How Many Calories A Day Should A Man Have To Lose Weight

That is, you know that you need to control your calorie intake if you want to lose weight, gain muscle, or maintain your weight. 

You’ve probably heard that men should eat 2, 500 calories per day to maintain their weight and women should eat 2, 000 calories per day. 

Research shows that instead of sticking to these (mostly arbitrary) calorie targets, you should optimize your calorie intake for your body, lifestyle, and goals. 

How Many Calories Do Men Need To Eat Every Day?

(Or if you’d prefer to skip all of the scientific mumbo jumbo, and you just want to know how many calories, how much of each macronutrient, and which foods you should eat to reach your goals, no problem! Just take the Legion Diet Quiz , and in less than a minute, you’ll know exactly what diet is right for you. Click here to check it out .)

Table of ContentsWhat Is a Calorie? How Many Calories Should You Eat to Maintain Your Weight?WomenMenChildrenHow Many Calories You Should EatHow Many Calories Should You Eat to Lose Weight? How to Turn Your Calorie Target into Macronutrient TargetsThe Best Way to Count Calories to Lose WeightFAQ #1: How can I eat less without feeling hungry? FAQ #2: Should I eat less or exercise more to lose weight?FAQ #3: How many calories should I eat to gain muscle? FAQ #4: Can I eat more if I exercise more? 

One calorie is the amount of energy it takes to heat one kilogram of water one degree Celsius (also called a kilocalorie or Calorie with a capital “C”).

Pdf) How Many Calories Should I Eat A Day?

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Thus, the number of calories you need to maintain your weight is very individual, and also changes over time. That said, you can usually arrive at a decent estimate of your current calorie needs using just your body weight and activity levels. 

Most women between the ages of 20 and 50 who are physically active (but not following a workout routine) and at a healthy body weight need to eat around 1, 700 calories per day to maintain their weight. 

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Women who are older than 50 sometimes need to eat less than this, mostly because they have less muscle mass and are less active . Although your metabolism does decline slightly with age, most of the decrease is due to exercising less and losing muscle mass—not an innate drop in your metabolism.

The good news is you can counteract many of the hormonal hindrances associated with menopause that make maintaining your weight more difficult by eating a healthy diet and taking regular exercise .

Women who are younger than 20 sometimes need to eat more than this, although their calorie needs vary greatly depending on how active they are. That is, active young women need to eat a lot more than sedentary ones. Or in other words, being young doesn’t necessarily mean you should eat more than older folks—it depends on your activity levels.

How Many Calories Should I Eat To Gain Muscle? (how To Gain Weight Guide)

Ironically, overweight women (a body mass index of greater than 25) generally need to eat more to maintain their weight than normal weight women. This is because your body burns a fair number of calories maintaining and moving your excess body weight—sometimes over a thousand calories per day .

Most men between the ages of 20 and 50 who are physically active (but not following a workout routine) and at a healthy body weight need to eat around 2, 200 calories per day to maintain their weight. 

Men who are older than 50 often need to eat slightly less than this, as they generally have less muscle mass and are less active. Although your metabolism does decline slightly with age, most of the decrease is due to exercising less and losing muscle mass—not an innate drop in your metabolism.

How Many Calories Should I Eat Per Meal To Lose Weight?

Men who are younger than 20 sometimes need to eat more than this, although their calorie needs vary greatly depending on their activity levels. Simply put, active young men need to eat a lot more than sedentary ones. Or in other words, being young doesn’t necessarily mean you should eat more than older folks—it depends on your activity levels.

Ironically, overweight men (a body mass index of greater than 25) generally need to eat more to maintain their weight than normal weight men. This is because your body burns a fair number of calories maintaining and moving your excess body weight—sometimes over a thousand calories per day. 

Many people think that kids can eat as much as they want without worrying about weight gain, but the staggering rise in childhood obesity puts lie to this notion. 

