provide a weight loss of 1 pound in 7 days and 1000 calories per day – 2 pounds per week accordingly. If you are diabetic, new to exercise, or have any medical condition you should always discuss with your doctor first before starting any diet or exercise plan.

In our example: The recommended daily calorie intake to maintain the weight of 160 pounds is 1695 kcal. Emily can lose 1 pound of weight per week by reducing her calorie intake by 500 kcal.

Bear in mind, her recommended daily calorie intake should not go below 1200 kcal per day, so she can only reduce her calorie intake by 495 kcal: (1695 – 1200 = 495 kcal) and the rest - 5 calories should be burned off through increasing her daily activity. With this rate she will lose 21.8 pounds and achieve her target weight of 138.2 pounds in 22 weeks: 21.8/1 = 21.8 ~ 22 weeks.

If she introduces some exercises to her 1200 calorie diet plan she will be able to lose some more weight. Vigorous exercise for 30 min will burn off 200 kcal, moderate walking for 30 min will burn off 163 kcal. To see other activities and how to burn calories click here. Burning an additional 250 kcal per day will increase her weight loss to 1.5 pounds per week and she can get to her target weight in 15 weeks: 21.8/1.5 = 14.5 ~ 15 weeks.

As her weight decreases, her weight loss will slow down too until she reaches her ideal weight. As Emily is now doing more exercise, she then needs to adjust her recommended daily calorie intake such that she can then maintain her ideal weight using the calculators discussed above.

Bear in mind that you should check the calculators regularly, especially if your exercise levels fluctuate and as you get older, your metabolism slows.