How many calories do I need to burn to lose weight?

16 5 minutes read

For those who count calories, the goal is usually to burn more fat, and, as everyone knows, calories must be burned to lose weight. This is done using less energy than the person takes, but this way weight is lost. However, the rules of human metabolism have a complex structure, even if it seems simple on the surface.

How many calories should be burned to lose one weight? The first person trying to answer this question with certainty is a scientist named Max Wishnofsky. His research paper has been accepted as a good answer in this regard for years. According to Wishnofsky, there are about 3500 calories in a kilo of body fat.

Though Wishnofsky’s hypothesis has been fully expressed in thousands of scientific studies, modern researchers are now questioning whether these numbers are correct. It is important to know that the answer to this question is given above all by Wishnofsky’s individual variation. In other words, it is known that the actual number of calories per pound will vary from one case to another. Therefore, there is no perfect answer to this question. For example, some research has found that genetics can play a role in the overall fat content of the body’s adipose tissue.

It is also important to understand that this is not a technical rule, but a functional rule. The main idea behind Wishnofskys’ research is to find out how many calories a person should burn before losing body weight from a kilo of fat. Therefore, the “3500 calorie rule” has long been used as a useful diet and exercise measure.

Is this answer correct?

Although the 3500 calorie rule is based on reality, it does not reflect all the factors of human biology. There are several reasons why modern researchers say that you should not rely too much on this rule. The first reason is that the body does not use fat as the only source of energy. When the body experiences an energy deficit, it will do everything it can to fill this gap. In doing so, it will burn not only fat, but also muscle and other lean tissues.

When people talk about “burning fat,” they wonder what it means. And when talking about fat burning, it is mentioned as a biological process called catabolism where the body starts feeding with tissues other than fat. However, a problem is encountered here, catabolism only occurs when the body is completely depleted from other nutrients. This may take up to two months to start occurring at a significant level, and this criticism is not particularly relevant.

The average person will never experience severe levels of hunger to cause this problem. However, Catabolism can also be caused by protein deficiency. Protein is the basic building block of all muscle tissue and is the main component of the body’s muscle repair system. Therefore, a low-protein diet can cause this problem to be true and valid. Also, a small amount of muscle catabolism can occur even if the body is not in a state of hunger. The second reason is that the human body does not burn calories evenly. Human metabolism can change in many ways when you lose weight, and its metabolic rate is unlikely to remain constant. This fact does not seem to be proven. For example, there is a study in which researchers are trying to find an average resting metabolic rate that can be applied to all adults. But after trying every way, they reported that it was impossible. The problem increases with metabolic rates tending to be different for men and women, and age factor also plays a role. Research shows that body weight plays an even greater role in determining human metabolic rates.

Therefore, opposition researchers appear to have criticism that is not valid. Therefore, this question has an average answer. While the 3,500-calorie rule is a useful criterion, it should not be seen as a difficult scientific fact. This should be considered as a general guideline rather than a strict rule. In practice, there are many factors that can affect the metabolic rate and affect the results. So it would probably not be fair to call Wishnofsky’s work invalid.

Pure Oil and Body Oil

It is important to understand the difference between pure oil and body fat, and pure oil is exactly what is expected. Because it is made of oil and nothing else. Pure oil is usually white in color and a good example is lard. Pure oil is not very common in nature because most of it cannot store its living oils in this form. Body fat consists of fat cells (technically called adipocytes), but also contains a large number of other substances.

As is probably known, body fat is like the reserve fuel tank of the body. Over nutrition is stored as fat, and since this oil is derived from food, it naturally contains things like protein, vitamins and other nutrients. The body needs to do this, because it cannot just live on fat. This factor affects the answer. And a kilo of pure fat has been found to contain about 4100 calories.

How Many Calories Should Be Burned in a Day?

As stated earlier, the 3500 calorie rule is intended to be a functional rule. The usual method of using this rule is to reduce your daily calorie intake by 500 calories per day. Since 500 × 7 = 3500, it is assumed that a weekly weight can be given in this way. Some researchers have tried to find a mathematical formula that will allow them to predict human metabolic rates with a higher degree of accuracy than Wishnofskys’ rule. Unfortunately, the model they found does not seem completely correct either.

When looking at the graphs and charts related to this study, it is noticed that their “dynamic models” still have flaws. It is definitely more accurate than the 3500 calorie rule, but outliers and exceptions still prevent the equation from being completely reliable. Although these researchers failed to find the right way to predict metabolism, they found a very useful detail. This detail is the change of all data when it reduces the total body fat to 30 kg (about 66 pounds) or less.

Overweight individuals burn calories at a slightly higher rate than others. This is the result of the brain telling the body to continue and use as much energy as needed. Because when the body has too much energy, it will not be so careful in wasting that energy. An example of this is money. For example, when a person has a lot of money, he may tend to spend carelessly. But people with less money spend more sparingly. The body works the same way when dealing with fat reserves.

These researchers found that the 3,500-calorie rule was partially correct, and thus confirmed the old research partially. Finally, there is an important factor that Wishnofsky does not consider. This proves that the Wishnofsky rule is not that bad, because if a slight change is applied, the rule is still available.

Controlling Calorie Intake

A low-calorie diet should be preferred to help control calorie intake. But in doing so, one has to accept that he will struggle with some hunger problems. However, these low-calorie foods can help deliver energy without disrupting weight loss efforts. Some of these foods are:

• Oat

• Greek yogurt

• Most soups

• Fruits

• Eggs

• Popcorn (scattered)

• Chia beans

• The fish

• Cottage cheese

• Potato

• lean meat

• Legumes