How many calories should you be eating every day?
The MOST IMPORTANT factor in weight loss or weight gain is calories... It all comes down to how much energy you are using per day vs how much you are putting into your body. People try to complicate things with fad diets and teas, but when you get down to it, it's all about the calories.
For long term health though, we need to be more concerned with the types of calories we put into our body. If we wanted to lose weight, we could just eat 500 calories a day right? BUT is that the healthiest thing for us to do? And how do you stay in a happy medium between not eating too much, but yet eating enough to be healthy and be able to perform? We are going over all of that.....NOW!
BASAL METABOLIC RATE (BMR). Remember this. It will come up a lot. But what is it? This is the golden tool you will use to begin your journey for fat loss or weight gain! All roads lead to your BMR. Your BMR is the amount of calories you burn per day, if you don't exercise. CLICK HERE to find yours! Now, to find out **roughly** how many calories you burn per day with exercise, you can CLICK HERE. That number you get, is called your TOTAL DAILY ENERGY EXPENDITURE (TDEE). This is the staple to every diet out there...keto, paleo, Atkins, etc. every diet, just makes you eat less food (under your BMR and TDEE). There's nothing special about the diets, they just have you eat less.
So, you've got your BMR and you've got your TDEE, and you want to lose weight, what's next? Well, eat less than your TDEE on days you workout and eat less than your BMR on days you don't..... It's that simple! But is that it? Just eat 1,500 calories of McDonalds every day and you'll be fine right? Since, ya know, calories are calories and I'll lose weight, right? Well...NO WAY! We've all seen the comparison on how much food 1,500 calories from Whole Foods is vs how much it is at McDonalds....I don't need to show you again. See, here's the thing, you might, at first lose weight by eating that 1,500 calories from McDonalds or even eating 500 calories a day and slowing down your metabolism, but you won't sustain it. AND the long term health benefits of doing that, are NOT WORTH IT! Loss of muscle, loss of hair, low hormones 😉😉, no energy, digestive issues, heart problems, weaker bones, I can go all day. AND the weight you lose, will be the bad kinda weight, not fat. Fat loss and weight loss are two different things people!! You can lose a lot of water and muscle by restricting your calories, and hardly any actual fat.
So what do I need to eat then? I'm glad you asked, but you probably already know my answer. WHOLE FOODS AS CLOSE TO NATURE AS POSSIBLE. Get that step under control first. Limit the number of processed foods you eat and have 80% of what you consume be from nature (meats, fruits, veggies, etc.) THEN start worrying about calories. After your done with that, start worrying about eating enough protein, carbs, and fat! Which are totally based upon your activity levels! (.8-1.2x grams of protein per your body weight is optimal, carbs and fat, just fit it in to your total daily calories!) TIP: If you aren't tracking your calories on myfitnesspal or another app, you need to!! How else will you know how many calories you're eating??