How many calories do you need to burn to lose 1 pound?

To lose weight, the body’s energy expenditure must be greater than its energy intake. This is called the famous calorie deficit.

But then, how many calories do you have to burn to lose 1 kilo in a week? And how do you calculate your ideal calorie deficit based on your metabolism? We explain…

How many calories do you need to burn to lose 1 pound in a week?

To aim for a caloric deficit, one can burn calories by performing physical exercises or by reducing the number of calories consumed per day as suggested by hypocaloric type diets. The ideal is to combine the two.

So, to lose a pound of body fat in a week, you would need to burn 1000 calories a day, or 7700 calories in total over seven days.

However, this quantity is far too large if you want to lose weight in a sustainable way and avoid the famous ‘yoyo’ effect.

To avoid the frustration, health risks, and rapid weight gain after dieting, it’s best to take it easy and aim for balance.

The ideal? Burn 500 calories a day, half as much. In this sense, you will be able to lose a kilo in two weeks.

In addition to adopting a healthy and balanced diet, physical activities help burn calories . We recommend that you choose cardio-type physical activities such as running, weight training or swimming.

Calculate your ideal calorie deficit based on your metabolism

As you can see, in order to lose the pounds and keep them off, you have to maintain a calorie deficit while avoiding setting drastic goals.

To do this, we recommend that you calculate the caloric deficit to achieve according to your metabolism.

To calculate the ideal calorie deficit, start by estimating your basal metabolic rate. To do this, multiply your weight (in kilos) by 20 (for an adult woman) or by 25 (for an adult man).

Then just take your physical activity into account: multiply the result of your metabolism by 1.55 if you are sedentary (you don’t move at all), by 1.85 if you move very little during the day (a little walking but no more), by 2.2 if you are active (between 1 hour and 2 hours of sustained physical activity each day) or by 2.4 if you are extremely active (i.e. more than 2 hours of physical activity sustained per day).

You will then get an estimate of the number of calories your metabolism is burning each day.

To lose a kilo in a week, it is enough to burn 500 kcal less than the result obtained for at least 5 weeks.  

Note: to lose weight in a healthy and sustainable way without taking any risk to your health, it is best to be accompanied by a nutrition specialist.