Food and Nutrition
How Many Calories Do You Need?
By
Mar 19, 2007 - 1:02:10 AM

How Many Calories Do You Need?

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Most of us eat more than we admit and exercise less than we should. The consequence is that we weigh more than we want and blame it all on our metabolism -- even if we’re not quite sure what that is. (Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN, Food and Nutrition Columnist - HealthNewsDigest.com)


Metabolism is all the chemical reactions that occur in your body. Your body takes in foods, burns some to generate power, uses some to produce new material, and routes the rest into storage for future use. The chemical reactions that occur either break down large compounds into smaller units (the foods you eat, for example, are broken down into smaller units of energy), or build complex structures from smaller units (your muscles are made up of fragments that come from the protein foods you eat, like eggs). Human metabolism is the sum total of all the energy used to keep your body alive and moving. This energy requirement can be translated into the calories you need each day.

Approximately 60% to 75% of your daily calories are used just to keep you alive. Energy is needed to maintain your body’s temperature, allow your nerves to work, let you breathe, keep your heart beating, allow your organs to function, nourish your body tissues, and repair and replace body fluids and parts. It’s a pretty big job that goes on 24 hours a day.

An interesting thing about this basic energy requirement is that different tissues in the body have different levels of activity. Fat tissue is less active and needs less energy. Muscle tissue, even at rest, is more active and uses up more energy. If you exercise and develop more muscle tissue, your body burns more calories every day just keeping your muscles healthy.

The rest of the calories you need each day are used to support your level of activity. Obviously, you need less if you are relatively inactive and more if you are very active. Calories may seem mysterious because you can’t see, taste or smell them. But, you should keep track of them because when you don’t you begin to gain weight.

To find out how many calories you need each day, you need to do two things. First, how much do you want to weigh? Not your current weight, but what is your target weight? Then, select an activity factor that fits your current activity level.
1. Your target weight is: ________
2. Your activity factor is: ________
20 = Very active men
15 = Moderately active men or very active women
13 = Inactive men, moderately active women and people over 55
10 = Inactive women, repeat dieters, seriously overweight people
3. Target Weight X Activity Factor = Calories needed each day.

For example, if your target weight is 130 and you are a moderately active woman (factor 13), you need about 1600 to 1700 calories a day.
130 pounds X 13 = 1690 calories

Eating this amount of calories each day would guarantee weight loss, because you are getting only enough calories to support your target weight, not your current heavier weight. Couple this calorie intake with some added exercise and the weight will come off even faster.
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.

Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of 26 consumer nutrition books including The Calorie Counter, 4th ed., Pocket Books, 2007.
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to www.TheNutritionExperts.com.

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