How Many Calories Should I eat?
Have you ever asked yourself, ‘how many calories should I eat?’
It depends! The average adult woman weighing 126 pounds at 5’4 inches tall will need around 2000 calories per day. The average 5’10, 154 lb. male will need 2500 calories per day.
However, some people need more food and some people need less food. Sedentary people need fewer calories than moderately active or very active people. Young adults need more calories than older adults. Typically, men need more calories than women. And people with a lot of muscle mass need more calories than those with less muscle mass.
What are Calories?
In a technical sense, one calorie is equal to the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of water by one degree Celsius.
In a more simplistic sense, calories are the energy extracted from food that keep our bodies going. Calories from food are used to make ATP, the cellular energy that our bodies use to perform work.
Without calories, our bodies cannot function. Energy extracted from the food we eat make our life possible.
How Many Calories Should I Eat a day by Age?
Your calorie needs vary based on your age! Infants and young children age 2-3 need about 1,000-1,400 calories per day based on their activity level. 4-7 year olds need 1,200-1,800 calories per day. From ages 8 to 18, boys will need between 1800 and 3200 calories and girls need between 1400-2400 calories.
At age 18, the average male needs 2,400-3,200 calories per day. The average female needs 1800 to 2400 calories per day.
From age 20-30, the average man needs 2,400-3,000 calories per day, while the average woman needs 1,800-2,400.
For a full chart of calorie needs by age, sex and activity level, click here, or read below.
For some people, metabolic rate does start to decline with age. You can reduce the difference in metabolism by weight training vigorously over your lifespan.
The average person burns 5-8 fewer calories per day each year after age 30.
If you are 50 years old, that might mean you need to reduce your calorie intake by 100 or 150 calories per day.
Calories for Infants and Toddlers
Most infants and toddlers need about 1000-1400 calories per day, depending on their activity level and age.
Calories for Adults
Adult calorie needs differ based on your age, sex, and activity level.
Most men need between 2200-3200 calories per day. The average moderately active, 5 foot 9 inch, 154 pound man needs about 2500 calories per day. Most adult women need about 1800-2400 calories per day. In contrast, the average moderately active, 5 foot 4 inch, 126 pound woman needs about 2000 calories per day.
Generally speaking, calorie needs increase with increased activity and tend to decrease with age after age 30.
How Many Calories Should I Eat Without Exercise?
Sedentary people need fewer calories per day to maintain their weight. Most sedentary adult men should aim for 2,000-2,400 calories based on their age. However, most sedentary adult women need 1,600 to 1,800 calories per day.
What does sedentary mean? It means a lifestyle where you perform the activities of daily living only, including but not more than 1.5 miles per day of walking throughout the day.
How Many Calories Should I Burn in a Day?
Most people burn about 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day. This is equivalent to your daily calorie needs. To maintain your weight, your food intake must equal what you burn through your exercise, daily activity and basal metabolism.
About two-thirds to three-quarters of your daily calorie expenditure is from your basal metabolic rate alone. This is the amount of energy you need to maintain life. The other one quarter to one third of your daily calorie expenditure comes from daily activity and exercise.
For most people looking to maintain their weight, it helps to burn 200-300 calories per day through moderate physical exercise. To achieve weight loss, burning 500-1000 calories per day through exercise can help you to create a calorie deficit and lose weight.
How Many Calories Should I Eat a Day to Lose Weight
For the average man, eating about 2,000 calories per day will result in one pound of weight loss per week. For the average woman, eating about 1,500 calories per day will lead to a one pound weight loss per week.
There are 3500 calories in a pound of body fat, so you need to cut 500 calories per day to hit that value.
However, these are just averages. For some people, cutting out 500 calories per day will be doable, while it may be too extreme for other people with a lower maintenance calorie intake.
I recommend setting your calories so you lose about .5 to 1 percent of your body weight per week.
So, if you weigh 200 pounds, aim to lose 1-2 pounds per week. That means you need a 500-1,000 calorie daily deficit.
If you weigh 150 pounds, aim to lose .75 to 1.5 pounds per week. That means a 375-750 calorie deficit per day.
How Many Calories Should I Eat a Day to Lose 2 Pounds in a Week?
If you have a maintenance calorie intake of 3,000 calories per day, you can eat 2,000 calories per day and lose 2 pounds in a week.
If you burn 3,500 calories per day, you can reduce your intake to 2,500 and lose 2 pounds per week.
There are 7,000 calories in 2 pounds and so you need to reduce your intake by 1,000 calories per day to lose 2 pounds per week.
I would not recommend losing this much weight per week unless you weigh 200 pounds or more. Remember, aiming to lose .5 to 1 percent of your bodyweight is more sustainable and healthy.
How Many Calories Should I Eat to Lose 5 lb. in a Week?
You would have to cut 17,500 caloriesper week to lose 5 pounds in a week. This is a 2500 calorie deficit per day.
Only morbidly obese people can safely lose weight this fast. These people often eat 5000-8000 calories per day and can lose a lot of weight quickly.
If you are not morbidly obese, you probably can’t safely lose 5 lb. in a week. This rate of weight loss is just too fast and aggressive.
How Many Calories Should I Eat for Extreme Weight Loss?
I don’t recommend extreme weight loss, ever! Extreme weight loss can be damaging for your heart and internal organs. It may cause future health problems or even death.
Only morbidly obese people should be pursuing extreme weight loss, and only when they are under the guidance of a weight management medical team.
