approximately how many calories are contained in a pound of body fat
Say you consume 2,000 calories daily (to know the exact amount of calories you burn you have to determine your resting metabolic rate), and on top of that you burn extra 1,500 calories for a grand total of 3,500, but you would not burn a pound of body fat. In short, there are approximately 3,500 calories in a pound of fat. This means that if you were to increase your calorie burning by 3,500 a week, and held your diet unchanged, you would potentially end up about 1 pound (that is more or less ½ kilo) lighter at the end of the week, than you would have otherwise. Your weight is a balancing act, but the equation is simple: If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. Because 3,500 calories equals about 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of fat, you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in to lose 1 pound. So, in general, if you cut 500 calories from your typical diet each day, you'd lose about 1 pound a week (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories). It isn't quite this simple, however, and you usually lose a combination of fat, lean tissue and water. Just a few things: Think about what you regularly eat, what your calorie needs are, and how to count calories. It takes approximately 3,500 calories below your calorie needs to lose a pound of body fat. It takes approximately 3,500 calories above your calorie needs to gain a pound. Common dieting wisdom says that we'll lose one pound for every 3,500 calories we burn. Is that true? The above quoted formula is taken as dieting orthodoxy: to lose one pound of fat per week, simply create a 3,500 calorie deficit through diet and exercise et voila, lose a pound a week for as long as you can keep it up. At this point, you know how many excess calories it takes to gain a pound or deficit calories to lose a pound (3,500), and you know about how many calories you need (in My Personal Profile). You are already on the road to a Healthier You! The simple answer to how many calories must be burned to lose a pound of weight is essentially the number of calories in a pound of fat. Fat is the primary source of undesirable stored calories in the body, when people talk about burning weight, they are almost always referring to body fat. In reality, 1 pound of fat is equivalent to 453.6 grams, while 1 gram of fat would contain 9 calories. Thus, one fat pound would contain 4082 calories. This would come from the equation: 9 x 453.6 = 4,082.4 . This is the approximate amount of calories that you gain every time your body consumes a pound of fat. However, when talking about getting rid of 1 lb of body fat, you must get your body to burn 3500 calories. The formula comes from a simple truth: there are 3,500 calories in a pound of human fat, explains Dr. Donald Hensrud, chair of preventive medicine at the Mayo Clinic and medical editor-in-chief of The Mayo Clinic Diet. There is a right number of calories for you. This number depends on your age, gender, weight, activity level, and whether you're trying to gain, maintain, or lose weight. In chapter 4, Where to Start, you estimated how many calories you need to maintain your weight at your current physical activity level.
3,500