A pound of fat will provide you with
3,500 calories. You can put this in
perspective by calculating about how
many calories you burn a day. Your
basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the
number of calories a day you would burn
if you lay in bed doing nothing. Because
very few people are that sedentary,
almost everyone burns more than this.
The range of “extra” calories above
BMR that we commonly see in normal
adults is 20 to 75%. That means that
someone with a BMR of 1,500 calories
a day probably really burns somewhere
between 1,800 and 2,600 calories a day.
You can get a rough estimate your own
BMR by multiplying your weight by 9 to
12 calories per pound. And if you know
how many minutes you walk each day,
you can also calculate about how many
calories you expend walking — the most
common way we burn extra calories.
Most women burn 1,700 to 2,200
calories a day and most men somewhere
between 2,000 and 2,600. Now the
3,500 calories in a pound of fat can be
put in perspective. It’s more calories
than most of us burn in an entire day —
and for some women, two days! In order
to lose 1 pound of fat a week, the
average woman would have to reduce
calorie intake by one-fourth and the
average man by one-fifth. That’s a lot of
food to not eat just to lose a pound of fat.
It’s also why reducing body fat shouldn’t
be looked at as a short-term goal but a
long-term process.
All living things need energy to grow
and develop, to function properly and, in
short, to survive. Your body has a
constant demand for energy. You
replenish energy with the food you eat. Weight is all about the balance between
energy added through diet and energy
burned through activity. This energy
balance equation is a basic principle of
weight control.
Food energy is measured in units called
calories. It’s easy to find lists of foods
and the calories they contain. Energy
burned in activity is also measured in
calories, and there are lists to show you
how many calories you can burn by
doing certain activities. This knowledge
is helpful in assessing your own energy
balance and achieving or maintaining a
healthy weight.
