A few weeks ago I started a food journal with one week’s worth of what I was eating. I found out that my calorie intake was not as high as I thought it would be. However I really had no idea as to what my calorie intake should be. I did some research and what I found out might surprise you or prove to you that you’re on the right track.
First off let me say that there are so many different sites that make an attempt to answer this question with charts, graphs and obscure answers. In my search I looked for information that took me through the step by step process of how they reached their numbers. I found one site in particular that did just that.
To figure out your personal calorie intake, or as I learned, your BMR (basal metabolic rate) you do a simple calculation. It is different for men and women.
For Women: 655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years) and For Men: 66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in years)
Step two of the calculation requires you to take into account how active you are.
So I took the equation for women and I added in light activity and found out that my total calorie intake should be much more than what i’m currently taking in. Now the equation does not take into account certain things, like muscle mass or excess fat, but either way I’m off about 600 calories.
Do you know how many calories you are taking in on a daily basis? To keep track of the calories I was taking in when I wrote them in the journal, I used the Calorie Count Website. Here you just type in the food you are consuming and it gives you the calorie count per serving. For items that vary, like a banana, a drop down menu appears to give you the possible choices involving a banana. Is it a medium or small sized bananas? Knowing how many calories are in the foods you eat, might make you double think what you put into your body and what you buy at the grocery store. Also when buying groceries take a look at the calories on packaged goods. One of my favorite treats was Marie Calendar’s Chicken Pot Pie. I never paid attention to all the little numbers on the box. It didn’t matter to me as long as it tasted good and filled my tummy. I read that the larger box, which was 2 servings, was over 1000 calories. 1000 CALORIES. I always ate the entire pie. I mean really how do you stop yourself from eating something yummy half way through??? If you’re like me than stick to buying things that you can easily break out into a single serving. Today its an easy task to find single serving products. 🙂
My result from my calorie intake calculation makes me believe that there are definitely other factors that affect ones weight. Stay tuned to find out what I learn….in the meantime find out yours at http://weightloss.about.com/od/eatsmart/a/blcalintake.htm.