Recommended Daily Calorie Intake
Now that you know what calories are and you know how to figure out how many are in your food … you just need to know how many you should be eating.
The average recommendations vary a little. In England, the government suggests these figures for people maintaining their weight:
- 2500 calories a day for men
- 2000 calories a day for women (2,500 in third trimester of pregnancy)
- 1800 calories a day for children aged 5-10
However, the government are reviewing their advice – especially because most of us have sedentary jobs – as they suspect the daily caloric requirement for the average person is actually lower than this.
If you're considering a calorie-restricted diet, it is best to learn the recommended daily calorie intake for your body, age and gender. When trying to lose weight, even 100 calories a day too much can drastically change the outcome of your hard work.
How Many Calories Do You Eat?
Dieters often resist counting calories because it takes work. However, it also makes you aware of how much you are really eating. Keeping a food journal can also help you identify patterns in your eating, both good and bad. It's not something you have to do forever. Consider it a training exercise.
Start by writing down what you're currently eating and how many calories you take in each day. If you need to lose weight, that number needs to be cut, and if you need to gain weight, that number needs to be boosted. For the diligent ones who have reached their ideal weight and want to maintain it, their recommended daily calorie intake will remain the same as what they are currently eating.
Recommended Daily Calorie Intake
The problem for many people is that they are so sick and tired of being overweight that when they finally decide to cut calories they want to do something extreme like an 800 calorie a day diet in hopes they will lose all their weight fast. Most experts recommend a minimum of 1000-1200 calories a day for women and 1200 – 1500 minimum a day for men. That's if you want to lose weight. Otherwise, your daily caloric intake should be more. Eating as little as 800 calories a day for any length of time can actually sabotage your weight loss efforts by slowing your metabolism.
Calories and Your Metabolism
Our bodies burn calories for energy. This includes energy expended for our basic bodily functions or what is known as our resting metabolic rate (RMR). Your RMR includes calories burned as:
- You breathe
- Your heart beats
- Cells metabolize
- Your kidneys function
- You eat and digest your food
- You sit, talk, watch TV, work at your computer, etc.
If you're trying to lose weight, you'll need to eat less calories than you burn. There's one of two ways to do that. Either you need to eat less or burn more through becoming more active. The healthy answer usually rests in a combination of both.
Determining Calories Right for You
Each of us is unique, and our caloric needs mirror that uniqueness. For you to find the recommended daily calorie intake right for you, you can try one of the many online Calorie calculators designed to tell you how many calories you should eat depending on:
- Height
- Weight
- Age
- Activity level
- Gender
These calculators are a good tool to get you in the ballpark with your caloric intake. Once you calculate how many calories you should have, it is still a good idea to keep a food journal for a month or so in case you want to adjust calorie amounts up or down. Plus, tracking your calories in one place makes a great resource for calorie content of your favorite foods.
Exercise Is Important
The number of calories recommended by most online calculators are for your resting RMR. That's right, your resting metabolic rate. If you want to lose weight, adding activity to your life will help you to burn calories faster. This works to your advantage in a number of ways.
- First exercise will help you lose weight faster
- It allows you to eat more calories without gaining weight
- Develops more lean muscle which increases your RMR. This means you burn more calories throughout the day even while resting.
The bottom line is that the number of calories you should eat needs to meet your bodies metabolic needs. If you eat too many, your body stashes them away as stored fat to be used another day. When you eat too few, your body will turn to your lean muscle for energy. Less lean muscle means fewer calories burned while resting, and as a result your metabolism burns slower.
The best way to know if you're eating to much or to little is to watch the scale. Don't become a scale addict, but weight yourself once a week or once a month. Expect fluctuations of 2-5 pounds, but not a steadily climbing 2-5 pounds. If you're weight is stable, you're eating the calories needed to maintain your current weight. If you want that to change, you'll either have to boost or decrease your intake for the desired result.
Low Calorie Food that Fills
Are you looking for low calorie food that fills? Trying to lose weight – or even eating a healthy diet – can leave you with an empty feeling in your stomach. Many low calorie foods are simply not very satisfying. That is why it is important to find low calorie food that fills you up. It can help you to stay satiated and stay on track with your weight loss and overall goals for health.
Satiation
One of the keys to long-term success on any nutritional program is satiation. If you are not eating foods that fill you up and keep you satisfied, you are far more likely to slip back into unhealthy eating habits. Finding foods that satiate you can help to keep the hunger at bay and keep you on track as you progress towards your goals.
The key is to find low calorie food that fills you up and keeps you satiated so that you won’t start making trips to the refrigerator 20 minutes after your last meal.
Finding Low Calorie Food that Fills You Up
The low calorie food list shows some great everyday foods which are low in calories and ideal for weight loss diets. The calorie content is shown in the foods average portion. The low calorie food list also gives calorie content in 100 grams so it can be compared with other foods you may normally eat.
It’s no secret that many low calorie foods leave you decidedly unsatisfied. While they may taste great while you eat them, low calorie meals and snacks can leave you hungry.
