How Many Calories To Eat?

This is a great tool for anyone who is starting a weight loss plan if they don't have something like the FitBit to do it automatically for you. For our frugal friends this little calculator tells you your most basic caloric intake needs and then offers scenarios on how active you are. Click HERE to go to Running World's Basal Metabolic Rate Calculator.

This calculator provides the number of calories you need to MAINTAIN your current weight. After calculating your BMR decide how quickly you want to lose weight by determining a calorie deficit. The simplest diet usually says a 300 calorie deficit which is easy to maintain by cutting back on 1 snack and jog/walking a half hour.

If you're impatient like me you may be tempted to try losing weight very fast with a 1000 calorie deficit - this is very rigorous and hard to do and certainly won't be recommended by a healthcare professional. If you want to lose quickly set the limit to a 500 calorie deficit and be sure to tone up at the same time to avoid excess skin!

According to my results below since I am moderately active to maintain the weight of 133.2 pounds I would need to eat 2189 calories per day, however since I am trying to lose weight I would subtract 500 from that number and that is my new caloric intake budget. See? Easy as pie.

My results are below:

Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is 1412 calories per day. That's the number of calories you would burn if you were completely inactive.

But, since you aren't completely inactive (even using this tool takes some energy), you'll need to consider how active you are when determining your total daily calorie needs. Based on the data you entered, here are your calorie needs for the following activity levels:

1694 Calories · Sedentary · You do little or no exercise.

1942 Calories · Lightly Active · You participate in sports or light exercise 1-3 days per week.

2189 Calories · Moderately Active · You do moderate exercise or play sports 3-5 days per week.

2436 Calories · Very Active · You exercise hard or play sports 6-7 days per week.

2683 Calories · Overly Active · You exercise very hard daily and have a physical job, or do two workouts per day.