If you’re looking to lose weight, the huge number of diet plans and nutritional guidance available can seem overwhelming, with many competing ideas and eating styles on offer. However, a good starting point for any weight control plan is to gain an understanding of calories, and what they mean for your body.
In this guide, we explain what calories are and how many you should be eating if your goal is to lose weight. Read on for more
we’re keen to support you in your health and fitness journey. If your goal is working towards losing weight, we believe it’s best to approach this a gradual and sustainable way, combining healthy diet changes and exercise to keep your body in tip top shape. While very low calorie ‘crash’ diets may seem appealing if you’re hoping to achieve your goal quickly, it’s almost always more effective in the long term to work on healthy lifestyle changes that will have positive, sustainable benefits to your physical and mental wellbeing. This means gradual changes to your calorie consumption and making healthy, micronutrient-rich food choices rather than extreme changes that could have a negative impact on your health.
While a calorie-tracking approach to nutrition can help build an understanding of which types of food may be best for achieving healthy weight loss goals, it may not suit everyone. If you’re overly concerned about your weight, speak to your doctor, a dietician or a nutritionist who may be able to work up a meal plan that suits your body type.
Calories are a measure of the energy that food and drink provide to our bodies, and are vital fuel that we need to function, from our brain to our biceps. Food is made up of macronutrients known as protein, carbohydrates and fats - which all play a different role within your body. They all have different energy values which influence how many calories of energy we get when we consume them.
If we regularly consume more calories than we burn, our body will store those additional calories as fat. A repeated excess of around 500+ calories over your daily burn number is likely to lead to gradual weight gain. Likewise, cutting your calories to around 500 calories below your daily burn amount is likely to lead to a healthy and steady amount of weight loss. However do bear in mind, these numbers are a guideline figure only and will differ depending on your current build, health and genetic make up.
General recommendations for weight loss is to aim for a calorie deficit of around 500 - 1,000 below your TDEE, depending on how high your daily calorie burn is. This will ensure that you’re consuming less calories than you use and your body will ideally start to burn your existing fat reserves to fill the energy gap. Don’t be tempted to drop your calories too low - it’s widely recommended that most people consume a minimum of 1,200 calories a day to ensure the body has all the nutrients and energy it needs to thrive and function.
It’s important to remember that less isn’t always better, and that definitely applies when thinking about how many calories your body needs. Calories are fuel for your workouts and help your body to stay strong, recover well and function properly. If your calories are too low you may find you can’t put as much effort into your workouts, which plays a huge role in losing weight and getting fitter.
There are a variety of apps and websites that will be able to provide specific calorie recommendations for your activity level, body shape and goals. As a very loose guideline, the general recommended daily calorie intake for men is 2,500 and for women is 2,000. If you’re fairly inactive, a healthy target for weight loss would be around 1,300 - 1,500 for women and 1,800 - 2,000 calories for men. If your activity levels are higher, you may want to be raising this figure to account for around half the calories you’re burning through exercise.
Any packaged goods you pick up from the supermarket will have their calorie counts marked on the wrapper or container. By keeping track of these, you can gain an understanding of how many calories you’re consuming on a day-to-day basis. For items like a pre-packaged lunchtime sandwich, drink or salad bowl, these will usually show the full calorie count in a table on the front or back. If, however, you’re making your own meal using multiple ingredients, you’d need to tally up the calories for each item (e.g. each slice of bread plus each item of filling and garnish).
For non-packaged items, you can usually find calorie checkers online (such as this one from the NHS), or use specific meal tracking apps such as MyFitnessPal. If you’re dining out, many chain restaurants list their nutritional information on their website, or you can often work out an estimated calorie count based on the ingredients used in the meal.
