How many calories to lose weight is a popular question but to be honest it does not come with a straight forward answer. I’m sure a lot of you may have been lost from time to time in the endless calorie calculations or taken a wild guess trying to lose weight. Nevertheless do not despair. Below I have summarised the main things you need to know when trying to calculate how many calories to consume in order to lose weight.

For a start you will find a bit of theory. You may think it is a lot of blabbing but trust me; it will help you understand the whole calorie calculation and weight loss matter.

Calories are used to measure the body’s energy. This energy comes from food we consume and our body uses it to carry out its processes. Think of the body as a factory. It produces things like movement, repairs tissues, removes waste, thinks and thousands more. To do all that it needs energy.

What we eat has an energy value that is why you see its calorific value in the package. Any extra energy which comes in and is not needed gets stored in the tissues for later use. The body stores this energy in the form of sugar (glycogen), some protein and fat. The body is limited on how much glycogen it will store and protein storage is a bit complicated to even try to explain here. So the majority goes into fat.

If there is a lot of extra energy coming in constantly then the storage becomes bigger and bigger as you may have noticed.