Losing weight and achieving a healthy body composition involves understanding your body's energy needs. The Legion Athletics weight loss calculator serves as a tool to estimate these needs and guide your dietary choices. This article delves into the key concepts behind the calculator, how to use it effectively, and other factors that influence weight loss.
Understanding Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) represents the amount of energy your body expends to maintain essential functions like breathing, blood circulation, and hormone production. It's a hypothetical estimate that can fluctuate based on factors such as diet, environmental conditions, and stress levels. A BMR calculator provides insight into your baseline energy expenditure, offering a useful starting point for manipulating your body composition.
Factors Influencing BMR
Several factors influence your BMR, including:
- Muscle Mass: Muscle tissue is metabolically active, requiring more energy at rest than tissues like fat. Therefore, the amount of muscle mass you have plays a pivotal role in determining your BMR.
- Diet: Eating fewer calories than your body burns (a “calorie deficit”) for an extended period slows your metabolic rate.
- Supplements: Certain supplements can affect your BMR.
Macronutrients: The Building Blocks of Your Diet
A macronutrient (“macro”) is a nutrient that your body needs in large amounts to survive. There are three main types: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.
Carbohydrates
There are three main types of carbohydrates: sugars, starches, and fiber. The body breaks down sugar and starch to produce glucose, the primary energy source for the brain, central nervous system, and red blood cells. Fiber, on the other hand, helps you stay satiated and maintain good digestive health.
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Fats
Fat contains the most calories of any macronutrient, providing nine calories per gram. It is essential for hormone production, nutrient absorption, and overall health.
Protein
Protein is crucial for building and repairing tissues, producing enzymes and hormones, and supporting numerous bodily functions. Consume 1-to-1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day, and if you’re very overweight, 0.6-to-0.8 grams per pound of body weight per day is sufficient.
Calculating Your Macros
To turn these guidelines into personalized macro targets, go to the free macro calculator above and input your sex, weight, height, age, and activity level in the fields provided.
Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)
TDEE is the number of calories you need to maintain your weight. You can learn how many calories that is for you by entering your details into the free TDEE calculator above.
TDEE comprises several components:
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- Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): The number of calories your body burns performing basic vital functions.
- Thermic Effect of Food (TEF): The number of calories you burn digesting food. On average, TEF accounts for around 10% of your TDEE.
- Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT): The number of calories you burn doing formal exercise.
- Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT): The number of calories you burn from any physical activity that isn’t formal exercise (the calories you burn going about daily activities, basically).
Using the Legion Calorie Calculator
The Legion Calorie Calculator also doubles as a maintenance calorie calculator. Learning “How many calories should I eat?” using our calorie calculator is the first step toward reaching your goal weight.
The next step is accounting for the additional energy expenditure by applying activity multipliers. These multipliers feature in most TDEE calculators and have undoubtedly helped many people with maintaining, gaining, and losing weight.
Weight Loss Strategies Based on TDEE
- Eating less than your TDEE drives fat loss: You’ll lose weight if you consistently eat fewer calories than your TDEE.
- Eating more than your TDEE causes weight gain: If you consistently eat more than your TDEE, you’ll gain weight both in the form of body fat and lean body mass (primarily muscle).
- Matching your caloric intake to your TDEE aids weight maintenance: Eating the same number of calories as you burn helps you maintain your weight.
Setting a Calorie Deficit for Weight Loss
To lose weight, you’ll need to eat fewer calories than your TDEE. Research shows a good calorie target for weight loss is 75% of your TDEE (25% below your TDEE). This is enough to lose weight quickly (about 1-2 pounds per week) without causing excessive hunger or cravings or disrupting your performance in the gym.
To help you calculate a calorie deficit accurately and lose weight as healthily as possible, our fat-loss calculator may suggest a more feasible weight loss timeline. A pound of fat contains roughly 3,500 calories. Losing more than this is possible if you severely cut your calorie intake.
The Importance of Tracking Your Food Intake
It’s critical that your food calculations are accurate. You must also include absolutely everything you’re going to eat in your meal plan.
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For example, a heaping tablespoon of peanut butter doesn’t look much different from a properly measured tablespoon. Let’s say you’re preparing a pound of chicken for four meals. Start by weighing out 454 grams of raw chicken, cook it, and then divide it into four roughly equal portions.
Search for the food. If neither the exact brand or product nor an average for all brands is listed, check multiple entries for the type of item to get an idea of the range. For example, if you want to add a cup of Uncle Ben’s rice to your meal plan, you can find this exact food listed on CalorieKing.
Why Your Weight Loss May Stall
- You’re gaining muscle while losing fat. This is called recomping.
- You’re eating more than you think.
- You’re not burning as much energy as you think and are no longer in a large enough deficit to cause meaningful weight loss.
The Role of Exercise
Cardio and strength training increase your energy expenditure both during and after your workouts. To increase your TDEE through diet, eat more protein.
Flexible Dieting
Unlike more rigid dieting strategies, macro tracking allows you to embrace a “flexible dieting” approach to nutrition.
Additional Tips for Weight Loss
Ideally, prepare and cook most of your meals at home using minimally processed foods.
Supplements: An Optional Aid
You don't need supplements to build muscle, lose fat, and get healthy. But the right ones can help.
The Benefits of Maintaining a Healthy Weight
Moreover, maintaining a healthy weight can enhance your mental health.
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