Yes, burning 500 calories per day is good for reasonable weight loss per week. If you want to lose a pound of fat, you need to burn 3500 calories. If you burn 500 calories per day, by the end of the week, you will burn 3500 calories, which means you will lose a pound of fat.
Over the course of a day, your body's natural calorie burn without any activity can range from 1,300 to more than 2,000, depending on your age and sex.
No matter what type of diet you follow, to lose weight you need to burn more calories than you take in each day. For most people with overweight, cutting about 500 calories a day is a good place to start. If you can eat 500 fewer calories every day, you should lose about a pound (450 g) a week.
There are 7,700kcals (kcal=calorie) worth of energy in 1kg of fat. That means in order to burn 1kg of fat, you must have a calorie deficit of 7,700. Considering the average daily intake can be anywhere from 1,800-2,400kcals, it takes some time to burn that fat.
Most people burn around 30-40 calories per 1,000 steps, which means they will burn around 300-400 calories by walking 10,000 steps.
There's no definitive answer for the number of kilojoules you should be burning each day because it largely depends on your goals — like if you're trying to maintain, lose, or gain weight — and is even influenced by your age, sex, and muscle mass.
A general rule is to aim to burn 400-500 calories, five days a week during your workouts. Remember, the number of calories you burn in a workout depends on your weight, sex, age and many other factors, but this number is a good starting place.
Cardio exercises like running, cycling, swimming, rowing, stair climbing, hiking, and elliptical trainer workouts can burn 500 calories, especially if your workouts are long and/or vigorous.
According to Healthline, running burns the most calories. A tried and true exercise that requires little more than your legs and the open road, running burns just over 800 calories for a 155-pound adult per hour.
The exact number of calories you burn while sleeping depends on your age and weight. Generally speaking, sleepers burn between 40 – 80 calories an hour. So in an 8-hour window, you can expect to burn between 320 – 640 calories per night.
This will be dependent on your activity level, age, weight, job, and exercise habits. Your goal should be one that challenges you, but also feels maintainable. I'd recommend starting your goal anywhere from 400-600 calories/day and adjusting it according to your habits, goals, and results.
If you're not losing weight in a calorie deficit you may need to adjust your stress levels, diet, and sleep patterns. Other reasons for weight gain during a calorie deficit are hormonal changes, aging, and other health conditions.
Some health conditions may be the reason why you are in a calorie deficit and not losing any weight. These mainly include hormonal imbalances such as hypothyroidism, illnesses that affect insulin response and glucose metabolism, such as diabetes, or a mix of the two.
Enhanced physical strength
Burning off 300 calories every day will reduce the amount of body fat in your body and increase muscle mass. While exercising and building muscle mass can help develop physical strength, it also reduces body fat, decreasing the chances of suffering from common heart diseases and diabetes.
If the average stride length is 80 centimetres, it takes 1250 steps to walk one kilometre. Put simply, someone weighing 70 kilograms would use about 1840 kilojoules while covering their 10,000 daily steps.
Furthermore, reducing to 4,500 kilojoules should result in a weight loss of 1kg per week and going down to 2,400 kilojoules a day should result in a weight loss of 1.5kg per week.
But to lose a kilogram of body fat, the energy deficit has to be about five-times greater, around 39,500 kilojoules. A fourth factor is that when people who are carrying a lot of fat lose some weight, they will at first lose weight from their fatty tissue rather than from the lean muscle.
It's based largely on your basal metabolic rate (BMR) or the energy your body expends at rest—even when you're sleeping! —just to keep you alive. BMR powers basic but vital life processes, like breathing and thinking, and accounts for most of your daily calorie burn.
Completing an extra 10,000 steps each day typically burns about 2000 to 3500 extra calories each week. One pound of body fat equals 3500 calories, so depending on your weight and workout intensity, you could lose about one pound per week simply by completing an extra 10,000 steps each day.
According to a 2018 study published in the journal Obesity, walking 10,000 steps a day is associated with weight loss and weight management. Plus, it's a low-impact exercise, making it accessible for all fitness levels.