Simple, it is a basic equation that uses calories, BMR, and exercise. For thesimplest formula:Your daily caloric intake – your BMR (the amount of calories your body needs tokeep itself going; breathing, heart beating, muscles working, etc) = your netcalorie intake(For more information about BMR, click here, or for your own specific BMR number,use the calculator on the homepage.)1500 – 1500 = 0In this case, you wouldn’t be gaining or losing weight. Your daily caloric intakeis equal to your BMR.Using your net calorie intake and then adding exercise to determine your caloricloss, determines how you can “really” lose weight.Your net calorie intake – your exercise (measured in calories) = how many caloriesyou lost for any particular day.1500-1500 = 0 – 500 = -500 calories or 500 calories lost for that day.In order to lose weight, you need to have a negative calorie balance.As an example, if your diet consists of a well balanced breakfast, healthy lunch,small snack, a light dinner, and a small piece of fruit for the entire day thatequals 1500 calories; and at the same time if your BMR is also 1500, then you’vebalanced your caloric intake with your BMR.Therefore, by this example, you would have essentially gained or lost no weight.Taking this scenario further, if you also jogged that day, using 500 calories, thenet caloric intake would have been in the negatives.When you exercise, you burn calories. Whenever you reach a 0 balance in yourcalories, your exercise will use your body fat for its energy.This is how you lose 1 pound.A pound equals 3500 calories. So to lose a pound a week, you have to have anegative calorie balance of 500 calories per day.To lose 2 pounds per week, you need to have a negative calorie balance of 1000calories per day. Anything more than that, is not recommended—but before youundertake any type of exercise or weight-management routine, check with yourphysician.These formulas are the basis of weight loss and why eating less and exercisingmore is the key.But, don't worry too much about the math; that's why we have calculators.Of course, you can eat less than 1500 calories per day, but it isn’t recommendedto eat less than 1200 calories per day.Practically speaking, every adult body requires at least 1200 calories to keepyour body functioning.
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