What exactly are calories, you might ask. In short, a calorie is a unit which measures the amount of energy created by food.  There are 4 key energy sources from foodstuffs: fats, carbohydrates, proteins, and alcohol. From these, fats contain the greatest amount of energy. It is an error to think that if you ingest less food you will get fewer calories, as it is best to take a sufficient amount of calories.

How Many Calories Should I Eat a Day?

What is essential to understand is that the balance between the number of calories ingested on a daily basis and used is the deciding factor as to body health and weight. In short, this implies that the BMR (basal metabolic rate) and the level of exercise of physical activity determine how many calories you should take.

There are two ways of burning off as many calories as possible: to ingest a lesser amount of them or to intensify exercising or physical activities. The most efficient method of calculating the daily calorie intake is by using the BMR, which can differ for each individual, as well as depend on many factors such as the inherited genetic structure, as well as the individual body structure, and age and  gender.

The recommended calorie intake per day for females is 1,940 and 2,550 for males.

• There are many online calculators which can help you find a formula which will help estimate how many calories to eat per day, and some are specially created for those who wish larger muscle mass (for example, bulking calorie calculator, nutrient calculator, pregnancy calculator, etc.)

It is always good advice for a physician to do an adequate analysis and checkup which will provide you with an adequately balanced diet regimen for your specific calorie needs.

When an appropriate diet strategy is found and structured around your personal traits and lifestyle, to do the math and calculations is not very hard. If you have the desire to put on some weight, you should consume more calories and if your aim is to lose weight, it is necessary to consume less calories per day, or at least a smaller amount of calories than your current body needs. The calculations should provide a breakdown of calories and grams which are needed from three groups of nutrients – fats, carbohydrates and proteins.

The recommendations for the number of calories which should be ingested daily are the following.

For individuals who take part in half an hour or less in moderate physical activities:

For individuals who take part in at least half an hour to one hour in moderate physical activities:

In conclusion, the amount of calories you should ingest will depend on your basic stats: your weight and height, your levels of physical activity, and whether you are making an attempt to lose, gain or just maintain your weight. What is imperative, all in all, is that you get a balance with the calories consumed and spent on a daily basis.

To lose weight, we need to consume less calories, but the problem is that our bodies need calories, or energy, to do anything at all. How much energy we need depends on what we plan to do during the day. An average adult man needs between 2000 and 3000 calories per day and this means that if he ingests this number he will not gain or lose weight, as he would be spending as much as he is using.

There are various useful online calorie intake calculators which can provide us with an estimate of the number of calories or kilojoules which are necessary for both men and women.

How Many Calories are Needed to Lose Body Fat?

It is a fact that a pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories, and a calorie deficit of 500 calories per day ought to cause a loss of a pound of fat per week. However, this is harder to carry out than it sounds, as an individual’s spending of energy becomes less as their body gets lighter – which entails an inevitable leveling off or a period of insignificant variation. This in turn means that the amount of food ingestion which before caused a loss of weight will now only be sustained at the same level. At that point, the only option is to boost the metabolism – and this can best be done by intensified cardio exercises, as well as weight training, not to mention adequate sleep and plenty of hydration!

However, the hitch might be that a continuous dropping off of calories can only produce a slower metabolism, as the moment you return to so-called ‘normal’ ingesting of food, the weight might come right back on.

What is the Minimum Calorie Intake Per Day?

It is not at all easy to fix the complete bottom calorie levels, as everyone has dissimilar body composition and activity levels. Some baselines, however, have been set. Namely, 1200 calories daily for women, and 1800 calories daily for men, but these are only starting points.

What To Do While Reducing Calories:

Make an attempt not to decrease your calorie intake by more than 1000 calories below the needed maintenance, as this may trigger a starvation response on the part of the  body, which can in turn lead to the yo-yo dieting effect (a process during which the person dieting starts to lose weight but is not successful in maintaining this loss in the long term and starts to put on the weight again). As an alternative, attempt to lower your calorie intake gradually. A sudden drop (which can be 500 calories or more) can produce a slowing down of your metabolism, which can cause damage. Some helpful advice is to eat slowly, for this can facilitate burning off calories more quickly.

But What Can Occur if There Are Too Few Calories?

• The body’s muscle mass is broken down to be used as energy to run the body (catabolism).
• The metabolic rate will start to fall, usually after three days of very minimal calories – this is connected to muscle mass loss.

With a low level of calories, there is a danger of fatigue, lethargy, nutritional insufficiencies,  and frequently irritability.