How Many Calories Do You Need in one day
In my five years I have spent in wellness industry, the week will never pass without my client/friends or colleagues wanting to find out about my view about what they eat in their everyday life. It is an entertaining topic for me but before we end our conversation with my client/friend, I always see the face changes especially once I state my views about how bad we eat these days and an impact of the food in our bodies.
Nearly all of us seek to lose weight, and often the best way to do this is to consume a lower amount of calories each day than we usually do. But how many calories do we need to be healthy? Much depends, of course, on the amount of physical activity you engage in each day. And it’s different for us all; there are a lot of different factors involved.
Factors include age, size, height, sex, lifestyle, and overall general health. A physically active, 25 –year-old 1.52 male requires considerably more calories than a 1.52 m 70-year-old woman who is not especially active. The average male adult requires about 2,700 calories to maintain his weight, while the average female needs only 2,200 calories, according to the U.S Department of Health.
Just to stay alive, we obviously need far less calories, but our bodies will function poorly if we consume too few. The basal metabolic rate (BMR), used in our calculator, is the amount of energy you require when you are just resting. Depending on the amount of physical exercise you do, you can multiply the basal metabolic rate by a specific number to determine calorie needs. For example, if you are not very active, your needed calorie intake is the basal metabolic rate times 1.2. Somewhat active people should multiply by 1.375. if you do some exercise during the week, the number is 1.55. And, if you do a lot of sports, you multiply by 1.95.
Different Kinds of Calories
Did you know that how you eat can make a difference in terms of how many calories you consume? The longer you chew your food, the greater the amount of calories you absorb, a recent study has shown.
Foods that take more effort to chew—like fruit, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains—make your body burn more calories. More calories are required to digest them, and, to top it off, they’ll keep you feeling satisfied longer. Some other foods also increase calorie burn: Coffee and tea, for example, not only for the caffeine in them, but also for other ingredients they have. Certain spices like chilies, cinnamon, and ginger do also help to burn calories.
Scientists have recently discovered that there is a difference in terms of gaining or losing weight in the quality of the calories you consume, not just the quantity. There is an actual difference in consuming 500 calories of carrots from 500 calories of popcorn – although technically you should be consuming the same amount of energy, the popcorn makes you fatter just the same.
Drinking in Calories
We get a lot of our calories from drinks. On average, we take in about 21 percent of our calories from them. A drink sweetened with sugar can undo the effects of a long workout at the gym. What’s more, we often drink right from the bottle, and that means we take in a lot more than we actually need.
The best things to drink, from the point of view of limiting calorie intake, are water, and coffee or tea without sugar. However, few of us are willing to drink nothing else all the time. Fruit juice is a low-calorie drink as well, but be careful not to take too much. A 1.77 ml glass is a healthy serving, while a bigger glass means you’ll take in more calories than you probably should.
As most studies are carried in USA considering the fact that America ranks no 1 in obesity, Americans also consume about 580 calories per day in unhealthy snacks, note that we’re placed third in the world obesity ranking according to Compass Group Southern Africa’s 2011 report, . (http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/The-South-African-food-taboo-Confronting-the-obesity-crisis-20130207). Nothing is worse from the point of view of calorie control, which is best maintained by regular healthy meals and little in between. Choose snacks carefully, and count the calories you are putting into your snacks. This can make a great difference in maintaining the right weight for your size.
Don’t be misled by “health food.” “Natural” foods still may contain a lot of sugar, and low-calorie foods may have unhealthy ingredients replacing the calories. For example, many reduced-fat foods have sugar added instead. There is nothing wrong with eating “health” foods, but always find out what is in the packages before you buy.
Lose Weight Sensibly and Carefully
A proper weight for your size is definitely a healthy condition. But it won’t be healthy if you cut down too sharply on calories, do too much exercise without eating properly, or take other extreme measures. Weight should always be lost gradually. Maintaining a healthy diet while you lose weight will just help the whole process along.
Calories in Common Foods
| Food | Size | Calories |
| Apple | 1 small | 80 |
| Banana | 1 medium | 101 |
| Grape | each | 2 |
| Mango | 1 small | 135 |
| Orange | 1 small | 71 |
| Pear | 1 small | 100 |
| Peach | 1 medium | 38 |
| Pineapple | 1 cup | 80 |
| Strawberry | 1 cup | 53 |
| Watermelon | 1 cup | 45 |
| Asparagus | 1 cup, boiled | 36 |
| Broccoli | 1 cup | 40 |
| Carrots | 1 cup | 45 |
| Cucumber | each | 30 |
| Eggplant | 1 cup, boiled | 38 |
| Lettuce | 1 cup | 7 |
| Tomato | 1 cup | 29 |
| Beef, regular, cooked | 1 slice | 120 |
| Chicken, cooked | 1 slice | 95 |
| Egg | large | 79 |
| Fish, Catfish, cooked | small | 80 |
| Pork, cooked | 1 slice | 130 |
| Shrimp, cooked | small | 70 |
| Bread, regular | 1 slice | 75 |
| Butter | 1 table spoon | 102 |
| Caesar salad | 1 serving (3 cups) | 360 |
| Cheeseburger | 1 (McDonald Medium) | 360 |
| Chocolate | 1 small | 150 |
| Corn | 1 cup, cooked | 140 |
| Hamburger | 1 (McDonald Medium) | 280 |
| Pizza | 1 slice | 180 |
| Potato (uncooked) | 1 | 120 |
| Rice, cooked | 1 cup | 225 |
| Sandwich | 1 (6″ Subway) | 310 |
| Beer, regular | 1 can or bottle | 150 |
| Coca-Cola Classic | 1 cup | 97 |
| Diet Coke | 1 cup | 3 |
| Milk, low-fat (1%) | 1 cup | 104 |
| Milk, low-fat (2%) | 1 cup | 121 |
| Milk, whole | 1 cup | 150 |
| Orange Juice / Apple Cider | 1 cup | 115 |
| Yogurt, low-fat | 1 cup | 200 |
| Yogurt, non-fat | 1 cup | 150 |