When put the above 3 together, I would say it's quite an accurate way of knowing your body's daily requirement for calories, hence how many calories you need to consume, to maintain your health and normal bodily function.

I know calculations (and all the math) aren't your strong area (Hey, it's definitely not mine!).........

So, I make it simple for you to estimate your daily calorie requirement, like this:

• If you're inactive (sedentary)

  Number of calories burned in a day

  Body weight x 14 = estimated calories per day

• If you're moderately active

  Body weight x 17 = estimated calories per day

• If you're active

  Body weight x 29 = estimated calories per day

Simple enough?

How many calories burned in a day then?

I think this basic understanding is important to help you know how much you need to burn off in a day, i.e. how many calories it takes for you to gain 1 lb of fat.

1 lb of fat equals to 3,500 calories. Meaning if you eat an extra 350 calories daily, you could gain an extra 1 lb every 10 days (350 calories x 10 days). Or you could gain 1 lb in 20 days if you eat an extra 175 calories daily (175 calories x 20 days).

Or if you eat 175 fewer calories daily, this would mean that you could lose 1 lb of fat every 20 days.

Or if you eat the same diet, but burn an extra 175 calories daily by doing more exercise, then you could lose 1 lb of fat in 20 days.

So, that's roughly how it works to expense off your calories daily, to lose weight.

And you can lose weight easier by increasing your metabolic rate and burning more calories.

Note: Metabolic rate is the rate at which you and my body burns up calories

Here's how as an example:

Consume 2,000 calories and burn 2,500 calories daily - you'll lose weight at the rate of about 1 lb per week/per 10 day (500 calories x 10 days = 3,500 calories which equals to 1 lb of fat).

Or if you'd like to lose 1 lb per week, and keep your food caloric intake unchanged, you'll have to burn around 500 extra calories daily through exercise.

Note: Don't go below 1,200 calories daily unless you're on a medically supervised weight loss program

Are you with me?

I want to add that the number of calories you consume daily is different from mine, from your friend's, your siblings'......

Take the nutritional label of the food you buy - the "percent daily values" are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, which is a rough average of what most people eat daily.

But your body might need more or less than 2,000 calories.

Your height, weight, gender, age and level of physical activity, all of them affect the number of calories burned in day.

I always go for lean muscle building - strength-training with weights.

This exercise boosts my lean muscle mass.

For every extra lb of muscle I pack into my frame, my body burns off 50 extra calories daily.

In a recent study, researchers found that regular strength training boosts BMR by about 15%.

This is because lean muscle mass is "metabolically active" - it burns more calories than any other body tissue, even when I'm resting.

I strength train just 3 times per week for 10-15 minutes per session; it's more than enough to build lean muscle mass.

Mind you, I don't just burn more calories, I look better as well – whatever my body weight because strength training defines my muscle and strengthens it too.

The next thing I go for is cardio exercise.

This exercise kick starts my metabolism into higher gear, so my metabolic rate soars higher and I've higher fat-burning capacity to burn off more fat calories from my entire body.

OK. Cardio exercises aren't created equal.

But, an hour is an hour, meaning, you've a choice to decide how many calories you want to burn in that precious 1 hour.

Sit and be a potato couch for an hour and you'll burn 100 calories.

Swim/bike/jog/run......for an hour and you'll burn 400 - 500 calories, on average.

Considering both uses the same amount of time but for one, you lose weight and become healthier, for the other, ahem....., you gain weight and become unhealthy......

Quite a dramatic difference, won't you agree? So, make your choice!

How much you need to exercise to burn more calories?

Well, like I said before, an hour is an hour.

To burn off that amount of calories (average 500 daily), you need to exercise (cardio) for 1 hour.

That's the hard reality.

To make weight loss easier, I recommend you go for the combo - exercise and eat a well-balanced, healthy, weight-loss nutritious diet .

I love this combo. It's the best I can rely on and it's effective, to get my calories burned in a day - balanced.

Well, this "calories burn in a day" thing is really all about calorie balance.

If you eat more calories than what your body can use/burn off, you store the unburned calories as fat.

1 lb of body fat equals to 3,500 calories.

Apart from calories burned through BMR,physical activity and TEF, if you want to lose weight, you need to create a deficit of 3,500 calories per week to lose 1 lb of fat.

You do this either by eating 500 fewer calories daily or exercising more to burn off 500 extra calories daily.

Do you see the calorie balance here?

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