How Many Daily Calories Do You Need to Eat?

When it comes to how many calories you need to eat daily, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Your individual caloric needs are based on age, height, weight, activity level, health status, and if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding. To get the most accurate calculations, you should involve a doctor and a nutritional assessment. Our medical weight-loss team at Texas Spine & Sport Therapy Center can help you determine your daily caloric needs and make adjustments for your goals.

New Year, New You

With the start of a new year, millions of people make resolutions to be better and achieve more. It’s no surprise that diet and exercise top the list of people’s resolutions. Dieting can be hard. It can be even harder when you have to figure out how to get proper nutrition as you lose weight. There are many fad diets out there that people pursue to lose weight. However, these types of diets tend to cut out whole food groups. Even though they promise fast weight loss, the participants in these diets generally gain back all the weight as soon as they stop the diet. That’s because people aren’t catering their diets to what their body actually needs.

We commend all of our patients for wanting to get in better shape and get healthier. Studies show that if you decrease your weight to a healthy range and avoid obesity, you will have significantly fewer chronic conditions and diseases. Many patients work incredibly hard at the start of the new year to focus on healthy eating. However, up to 80% of people quit their New Year’s resolutions by mid-February. The best way to achieve goals when it comes to diet and exercise is through knowledge and help.

Be Knowledgeable about Daily Calories

Did you know that there are specific recommendations for your daily calories? Each person needs a specific amount of calories each day for their body processes to function properly. These daily calories will vary between genders, age, weight and even condition (such as being pregnant).

• Males 1-17 years: Need between 1,000-2,400 daily calories if sedentary. Need 1,000-2,800 daily calories if active.
• Females 1-14: 1,000-1,800 if sedentary; 1,000-2,000 if active.
• Males 18-40: 2,400-2,600 if sedentary; 2,600-2,800 if active.
• Females 18-40: 1,800 if sedentary; 2,000-2,200 if active.
• Males 41 and older: 2,000-2,200 if sedentary; 2,200-2,600 if active.
• Females 41 and older: 1,600-1,800 if sedentary; 1,800-2,000 if active.
• Pregnant women: Between 2,200-2,900 daily calories.

An overall estimate is that adult women need between 1,600-2,400 calories each day and men need between 2,000-3,000. However, this all depends on your lifestyle. You may need way more calories or way less. Being “sedentary” means that you don’t do any physical activity throughout your day. Your daily calories can determine if you gain weight, lose it, or stay the same. If you want to lose weight, you need to decrease your daily calories while still getting proper nutrition. Some studies show that one pound of weight equals about 3,500 calories, but your weight loss will depend on your routine and your eating habits.

Get Healthier with Help!

Losing weight is easiest when it’s done with help. To achieve true weight loss through diet, you have to make sure you are getting the proper nutrition your body needs. We live in a day where processed and sugar-filled foods are everywhere. Foods that are easy and on-the-go are some of the worst for you and lack proper vitamins and minerals. The human body needs 6 essential nutrients to stay healthy that include protein, fats, water, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Most people don’t get enough of all these areas, which means their body doesn’t lose as much weight or function as well as it could.

That is why we provide our patients with nutritional assessments to help them get on the path to success. At our office we provide full blood testing to identify nutritional deficiencies in crucial nutrients such as iron, vitamin B12 and calcium. We can tell you what nutrients you lack and what you have too much of. We also test your body with electricity to get a full picture of where your fat deposits lie and how your body works. Through this testing, we can help provide you a diet and exercise plan that will work for your unique body type. This method of weight loss and health improvement works much better than any fad diet ever would.

Be Conscious about Your Health

Eating right and exercising enough can increase your lifespan. It will also reduce or eliminate your risk for many chronic diseases and conditions. Before you eat another bite of food, think of what it will do to your body. Will that food help your body run smoothly or will it slow you down? We want all of our patients to have the tools to reach their diet and exercise goals this year. When your body is healthy, you can achieve all the rest of your resolutions. If you want to know more about the nutrients and daily calories your body needs, call Texas Spine & Sports Therapy Center today at (512) 806-0015!