Before I explain the number of calories to eat per day, It is note-worthy to first of all understand what a calorie is?
What is a calorie?
The Oxford dictionary defines a calorie as the “energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water through 1 °C, equal to one thousand small calories and often used to measure the energy value of foods.” As explained above, calories are used to measure energy, but apart from foods, a lot of other substance have calories, such as coal. However, for the purpose of this article, just understand a calorie as a unit of measuring the energy in foods.
Healthy calorie count for a day
The human body is made up of cells and these cells need energy to live. The key to having a healthy life is consuming the right amount of calories for the day, over-consumption or under-consumption of calories can greatly affect your life. The number of calories a food contains tell us about how much potential energy is in that food.
The amount of calories needed per day differs from individual to individual. The amount of calories you need per day depends on numerous factors, such as your overall general health, physical activity demands, sex, weight, height and shape. Your age is also determining factor on the amount of calories you need.
The US government has shown that the average man requires about 2,700 calories per day, whereas, an average woman needs 2,200 calories. The NHS (National Health Service) in the UK says it should be about 2,500 and 2,000 respectively.
The study conducted by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) of the United Nations further explained that the average adult should consume no less than 1,800 calories per day.
Importance of calories
The amount of calories you consume is highly beneficial to your health, to maintain a healthy weight, you should balance the amount of calories you consume from food and drinks. Calories are highly essential in weight loss, you will have to lose more energy than you consume to gain weight. It goes the other way round, that is you will have to consume more calories than you lose to gain weight.
An apple for example has about 80 calories, a banana about 101 calories, a grape about 2 calories, a mango about 135 calories, an orange about 71 calories and pineapple about 80 calories.
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