How many calories do I burn a day- and how many calories do I need to lose unwanted body fat?

If you’re monitoring or you would like to start monitoring your weight, you’re probably interested to know how many calories you burn in a day.

How many calories you burn on any given day is all dependent on what you get up to.

What is a calorie?

Calories are the unit of measurement for the amount of energy in food and drink.

Everyone needs to eat a certain amount of calories to keep functioning. According to the NHS, this is around 2500 calories a day for a man and 2000 a day for a woman. However, this number actually depends on a whole range of factors, including whether you’re looking to gain pounds or wondering how to loose weight.

Naturally, if you do any exercise or have an active job then you’re likely to burn more calories. On average, someone with a job where they walk around for most of the day will do over 14,000 more steps than someone with a sedentary job.

However, it’s a little bit more complicated than this. How many calories you’ll burn per day, either just through your bodily functions or with the addition of exercise, also depends on three main factors according to the Mayo Clinic:

• Weight/Height: The heavier you weigh, whether fat-mass or muscle mass, the more calories you’ll burn. Taller people tend to also weigh more because they are supporting more mass.

• Sex: Men tend to have more muscle and less fat-mass than women, meaning they burn more calories

• Age: The amount of muscle you have tends to decrease as your get older, slowing down the amount of calories you burn.

How many calories do I burn during exercise?

How many calories you burn during exercise depends on: weight/height, sex and age.

However, if you’re looking to take up an exercise that burns the most calories per minute, there are some that are more intensive than others. This is how much a 68kg, 5ft 6 woman in her 30s may burn per minute when working at an average pace:

• Running: 11 calories

• Spinning: 11 calories

• Skipping: 10 calories

• HIIT/Interval Training: 10 calories

• Swimming: 10 calories

• Jogging: 8 calories

• Cycling: 7 calories

• Boxing: 6 calories

• Tennis: 5 calories

• Rowing: 5 calories

• Pilates: 4 calories

• Walking: 2 calories

• Yoga: 2 calories

However, this may be more or less depending on how intense the workout is and the variety of factors listed above.

Naturally, the most successful exercise will be the one you enjoy most. While running tends to burn more calories than cycling, if the idea of going out for a run fills you with a deep dread, you’re less likely to go.

If I was going to pick one exercise for somebody whose goal is weight-loss, knowing that people are a bit crunched for time, I would definitely push them towards doing strength training.

Not only is strength training (otherwise known as resistance training) proven to burn more calories in the longer term, whether that be weightlifting or callisthenics, it’s also better for maintaining an all round body composition.

How many calories should I eat to lose weight?

Typically, to lose weight you have to eat 500 calories fewer than your maintenance level.

If you have a calorie deficit of 500 per day, according to a leading study on the subject, you’ll lose one pound per week as 3,500 calories roughly works out to one pound of body fat. In a month, you may lose almost 2kg in weight.

Find out your maintenance level with a simple calorie calculator.

1kg of fat is 7,700 calories. To lose 1kg of fat, you need to be in a calorie deficit of 7,700 calories. Don't try and achieve this through exercise. Focus on the calories you eat and drink by keeping a food diary.

Weigh and measure all of your food and drink

That’s right. To even attempt calorie counting successfully, you have to measure and weigh out everything that you put into your body. So whether that’s your morning coffee or the ketchup on your chips, it all needs to be recorded.

But there are apps that can help with this. These are some of the best ones:

• My Fitness Pal

• Lose it!

• Noom

While there’s no guarantee that the nutritional information in the app will be entirely correct, unfortunately, you do have the option to scan labels and input the nutritional information yourself.

Focus on the food you’re eating – not just the calories

When it comes to counting calories, it’s also important to look at the nutritional information of the food you’re eating.

Ensure you’re focusing on the nutrient density rather than solely the calories.

For example, oatcakes contain more calories than rice cakes but they’re also higher in fibre and B-vitamins. Fibre contributes to satiety and so they’ll leave you feeling fuller for longer.”

Having a source of complete protein is also important.

A fist-sized source of complete protein at each meal is a pretty good place to start. These are basically all animal sources of protein – and there are some plant ones too. It’s important for fat-free mass but it’s also the most satiating of all the macronutrients. One gram of protein is more satisfying that one gram of carbohydrate or fat on average. And so, protein is very good at keeping hunger at bay relative to the other macronutrients.

You burn more calories digesting protein than you do burning carbohydrates or fats on average.

Don’t cut your calories too low

According to NHS guidance, if you need to lose weight you should aim for a loss of maximum 2 pounds per week until you reach a healthy weight for your height.

You should be able to lose this amount if you eat and drink about 500 to 600kcal fewer a day than you need.

Cutting your calorie intake by more than this can have a serious impact on your health. They’re not easy diets to follow through with and they can have dangerous side-effects.

Side effects of a low-calorie diet can include:

• Feeling hungry

• Feeling low on energy

• A dry mouth

• Diarrhoea or constipation

• Headaches

• Dizziness

• Cramps

• Hair thinning

While very low calorie diets can lead to short term weight loss, it is likely that the weight will come back on after the diet ends.

Low energy levels, linked to not eating enough, are famously a reason why many of us feel tired at all the times.Our body needs calories to function day-to-day so when you limit these, you’re likely to feel fatigued.

Focus on long-term lifestyle changes rather than a quick fix

Ultimately, calorie counting is not sustainable in the long-term and weight loss is affected by many other factors as well as what you put into your body.

Weight can also be heavily affected by sleep and stress too. Therefore, try to ensure you’re getting good night sleep and that you’re managing stress where possible too.

Try high-volume eating

The worst part of counting calories will be feeling hungry. This is almost inevitable if you’re reducing the amount of food you’d normally eat in a day.

High-volume eating can work to counteract this. It’s a strategy of eating where you can consume a large amount of food while not exceeding your calorie goals as you’re eating a lot of food that’s low in density, i.e. low in calories.

Make sensible food swaps

Swapping out calorie-dense foods for lighter ones means you have more calories to work with.

But this doesn’t even need to be as extreme as swapping your favourite spaghetti bolognese for lentils. It can be something as simple as swapping from whole milk to sugar-free oat milk. The difference between the two may only be 20 calories per 100ml. But if you drink multiple cups of milky tea or coffee every day, it can really add up.

Calorie counting is generally not the healthiest approach to losing weight. It oversimplifies nutrition and dietary choices. Making healthy decisions should be based on a wide range of factors including proteins, fibre and micronutrients.

Naturally, a restrictive diet of this kind can have unwanted effects after you decide to stop.

Tracking calories can become all consuming and can have a negative impact on mental wellbeing.

And it’s particularly not recommended for those who have experienced disordered eating in the past. Time and time again, calorie counting has been associated with the development of an unhealthy relationship with food.

Bottom line:

"It must be a balance in everything we do, not too much of everything, keep it simple, not complicated."