How Many Calories Should You Eat?
Caloric requirements can change from person to person—even if they have similar qualifying factors. Caloric requirements can also change from time period to time period within the same person. You may need to make some adjustments depending on the amount of exercise you do, the type of exercise, and your own individual metabolic factors.
- If you want to build muscle, you should be eating more calories than you burn every day. The key is to add healthy calories to your diet so you can avoid heart disease, high cholesterol, etc
- If you want to lose body fat, you need to eat less calories than you burn every day. The key is to safely reduce your calories so that your body can continue to function while still losing weight. Taking your calories too low can actually stall your weight loss, so take some time to determine how many calories you need.
For clarification purposes, your maintenance level is the amount of calories you need to stay at your current body weight. If you want to gain weight or lose weight, you’ll obviously need to make adjustments.There’s really no way of determining exactly how many calories you should eat to maintain your current body weight, but here is a method that can get you close to your maintenance level. Again, your maintenance level is the amount of calories.you would theoretically need to stay at your current weight. This method of calculation is called the Harris-Benedict Equation. This formula takes into account your sex, age, height, and weight. Other factors are considered as well.
For men, the equation works as follows: First, multiply your weight by 13.8. Secondly, multiply your height (in inches) by 5. Next, multiply your age by 6.8 then subtract that figure from 67. Add these three totals together.
Here is an example of a 180 pound, 5′9″, 23 year-old man:
180 pounds x 13.8 = 2,484.0
69 inches (5′9″) x 5 = 345.0
23 years-old x 6.8 = 156.40
67 - 156.4 = - 89.4
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Total Calories Needed 2,739.6
For women, the equation works as follows: First, multiply your weight by 9.6. Secondly, multiply your height (in inches) by 1.8. Next, multiply your age by 4.7 then subtract that figure from 655. Add these three totals together.
Here is an example of a 120 pound, 5′3″, 26 year-old woman:
120 pounds x 9.6 = 1,152.0
63 inches (5′3″) x 1.8 = 113.4
26 years-old x 4.7 = 122.2
655 - 122.2 = 532.8
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Total Calories Needed 1,798.2
Note : This method can only estimate the amount of calories you need to maintain your current weight. You may need to make some adjustments depending on the amount of exercise you do, the type of exercise, and your own individual metabolic factors.
A method to make the process of determining the amount of calories you should eat much simpler—and probably just as effective.
- Get a book with a complete listing of foods, their calories, and macronutrient breakdown.
- Using the information above for your daily food intake. Don’t worry about being exact, you can make changes later if necessary.
- Decide on the number of meals you are committed to eating each day.
- This may sound too simple, but just pick a total number of calories you’ll eat each day and divide that number by the number of meals you are committed to eating. This will give you the total number of calories you should plan to eat during each meal. After determining the amount of calories you should eat each meal, get your complete book of foods and plan your meals from there.
Moreover : Protein is the most important nutrient for building muscle. Without enough high-quality protein, you are not going to grow at the rate you deserve to grow
I would recommend to get this book containing all the information about calories you should consume per day- its the most successful diet program of all time Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution, Revised Edition