Is there a solution? There are a number of low calorie foods that will help to fill you up and keep you satisfied. Here are some guidelines for finding them.
- Fiber plays an important role in satiation. Choosing foods that are high in fiber can help give your food staying power. High fiber foods include vegetables and whole grains.
- Low fat dairy such as skim milk, yogurt and low fat cheese can keep you satisfied. The dairy protein found in these foods burns more slowly than carbohydrates, staying in your system longer and keeping your body from experiencing food cravings and premature hunger.
- Low fat protein such as white meat chicken, turkey, egg whites, fish and lean cuts of meat have a slower burn rate than carbohydrates and can therefore be more satisfying.
- Fresh vegetables – especially fibrous vegetables – are very satiating. Not only that, but you can eat an awfully large amount of fresh vegetables for a very low calorie count.
- While not traditionally considered a low calorie food, nuts are extremely satisfying. The secret to making nuts a low calorie food that can fill you up is portion control. One ounce of peanuts has less than 200 calories, but can keep you satisfied for hours. Likewise, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter added to whole grain piece of toast adds less than 200 calories, but adding that peanut butter can keep you from getting hungry for hours.
Low Calorie Foods that Won’t Fill You Up
There are a number of low calorie foods that just won’t fit the bill. These foods leave your system quickly and leave you hungering for more. As a matter of fact, if you eat the wrong low calorie foods, you may wind up taking in more calories with some of these foods than you would have had you eaten a more satisfying food, like those listed above.
- Simple carbohydrates can be low in calories. Unfortunately, your body burns simple carbohydrates so quickly that you may eat more than you intended, or you may be left hungry soon after eating. There is also some evidence that sugar and simple carbohydrates can also trigger further food cravings in sensitive individuals. Simple carbohydrates include sugar, white flour, white rice and pasta, to name a few. Also included are “diet snack foods” like low calorie cookies and crackers.
- Artificial sweeteners not only have no effect on satiation, but they may trigger cravings for sweets and simple carbohydrates.
- Processed foods like snack crackers, low fat cookies and baked potato chips may seem like a good idea because they are low in calories. The truth about these foods, however, is that your body burns through them quickly. Instead of eating a lot of low calorie processed foods, stick to the low calorie foods you will find around the edges of the grocery store in the dairy, produce and meat aisles.
- Beware of low calorie frozen entrees. While these meals may be low in calories, many contain simple carbohydrates and artificial sweeteners. Look for frozen entrees that feature lots of vegetables and whole grains over those with simple carbohydrates like pasta and rice.
- Fruit, while an essential part of a healthy diet, burns out of your system extremely quickly because of the high concentration of fructose. By all means, eat fruit, but don’t count on a piece of fruit to satisfy your hunger for long.
- Potatoes and corn, while relatively low in calories, burn off quickly due to their relatively high starch rate.
When you are dieting, the key to success is in the foods you eat. By selecting low calorie foods with a high satiation factor, you will be well on your way to success.
|
Low calorie food |
Portion size * |
100 grams (3.5 oz) |
energy content |
|
Beans mung dried boiled |
100 cals | 100 cals | Low |
|
Beans runner boiled |
15 cals | 25 cals | Very low |
| Broccoli | 20 cals | 30 cals | Very low |
| Brussels sprouts | 20 cals | 32 cals | Low |
| Canderel sweetener | 10 cals / tablet | - | Low |
| Cottage cheese low fat | 80 cals | 80 cals | Low |
| Fish any white fresh poached | 150-200 / fillet | 110 cals | Low |
| Fromage Frais low fat | 65 cals | 55 cals | Low-Med |
| Hunts bitter lemon drink | 2 (125ml) | 1 cal | Low-Med |
| Hunts bitter Ginger ale drink | 2 (125ml) | 1 cal | Low |
| Hunts bitter orange drink | 2 (125ml) | 1 cal | Low |
| Lentils | 70 cals | 50 cals | Low |
| Macaroni (boiled) | 238 cals (250g) | 95 cals | Low |
| Mayonnaise weight watchers | 45 cals (1 Tbsp ) | 300 cals | Lowe |
| Muesli sugar-free | 180 cals (50g) | 360 cals | Low |
| Noodles (boiled) | 175 cals (250g) | 70 cals | Low |
| Pasta ( normal boiled ) | 330 cals (300g) | 110 cals | Low |
| Pasta (wholemeal boiled ) | 315 cals (300g) | 105 cals | Low |
| Peas chick boiled | 115 cals | 115 cals | Low |
| Porridge oats (with water) | 193 cals (350g) | 55 cals | Low |
| Potatoes (boiled) | 210 cals (300g) | 70 cals | Low |
| Rice (white long grain) | 420 cals (300g) | 140 cals | Low |
| Rice ( Brown ) | 405 cals (300g) | 135 cals | Low |
| Spaghetti (boiled) | 303 cals (300g) | 101 cals | Low |
| Tofu | 90 cals | 73 cals | Low |
| Yogurt virtually fat-free | 50 cals (1 small pot) | 40 cals | Low |