The first step in determining how many calories you need to consume each day isn’t just how many minutes you spent on the stairclimber at the gym (though that does come into play), but rather what your metabolism is.
First of all, that word “metabolism” gets thrown around a lot, and many folks don’t really know what it means or how to understand it as it relates to their lives. What is metabolism exactly?
Well, the scientific explanation goes something like this: Metabolism is a set of chemical reactions that take place in living things to maintain life. It consists of catabolism (the breaking down of matter to create energy), and anabolism (using energy to build or construct the components of cells). Blah, blah, blah ... make sense?
Simply put though, metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories.
Your BMR (basal metabolic rate) is the number of calories you need to fuel your body’s basic energy needs at rest. Depending on how active you are you will need 20-90% more calories than your calculated BMR. Here’s how to calculate your energy needs:
When losing weight, it’s important to lose more fat than muscle. To lose fat but retain muscle, you should take in more calories each day than your BMR – Basal Metabolic Rate: the amount of calories your body burns when at rest.
This may seem counter-intuitive but if you follow a diet with a lower caloric intake than your BMR, you will not only lose fat but also a higher percentage of muscle. This is why it is vital to regularly engage in some form of resistance training! It’s really important to keep or even increase our muscle mass.
As we all know, muscle burns more calories than fat, thus raising our BMR, or metabolism. (To calculate your BMR and calorie needs, I’ve included the formula at the end of this blog. There are also several free online calculators that are user friendly.)
Maintaining muscle mass while losing fat is an important factor in reaching both your ideal weight and ideal body composition. To achieve this goal, it’s important NOT to reduce your carbohydrate intake too aggressively. Our bodies need carbohydrates to function properly and to replace glycogen in our muscles. (Glycogen is the main fuel source for muscles). If you’ve ever tried a very low carb diet, your initial weight drop is actually from glycogen and water loss. Glycogen is a mix of glucose and water that’s stored in your muscles. For each gram of carbohydrate (glycogen) the cells in your body store, they store four grams of water.
