How many calories are supposed to be consumed in a day

A calorie meal of fish or meat, salad, and some olive oil, followed by fruit, is more healthful and will stave off hunger for longer than a calorie snack of popcorn with butter or toffee.

To work out how many calories you need, you need to know your basal metabolic rate and an activity factor. To calculate your BMR automatically, follow this link and enter your details into the calculator. This will give a rough idea of the daily calorie intake you need to keep your body weight where it is. The result is still not perfect, as the equation does not take into account the ratio of muscle to fat.

A very muscular person needs more calories, even when resting. As with calories requirements, an ideal body weight depends on several factors, including age, sex, bone density, muscle-fat ratio, and height. Body mass index BMI is one way of working out what a person should weigh.

If you know your height and weight, you can use this calculator to find out your BMI. Imagine a top athlete who weighs pounds, or 91 kilograms kg and is 6 feet, or 1 metre m and 83 centimeters cm tall. They may have the same BMI as an inactive person of the same height. The athlete is not overweight, but the inactive person quite possibly is. Researchers have found that many people whose waist circumference is less than half their height have a longer life expectancy.

People with a smaller waist to height size have been found to have a lower risk of diabetes , cardiovascular disease, stroke , and other health conditions that are related to obesity.

An adult male who is 6 feet cm tall should have a waist that does not exceed 36 inches 91 cm. An adult female who is 5 feet 4 inches cm tall should have a waist that does not exceed 32 inches 81 cm. This measurement may be more accurate than BMI at determining a healthy weight.

Some of these are safe and effective and help people lose weight and keep it off in the long term. Others are hard to adhere to, or when the person stops following the diet they put weight back on quickly. The rankings for these diets were based on how many articles mentioned them favorably, how popular they were generally and which ones received the most positive feedback.

More important than counting calories is to eat a healthful and well-balanced diet that you can sustain long-term, for longer than 6 months. Equally important is to be physically active and to balance the calories consumed with the energy used each day. Water loss during sleep can lead to people weighing less in the morning, while their bodies have also burned calories overnight. Learn more. You can create a calorie deficit by increasing your physical activity to burn more calories.

You can also make small changes in what you eat to help you feel satisfied while taking in fewer calories. Ready to start living a balanced lifestyle but unsure of where to start? Check out the clinical nutrition services we offer here at Mercy Health. Note: it is important to first consult with your doctor before making any major changes to your eating habits. Sign up to receive regularly scheduled updates from us packed with healthy news, tips, research, recipes, and more — right to your inbox!

Jun 29 What are calories? Calories and healthy living Every time you eat more calories than your body burns, you could gain weight. For more information on weight loss, download the NHS weight loss plan , our free 12 week diet and exercise plan. You should get advice from the GP if you're underweight your body mass index is less than To gain weight, you need to eat more calories than your body uses each day.

For more information, see How can I gain weight safely? Page last reviewed: 24 October Next review due: 24 October Home Common health questions Food and diet Back to Food and diet. The Calorie Calculator can be used to estimate the number of calories a person needs to consume each day. This calculator can also provide some simple guidelines for gaining or losing weight. 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.