Some of you may want to know exactly how many calories you should be eating while on a fat loss program. While that is an important thing to know when trying to lose body fat I don’t think it can ever be perfect and exact for a few reasons.
Reason #1 – The formulas to figure out that exact number are not perfect. There are a few different formulas when figuring out calorie needs which I will show you at the bottom of this page. Some reasons the formulas can’t be absolutely exact is because you have to know a few exact numbers besides your exact height and weight. You will need your exact body fat percentage and what your exact activity level is and these can be different depending on how you measure them.
Reason #2 – Counting your calories can’t be absolutely exact all the time in most cases. Here are a few examples why. Lets say you are measuring out 3/4 cup of oatmeal and the measuring cup has a line on it that you went just a little over or under a couple of times, or you are measuring out a “heaping” table-spoon of something and again you under or over estimated it a few times during the week, or your program says to have a medium fruit with your lunch and the fruit you have is a bit bigger or smaller than what it asks for. I know this may sound kind of funny but if you are to measure like this then it wouldn’t come out exact and perfect, now would it? 
Reason #3 – Measuring all the time can be a pain in the butt! I know many of the past clients that I’ve worked with who got amazing results got them by me teaching them to measure first for a while, then start “eyeballing” instead of measuring all the time. It sure make things much easier down the road if you have portions memorized.
Let me show you two formulas to figure about out how many calories you will need while on your fat loss program. As you will see in the end if you calculated yours out you will find that they will fall somewhere in the guide lines that are already in the fatlossgameplan system for men and for women. ( Men 2200-1800 calories, and Women 1700-1300 calories)
These formulas are called the Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR. It represents how many calories your body burns at rest.
Formula #1 - The Harris Benedict method or HB method.
The BMR for men=66+(6.23 x weight lbs.) + (12.7 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age)
The BMR for women=655+(4.35 x weight lbs.) + ( 4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age)
Formula #2 – The Katch & Mcardle method or KM method.
BMR for men and woman = 370 + (21.6 x lean mass in kg) ( 1kg = 2.2 pounds)
Now that you figured out The BMR, you’d take the BMR and multiply it by an activity level. Here are the activity levels – Little or no exercise is 1.2, Light exercise and sports 1-3 time per week is 1.375, Moderate exercise and sports 3-5 times per week is 1.55 and Heavy exercise with sports 6-7 times per week is 1.725.
There you have it, the formulas to figure out how many calories you need to eat as you loose body fat. Looks like a ton of math and work to me. I tried them both and here are my calorie numbers that I came up with. For the HB formula mine was at 1855.79 calories and for the KM formula I got 1925 calories. They look pretty close to each other and also they are right in the lines of my “guessing” guidelines that I have already formed in the fatlossgameplan system.
So you can figure your own BMR calorie amounts out by using these formulas and try to do it as exactly as you can or you can learn and read my fatlossgameplan system at fatlossgameplan.com and just make “good guesses” on your calories by eyeballing food and making better habits into your lifestyle all a while getting great results.
