Know Your Food Calorie

A calorie is a weighing unit of all the food we consume but it does not measure weight or volume. A calorie is an Energy Unit. Hearing anything that contains 100 calories is a way to explain how much energy the body can get from consuming or drinking it.

The amount of food we eat everyday has an important effect on body function. Mary L.Gavin (2018) stated that “most adults need a minimum of 2000 calories to sustain metabolism, muscle activity, and brain function. However, too many calories can lead to weight gain and a variety of diseases. To put it simple, if we consume more calories than we need on average, we will gain weight and if we consume less than we need on average, we will lose weight in fat, as well as muscle mass”.

METHOD 1 : Manual Calculation

1. Find your body weight in kilograms

2. Multiply your weight in kilograms by 0.9 if you are a woman or 1.0 if you are a man

3. Multiply by 24

4. Multiply by your “Lean Factor” from the table below (read on to learn how to find your body fat percentage if you don’t know it)

Example calculation of BMR

= 61 kg x 0.9 (female) x 24 x 0.95 (20% body fat)

= 1252 Calories/Day

This number is called Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). BMR is defined as the rate of energy expenditure per unit time at rest. To find out how many calories you actually burn in a day, you need to multiply with your “Activity Modifier”.

5. Multiply by Activity Modifier

The calories needed per day:

= BMR x Activity Modifier

Yes, calories keep you alive. Caroline (2017) found that “it takes energy to perform all those automatic functions like regulating breathing and pumping blood. The number of calories your body burns simply sustaining you as a life form is called the basal metabolic rate, or BMR.

It's around 1,330 for normal-weight adult women and 1,680 for normal-weight adult men”.

Method 2 : Online Calculation

Another method to calculate calories needed is using online calculator. Insert all the information require into the online calculator

Knowing that you know how many calories you are eating in a day, the next move is to determine whether you want to lose weight or gain. When you want to lose weight, it is recommended that you eat between 400-500 calories less than you consume every day. This would lead to a loss of around 0.5 kg in weight. That is a very healthy and sustainable rate per week.

If you want to gain muscle, start out at 500 calories/day more than you burn and see what happens. If you find that you are also putting on a little too much fat, decrease your calories slightly.

Food to Eat

Rudy Mawar (2018) emphasis “for some people, gaining weight or adding muscle can be just as difficult as losing weight for others. However, simply adding certain foods to your diet can make your weight gain efforts both healthy and more effective”. This list of food is to be considered to gain weight.

On the other hand, Racheal Lin (2018) stated that “one of the most challenging aspects of weight loss is cutting back on calories. Many low-calorie foods can leave you feeling hungry and unfulfilled between meals, making it much more tempting to overeat and indulge”. Fortunately, plenty of healthy foods exist that are both filling and low in calories Most vegetables are low in calories which will help you lose your weight.