How many calories do you burn a day going about your normal routine? Well that would depend on what your normal routine is as well as your age, sex, and height. For the sake of this article let’s assume you are a 35 year old woman that weighs 140 pounds, if you lead a sedentary lifestyle and spend most of your time at a desk at the office and then in front of the television when you get home, then you aren’t burning many calories at all.
That lifestyle is burning an average of 1620 calories per day, so if you are consuming more than that then you will not lose weight but rather will likely gain weight. Consuming 1620 calories will maintain that weight.
Now let”s look at that same woman who lives a slightly more active lifestyle. Maybe at work you walk a lot, when you get home you clean up the house fix dinner and then maybe after dinner take a short walk. This lifestyle will burn an average of 1850 calories per day.
Next in line would be someone with a slightly more active lifestyle still. This person lives a moderately active lifestyle, at work you rarely sit, at home you like to exercise regularly and push yourself, and you find heavy housework a joy and like to spend time in the garden. A full and busy day is the norm for you. This person will burn 2090 calories daily.
Lastly this next person lives a very active lifestyle, you have a very labor intensive job and at home it doesn”t stop. Heavy exercise and a lot of rigorous activity is normal for you, maybe you have a farm and work hard all day every day. For fun maybe you run marathons or like to go mountain biking. This person will burn approximately 2320 calories daily.
If your goal is to maintain your weight then ideally you will take in about the same amount of calories as you burn, this is referred to as caloric balance. However if your goal is to lose some weight then you need to burn more calories than you consume. In order to do this effectively you need to track your caloric deficit. Use the calories to lose weight calculator to find your daily calorie requirements.
A caloric deficit is when you are burning more calories than you are taking in. when you do this your body will start to burn calories stored in fat. Example: if your daily routine burns 2300 calories but you only consume 1800 calories, your body needs to pick up 500 calories from somewhere. It will take these calories from fat stores and muscle, this is why it is important to exercise as well to maintain your muscle or to build it.]
Counting calories and dieting and exercising may not be fun, it may be a chore even, but to keep your body healthy and reap the benefits of a healthy body such as good health and general longevity you have to put in the work. So if you have been putting it off for one reason or another, look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, “Aren’t you worth it?”
Your Action Steps:
- 1Use the Calories Burned Calculator to get an estimate of your daily calorie burning.
- 2If you are trying to LOSE weight, use the Calories to Lose Weight calculator, if you are trying to GAIN weight, use the Calories to Gain Weight calculator.
- 3Get our FREE Calorie Deficit Report!
- 4Learn how many calories are in fruits and vegetables like bananas, strawberries and apples!