Calories A Day: Can This Meal Plan Help You Reach Your Weight Goals

Even if a child is very active, they’re still moving around a very small amount of weight, so they simply don’t burn that many calories. 

For example, babies only need to eat around 80 to 120 calories per kilogram of body weight per day to support healthy development. (For instance, a 4-month old, 18-pound/8-kilogram baby would need to eat about 700 calories per day). 

And the average “tween” (~4 to 10 years old) only needs to eat around 1, 200 to 2, 000 calories per day depending on their age, body weight, and activity level. 

How Many Calories Does A Baby Need?

Remember, though, that these numbers are just estimates—not exact prescriptions. In fact, counting calories is generally unnecessary (and even counterproductive) for children. 

Instead, the best way to make sure they eat enough to support healthy growth and development is to provide plenty of healthy food options throughout the day, and let them eat when hungry and stop eating when they’re full, and make sure they stay active.

You want to cut your calories enough so that you experience consistent, encouraging weight loss, but not so much that you start experiencing lethargy, cravings, and muscle loss.

How Many Calories Does An Average Male Need Every Day?

In a study they conducted, the researchers had 15 male national and international level track and field jumpers and sprinters maintain a daily calorie deficit of 300 calories (~10% deficit) or 750 calories (~24% deficit). Both groups continued with their normal training plan and ate a high-protein diet .

After four weeks, the first group lost very little fat and muscle, and the second group lost, on average, about four pounds of fat and very little muscle. And neither group experienced any negative side effects to speak of.

These findings completely jive with my experience both with my body and the thousands of people I’ve worked with: a calorie deficit of around 20 to 25% seems to be the sweet spot for losing fat quickly without losing muscle, spoiling your mood, or disrupting your performance in the gym.

How Many Calories Should You Eat Per Day?

How many calories should you eat? What about macros? What foods should you eat? Take our 60-second quiz to get science-based answers to these questions and more.

After estimating how many calories you need to maintain your weight, the next step is to turn your calorie target into macronutrient targets. 

A macronutrient is a nutrient your body needs in relatively large amounts to survive, with the main ones being protein, carbohydrate, and fat. In the fitness space, they’re generally referred to as “macros.”

Eating 500 Calories A Day For A Month: How Much Weight Loss?

The reason you want to turn your calorie target into macronutrient targets, is that your macronutrient intake has a significant impact on your body composition . In other words, while calories alone dictate how much weight you lose or gain, your macronutrient intake largely dictates whether you lose or gain fat or muscle. 

By eating the right amount of protein, carbs, and fat, you can ensure that most of the weight you lose while “cutting” is from fat—not muscle. And as a corollary, you can also ensure that most of the weight you gain while lean bulking is from muscle, not fat. 

The exact number of calories you get from protein, carbs, and fat depends on your preferences and goals, but here’s what I typically recommend. 

I Lived On 500 Calories A Day. Now I Don't Restrict, I'm Happy.'

These guidelines change slightly if you’re already lean and looking to get leaner, in which case it’s generally best to get 1 to 1.2 grams protein per pound of body weight, 20% of your calories from fat, and the rest from carbs.

Typically, this works out to around 0.8 to 1.2 grams of protein, 0.75 to 1.25 grams of carbs, and 0.2 to 0.3 grams of fat per pound of body weight per day for most people. 

Once you know what percentage of your calories you want to come from protein, carbs, and fat, open the Legion Macronutrient Calculator to convert these percentages into grams. 

How Many Calories Should You Eat Per Day To Lose Weight?

Not necessarily, but you do need to maintain a calorie deficit to lose weight, and counting calories is an effective way to do this.

That said, most people find that counting calories on the fly (usually by entering the foods they eat throughout the day into a calorie tracking app) becomes a burden. You inevitably waste time debating over what to eat and working out how much you can eat and you increase the likelihood of mistakes, like forgetting to log every calorie or mistakenly logging more or less than you actually ate.

Intuitive eating can work well for maintaining your body composition if you’re already following a fairly healthy diet, but it doesn’t work as well

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