Are you eating enough?

Food for thought here, when you try to lose weight what’s the first thing you do? Cut your calories, add some workouts in your day, start fasting? While all those can make you lose weight, some aren’t the best option when you’re just beginning. 

You can’t keep your body on a calorie defecate too long or it in turns goes into panic mode and you won’t actually lose weight, quite possible you might gain some.

Making sure your body is well fed is one of the proper ways to lose weight, as weird as it seems.

First, you need to find out your REE, Resting Energy Expenditure, how many calories your body needs in a 24-hour period of non-activity. While there are calculators out there that you can just plug numbers into its better to do it pen to paper that way you know for certain your numbers are right. 

Make sure all your measurements are in metric.

Female: 10 x weight(kg) + 6.25 x height(cm) – 5 x age – 161
Male:   10 x weight(kg) + 6.25 x Height (cm) – 5 x age + 5

From there we want to figure out what your TDEE, total daily energy expenditure, would be. 

Sedentary- getting exercise like a walk, or normal daily activates,
                **Unless you intentionally do 30 minutes of exercise a day you are considered sedentary

Light activity- Normal activity plus 30 minutes or more of exercising, or spending a good part of your day on your feet.
Moderate activity- Daily workouts, most of your day is spent doing some type of physical activity
Hight activity- intense exercising, like running, weight lifting, or heavy daily physical activity 

Now that you’ve picked what you fall into your going to take your REE x Activity level = TDEE

Sedentary - 1.2
Light - 1.375
Moderate - 1.55
High - 1.75

That’s will tell you how many calories you should be consuming to maintain your weight at your currant activity level. 

Now if you want to lose weight, it’s best to start with a 20% drop in calories. If you want to gain weight you’d start with a 20% increase in calories

Lose: TDEE – (TDEE x .20)
Gain: TDEE + (TDEE x .20)

I know a lot of math, but sometimes finding it out for yourself is a lot better than putting all your faith into an online calculator. That way you know for sure that your numbers are right.

If you have questions or need help finding your answers let me know I’d be happy to help figure out where you need to be.

Remember, knowing how much you eat and making sure your body is well fueled will make losing weight a lot better and safer for your body.

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