# question about burning calories

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-burning-calories/296621>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 28, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-burning-calories/296621 "2005-03-28T16:47:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-burning-calories/296621/1 "2005-03-28T16:47:44Z")

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I, like many of you, want to lose some weight. How do I figure out how many calories I need to burn and/or cut from my diet? I want to figure out how many calories/day I would need to maintain my current weight, so I can use that number to determine how many calories I should be eating in order to actually lose weight.

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**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-burning-calories/296621/2 "2005-03-28T18:41:42Z")

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[http://www.room42.com/nutrition/basal.shtml](http://www.room42.com/nutrition/basal.shtml)

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**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-burning-calories/296621/3 "2005-03-28T18:54:20Z")

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Thanks, that was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for!

Apparently, I burn around 1500 a day on my own, w/ no aerobic exercise. I should not eat less than 1200 calories for weight loss.

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**Author:** ![AsecretK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ab992/32.png) [@AsecretK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AsecretK)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-burning-calories/296621/4 "2005-03-28T19:19:37Z")

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This may also be helpful. Scroll to the bottom of the page and insert data.

[Linky](http://www.primusweb.com/cgi-bin/fpc/actcalc.pl)