Saturday, December 17, 2011

How Many calories Should I Eat a Day?

The term "Calorie" has come to be very coarse as this is the quantum recommended by dietitians and nutritionists to sacrifice body weight. Also, this is the term population are more concerned about, to avoid obesity and other ill effects.

Most population think that they consume less calories if they are not eating enough. But this is a wrong advent as this lowers the metabolic rate and puts body into starvation mode. The ideal way is to utter your calories by eating right estimate of very nutrient food.

An active someone who exercises every day will burn more calories than the someone who is moderately active with less bodily activities.

Men, Women and Children have different daily calorie needs as there are different metabolisms, different heights, weight, age and gender for every human being. The current lifestyle also has an impact in the estimate of wholesome calorie intake. In general, Men need 2000 to 2500 calories and Women need 1500 to 2400 calories per day depending on their age levels, height and weight. There are many ways to analyse your daily calories needs. There are calorie calculators that help you to estimate daily calorie needs based on gender, height, weight, age and performance level.

It is recommended to eat at least 1200 to 1500 calories per day if you want to lose weight, but this diet plan cannot be followed forever. You need to take balanced diet with enough calories to stay active and healthy.

Men at the age group of 20 to 30 years who do less practice would need almost 2400 calories per day whereas Women at the same age group, with the same type of workout routines would need nearby 2000 calories per day. Men of age group 31 to 50 with less bodily performance levels would need 2200 to 2300 calories per day while women of age group 31 to 50 with less bodily performance would need 1800 to 1900 calories per day.

This calculation applies to children as well. Children of age group 2 to 3 years would need 1000 calories per day whereas children of age group 4 to 8 years would need 1100 to 1500 calories per day with less bodily performance levels.

Young boys at the age group of 9 to 18 years wish nearby 1800 to 3000 calories and girls wish nearby 1800 to 2200 calories per day.

Women above 50 years of age need 1600 to 1700 calories per day and Men above 50 years may need 2000 to 2200 calories per day with less bodily performance levels.

Similarly, Men of age group 20 to 50 years with more bodily performance levels may need 2500 to 3000 calories per day and women may wish 2000 to 2500 calories per day.

Men above 50 years would need 2300 to 2800 calories and women would need 1800 to 2300 calories per day with more bodily activities.

Calorie Calculator

There are many calorie calculators ready online to predict the daily calorie needs. Once you estimate your calorie needs, consequent it for a week and start monitoring the changes to your body weight. Make adjustments in calorie intake as required so that you can utter your weight as you wish.

Basal Metabolic Rate (Bmr)

You need to intuit Bmr to shape out ho many calories you need per day. Bmr measures the estimate of calories you need to utter your current weight with general body processes. The very easy and basic formulae for calculating your Bmr is - just multiply your current body weight by 10.

For example, if your current weight is 100 lbs, 1000 calories per day is the basal metabolic rate. Basal Metabolic Rate calculation does not include the quantum from bodily performance levels (based on practice limits). You can use some other formulas like Harris - Benedict recipe and Katch-McArdle recipe to estimate the Bmr that includes performance levels.

Exercise is an leading factor that determines your daily calorie needs. If you are more physically active or if you do lot of exercise, your body needs slightly higher calorie levels. However, there are other factors like age, height and estimate of body fat you have etc also plays a vital role in determining calorie needs.

Maintain an performance Diary

You need to rate yourself by maintaining an performance diary. You need to decree if you are sedentary, moderately active or active.

You are "sedentary" if there is not much bodily performance in your lifestyle or job. It may involve mostly sitting, standing etc. You are "lightly active" if you do very light walking. You are "Moderately active" if you do slightly more bodily performance than just walking. This may include doing some cleaning, some other work to be done manually. You are "Very active" if you do lot of work and more exercise. You are "Extremely active" if you are complex in any sports, quarterly hard work outs etc. Keep a track of these different performance levels in the diary.

Set a target of two weeks and keep a detailed description of things you eat and drink in two weeks period. description all you bodily activities, weight and update the diary every day with your routines. After 2 weeks, if your weight is the same when you started, you are on the right track and you are fascinating the calories calculated by Bmr. If you have gained weight while the 2 weeks exercise, you need to do the requisite changes in your diet plan.

Balance your diet with wholesome foods

It is leading to know what type of calories you eat every day. You need to allocate your daily calorie intake as follows:

1. Take 40% of protein rich food every day. You can get rich proteins from lean meat, fish, milk, eggs

2. Eat 40% carbohydrates that come from beans, peas, oats, lentils, yogurts etc. Do not go for items like sugar, beverages, cookies, pizza, bread, potatoes, rice, pasta etc

3. 20% of unsaturated or good fat is acceptable. You can eat nuts, seeds etc

Take only Balanced diet with wholesome calories and please do remember that calories are the only way to keep check in your weight. You need to alter the calorie intake to lose weight. Any diet plan without a clear distribution in the types of calories will not be of help. Choose a correct diet plan and decree the daily calorie needs.

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