How Many Calories Should you Eat?

Don’t know how much food you should be eating each day? Are you eating too much?

Calculating you caloric intake is quite simple.

So if you want to figure to how much food you need to eat - this is for you!

I love to track the food I eat, just because I believe that it’s a great way to learn more about the foods I eat and make sure my diet is on point.

I started doing it last year and realised that I am so much more in control of my diet and body once I really committed to it.

I would be lying if I said I am currently doing it, but that’s all about to change very soon.

If you are trying to achieve a specific goal then it’s definitely helpful.

So to calculate my caloric intake I use the Harris Benedict Formula (there are a few out there). This is how you do it (metric):

Women: BMR*= 655.1 + ( 9.563 x weight in kg ) + ( 1.850 x height in cm ) – ( 4.676 x age in years )
Men : BMR = 655.1 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )

*BMR is the amount of energy you expand while at rest.

Now you need to include the PAL factor (Physical Activity Level). This is important because a person who has a very active lifestyle will need to consume more calories than someone who never works out.

Little to no exercise BMR x 1.2

Light exercise (1–3 days per week) BMR x 1.4

Moderate exercise (3–5 days per week) BMR x 1.6

Heavy exercise (6–7 days per week) BMR x 1.7

If you want to maintain your weight – stay with this result

If you want to gain weight – add another 200-500 calories

If you want to lose weight – subtract 100-500 calories

This is just a useful orientation. Every body and metabolism is different. Use this number as a guideline and adjust as you see results or don’t.

If you are not into counting calories, I understand I just suggest you do it for 2-3days. It will just be an easy way to learn how much for example 1900 calories look like.

My numbers:

655.1 + ( 9.563 * 51kg ) + ( 1.850 * 166cm ) – ( 4.676 * 24 )= 1337.7

1337.7 * 1.7 (since I only take one day of rest a week usually) = 2274 calories

I currently want to increase my weight slowly to gain mass in my lower body (booty), hence:

2274+ 200 = 2574 calories