Calories & Weight Loss

Below is an excerpt from Part Two of

The 2004 Multi-Diet

by Anderson A. Anonymous, M.D., Ph.D.

Total Energy Expenditure (TEE)

In 1985 the World Health Organization (WHO) defined the energy requirement for individuals as:

“...that level of energy intake from food which will balance energy expenditure when the individual has a body size and composition, and level of physical activity, consistent with long-term good health; and which will allow for the maintenance of economically necessary and socially desirable physical activity.”

Ick! What incomprehensible“ bureaucratese!”. Who writes this stuff? (Ok, it’s accurate, but what does it mean?)

Basically it just means the Total Energy Expenditure (TEE) of a normal person who is neither gaining nor losing weight. (Why couldn’t they just say that?J) This Total Energy Expenditure (in Calories) is mainly the sum of your Resting Energy Expenditure (REE) and your Activity Energy Expenditure (AEE). Table 8 & Table 9 below will give you a good idea of how many calories it is for you. Obviously if you eat fewer Calories than this number you will lose weight (the fewer, the faster)—and that’s the reason you need to know what it is.