Losing Weight

If you need to lose weight, subtract 15 percent or 500 Calories, whichever is smaller, from your daily energy needs as calculated previously. As you lose weight, you need to reevaluate your daily energy needs and goals using the tables. Let's use an example of a 165-pound woman who is not very active, who needs 2,363 Calories per day. She could reduce her intake by 500 Calories each day and eat 1,863 Calories, but research indicates that large caloric reductions reduce important thyroid hormone levels significantly and also may result in reduced compliance to her diet.

A better strategy would be for the woman to reduce her caloric intake by 15 percent and add extra activity like strength training or even walking. Using this strategy, she would ingest 2,009 Calories per day and add exercise to expend more energy. For example, walking burns about 50 to 70 Calories per mile. By walking an extra 4 miles per day she could burn 200 to 280 additional Calories. She could walk 2 miles in the morning and 2 miles in the evening. Imagine how many more calories she could burn by lifting weights and increasing her muscle mass and metabolic rate. She would eat 135 (.82 × 165) grams of protein each day. This amount of protein is equal to 540 (135 × 4) Calories. She would also consume 603 (.30 × 2,009) Calories from fat, which means 67 (603 / 9) grams of fat each day. To estimate carbohydrate needs, subtract the 540 Calories from protein and the 603 Calories from fat from the estimated daily energy intake (2,009 Calories), which comes to 866 Calories from carbohydrate (2,009 - 540 - 603 = 866).

To convert these calories into grams, divide by 4, which means 217 grams of carbohydrate each day (866 / 4 = 217). Here is a summary of what the 165-pound inactive female would eat:

135 grams of protein × 4 (Calories per gram) = 540 Calories.

67 grams of fat × 9 (Calories per gram) = 603 Calories.

217 grams of carbohydrate × 4 (Calories per gram) = 868 Calories.