How do you find out how many calories you should be eating daily to lose weight?

[joedfc]

Don't know what calculators to trust! Any accurate ones?

I know it depends on calories burned but I don't know how to find that out either? lmao. hoping to start a log soon maybe.

[ReyJay]

Eat xxxx calories, if you're losing weight you are below your maintenance (TDEE), if you gain weight you are over your maintenance

[Alekk]

I've made a calculator that uses all 3 of the popular formulas (foodjuggler.com/calorie-calculator/)... at least their average should be somewhat correct

2 things to keep in mind about calculators:

1) Your activity factor will never be accurate, it's an estimate unless you are actually measuring your heart rate.
2) Track your weight consistently and adjust based on that. The calculated calories are just a starting point.

[Brokerb22]

This is actually a question that I've always wondered about. That's a pretty impressive calculator, however the results I got are puzzling. According to the data for someone my size ( 6'4, 274lbs, 30% body fat with activity level of 1.55) should be eating over 3500 calories a day. So to lose weight I assume I would eat 500 calories below that? No way will I lose weight eating 3000 calories. For the last two weeks I've kept a close eye on my calories using fatsecret.com and I've been eating 1900 to 2100 calories a day and I've lost two pounds each week. Could the results be that far off?

[HDCUT]

interesting. scared to eat 3000 calories my self but thats wat the calculator says

[AncientYouth]

iifym.com

[MrDude1]

This is actually a question that I've always wondered about. That's a pretty impressive calculator, however the results I got are puzzling. According to the data for someone my size ( 6'4, 274lbs, 30% body fat with activity level of 1.55) should be eating over 3500 calories a day. So to lose weight I assume I would eat 500 calories below that? No way will I lose weight eating 3000 calories. For the last two weeks I've kept a close eye on my calories using fatsecret.com and I've been eating 1900 to 2100 calories a day and I've lost two pounds each week. Could the results be that far off?

YES.
Not only can the calculators be off, but the calorie ESTIMATIONS on the box can legally be off by 20%.
That said, heres the best estimation for you, with your activity level, your method of measuring your food, etc...

You just said you eat 1900-2100 calories a day and lose 2 lbs each week.
1900*7 = 13300 ---- 2100*7=14700 <-- daily calories times 7 days a week
3500*2 = 7000 <-- you're losing 2 lbs a week. 3500 calories in a pound (roughly) so 7000 calorie deficit a week
13300+7000=20300 14700+7000=21700 <-- add the 7000 for the week.
20300/7=2,900 21700/7=3100 <-- divide by 7 to get the daily



So according to my quick math above, your normal "maintain body weight" calorie intake is 2900-3100 calories. About normal for a guy that is not very active during the day, and watches TV at night.


Since you're already losing 2 lbs a week... keep doing it as you are.

[grant_mckinnon]

dont worry with calculates. The best way in my opinion to find this out is just calculate what you have eaten every day for example, the last week and work out the average cals, then just decrease/increase from this average to meet your goals. I've found there to be some variance between peoples metabolic rates so this method works well.