Over a third of American adults have obesity and about the same amount is overweight. With these stats, not surprising that millions of people start dieting to lose some of those excess pounds. However, weight loss diets can be tricky and quite a few people run a risk of damaging their health with their meal plan choices.
The main reason for this is that the diets they choose are too low-calorie and therefore cause the damage similar to starvation. The first thing you should wonder when contemplating a weight loss program is ‘how many calories do I need in a day?’ Only after answering this question can you create a meal plan that will help you lose weight without losing your health in the process.

How Many Calories Do You Need in a Day?

The ‘standard’ rule you’ll find in the majority of reasonable sources on healthy weight loss is that an adult needs 2000 calories a day to maintain their current weight. And they need to consume 1500 to stay healthy and still lose a pound of excess weight a week.

However, if it really was so simple, no one would struggle with weight loss. The truth of the matter is that every person is unique and therefore needs a personalized approach in diet calorie calculations.

Equations used by experts to perform those calculations are Harris-Benedict and Mifflin-ST Jeor. Both are used to calculate a person’s basal metabolic rate, which means they determine how many calories your body burns off while resting.

Do you see a trick here?

All calorie calculators, no matter how good they are, can only hope to approximate your energy expenditure at rest. And studies show that these results aren’t all that accurate in actual calorie expenditure predictions even for patients on bed rest.

Now think, what happens to those calculations when you work out and get some help from supplements that affect metabolism like Phen weight loss aids?

Those numbers become completely irrelevant. So, the next time you use a calorie calculator to see how your planned diet fits into the ‘1500 calories a day to shed a pound’ plan, remember that you aren’t getting any really useful numbers.

Therefore, the answer to how many calories you need in a day is: It depends.

And it depends on so many factors that only an expert has any hope of making even remotely accurate calculations. Even that is possible only on an individual basis and after detailed analysis of a person’s lifestyle and health.

It’s Not About the Calories

The most important thing to understand here is that it’s not the calorie count that matters most for maintaining your health. It’s the nutritional value of your food. In order to stay healthy, a human being requires a wide range of vitamins and minerals.
To put it simply, stuffing yourself with candy to get the desired 1500 calories a day will definitely ruin your health quite fast. Instead, no matter how many calories you end up consuming, you need to make sure that they come from nutritious foods that supply you with healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals. And worry not, if you don’t feel up to visiting a dietician, start with the 1500 calories a day rule and then adjust your diet based on your body’s reactions to it.