Eat less to lose weight? How to calculate daily calories for weight loss

Everyone knows that to lose weight you need to "eat less and exercise more". I have a friend who is very determined. After he made up his mind to lose weight, he only ate 500 calories a day, went to the gym for two hours every day, and drank water when he was hungry. Due to the significant reduction in calorie intake, she did lose weight quickly in the first one or two months, but then she began to hit a bottleneck. She no longer lost weight as quickly, her menstruation stopped, and she began to feel dizzy, anemic, and lose hair. This is a typical situation encountered when using the "diet" method to lose weight (eating only very low calories). Many models or artists also often use this method to maintain a slim figure, but this is a completely wrong method.

The body needs to consume basic calories to maintain normal physiological functions (breathing, body temperature, metabolism, circulation, digestion, etc.), which is called the "basal metabolic rate." When calorie intake is lower than the "basal metabolic rate", the body is in a state of hunger and will automatically lower the basal metabolic rate to protect you (because the body thinks you are experiencing famine and should reduce unnecessary calorie consumption).

Moreover, in order to maintain life, you cannot live without calories, so you start to burn the body's muscles and fat to provide energy, resulting in the loss of muscle mass. Burning muscle to generate energy is such a waste, it's like chopping off the legs of a fancy wooden table in your living room to use as firewood. Once you lose muscle, your basal metabolic rate also decreases, which makes you prone to gaining weight again.

Unfortunately, it is easy for us to burn muscle, but it is difficult to grow muscle back, and what we gain back is fat. At the same weight, the volume of fat is three times larger than that of muscle. In this constant cycle of dieting to lose weight (lose muscle) and gaining weight again (gain fat), you will find that although your weight is the same as before, your body is becoming more and more bloated and loose.

What’s worse is that when you are on a malnourished diet (especially lack of protein), your body’s physiological functions will be seriously disrupted, which may lead to endocrine disorders, metabolic abnormalities, menstrual abnormalities, physical exhaustion, reduced immunity, anemia, hair loss, etc. Therefore, friends who want to lose weight should remember the following two points:

1. Losing weight is not about eating less, the better

The correct dietary principle for weight loss is a "balanced low-calorie diet". "Balanced" means eating all six major food groups, and "low-calorie" means reducing the daily calorie requirement by 500~1000 calories. For example: a 60 kg female office worker needs 60 kg x 30 calories/kg - 500 calories = 1300 calories per day. You must remember that your daily calorie intake should not be less than 1000 calories (or 20 calories/kg), and if you exercise, you should increase your intake by 100-200 calories.

Second, you can’t just look at your weight when losing weight, you must also look at your body fat percentage

After exercise, you may find that you gain weight (or lose weight very slowly). This is because your muscle mass has increased, which is a good thing. So don’t worry about your weight, but your body fat.

This article comes from: Donna Nutritionist Chen Yichun's blog

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