Day 7: Calories

How were your calories yesterday? They should be no lower than 1200, the human body needs 1200 calories minimum for your body to perform all its necessary functions.  With that being said you may need more calories than that for weight loss depending on gender, muscle mass, and activity level.

For example when I first started my healthy, active lifestyle journey I was set at 1200 calories a day. About a year later, after I had dropped 40 pounds, I began exersising five times a week. Suddenly the weight stopped coming off and started going on! My coach told me to up my calories to 1500-1800 a day and suddenly the weight started coming off again.
 

Women need about 12 calories per pound of body weight

• For example: I weigh 143 lbs so I need about 1716 calories to maintain my weight

Men need about 14 calories for every pound of body weight

• For example: My boyfriend weights 190 lbs so he needs about 2660 calories to maintain his weight

Once you have your calorie needs subtract 500 for weight loss, but do not go below 1200. If subtracting puts you below 1200 aim for 1200 calories and some exercise. 

Once you cut your calories pay attention to how full you feel through out the day and if you are losing or not. Losing weight is a science that you have to tweak until you get it right. Add calories back on until you start to lose again.

I know its a hard concept to grasp because people don't understand that to lose weight you have to eat enough. If you consume less calories than your body needs it goes into starvation mode and hangs on to everything you eat, storing it as fat. The key is to eat enough that your body gets enough fuel so it doesn't need to store back up fuel.

You can do this!