To successfully defeat overweight, you need to competently approach the issue of nutrition. The main task is to get as much energy with food as the body needs. This number is calculated individually for each. It will be possible to find out exactly how many calories a person needs per day using the special equation for calculating.
Material Content:
How many calories a person needs to consume per day
The energy needs of the body depend on several factors:
- lifestyle (number of trainings, professional activity);
- balanced nutrition goals;
- individual characteristics.
To perform any action, a different amount of energy is expended. It is quite obvious that the calorie intake rate of a professional athlete and an office worker is very different. At the same time, if an office worker begins to use the athlete’s daily norm, he will gain excess weight very quickly, and if a person with intense physical activity constantly suffers from a nutrient deficiency, he will soon face many health problems.
- Another important aspect is the goals that a person pursues. So, for each, there are three indicators of calorie norm at once - for maintaining weight, for gaining muscle mass, subject to regular training, and for losing weight.
The most important factor affecting the specifics of the diet is individual characteristics. These include the initial physical data, age and gender of the person.
Recently, it is customary to indicate on any food products how much of the daily calorie intake is contained in one serving. At the same time, 2000 kcal was taken as the norm for an adult.This value is considered average and is proposed for a middle-aged person with a normal level of physical activity.
The rate of daily consumption in women and men
Calorie consumption in men and women varies on average by 400-500 kcal per day. The average values used by nutritionists and doctors also vary markedly. Some sources indicate that men need 2700-3000 kcal, and women need 500 kcal less. At the same time, in many diets, completely different meanings can be found - about 2,400 for the stronger sex and 2,000 for girls. Nutritionists warn: both of these options are incorrect, because they do not take into account the basal metabolism of a particular person.
For example, a woman who visits the gym every day and wants to maintain weight or even increase muscle mass can afford to increase her diet by creating a calorie surplus. The excess will be used specifically for muscle growth and muscle relief. Another woman who wants to lose weight needs to have a calorie deficit, that is, the consumption should be significantly higher than the intake, since only in this case the fat burning process occurs. This is due to the fact that the body, in the absence of other sources of energy, begins to expend fat reserves to maintain vital activity.
The average values for people of different sexes that do not take into account the specifics of lifestyle are shown in the table.
| Age years | Floor | Daily rate, kcal |
|---|---|---|
| 18-39 | Women | 2000-2100 |
| Men | 2600-2800 | |
| 40-59 | Women | 1800-2000 |
| Men | 2400-2600 | |
| 60 and older | Women | 1600-1800 |
| Men | 2000-2200 |
Nevertheless, the table does not take into account physical activity and metabolic rate - the exact values will have to be calculated manually.
Calculation formulas
One of the most popular methods of calculating the energy norm is the Harris-Benedict formula. Today, it is quite often criticized by nutritionists and trainers, as it is considered obsolete, because it was withdrawn almost a hundred years ago. In the modern equation, new constants are used, taking into account changes in the lifestyle of a modern person. True, it is wrong to consider it completely modern, since adjustments were made in the mid-80s of the last century, that is, over 30 years ago.
To determine your metabolism (BM), you must substitute the eigenvalues in the following equation:
- girls: 447.593 + (9.247 x number of kilograms) + (3.098 x height in centimeters - (4.330 x age in years);
- guys: 88.362 + (13.396 x number of kilograms) + (4.799 x height in centimeters) - (5.677 x age).
The obtained value is not yet the norm of calories, but only an intermediate result. To get the exact value, you have to arm yourself with the calculator again and multiply the resulting BM number by a coefficient corresponding to the level of physical activity. For people who do not play sports at all, it is 1.2, low activity - 1.375, normal - 1.55, high - 1.75. Professional athletes need to use a coefficient of 1.9. The calculated total number - this is the necessary amount of energy received from food.
For calculation, another method is proposed - the Muffin-Geor formula:
- girls: 9.99 x number of kilograms + 6.25 x height in centimeters - 4.92 x age in years - 161
- guys: 9.99 x number of kilograms + 6.25 x height in centimeters - 4.92 x age in years + 5.
The resulting number should be multiplied by an indicator corresponding to the level of activity in order to determine the final result.
Many people mistakenly believe that a calorie rate calculated in this way will allow you to lose weight. In fact, in order to lose extra pounds, it is necessary to create a calorie deficit by reducing the required amount by at least 300-400 kcal per day. But in order to gain weight, you will need to add the same 300-400 kcal to the diet.
- Useful advice from nutritionists and athletes: not knowing how much to eat to speed up fat burning, it is recommended that you calculate calories with a minimum activity indicator (1.2), and then simply add 3-4 hours of exercise per week.
In this case, you must remember about a balanced diet and frequent meals. If a person begins to eat 1-2 times a day, “eating” the necessary calories at one meal, the metabolism will slow down, so the process of fat burning can stop.
