If you are a member of any fitness club or slimming centre, you may have heard phrases such as Negative calorie balance or Compensation diet. We’ll talk about Compensation diet later, But first, let us focus on what is Negative calorie balance and how you can calculate it yourself. Negative calorie balance is mainly reduction of extra calories from actual intake of calories so as to achieve a weight loss.
Each dietician has her own personal recommendation to achieve the patient’s target. A negative calorie balance of 550cal/day will induce a weight loss of 0.5 kg/week. This can be achieved by reducing the intake by 250 calories from food and taking exercise to burn 300 calories. It is important to note that reducing calories does not imply shifting to a starvation diet. This technique is employed only in specific cases where the actual calorie consumption is more than required, by a person of a given age, physique, physiology, as well as mental conditions, so as to enable the person to cope up with new lifestyle modification plus meal serving modifications.
Activities (such as our routine life) consuming 2.5-4.9 calories per minute in a normal adult are considered as light; those (such as exercises) consuming 5.0-7.4 calories per minute are considered as moderate; those (sports) consuming 7.5 calories per minute and over are considered as strenuous.
To calculate your day to day calorie consumption the following chart will be helpful. Although, It is a better idea to let a professional dietician determine the amount of negative calorie balance needed if any.