Let’s Count: How Many Calories Should You Eat per Day to Lose Weight?

How long will it take you to lose weight? That depends on your ability to reduce your calorie intake over a period of weeks or months.

Many diet plans allow a person to eat varying amounts of food on any given day. One day, an individual may eat more – and the next day, he or she might eat less.

The real trick to weight loss, though, is developing an eating trend that will continue for months – rather than days.

Look at it this way: Your body weight will be determined by the number of days you eat fewer calories than you need to maintain your current weight. When you ingest calories that are more than you need or equivalent to what you need to maintain your current weight, weight loss will not occur.

Do you want to lose half a pound of fat this week? If you need 2,000 daily calories to maintain your current weight, you’ll need to eat 1,750 calories less over the course of the week in order to lose half a pound. (A half pound of fat contains about 1,750 calories.)

Most popular diet plans tell you how to reduce your calorie intake – by giving you rules to follow at each meal, every day. These rules take all the fun out of eating, though, and most people will give up on diets such as these because they are too restrictive.

Counting calories in order to lose weight can be too difficult – and it certainly isn’t any fun. A more realistic plan is to eat less food over the course of an entire week, not one day. By looking at the bigger picture, the guilt of occasionally splurging on burgers and fries is removed.

So the new question is this: What’s the easiest way to reduce your calorie intake over the course of a week? I have the answer, and it’s very simple. You’ll wonder why you didn’t think of it yourself.

Intermittent Fasting.

Frankly, it’s so obvious it was almost embarrassing that I never managed to think of this on my own years ago.

The Eat Stop Eat program instructs you to cut calories through a process called short-term intermittent fasting. Eat Stop Eat creates a weekly calorie deficit that allows an individual to lose weight and still enjoy his or her favorite foods.

Intermittent fasting allows you to eat the foods you enjoy on any days of the week you choose. One or two “fasting days” thrown into each week allow you to give yourself the calorie deficit you need in order to shed pounds.

Stop counting calories and depriving yourself of your favorite foods. Simply reduce your overall calorie intake through intermittent fasting. It’s an effective, scientifically proven method of losing weight.

By John Barban, scientific editor of Eat Stop Eat.