How many calories can you eat to lose weight? It depends on how active you are. The general rule is if you burn more calories then you take in you will lose weight. If you eat 500 calories less every day for one week , that is 3500 calories, you will lose one pound. There are a few scientific calculations that measure a calorie. The one most of us are familiar with is one Kilocalorie and this is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of water by one centigrade. One Kilocalorie is one thousand calories. It does not mean much to us does it?

Another standard belief is that most people can lose weight on 1500 calories a day, for nice slow steady and safe weight loss. Most sensible diets, if you are following a certain commercial diet plan if it is a good one, will contain at least 1200 calories. For some people that is not enough, your weight, height and activity level needs to be considered.

Do not worry there are several formulas for that. There is a calculation that figures out how much you can eat to lose weight based on your activity level. They quantify what your activity level is, from sedentary to athlete, and then you multiply your weight by your activity level number. This will be the number of calories to lose weight for you.

Another way to calculate you calories to lose weight is you multiply your BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate) by your percentage of exercise. They figure for example, a sedentary personals would be twenty percent on up to an athlete whose number would be 60 percent. Then you add this number to your BMR. This is the amount of calories you are currently eating to maintain your weight. To calculate your BMR you take your weight add, your height in inches and subtract your age. Your BMR is the amount of calories you need just to breath, so you want to a little more than that to lose some weight. Sound complicated, do not worry, there are calorie calculators and BMR calculators that can do this for you.

Your BMI is also a measure for a dieters concern. Your BMI is the percentage of your body fat based on your height and weight. The range is from less than 18.5 (thin or very muscular), to 30 (Obese).

A healthy number is 18.5 to 24.9. They use this number more frequently now in medicine to estimate health risks. There is a formula to measure it your self and there are BMI calculators. To get your BMI, take you height, divided by your weight squared, multiplied by 703. The use of your BMI number sounds better than 'fat' or 'obese.'

The accuracy and importance of these numbers in figuring calories to lose weight is debatable. There are other variables of the body that are not taken into account. Do not stress about your numbers. Listen to your Doctor or Dietitian; maybe you do not need to lose weight.

There are numerous tips and diets to lose weight. Do not choose one that is less than 1200 calories and that does not contain all the food groups, including a little fat. The main thing is to do it safely and in a way that will leave you eating a healthier diet for the rest of your life.