How Many Calories Should You Eat?
We hear a lot about calories these days. Many health foods are marketed as “low-calorie,” and high-intensity workout programs promise you’ll burn “up to a thousand calories per workout!”
However many people still have a poor understanding of what calories are and the role that they play in our bodyweight.
What is a Calorie?
Calories are one of the most useful ways to measure the food we eat and how it affects our bodies.
We use the term “calorie” to talk about the energy that our bodies get from food. “Calorie” in its everyday use actually a nickname for what scientists call a “kilocalorie” or “large calorie.” It is the amount of energy that it would take to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram water by 1 degree Celsius.
Everything your body does--including digestion, physical activity, and basic body functions--requires energy. We get that energy from the food that we eat.
Almost everything you consume has calories. An apple has about 52 calories, a glass of 2% milk has 137 calories, and the average slice of cheese pizza has about 277 calories.
In general, if we eat more calories than our bodies can use, the extra energy will be stored as fat in our bodies. On the other hand, when we eat fewer calories than our bodies can use, we will use the energy stored in our body fat.
The average woman needs to consume about 2000 calories per day, and the average man needs about 2500 calories per day. However the exact number of calories each person needs is variable, depending on their age, height, body weight, and activity levels.
Although you can’t control your height or age, you can manage your body’s “energy budget” by changing the amount of calories you eat and the amount of physical activity you do every day.
If you want to lose fat, you have to put your body into a calorie deficit.
In order to burn 1 lb. of fat, your body needs to burn 3500 calories more than what you eat. You can achieve that by eating fewer calories and burning more calories through increased physical activity and by building muscle.
On a day to day basis, if you were to eat 250 calories more than your body can use, you would gain 1 lb of body fat in 10 days. On the other hand, if you were to eat 250 calories less than your body uses every day, you would lose 1 lb of body fat in 10 days.
I typically don’t aim to have my clients drop more than 1lb of body fat per week.
To lose 1 lb of fat per week, you’d need to eat 3500 calories less than your body needs over the course of a week. On a day to day basis, this means eating 500 fewer calories than your body needs. Now this is still challenging--but much more doable than than the Extreme Fat Loss option described above.
Get the Right Amount of Calories
There are three things that you can do to ensure that your body is getting roughly the right amount of calories each day that it needs to meet your goals.
First, you’ll need to get a sense of what your current diet already looks like. Familiarize yourself with your current habits around food by creating a 7-Day Nutrition Snapshot. Track everything you eat and drink for 7 days using a food journal or app like MyFitnessPal. At the end of the 7 days, look back at your log and calculate the average number of calories you eat per day currently. Also notice any unhealthy habits that may be hindering your progress. I’ve created a Nutrition Snapshot Reflection form that you can use as a template for your reflection.
Second, familiarize yourself with what a healthy diet looks like in terms of the types of foods and proportions you should be eating to maintain health. The best model for healthy eating that I use with all of my clients is the MyPlate model. This simple, easy-to-follow guide shows you what your plate should look like when you sit down for a meal. It’s also a model of what your total diet should look like. Begin to incorporate the MyPlate model into your everyday eating until it becomes habit. Click on the picture to the right to learn more about the MyPlate Model.
Last, refine your intake by calculating precisely the amount of calories that you need to achieve your goals by using the MyPlate Plan calculator below:
Once you’ve got the big picture of what your current eating habits are and what healthy eating looks like, then you’ll be need to figure out the exact number of calories you’ll need to eat to support your weight loss goals.
Metabolism Check
If you’re already eating less than your recommended daily calorie intake but are still gaining weight or making little progress in losing body fat, it may be a sign that your metabolism has slowed. This can happen as a result of yo-yo dieting—going on and off diets that put your calorie consumption in extremes of deprivation and surplus. Being physically inactive and living a sedentary lifestyle can also slow your metabolism down too.
Of course it’s always best to check with a doctor first to ensure there isn’t a health condition or illness causing this.
If there isn’t another health condition responsible, and your metabolism has just been slowed as an effect of inactivity or yo-yo dieting, then you’re going to need to bring your metabolism up to a healthy pace before cutting calories to put yourself in a deficit. This process can take place over a number of weeks or even months, but is definitely worth it in the long run.
If this is the case, you’ll need to do 2 things:
Increase Your Daily Calorie Intake Gradually: Over a period of weeks or months, you’ll work towards getting your daily calorie consumption up gradually to at least the maintenance number that you calculated in Step 1. Add 30-50 calories to your daily consumption. When you add more calories, it is likely that you will gain a little extra weight. Be patient! Stay at the extra 30-50 calories per day until your weight gain stops or reverses. Once your weight gain stops or reverses, add another extra 30-50 calories to your daily consumption and repeat the process. Continue to do this until you at least reach your maintenance number of calories.
Strength Training: At the same time that you add extra calories to your daily intake, it’s SO IMPORTANT that you also do some metabolism-boosting strength training. To sustainably lose weight (and keep it off), strength training is even more important than cardio. As you build more muscle, your body will burn more calories in everyday activities and even at rest. You need to be strength training at least two to three times a week.
Macronutrient Balance
Now that we know roughly the amount of calories that you’ll need to aim for every day, keep in mind that not all calories are equal.
The calories that we consume come mainly in three forms of macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fats.
According to the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans, your daily caloric intake should be split up among the three macronutrients as detailed below:
Between 10-35% of your daily calories need to come from Protein
Between 25-45% of your daily calories need to come from Carbohydrates
Between 15-35% of your daily calories need to come from Fats (preferably unsaturated fats)
Protein and carbohydrates each supply our bodies with 4 calories per 1 gram. Fats supply 9 calories per gram.
Tracking macronutrients isn’t 100% necessary at this point. During the first part of the Nutrition 101 program, I’m more concerned with you getting your daily meals to look like the MyPlate model than obsessing over getting the exact right amount of grams for each macronutrient per day.
About the Author
Jayd Harrison is a personal trainer and content creator. She helps people to build muscle, burn fat, and clean up their diets with her online coaching programs and social media content. Check out some of Jayd’s coaching videos on Youtube, or join Jayd live on Twitch and follow on social media.
