The standard answer to how many calories should I eat is approximately 1,800 to 2,000 calories per day for females between the ages of 19 to 50 and for males in the same age range it is between 2,200 and 2,400 calories per day. Of course if you are an avid exerciser 30 to 60 minutes a day or play a moderate to highly active sport such as basketball 2 to 3 times a week, you many need a few hundred more calories in your diet every day.
These guidelines are really only necessary for your total caloric intake and once you get used to what your body craves and your eating patterns when eating nutritionally dense foods, you rarely have to pay attention to how many calories your body is getting. We have not counted our caloric intake for years and we eat when we are hungry and don't eat when we aren't hungry. It is as simple as that.
If you are a dieter and are getting into the pattern of counting every calorie in every portion for every meal you eat, that alone can make you get completely frustrated with dieting. A big issue with many weight loss programs is that many diets do nothing more than suggest you eat less junk than you are already eating. Eating a Big Mac twice a week instead of 4 times a week really isn't going to make that much of a difference. Or eating a Jr Whopper instead of the full sized Whopper from Burger King really makes no difference because we’re talking about food that is not all that good for you in the first place.
Popular club type diets of prepared and or packaged foods are loaded with high sodium, sugar and chemical preservatives and spices and are nutritionally void. They may also contain excitotoxins that are harmful to your health. For long term storage such as canned goods and vacuum packed meals, these foods have had most of the nutrition cooked right out of them. Preservatives are then added to give them shelf life depleting the nutritional content even further.
When you are eating a diet of nutritionally dense foods it is easier to control your calories than you may think. When eating junk food have you even noticed how you never really get satisfied? Ever notice how you can just keep eating and eating a bag full of potato chips and sometimes have to force yourself to put them down? Have you ever felt that same craving to keep eating when you have a green leafy salad with healthy dressing on it? Probably not? The reason that happens is because your body is getting the nutrition it needs rather than just stuffing it with calories. Your appetite gets satisfied without your body feeling stuffed.
With the increase in portion size in the American diet over the last few decades, many of us now sit down at every meal thinking we need to stuff ourselves so we feel like we are no longer hungry. We have learned this in two different ways, from the previously mentioned portion size increase and from eating food that has little nutrition in it.
The more important thing to remember when planning your meals for the day or sitting down for dinner, isn't how many calories should I eat, it is what kind of calories am I putting into my mouth? Are they healthy calories full of nutrition or are you just eating food to try and satisfy your hunger? The answer to that question will make a huge difference in your overall well being.
Any time you are changing the way you eat we always recommend you seek the advice of a professional health care provider.
