One of the greatest mysteries of people’s lifestyle is that how many calories should I eat a day. An effective knowledge of your daily calorie requirements is integral to the maintenance of your good health.
The energy produced from your calorie intake enables smooth functioning of your body organs and systems. Our daily activities largely depend on the energy produced in our body. This energy comes from the burning of our consumed calories. You can make healthier choices in your life by following a balanced diet with the right amount of calorie content.
Knowing the daily requirement of calorie intake in your body is crucial for your good health.
Scientific researchers and healthcare professionals suggest that:
However, the calorie you eat in a day may vary on the basis of different factors and other physical activities. You lifestyle design has a significant impact on your daily calorie needs:
The daily calorie intake definitely varies from individual to individual according to their age group. For example, a child needs considerable amount of calories for its proper growth and development. On the other hand, teenagers and young adults require the maximum amount of calories. This is because they perform the maximum level of activity at this point of life. The old age again demands less calorie intake. This is because we undergo different changes in our metabolism functions during our old age. This does not consume much energy in our body.
The gender of individuals also plays a crucial role in determining their calorie requirements. For instance, male births correspond to more calorie requirement than female ones. This is probably because of their larger body size as compared to female newborns. In fact, the physiological system of males looks for more calories in their young age and adulthood. This is why they are physically more active.
Your height is a major determinant of how much calorie you need. Excessive low calorie intake can foster a negative effect on your height. You will experience a stunt growth if you consume lower calories than you need. Moreover, over intake of calories can influence your hormone secretion necessary for an optimal height.
If you consume greater calories than you burn per day, you may become overweight. This is because your body deposits this excess energy as fat for future use. You have to reduce your calorie consumption to enable the breakdown of your deposited fats. This will eventually lead to a successive weight loss.
In contrast to this, you lose weight because of low calorie intake as compared to your calorie usage rate. In this case, you need to intake greater amounts of calories to balance your calorie burns.
If you do regular exercise then you will require a comparatively higher calorie intake. This is necessary to match the level of your excess calorie usage that you have given up during exercise.
Your food habit is a major determining factor of your body’s calorie need. In some areas, people mostly intake sea food that causes excess of salt in their diet. On the contrary, some people tend towards oily foods and processed items. These cause degradation of calorie intake in their diet.
Besides, certain physiological factors are responsible for influencing your calorie requirements:
Several tips provide you the idea of calorie awareness. These majorly include:
Contact the clinic today for a same-day GP appointment.
You calorie need depends on your age, gender and activity levels. You can refer to the following for getting an estimate of your calorie requirements.
However, individual calorie needs differ from person to person due to differences in rates of metabolism.
Contact the clinic today for a same-day GP appointment.
A woman needs nearly 300 excess calories per day during her pregnancy. However, these extra calories should come from healthy sources. You should avoid junk foods and excessive sweet intake during pregnancy. You must eat lots of fresh fruits and green vegetables. This will provide the necessary vitamins and minerals to your growing baby. You can also intake protein-rich foods with unsaturated fats. Folic acid, calcium and iron are other important nutrients for your baby.
The calorie requirement for a pregnant woman must range around:
Consumption of bread, rice, cereals, fresh fruits, green vegetables, milk, cheese, yoghurt is good for a pregnancy diet with adequate calorie content. Besides, meat, eggs, fish, pulses, poultry, nuts and beans provide good amounts of protein to pregnant females.
In case you want to maintain the current body weight, you have to balance your amount of calorie intake to amount of your calorie usage in a day. You should ensure a regular calorie intake between 2000 to 2500 calories for maintaining an optimal weight.
You need to calculate your BMR to assess the calorie usage in your body.
655.1 + (9.563 x weight in kg) + (1.850 x height in cm) - (4.676 x age in years)
66.47 + (13.75 x weight in kg) + (5.003 x height in cm) - (6.755 x age in years)
This indicates the rate of calorie burn in your body.
On the other hand, AMR helps you know your calorie requirement.
AMR = BMR x 1.2
AMR = BMR x 1.55
AMR = BMR x 1.9
This suggests the calorie you need to intake per day.
