Your daily caloric needs are determined by a number of variables.
Although there are many components of a healthy diet, determining your correct daily caloric intake is essential to reach your weight-loss goal. Your ideal caloric intake is determined by your age, weight, height, activity level and gender. Even though many experts recommend a diet of 2,000 calories a day, you may need more or less depending on these factors. You can use a simple formula to determine how many calories you need to consume to maintain or lose weight.
Instructions
Determining Your Daily Caloric Intake Target
1. Weigh yourself on a scale and record your exact weight in pounds. If you do not know how tall you are, stand against a wall and have a friend use a pencil to lightly mark where the top of your head is. Use a tape measure to determine the distance from the floor to the mark in inches.
2. Use a calculator to plug your height, weight, and age into the following formula for women: 655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years). Men should use this formula: 66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years).
Height and weight will make the result larger, while age will make it smaller. This means that larger individuals require more calories, while older individuals require less. The resultant number is your BMR, or basal metabolic rate.
3. Determine your activity level. If you are sedentary, this means that you spend most of your day sitting and don't exercise often. If you are lightly active, you may spend a good chunk of your day standing and/or exercise two to three days a week. Moderately active individuals are those who engage in exercise most days of the week. A highly active lifestyle is one where intense exercise occurs on a daily basis for prolonged periods.
4. Incorporate your activity level into your caloric intake estimate by plugging the appropriate equation into your calculator (BMR is the number you got in step 2): sedentary: BMR x 1.20; lightly active: BMR x 1.30; moderately active: BMR x 1.40; very active: BMR x 1.50.
The total is the number of calories you should consume each day to maintain your current weight.
5. If you want to lose weight, you must consume fewer daily calories than indicated in step 4. A deficit of 3,500 calories equals 1 lb. of weight loss. This means that if you want to lose 1 lb. a week, you should subtract 500 calories from your daily target. If you want to lose 2 lbs. a week, you should reduce it by 1,000 calories. You can also do this by burning the extra calories through exercise instead of reducing your caloric intake.
