HEALTHY BODY

Counting Calories HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT By Winnie Gross

Weight loss can be confusing to learn about since there are so many methods that have been popularized by influencers and media. Some of these methods include special diets, fasting, and exercise plans, and while these may work, most people don’t truly understand how these methods help achieve weight loss.

To explain how weight loss works, calories need to be understood. To put it simply, a calorie is a unit of energy that can be used to measure energy expenditure and intake. It is important to note that a person is always burning calories since the body needs energy to function. The number of calories required to maintain basic bodily functions is known as the basal metabolic rate (BMR). However, for weight loss purposes, the BMR is simply the minimum amount of calories a person burns in a day, and this differs among individuals. The BMR can be calculated using online calculators such as this online calculator (calculator.net/ bmr-calculator.html).

So how can this newfound understanding of calories be used to better understand weight loss? If a person expends more calories than they intake for a day, they have a caloric deficit. Their body will then consume calories already stored in the body to supplement the deficit, which induces weight loss. On the other hand, if a person consumes more calories than they expend for a day, they have a caloric surplus which will force the body to store the extra energy in the body, causing weight gain.

Going back to the BMR, a person’s BMR is the number by which they should base their caloric intake and expenditure. When the goal is to lose weight, a caloric deficit must be maintained. Meanwhile, if the goal is to gain weight, the goal should be maintaining a caloric surplus that should also take into account other calorie-burning activities done throughout the day. A good rule of thumb for a caloric surplus or deficit is to stay within 500 calories of one’s caloric expenditure since extreme weight gain or loss is dangerous.

For example, if a person whose BMR is 2,000 calories a day wants to lose weight, they could achieve this by simply eating fewer than 2,000 calories. They could also continue to eat 2,000 calories a day but supplement their BMR by burning an extra 200 calories through exercise. Both of the aforementioned methods would induce a caloric deficit that would then cause weight loss.

Counting calories is an easy way to quantify how daily activities such as eating and exercising can affect a person’s weight. Being able to better visualize weight fluctuations and what causes them greatly helps in controlling those fluctuations. To make calorie counting more convenient, there are many applications that can be downloaded onto a phone. Healthline has compiled a list of applications that can be used for calorie counting which can be accessed on their website (healthline.com/nutrition/5-best-calorie-counters).