How many calories should I eat a day? This is the question echoed by many who are desperate to lose weight or learn to control how much they eat. Knowing the amount of calories you should consume is going to depend on a few things.
We will have to factor in things such as your weight, your age, your height, your activity levels, and whether or not your goal is to lose weight or gain weight. Here is a little calorie calculator to get you started.
Calorie Calculator
Now in order for you to be as healthy as you should be, you will need to learn proper balance. Balance means knowing how many calories you need to take in each day with the food you eat. You then need to monitor how many calories you burn each day. Depending on what you are trying to do, lose weight or gain weight, you need to consume a certain amount of calories or you will need to minimize them while burning more.
I am going to assume that the goal of people who want to know how many calories they should eat is to lose weight. Well here is another good chart by the US Department of Health and Human Services in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
The following list gives a pretty simple example of how many calories people in certain age groups should be consuming per day. Keep in mind, this chart goes based off of how much exercise you do. It assumes that people in any given age group are getting at least thirty minutes per day of moderate physical activity.
- Children——–2-3 years old 1000 calories
- Children——–4-8 years old 1200-1400 calories
- Girls————-9-13 years old 1600 calories
- Boys————9-13 years old 1800 calories
- Girls————14-18 years old 1800 calories
- Boys———–14-18 years old 2200 calories
- Females——-19-30 years old 2000 calories
- Males———-19-30 years old 2400 calories
- Females——-31-50 years old 1800 calories
- Males———-31-50 years old 2200 calories
- Females——-51+ years old 1600 calories
- Males———-51+ years old 2000 calories
There is only one major problem with this chart. It does not take in mind someone’s body type. What if you have a heavy build? What if you have a thin build? Someone who is very thin might actually have to consume more calories per day then someone that has a heavier frame. So what is one to do in order to get a more accurate number?
People need to go to a physician and get an adjusted figure based on their body weight. Once you are aware of the exact amount of calories you need to be consuming per day on average, then you can monitor what you eat and control calories.
If you want to lose weight then you will need to burn more calories than you consume. If your goal is to gain weight, than you will need to consume more calories than you burn. Doing either of these things can be quite tricky though.
You can consume high calorie foods if you are trying to gain weight, but if your goal is to gain muscle for instance, consuming high calories might cause you to put on fat instead. If your goal is to lose weight, then you might eat lower calorie foods, but then you may not be getting enough energy to get through the day.
The whole goal is to maintain balance in your caloric intake. Many people do not pay attention to what is on the back of the nutrition labels with the food they eat. They do not pay attention to serving sizes and recommendations. Make sure you do not fall into that category.
How Many Calories To Lose Weight & To Maintain Your Weight
If you want to know exactly how many calorie you need to consume in order to lose weight or to maintain weight, you will need to understand how calories work. You see, losing weight or maintaining your current weight comes down to you believing in one simple theory. You have to believe in the “calories in, calories out” theory.
This means if your goal is to lose weight then you have to burn more calories then what you eat. If you want to maintain your current weight you want to eat exactly the amount of calories you should be as recommended according to your body weight and height. Now don’t get me wrong, you might be able to lose weight without ever having to worry about calories.
The same holds true when it comes to maintaining your weight. In this case all you would have to do is cut out the garbage, like junk foods and high sugar drinks for instance. People who are overweight are consuming far too many calories, and they are not engaging in much physical activity in order to burn them off.
These extra calories are converted into body fat without activity, and this leads to obesity. In those looking to maintain their current weight the same holds true. These people just might gain weight slower, and over the years it will add up. There is a simple formula you can use to maintain your weight or lose weight based on controlling caloric intake.
Formula For Losing and Maintaing Weight
The first thing you will have to do is learn exactly how many calories you are consuming each day. Look carefully at the back of foods you buy and purchase servings size cups and spoons so you are always able to keep in accordance with recommended servings. This goes for snacks and drinks especially.
Now you will want to learn what activities you do each day and how many calories you burn on average. Calorie burning activities might be things like walking up stairs, jogging, exercising, bike riding, or anything that gets the heart rate up and makes you sweat.
Now you will need to figure out exactly how much weight you are hoping to lose. In order to do this simply subtract your current weight from your goal weight. Keep in mind that a pound equals about 3500 calories on average. So if your goal is to lose weight you will need to burn at least 3500 calories a day on average more then what you consume.
This may be extreme for some, so it can be deviated. You can just decide to burn 500 more calories then what you consume each day and lose about a pound a week. This will help people stay consistent and of course this is a much healthier option.
The same goes for those who want to maintain their current weight. In order to make any of this work you need to keep track of how many calories you consume, and make sure you are burning enough to keep from putting on extra pounds.
