Calories Needed to Maintain Weight
The consumption of calories and the maintenance of weight seem like simple arithmetic, but it can vary from person to person. It also requires an awareness of the content of foods that you are eating. However, a good, healthy diet should not be complicated. Maintaining weight is simple if you are eating the right things.
According to work by exercise physiologists William Cradle and Frank Ketch, the average total number of Calories Needed to Maintain Weight used for an adult male in the United States is 2,700 to 2,900 calories a day. This includes the basal metabolic rate, or the rate at which the body must work just to fulfill its most basic functions, plus the amount of activity that you do during the day. It is also an average and should not be applied to every single male. Weight lifters, athletes and just about any physically active person will burn more calories in a day.
A calorie is essentially a unit of energy. According to Medline Plus, it measures the amount of food needed to raise a gram of water a single degree Celsius. Consuming the same number of Calories Needed to Maintain Weight you burn, therefore, will fulfill your exact energy requirements throughout the day. Fats, carbohydrates and proteins are the only kinds of nutrients that your body can use for energy. Fat is the most energy- dense of the three. It contains 9 calories per gram, compared to 4 calories for proteins and carbohydrates.
In addition to the amount of Calories Needed to Maintain Weight, calories quality is also important. Extra energy stored as body fat when there is too much energy, but eating foods such as fiber and protein will promote a feeling of fullness and slows the absorption of molecules into the bloodstream. Simple, refined carbohydrates and Calories Needed to Maintain Weight dense foods have a greater tendency to be converted into body fat. So Calories Needed to Maintain Weight awake.
Calories Needed to Maintain Weight
Make a few additional small changes – walk everywhere, always use stairs instead of elevators, walk on escalators, get up and move around at least once an hour if your work or your life in general is sedentary, walk every day, use a pedometer. Walking 10,000 steps a day is a really good idea. Build up to a long brisk walk everyday, or most days. Be more active and watch less TV and spend less time on the computer. Buy one piece of exercise equipment to have at home and be strict with yourself about using it. Sometimes you can find mini-steppers or exercise bikes at second hand stores and thrift stores for just a few dollars.
There are calculators available online that determine the calories needed to maintain weight based on your life style. For example, if you are 5 foot 6 inches and weigh 125 pounds, you need to take in 1670 calories a day to maintain your current weight if you lead a sedentary life. If you work out regularly, you need to take in 2270 calories a day to maintain your current weight.The amount of calories needed to maintain your weight is dependent upon your lifestyle.
