How Many Calories a Day Is Too Many

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Calories are essential for good health. There are a minimum number of calories your body needs to maintain the essential functions - like breathing, keeping your heart beating and your brain functioning, in fact, keeping us alive. This minimum need is called the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). While there is a complicated way to determine the amount each individual needs, there is a simple calculation used by health professionals to give us a guide.

Calculate Your Body's Needs

For people sitting around, doing very little, a guide is to multiply your weight by 11. This means, if are 140 pounds your body would need 1540 calories a day just to keep functioning; 175 pounds, 1925 calories. This is why calories are essential to good health and are not all bad, as we can sometimes be led to believe. If you are exercising several times a week, say 3 or 4 days, you should multiply your weight by 15-17 and 18-20 if you are exercising 6 or 7 days a week.

Your Ideal Weight

As you can see, the more energy your body expends, the more it needs refueling. This is why, if you can get a guide to the number of calories in certain food groups, it will help you work towards your ideal body weight. To achieve this, you would need to multiply you ideal body weight by the numbers above. In other words, if your ideal body weight was 140 pounds, then your daily calorie intake should be about 1540, as mentioned above.

Another simple guide is to keep calorie intake between 2200 and 2500 a day, although it does vary according to age and gender. A teenage boy under the age of 14 should be getting about 2200 calories a day, whereas a girl should only be getting a little over 1800. For ages 15-18, a boy needs 2755 and a girl 2110, while adults need 2550 and 1940 respectively. As you can see, it is not an exact science, as these figures were taken from two different sources, but the figures are reasonable guides. As we get older, we generally need fewer calories, as we are not as energetic as we once were.

If you are serious about losing weight, it is helpful to keep a rough track of your calories intake. This does not mean you have to be obsessive and count every mouthful you eat, but just to be aware of the calories intake for the day. If you have a big lunch, then you can have a smaller dinner. If you have had drinks with a friend then you can cut back the next day. As we all know if you consistently take in more calories than you are expending, you will build fat.