>Is it Okay to Eat 1,200 Calories Per Day?
It’s only okay to eat 1,200 calories per day for a short period of time.
1,200 calories per day is an extremely low intake of food. You might develop nutrient deficiencies, lose muscle or experience hormonal problems if you eat this little food.
For most women looking to lose weight, an intake of 1500-1800 calories would be safer and more sustainable than an intake of 1200 calories per day.
Most men looking to lose weight should eat between 1800-2200 calories per day.
Is it OK to Eat 500 Calories Per Day?
It is never ok to eat 500 calories per day, unless you are under intense medical supervision and your doctor recommends that you do this. Otherwise, Never, Ever eat this little food.
How Many Calories Should I Eat Per Day to Gain Weight?
It depends. If you are very underweight, you may need 3,000-4,000 calories per day or more to gain weight. Active men and male athletes may need 3,000 to 4,000 calories per day to gain weight. Female athletes may need 2400 to 3000 calories per day to gain weight.
I would aim to gain about half a pound to one pound per week. You might even want to gain weight slower to minimize fat gains.
However, you could even increase your daily calorie intake by just 100-250 calories per day for slow, steady gains without too much fat gain.
How to Maintain Your Weight
You can maintain your weight by listening to your body’s hunger and satiation signals. Additionally, you could find your daily calorie needs by logging your food intake.
For seven to fourteen days, eat normally and log your calories by weighing and measuring your food and inputting those values into a food diary. Next, weigh yourself daily and record the totals.
As long as you maintain your weight during this time, you can guess your maintenance calories. Take the average calorie intake of your diet diary to make an estimate of your calorie maintenance.
If you do not care to weight and measure your food and determine your calorie maintenance that way, you can also simply eat to satiation most days, making sure to get enough protein and fruits/vegetables. As long as you remain weight stable over this time, you can just continue to eat normally and continue at maintenance. Eating to satiation will likely provide you enough energy to maintain your weight.
Formulas to Estimate Calorie Maintenance
There are many formulas to estimate your caloric maintenance. One of these is the Harris-Benedict equation. The Harris Benedict equation estimates your BMR, or Basal Metabolic Rate. Your Basal Metabolic Rate is the number of calories you need if you are on total bed rest. This estimates your energy needs if your body only needs to carry out the functions needed to sustain life and nothing else.
You can then multiply your BMR by an activity factor based on your total activity level.
The Harris Benedict Equation is as follows:
For Men: BMR = 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (years) + 5
For Women: BMR = 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (years) – 161
Once you have determined your BMR, multiply by:
- 1.2 for sedentary
- 1.375 for lightly active
- 1.55 for moderately active
- 1.725 for very active
- 1.9 for extremely active
Your final figure estimates your daily calorie needs.
Benefits of Calorie Counting
At this point, you may be asking about the benefits of calorie counting. Why even bother? Well, calorie counting for a short time period can help increase your dietary awareness.
One client of mine started tracking her food intake in a food journal. The experience was enlightening. She realized she was consuming 800-900 calories in her breakfast cereal alone, not even counting coffee with creamer.
For those looking to gain or lose weight, calorie counting can also help you accurately hit your targets. If you just estimate what you eat without taking the time to track it, you may come up short or overshoot your targets.
Once you gain more awareness of your calorie intake, then you can transition away from food tracking and move into more intuitive styles of eating.
Tips to Decrease Calorie Intake
Here are some tips to help decrease your calorie intake without suffering.
Increase Protein Intake
Getting enough protein in your diet can help you reduce your hunger level and energy intake.
Additionally, protein can also help improve your body composition and lose body fat, even without reducing your calorie intake.
Finally, protein may also decrease hunger by reducing blood sugar fluctuations between meals.
Decrease Processed Food Intake
Processed food can override your body’s hunger and satiation signals.
Without restricting yourself to the point of hunger, you can often reduce your calorie intake just by cutting down on processed food and substituting in more natural foods.
Instead, eating more whole foods like fruits and vegetables, lean meats, fish, nuts, carbs like potatoes and oats can help you reduce hunger and feel satisfied on fewer calories, without even tracking your calorie intake.
Increase Water Intake
Sometimes you can interpret mild thirst and dehydration as hunger. Make sure to drink 8-10 glasses of water a day to help reduce excess hunger and cravings.
Exercise
Exercise can help blunt your appetite and can also help you manage cravings and decrease your calorie intake.
While cardio exercise can improve your cardiovascular fitness and heart health, weight training can have a bigger effect on your metabolic rate by increasing muscle mass. Weight training can also improve your body composition. Make sure to get proper form instruction and push yourself to use challenging loads with your weight training.
How to Track Calories
Tracking calories really is not as difficult as some people think. To track your food intake you will need to pay attention to food labels, weigh and measure your food using a food scale, and use some sort of food diary system, You could manually input your calories into a journal, but it would be much easier to use an online tool like My Fitness Pal or My Macros.
The benefit of tracking your food using an online app is that you will also get detailed information about your protein, carbohydrate and fat intake, fiber intake, and nutrient intake.
Conclusions
So many factors determine how many calories you should eat.
However, this article hopefully gave you a good ballpark to estimate your calorie needs.
Let your body be your guide, and do not be afraid to change your calorie intake.
If you keep your health at the forefront, long term sustainability over quick results and honor your body, you will surely find the right calorie intake for you!
