One of the foremost motivations for utilizing weight lifting workouts in our day to day routine is to lose and maintain body weight. For some men, the primary aim is to actually put on some weight, but for the rest of us, we are actually hoping to shed a few pounds. This could be to reduce our risk of heart disease or to simply feel a little better about our bodies. The problem is that it isn’t effective to simply implement one of the weight lifting workouts listed on this site to meet your weight loss goals. Theoretically, you could stay in the gym doing lifting workouts for 4 hours a day, 365 days a year, however, if you consume 4,000 calories per day in high-fat foods, you still won’t lose weight.

In this article at Weight Lifting Workouts, we are introducing a simple equation to help you calculate your caloric expenditure throughout the day. If you are able to manage the calories you consume during the day and also head to the gym for cardiovascular exercise and weight lifting workouts a few times a week, you will be able to shed weight by increasing your total daily caloric expenditure. This isn’t rocket science and we all know this is the way it works, it’s just that sometimes we don’t fully understand the process of calories in and calories out throughout the course of a day.

As an approximation, the standard rule of thumb you need to remember to achieve weight loss is as follows:

1 lb of weight loss = 3,500 calories burned

This is important to keep in mind. If you’re goal is to lose one pound of weight, you need a 3,500 calorie caloric deficit. Now before you jump ahead and decide you’re going to go on a very low calorie diet (VLCD) and lose 5 pounds in a week, you have to realize this is not a healthy or sustainable method of losing weight. A healthier method to achieve that pound of weight loss is to try to create a reasonable and sustainable deficit of perhaps 500 calories each day so that you can lose one pound each week. If your goal is to lose 10 pounds, you can achieve this is 10 weeks.

I only use the example of creating a caloric deficit of 500 calories a day because it is a reasonable expectation for most of us without introducing any sort of radical shifts in our diet or lifestyle. There is a sea of scientific evidence in the field of weight loss management that indicates that major changes to your diet and exercise in a short period of time lead to burn out. You need to set goals that you can work at over a long period of time. And you need to be able to enjoy life along the way. If you go out with the guys for happy hour after work and sip water while they’re having a couple of beers, you’re probably not going to be enjoying the journey. It’s alright to have a light beer or enjoy small indulgences here and there to keep yourself moving toward your weight loss goals.

The formula to determine caloric expenditure is pretty straightforward and begins with calculating your individual REE, or resting energy expenditure. This employs a rough approximation based on your current weight in kilograms and your age. There are other highly scientific ways to come up with this number and if you’re really interested in an accurate assessment, you can have your REE calculated professionally. Just ask a trainer or staff member at your local gym and they can point you in the right direction.

Example:

158 pound man, age 41

158 pounds / 2.2 = 72 kgs

(11.6 x 72 kgs) + 879 = 1,714 REE calories

All this means is that if you were to lie in bed the entire day, a 158 pound 41-year-old man would expend 1,714 calories for the day to sustain basic metabolic processes. Now, there are many other factors which can have an effect on this number. This can include genetics, current body composition, and other environmental factors like cold weather (which increases REE) or caffeine consumption (which also raises metabolism).

Now that we have an approximation of resting energy expenditure, we can begin to factor in additional calories expended through weight lifting workouts or cardio training. For cardiovascular exercise, it’s very likely that the equipment you use can approximate your caloric expenditure during your workout, but if not, you can search the web for one of the many calculators that can give you this number according to your age and weight. And generally speaking, moderate intensity weight lifting workouts burn an average of 457 calories per hour for a 158 pound male.

As an example, let’s assume you do 20 minutes of cardio on the treadmill and your weight lifting workouts take 45 minutes. Running on a treadmill at 7 miles an hour (moderate intensity) expends 876 calories per hour for the 158 pound male in our example. That comes to 15 calories a minute, so the treadmill burns 300 calories. The weight lifting workouts break down to about 8 calories a minute, so 45 minutes burns another 360 calories, for a total of a 660 calorie workout.

1,714 REE calories + 660 calories burned during exercise = 2,374 calories burned

I will generally increase this number by 10% since we don’t actually lie in bed all day and burn the minimum REE and gym calories. We do a few things around the house, run around the office, and generally probably live fairly busy lives that burn a few additional calories.

2,374 x 110% = 2,611 total caloric expenditure

We’re now able to recognize and estimate that creating that daily deficit in calories of 500 will require restricting our consumption to:

2,611 – 500 = 2,111 total caloric consumption.

This is a reasonable expectation if you can stick to low-fat, healthy food choices during the day with the occasional exception. Even if you can’t limit your food intake this much, you could shoot for a deficit of 250 calories and still reach your goal of losing 10 pounds over the course of 20 weeks.

You can start to see just how critical having an exercise routine is in losing weight. If you’re planning to set weight loss goals for yourself, it is absolutely critical to get to set up a plan for cardiovascular exercise and weight lifting workouts.