The arrival of summer usually puts us on alert about the kilos that we have left over. The so-called ‘bikini operation’ raises concerns, and surely you want to look for the healthiest and most effective way to lose weight. But how should you do it? 
Surely you have heard many times the theory that we must eat fewer calories than we expend in order to lose weight. The problem arises when you start calculating it on paper, right? But don’t worry, because we are going to help you find out how many calories you should consume per day to lose weight.
The calories you should consume
- Before starting to calculate calories, it is important to take into account how much exercise you do and the type of diet you are going to follow, because this has a lot to do with it. You must clarify what you understand by calories, because you have always heard of them, but do you know exactly what we mean when we talk about burning or eating calories?
- Let’s start with the basics. A calorie is a thermal unit used to measure the energy of the food eaten. This energy is what allows us the proper functioning of the body and to be able to carry out daily activities, so it is very necessary to have it.
- However, when we focus on losing weight (always with a head) you should keep in mind that if you eat fewer calories than you expend, you will be using your caloric reserves for it. And this means that it will help you lose weight.
What is the Harris-Benedict method?
The Harris-Benedict method is one of the best known for estimating basal metabolism. To calculate it you will need to know the gender, weight, height and age of the person for whom you want to measure the Basal Metabolism Rate (TBM).
The formulas of the method
- In men we will apply the following formula:
- 66 + (Weight in Kg. x 13.7) + (Height in cm. x 5) – (Age x 6.75)
- In women we will apply the following formula:
- 655 + (Weight in Kg. x 9.6) + (Height in cm. x 1.8) – (Age x 4.7)
How much exercise do you do?
Next, and as we have mentioned a few lines above, we must take into account the exercise we do weekly, since a person who does not exercise at all is not the same as one who trains all day. Therefore, we will have 4 levels:
- The person who does little or no exercise and leads a sedentary life. Multiply the result above (the BMR) by 1.2.
- People who do a sport routine from 1 to 3 days a week. In this case, the TMB will be multiplied by 1,375.
- People who do a sport routine 4 to 5 days a week. You will have to multiply by 1.55.
- Those people who exercise all week or 6 days. Multiply by 1.72.
Example of the Harris-Benedict method
Following what we have just explained to you, we are going to give an example. Let’s imagine a profile of a 38-year-old woman, who is 1.68 cm tall and weighs 75 kilos, doing light exercise.
- To calculate the TMB we will substitute these figures in the formula that we have given you above:
- 655 + (75 x 9.6) + (168 x 1.8) – (38 x 4.7) = 655 + 720 + 302.4 + 178.6 = 1856 calories.
- Finally, we would multiply the Basal Metabolism Rate by the level of sports routine you perform. In this case, exercising 1 to 3 days per week is x 1,375. Therefore:
- 1,856 x 1,375 = 2,552 calories.
What does this result mean? It is the daily calories that make this person in the example maintain weight. Therefore, you should eat less of those calories to start losing weight. Added to this, perhaps it would be good to increase your sports routine and we cannot forget the diet, which must be varied and balanced.