Most people estimate their daily calorie requirements rather than calculate them and, that's why weight loss and weight gain plans often get stuck. The first step in making almost any nutrition decision (whether it be a portion size or meal planning) is to calculate the amount of calories that are needed every day. This guide will take you through the steps of working out how much calories is required per day to you according to your age, gender and activity. It will also explain how to work out how many calories are contained in food, so you can use that number in real life.
How Much Calories Is Required Per Day?
Adult female women require 1,800 to 2,200 calories a day, and adult male men require 2,200 to 2,800 calories a day, depending on activity level. This is a basic approximation only — your individual calorie requirements for a day will vary according to your age, weight, height and activity levels.
How Much Calories Is Required Per Day? Factors That Determine Your Number
The number of calories needed per day depends on two factors: the number of calories burned at rest (Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR) and the number of calories burned during activity (above BMR).
The most common formula used to estimate how much calories is required per day is the Mifflin-St Jeor equation:
- Men: (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) + 5
- Women: (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) − 161
After calculating your BMR, multiply it by an activity factor, which is based on your level of activity; sedentary (1.2), moderate (1.5), active (1.7), very active (1.9). This number is the basis for any correct answer to how many calories per day and it's also the number I use throughout this guide for the rest of the questions, like how many calories should I eat and how many calories eat in a day at other activity levels.
How Many Calories Should I Eat Based on Age and Gender?
The honest answer to how many calories should I be eating? depends on age and sex – metabolism slows down with age, men have more muscle mass than women, which burns more calories at rest.
| Age Group | Women (moderate activity) | Men (moderate activity) |
|---|---|---|
| 19–30 years | 2,000–2,200 | 2,600–2,800 |
| 31–50 years | 1,800–2,000 | 2,400–2,600 |
| 51+ years | 1,600–1,800 | 2,200–2,400 |
These ranges provide a good guideline for how many calories to eat, but other factors such as muscle mass, health conditions and activity levels during the day, apart from exercise, may influence the calorie amount. If you're not certain, take the center of the range for your age group as your initial guess about how many calories you should be consuming, and then fine-tune your intake after a couple of weeks based on your weight change.
How Many Calories Eat in a Day for Different Activity Levels?
Activity level is the most important factor in calories consumed in a day other than age and gender. The amount of calories a person with a desk job requires is much lower than that of someone who is training every day or working a manual job. This is why two people of the same age and sex can have vastly different answers to the question: How many calories do you eat a day?
- Sedentary (little to no exercise): BMR × 1.2
- Moderately active (moderate exercise 4-7 days/week): BMR × 1.58
- Very active (vigorous exercise 7+ days a week): BMR × 1.725
- Very active (hard exercise 6-7 days/week): BMR x 1.725
- Extremely active (physical job + daily training): BMR × 1.9
These multipliers provide a much more precise indication of the number of calories consumed per day than using abstract averages. As your life changes (new job, new training split, a season of lower activity) you will need to recalculate how many calories you eat each day; this will keep the number fresh and not stale.
How to Calculate Calories in Food (Step-by-Step)
After knowing what you're aiming for, the next step is to learn how to estimate the calories in food in order to get there. Follow this easy procedure:
- Use a kitchen scale to measure food precisely, particularly items such as nuts, oil and rice, which have a high calorie density.
- Look at the Nutrition Facts label for calories per 100 g or per serving.
- Multiply by the amount of food you are eating. If the label says 130 calories in 100 g then you will have 195 calories for 150 g.
- Use a weighing scale to measure all foods for prepared foods, rather than approximate the entire food.
The same basic steps apply to counting calories in food items when counting calories in packaged food items instead of cooking them from scratch.
This dish-by-dish approach to calculating calories is much more precise than a "looks like this" or "portion size" guess. After a few practice sessions on how to count calories in everyday food items, it will be quick.
How to Count Calories in Food Using Labels and Apps
It's hard to figure out calorie content of each meal by hand, so most people use an app. If you don't know how to count calories in food without getting too busy to keep up with it, consider this easy method:
- Track your food with an app such as MyFitnessPal or HealthifyMe that contains a huge list of Indian dishes.
- Record foods when you eat them, not at the end of the day to be more accurate.
- Set frequently-used meals as presets so they don't have to be entered again and again.
- Use approximations when preparing meals at home, rather than getting lost in exact measurements of grams.
After 2-3 weeks of counting calories via a food counting app, you'll be familiar enough to be able to know how much a portion is without logging everything after. From there on in counting calories in food becomes a habit rather than a chore.
How to Count Calorie Intake for Weight Loss, Maintenance, or Gain
These are the ways to calculate the number of calories you need to gain or lose, depending on your objective. No matter what it is, the steps to calculating calorie consumption remain the same, except you are changing the number you are aiming for:
- To lose weight, consume 500 – 300 calories under your maintenance level.
- Weight upkeep: consume at your calculated upkeep level.
- Maintenance: consume your daily maintenance number of calories. Weight loss: consume 300-500 calories below your daily maintenance.
Understanding the calorie limits for these goals, and not just eating healthy, is the key determinant for achieving consistent results over weeks and months. Re-checking calorie consumption every month or so is useful as your weight and activity level fluctuate as you develop. Checking calorie consumption again every few months, as your weight and activity levels rise and fall, ensures your targets remain accurate.
Common Mistakes When Counting Calories
- Panic about oil and ghee: When it comes to cooking fats, they can add up quickly and easy to go unnoticed.
- Not recalculating calorie needs as weight changes: Your calorie requirements will also adjust per unit of weight change, recalculating every 4–6 weeks.
- Not recording all meals: If you do not record all your meals, then your daily total will be incorrect.
- Misreading calorie for nutrition quality: Two meals can have the same number of calories but very different impact on hunger and energy level.
Conclusion
By knowing how much calories is required per day to you will have a clear target than general advice. When you add a fundamental knowledge of the calorie content in foods, you have the formula necessary to plan your meals for weight loss, maintenance or muscle building. The formulas and tables in this guide are just a starting point; make sure to adjust for your body as you go for the next few weeks.
Set to find your number? Use the formula to calculate your BMR, multiply that by your activity level and then track your meals over a 1-week period to determine how well your eating plan matches your target.
FAQs
1. How much calories is required per day for a sedentary person?
For an adult who is sedentary, the amount of calories needed a day is between 1,600-2,200, depending on gender, age, and body weight; that is because the extra calories needed above BMR are minimal for a sedentary lifestyle.
2. How many calories should I eat to lose weight safely?
At a safe level, it's 300-500 calories fewer than your daily maintenance calories. How many calories should I eat for weight loss should be within a reasonable range, and NOT lower than that will cause muscle loss and fatigue.
3. What's the easiest way to count calories in food without a kitchen scale?
Standard measuring cups and reading food labels are reasonable alternatives, but a scale will be more accurate. After a few weeks of knowing how to use the scale to measure calories in food, you can do it more accurately after you forgo the scale.
4. Do calorie need to change with age?
Yes. The recommended ranges are lower for people over 50 because their metabolism slows down and they lose muscle mass as they get older, so they eat fewer calories as they get older.
5. How to count calorie intake if I eat out often?
There are many restaurant chains that publish calorie data online, and food-tracking apps will usually contain restaurant items in its database. If there is not an exact number, it is best to estimate a little higher than a similar dish at home, which will make it easier to keep a good record of how to count calorie intake even on days you eat out, and will keep your tracking of the calorie count real.
