This article will help to correctly assess the condition of your body, measure the percentage of body fat and lose weight without bringing any harm.

Before you ask «a pound of body fat contains approximately how many calories?», let’s get to know what calorie is. A kilocalorie is a unit of measurement of energy consumed or spent and is used to measure the energy value of food. In other words, it allows a quantitative assessment of the energy entering the body with food and the energy expenditure of the body.

Calories per Pound of Body Fat

To find out how much energy your body consumes every day and thus calculate your energy requirement for calories, you should calculate your basic metabolism. It corresponds to the ratio of consumption/calories at rest and varies with age, weight and physical activity. Its value allows you to understand the needs of your body to provide vital functions. And then you can choose the best ketogenic amino acids

How to Calculate the Day Energy Needs in Calories

To calculate the main metabolism (in kcal), use the following formulas. The resulting number corresponds to the energy that your body spends at rest for 24 hours.

• Under 18 years old – 17.3 x bodyweight in kg + 651
• 19-30 years old – 15.3 x bodyweight in kg + 879
• 31-60 years old – 11.6 x bodyweight in kg + 487
• After 60 years – 13.5 x bodyweight in kg + 487

Body Fat Types

Fat in the body helps to protect vital organs. With age, the amount of average body fat increases. The basis of this phenomenon is age-related overeating and decreased physical activity.

In the human body, there are 2 types of fat:

• subcutaneous – it can be felt, it is external;
• visceral (internal).

Subcutaneous fat is metabolically less active, and visceral is rapidly broken down. Important: when trying to lose weight, visceral fat leaves first; moreover, it begins to leave precisely from the abdomen. With a weight loss of only 5-10%, fat in the abdominal cavity is reduced by 10-30%. Genetics can influence the amount of body fat an individual possesses.

It is also worth checking the weight loss pen.

Measuring Body Fat Percentage

Regularly measuring this value is the best method for evaluating your nutrition and burning fat. There are several methods for calculating this value, but most of these methods have significant measurement errors. Therefore, it is recommended that you use professional methods, and not measure your body fat on a home electronic scale. Below are the methods by which you can measure the mass of fat in your body.

To measure the amount of fat in the human body is quite simple, for this you need to separate it from the total body weight. For example, if you weigh 70 kg, of which 10 kg is fat, then the percentage of the latter is calculated using a simple formula: (10/70) * 100% = 14.3%. The whole difficulty lies in determining the mass of body fat.

As mentioned above, there are several different techniques for measuring fat content, however, only the hydrostatic weighing method provides direct information on the amount of fat in the body with an error of no more than 20 g. All other methods are based on statistical data and give only indirect estimates.

How to Increase Basic Metabolism & Energy Consumption

By increasing your basic metabolism, you will automatically speed up energy consumption, that is, you can burn more calories. How to do it? Following a properly selected, healthy and balanced diet and engaging in regular and moderate physical activity.

Nutrition

With food, you get not only calories: the amount of energy is spent on the digestion process in an amount more or less consistent with the food taken. Some foods break down worse than others, so the body spends more energy to digest them. This applies to complex carbohydrates (unrefined, such as whole grains and rice) and proteins. On the contrary, fats have a simple structure, so they accumulate almost in its original form. Example: with 100 kcal beefsteak less fat is deposited than with 100 kcal oil because the body needs more energy than digesting meat than storing fat from butter. Therefore, remember that the energy value of food is not an absolute value because the accumulated calories depend on the type of food!

Physical activity

Sport naturally improves metabolism. This is because when he needs to cover the cost of physical activity, he draws energy from his reserves to provide nutrients for muscle cells. This process is called catabolism. In the long run, the physical activity allows you to spend more energy at rest. You can buy the best elliptical under 200 and start exercising at home.

What Sport Helps to Burn More Calories

If you need to lose weight, you must reduce the number of calories received, that is, eat less and spend more calories, therefore, move more. In this regard, the so-called aerobic endurance sports (treadmill, cycling, exercise bike or elliptical trainer) are especially effective. The fact is that during classes with these types of physical activity, the body takes energy in fat reserves (due to the fact that the energy of carbohydrates quickly ends). Thus, as soon as the body realizes that the upcoming load will be long, he switches to other methods of supplying muscles with energy. He uses fats and begins to turn them from one state to another. To get rid of fat, first of all, it is worth giving preference to exercises to strengthen the muscles, which take the most calories, namely the large muscles of the legs, buttocks, and back. Since larger muscles consume more energy during work, more calories are burned.

To provide the body with all the necessary energy, it needs macronutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, which are supplied with food. If your weight does not change over time, this means that the energy supplied is equal to the energy consumed. If you have weight gain, it means that your body does not need such an amount of energy that you provide it. This may be due to insufficient energy consumption or as a result of excess energy entering through food. In both cases, the body accumulates excess energy, usually in the form of fats (triglycerides).