How many calories should i take in a day

First, What Is a Calorie?

Technically, a calorie is a unit of energy. Put simply, when we eat calories from food they are converted to energy for breathing, circulation, brain and muscle function, and cellular work. Basically, all of your body's essential functions run on calories! In addition to fueling your body, calories can support overall health. When you eat a wide range of healthful foods, those calories contain a variety of nutrients that allow your body to function optimally. For example, calories from yogurt offer nutrients that benefit bone and gut health because yogurt contains calcium and probiotics, respectively.

How to Calculate Calorie Needs

The Harris-Benedict Equation is a standardized equation commonly used to assess calorie needs. If you have ever used an online nutrition calculator chances are it was modeled on this evidence-based method. Most calculators ask you to input demographic information including age, gender, height and weight to calculate baseline calories needs or Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). This number can then be scaled by a physical activity factor to account for the amount of exercise that person does regularly.

To see the Harris-Benedict equation in action, here’s how the numbers compute for various individuals that weigh 150 pounds and are 5 feet, 7 inches tall. Since metabolism and metabolic rate are influenced by age, gender and the amount of exercise you do, you'll see a variation across age and gender groups.

Keep in mind, there is a genetic component to metabolism that cannot be accounted for by an equation such as this.

18-year old female, exercises 2-3 times per week

Daily calorie needs: 2365 calories

25-year old male, exercises 6-7 times per week

Daily calorie needs: 3182 calories

40-year old female, exercises 1-2 times per week

Daily calorie needs: 1967 calories

70-year old male, exercises 4-5 times per week

Daily calorie needs: 2448 calories

6 Common Calorie Myths You Need to Stop Believing

Bottom Line: Calories Count, But What You Eat Matters More.

Calories matter, but eating high quality food that you enjoy matters more! All calories are not created equal. Simplifying calories down to one number neglects to consider two important factors about food: nutrition density and digestion time.

Nutrient density is all about the quality of the calories. If you compare 100 calories of soda and 100 calories of milk, you have 100 calories either way but that’s not the whole story. While soda only offers up calories from sugar, milk provides 13 essential nutrients including protein, calcium, and vitamin D making it the more nutrient dense option. Ideally, you want most of your calories to be as nutrient dense as possible to maximize health.

Digestion time varies significantly by the type of foods you eat, and in what combination you eat them. Carbs are typically digested and metabolized the fastest, while protein and fat take longer; high fiber carbs (like oats and brown rice) will also slow digestion. Slower digesting calories are ideal to help curb cravings throughout the day and to prevent a mid-day energy slump. Choosing nutrient dense calories that keep you satisfied is the goal.

The Forbes Health Calorie Calculator estimates the number of calories your body uses each day. If you want to lose weight, it calculates the number of daily calories you need to consume to achieve your weight loss goal. It also displays how long it will take you to reach your goal weight safely.

To Maintain Your Weight
To calculate your daily calorie needs to maintain your weight, the calculator considers your:

1. Resting metabolic rate (RMR)
2. Physical activity
3. The thermogenic effect of food (the calories you burn while processing food)

Each of these components requires a different amount of calories.

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1. Your RMR requires the most energy, far more than physical activity or food processing. It can be measured scientifically in a lab or estimated using an equation. In this calculator, your RMR is measured using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation. It’s the most reliable formula, according to a review of studies in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. It calculates your RMR based on your sex, weight, height and age.

2. Physical activity burns calories, so athletes need to consume more calories than people who don’t exercise. An activity factor—ranging from 1.2 for people who are sedentary to 1.9 for extremely active people—is assigned based on your physical activity level. The calculator then multiplies your RMR by this number.

3. The thermogenic effect of food makes up the remainder of your daily energy needs (approximately 10%). To find this number, the calculator takes your RMR multiplied by your activity factor and multiplies that number by 10%.

To Lose Weight
To determine your daily calorie needs to lose weight, the calculator decreases the number of calories you use each day by 25%, resulting in a new recommended daily calorie intake. Our Forbes Health Calorie Calculator panel of experts recommended this equation for safe, sustainable weight loss.

The calculator won’t display fewer than 1,200 calories a day no matter your starting weight. “If you go below that, it’s very difficult to get all the macronutrients and micronutrients you need for optimal health,” says Melina Jampolis, M.D., a Forbes Health Advisory Board member.

The Forbes Health editorial team consulted 2021 Forbes Health Advisory Board members Melina Jampolis, M.D., Toby Amidor, R.D. and Sabrena Jo, M.S., the senior director of science and research at the American Council on Exercise (ACE), for this calculator. They reviewed the methods used by this tool to calculate daily calorie needs to maintain and lose weight.

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