How many calories does your Body Burn a DAY? (the secret to your fat loss goals)

I wrote on this subject a little over a year ago now,  but since Summer will be here before we know it, I feel like we should touch on it again.  After all, most of us want to look our best during this time of year!  Without further ado, lets jump right into it.

For those of you who don’t know…  Losing weight is all about calories in vs. calories out.   Which means,  in order to lose fat, you need to be eating LESS calories in a day than what your body burns in a day. But how do you find out how many calories your body burns day in and day out?  I’m going to give you a simple way of finding a rough estimate.

You see,  I can’t necessarily give you the exact answer.  Everybody is different,  we all live life in our own ways with our own unique activity levels.   Causing each of us to burn a different amount of calories each day. Some of us have very active jobs; we’re on our feet for the majority of the day doing various things causing us to burn more calories than others. While some have a desk job causing us to not burn as many calories due to the fact that we’re just sitting for 6-8 hours each day.   Some of us hit the gym 5-6 times a week, making us burn extra calories than someone who is working out 2-3 times a week.

So first thing’s first,  before we even get into it,  you need to be very honest with yourself:

  1.  Are you someone who is very active?  (Ex:  You work an active job and hit the gym 5-6 times per week)
  2. Are you someone who is moderately active?  (Ex:  You may work a desk job but still workout 5-6 times per week)
  3. Are you some one who is not very active?  (You work a desk job and barely make it to the gym that often)

Whichever way you answered this question with yourself I have a number you need to remember..

Very Active: 16

Moderately Active:  15

Not Very Active:  14

Got your number?? Ok good. Now I’m going to give you one simple step to find a rough estimate of your daily expenditure: take the number you decided on and multiply it by your body weight.

That wasn’t very difficult right?   By no means is that the exact number of calories you are burning each day,  but it’s a starting point for you to get going on.  From there,  the next step is to start tracking.  For roughly 7-10 days eat that amount of calories every single day.  If your weight stays with in one pound of the day you started tracking you have found your maintenance level of calories.  If you gained two-three pounds your maintenance levels may be a little lower than what you calculated.  If you lost two-three pounds your maintenance level is a little higher than what was calculated.

At the end of this week I will be writing another piece after you have found your daily calorie expenditure for where to go from here in order to lose weight.  We’ll touch on how many calories you should be eating underneath your maintenance level to consistently keep losing fat and where your macro levels should be to help with the process.

Have questions?  Send us an email to [email protected] and we’d be happy to answer them for you!

Happy Tracking!

 

 

 

 

 

Leave a comment

About chaz

Chaz is the co-founder/owner and head coach at Lost & Lifting. He also owns his own gym – Fit Factory, located in Preston, Idaho (his hometown). Chaz works with clients all over the country to take control of their body composition through evidence based and sustainable strategies. His passion has turned from building his own body to educating and helping others do the same through his online coaching platform.

Listen to L&L Talk

L&L Talk (hosted by Chaz), is the Lost & Lifting podcast where we dive deep into nutriton, training, and lifestyle to help you become more educated inside your journey to produce the result you want faster, and in a more sustainable manner