Daily how many calories are required

The following converter can be used to convert between Calories and other common food energy units. This Calorie Calculator is based on several equations, and the results of the calculator are based on an estimated average. The Harris-Benedict Equation was one of the earliest equations used to calculate basal metabolic rate BMR , which is the amount of energy expended per day at rest.

It was revised in to be more accurate and was used up until , when the Mifflin-St Jeor Equation was introduced. Of these equations, the Mifflin-St Jeor Equation is considered the most accurate equation for calculating BMR with the exception that the Katch-McArdle Formula can be more accurate for people who are leaner and know their body fat percentage.

The three equations used by the calculator are listed below:. The value obtained from these equations is the estimated number of calories a person can consume in a day to maintain their body-weight, assuming they remain at rest. This value is multiplied by an activity factor generally 1.

As such, in order to lose 1 pound per week, it is recommended that calories be shaved off the estimate of calories necessary for weight maintenance per day. For example, if a person has an estimated allotment of 2, calories per day to maintain body-weight, consuming 2, calories per day for one week would theoretically result in 3, calories or 1 pound lost during the period. It is important to remember that proper diet and exercise is largely accepted as the best way to lose weight.

It is inadvisable to lower calorie intake by more than 1, calories per day, as losing more than 2 pounds per week can be unhealthy, and can result in the opposite effect in the near future by reducing metabolism. Losing more than 2 pounds a week will likely involve muscle loss, which in turn lowers BMR, since more muscle mass results in higher BMR.

Excessive weight loss can also be due to dehydration, which is unhealthy. Furthermore, particularly when exercising in conjunction with dieting, maintaining a good diet is important, since the body needs to be able to support its metabolic processes and replenish itself. Depriving the body of the nutrients it requires as part of heavily unhealthy diets can have serious detrimental effects, and weight lost in this manner has been shown in some studies to be unsustainable, since the weight is often regained in the form of fat putting the participant in a worse state than when beginning the diet.

As such, in addition to monitoring calorie intake, it is important to maintain levels of fiber intake as well as other nutritional necessities to balance the needs of the body. Calorie counting with the intent of losing weight, on its simplest levels, can be broken down into a few general steps:. The above steps are an attempt at the most basic form of calorie counting. Calorie counting is not an exact science, and can be as complex as you want to make it.

The above does not consider the proportions of macronutrients consumed. While there is no exactly known, ideal proportion of macronutrients fats, proteins, carbohydrates , some balance is certainly advisable, and different foods have been found to have different effects on health, feelings of hunger, and number of calories burned. Generally, minimally processed plant and animal foods tend to be more conducive to healthy weight loss and maintenance.

There are many approaches to weight loss and there is no set ideal method that works for all people, which is why so many different diets and exercise regimens exist. While some methods are more effective for each individual person, not all weight loss methods are equivalent, and studies suggest that some approaches are healthier than others. That being said, one of the most commonly effective weight loss methods is counting calories.

In its most basic form, calories consumed minus calories expended will result in weight gain if the result is positive, or weight loss if the result is negative. However, this is far from a comprehensive picture, and many other factors play a role in affecting healthy, sustainable weight loss.

For example, there exist conflicting studies addressing whether or not the type of calories or foods consumed, or how they are consumed, affects weight loss. Studies have shown that foods that require a person to chew more and are more difficult to digest result in the body burning more calories, sometimes referred to as the thermic effect of food.

While the increase in burned calories may be marginal, foods that are more difficult to digest such as vegetables generally tend to be healthier and provide more nutrients for fewer calories than many processed foods.

Consistent with the view that in regards to weight loss, only net calories are important and not their source, there exist cases such as the Twinkie diet, where a person that solely counted calories while eating a variety of cake snacks managed to lose 27 pounds over two months. As effective as this can be, it is certainly not suggested.

While the participant did not seem to suffer any noticeable health detriments in this particular case, there are other less measurable factors that should be considered such as long-term effects of such a diet on potential for developing cancers, heart disease, and diabetes. However, ignoring efficiency and health, sustained, significant reduction of caloric intake or increase of physical activity should result in weight loss, and counting calories can be an effective way to achieve this sole result.

Aside from being one viable method for facilitating weight loss, calorie counting has other somewhat less quantifiable advantages including helping to increase nutritional awareness. Many people are completely unaware of, or grossly underestimate their daily caloric intake.

Counting calories can help raise awareness of different types of foods, the number of calories they contain, and how these calories have a different effect on a person's feelings of satiety. Once a person has a better understanding of how many calories are actually in that bag of chips that they can so easily inhale within minutes, how much of their daily caloric intake it consumes, and how little the chips do to satiate their hunger, portion control and avoidance of foods with empty calories tends to become easier.

A calorie is a unit of energy. In nutrition, calories refer to the energy people get from the food and drink they consume, and the energy they use in physical activity.

Calories are listed in the nutritional information on all food packaging. Many weight loss programs center around reducing the intake of calories.

This MNT Knowledge Center article focuses on calories associated with food and drink, as well as the way the human body uses energy. MNT covers what a calorie is, how many calories humans need each day, and how to get calories in a way that benefits overall health.

Most people only associate calories with food and drink, but anything that contains energy has calories. This is misleading. The calorie content described on food labels refers to kilocalories. A calorie chocolate bar actually contains , calories. The United States government states that the average man needs 2, kcal per day and the average woman needs 2, kcal per day.

Not everybody needs the same number of calories each day. People have different metabolisms that burn energy at different rates, and some people have more active lifestyles than others. The human body needs calories to survive. Without energy, the cells in the body would die, the heart and lungs would stop, and the organs would not be able to carry out the basic processes needed for living. People absorb this energy from food and drink. If people consumed only the number of calories needed every day, they would probably have healthy lives.

Calorie consumption that is too low or too high will eventually lead to health problems. The number of calories in food tells us how much potential energy they contain. It is not only calories that are important, but also the substance from which the calories are taken. As an example, here is the breakdown of how a person would get calories from one cup of large eggs , weighing g:. As people get older, they tend to get fewer of their daily calories from fast foods.

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