How Many Calories Do I Eat Everyday?

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Did you know that most people have no idea how many calories they consume every day. Whether you are planning to lose weight, trying to gain weight, or just trying to maintain your weight, you should know the number of calories you eat every day. Your daily caloric intake plays a big role in whether or not you reach your fitness and diet goals.  Once you know the number you can make adjustments to your energy balance to get the body you want. 

Sounds simple, right. Wrong. You also have to know how many calories you burn every day. That's not that easy. You burn a different amount every day depending on your activity level. 

There are websites to help you calculate your calorie burn. In the past and what most of us get wrong "if we just the the calories we eat now we can lose weight. Wrong, that's the way most of us yo-yo up and down on the scale and never accomplish permanent weight loss. Know your real calorie burn, than you know how much you can eat.

The Best Time to Measure Daily Caloric Intake

To find out how many calories you eat every day, you'll need to follow simple steps to maintain a food journal.
The process will take one week. Make sure you choose a week when your daily food intake, your daily activity and your daily access to food are typical. Don't do it when you are starting a new exercise program, on vacation, or experiencing any other changes to your daily routine.
If weight loss is your goal, remember to be patient. You're probably anxious to begin your diet so that you can start losing weight. But without this initial step, your diet could fail. And remember that during this process you learn basic skills, like recording and measuring food portions. These skills will make your diet more effective in the long run. So don’t feel like you are wasting time. You are laying the groundwork for weight loss success.

How to Record Your Daily Calories

You can record the calories you eat every day online or on paper. There is no "best" method, but many people find that online services (with handy smartphone apps) are easier because the calories and other nutrients are recorded automatically when you input your food.
But the old fashioned paper and pencil method works just as well! Just be sure that you measure and record everything you eat and drink. If you are using the paper and pencil method, use the USDA National Nutrient Database to get nutritional information for each food that you list.
Follow these guidelines to get the most accurate recording:
  • Be honest about what you eat. There is absolutely no benefit to underestimating (or overestimating) your caloric intake. There is also no reason to change your diet during this recording phase, actually you want to know how many calories you have been eating. If you don't get an accurate recording of everything you typically eat, your daily caloric intake will be wrong and you’ll have trouble when you calculate your energy balance for weight loss or weight gain.
  • Measure portion sizes. Make sure you understand the difference between portion size and serving size. If possible, use a digital scale to get precise measurements of each portion that you consume. It can be a tedious process in the beginning, but it gets easier as time goes on and it becomes habit.
  • Be complete. Don’t just write down the calorie count of each food. Record each macronutrient as well. That means you write down the amount of fat, carbohydrate and protein for each food. Why does this matter? Some people can reduce their total calories if they modify their nutrient intake. For example, some dieters choose to eat more protein and fewer carbohydrates to lose weight without feeling hungry all the time.
     
  • Record snacks and drinks. Don't forget to write down every snack food and drink that you consume during the day.  Why? Many people consume too many calories from snacks without even realizing it. And drink calories can add up too. In fact, you may be able to lose weight if you simply change what you drink.

How to Calculate Your Daily Calorie Intake

At the end of the week, figure out the total number of calories you consumed each day. Then add all seven days together and divide the number by seven to get an average daily caloric intake. Here’s an example:
Monday: 1900 calories
Tuesday: 2500 calories
Wednesday: 2000 calories
Thursday: 2100 calories
Friday: 2000 calories
Saturday: 2400 calories
Sunday: 1800 calories
Total calories consumed during the week: 14,700
Divided by seven days = 2100 average calories per day

You can do this for each macronutrient as well to find out how many grams of fat, carbohydrate and protein you typically consume each day.

Adjust Your Daily Caloric Intake to Lose Weight

Once you’ve figured out your average daily caloric intake, you can begin to make changes to your diet and activity to reach your body weight goal.  This is where your calorie burn is essential. If you know how many calories you burn each day, when your trying to lose weight you want to consume 500 calories a day less than you burn. If that put you in starvation mode, you have to burn more calories by being more active. This is the part that most of us get wrong. Your calorie burn has to be more than the calories you consume. Don't cheap on the calculations or you'll never lose weight.

If you reach a weight loss plateau, if you gain weight or if your diet isn't working, repeat this process to find your daily calorie intake again. The number of calories you eat every day may have changed and could be the reason that you can't reach your goals.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my Ebooks at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet.

There’s two ebooks.  “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my Ebook. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.
My new ebook is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. I’ll give you a discount coupon you can use at checkout. (PJ42H) not case-sensitive the price is $1.99 w/coupon


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