The following food items produce the maximum calories in human body.
Name of Food Item |
Calorie Content per 100 grams |
1. Homemade granola |
489 calories |
2. Meat (Chicken leg) |
184 calories |
3. Firm tofu |
144 calories |
4. Fish (Salmon) |
206 calories |
5. Avocados |
160 calories |
6. Dairy foods |
61 calories |
7. Chickpeas |
164 calories |
8. Sweet potatoes |
101 calories |
9. Whole grains (Brown rice) |
123 calories |
10. Nuts |
718 calories |
The lifestyle designs and food habits are largely responsible for impacting the calorie requirements of the people there. You can ensure how many calories you should eat a day by the following tips:
About one-third of your total meal must comprise of starchy carbohydrates. You can intake adequate amounts of rice, cereals, bread and potatoes. You can also consume wholegrain for getting high fibre content. Brown rice and whole-wheat pasta are good for a fibre-rich diet. These food items provide you the right amount of calories with the adequate feeling of stomach fullness after a meal.
Most of the healthcare professionals recommend eating a minimum of 5 portions various fruits and vegetables per day. You can eat them in fresh, canned, dried, juiced or frozen states as well. The consumption of adequate fruits and vegetables provides vitamins and minerals to your body.
Fish offers abundant protein, vitamins and minerals in our body. For a healthy and balanced diet, you should intake at least 2 potions of fish every 7 days. You should also include oily fish in your diet. Oily fish are rich deposits of omega-3 fats. These are highly useful preventing heart problems.
Salmon, herring, trout, pilchards, sardines and mackerel are some beneficial oily fish that foster positive effects on your health. On the other hand, some common non-oily fish include cod, coley, plaice, hake, skate, tuna and haddock.
Excessive consumption of sugary foods and drinks may be responsible for generating tooth decays and making your body obese. You should avoid free sugars found in synthetic fruit juices, honey and syrups. You need to avoid sugary breakfast cereals, cakes, sugary fizzy drinks, pastries and puddings, biscuits, alcoholic drinks, sweets and chocolate to get rid of free sugar.
You should follow a low sugar calorie intake. If 100 grams of food contains more than 22.5 grams sugar, then the food has high sugar content. On the contrary, this value of sugar should be equal to or less than 5 grams in every 100 grams of food. This will help you in achieving a low sugar diet.
A little amount of fat forms an essential component of your regular diet. Fat can mainly be of two types namely, saturated and unsaturated. Consumption of excessive saturated fats eventually increases your cholesterol level in blood. This may lead to serious heart diseases.
Dieticians and healthcare specialists suggest males to not consume more than 30 grams saturated fat in a day. On the other hand, females should only intake up to 20 grams saturated fat per day. Children below 11 years, however, should intake less saturated fat than adults.
You should avoid food sources of saturated fats. Some common foods include sausages, hard cheese, cakes, lard, pies, biscuits, cream, butter and some fatty cuts of meat. You should instead go for unsaturated fats like oily fish, avocados or vegetable oils.
Excessive salt intake can be responsible for a high blood pressure. This can eventually lead to risks of heart conditions and strokes. Salt is already present in considerable amounts in packaged foods. Soups, breads, sauces and breakfast cereals contain salt. Such foods contain more than 1.5 grams salt in every 100 grams of food. Doctors recommend to intake less than 6g salt in a day for a healthy diet.
You should avoid dehydration at all cost. For this, you need to drink at least 8 to 10 glasses of water per day. Try to avoid sugary drinks, fizzy and soft drinks carbonated cold drinks and sweetened fruit juices. Water, tea, coffee, low fat and low sugar drinks are good for your calorie content.
Most of the people skip breakfast with the purpose of losing body weight. But this is a vague technique. In fact, breakfast includes fibre-rich foods and wholegrain. This improves the metabolic activity of the body.
You need to choose variety of food items for your regular diet. This will ensure the consumption of all different nutrients by your body. You need to maintain a balanced calorie consumption to lead a health and comfortable life. You have different requirements of calorie intake by your body at different stages of life. This varies according to your age, gender, exercise and food habits, and physical activities and even during pregnancy.