How Many Calories Should I Eat?

Are you looking to lose weight?

Do you want to maintain your current weight?

Are you ready to starve yourself to lose weight?

Do you use calorie counters?

Do you have a sustainable plan for calorie reduction?

Are you an active person?

Watching how much you eat is essential to losing weight. It is a myth that you can eat as much as you want when you exercise for many hours a day, especially if your goal is to lose weight. Sensible eating is an integral part of every weight loss journey and is something that should never be ignored. To lose weight, you have to create a calorie deficit, which means, what you eat should be less than what you burn.

To maintain your current weight, your calorie intake should equal your calorie burn. Research shows that an average woman needs about 2,000 calories to maintain her weight and men need about 2,500 calories to achieve the same goal. This number is based on the average metabolism and activities. If you tend to do more physical work, adjust your calorie count accordingly.

It is a bad idea and something that can't be sustained for an extended time. That's because it is impossible to starve and can lead to other health complications. Also, your body will crave food as a part of its survival instincts and this will eventually lead you to give up on your diet. Also, the problem with starving is your metabolism rate goes down and your body goes into a famine mode, thereby making it much harder to lose weight. Remember, our ancestors never had the kind of food that we have today, so survival is the first thing your body does when you deprive it of food.

Calorie counters are a great way to keep track of how much you eat in a day. There are many web-based and mobile apps that give the calorie count for common foods and recipes. You can accordingly make changes to your diet and stay on top of how much you eat.

it's important you have a specific diet plan to cut down calories without starving yourself. Remember, you have to provide essential minerals and nutrients to your body at all times, so even on a calorie-cutting diet, you have to provide the same. This requires a specific plan and the dedication to stick to it.

People who exercise vigorously for many hours or have a physically-demanding job need about 2000 to 2500 calories (women) and 2500 to 3000 calories (men). If you exercise for about 30 to 60 minutes in a day, you need about 1,900 calories (women) and 2500 calories (men). On the other hand, if you walk anywhere between 5000 to 8000 steps a day, you'd need about 1800 calories (women) and 2200 calories (men).

If you walk less than 5000 steps a day and tend to live a sedentary life, you'd need about 1600 calories if you're a woman and 1800 calories if you're a man.