A calorie is a unit of energy in the food you eat. Knowing how many calories you need every day can help you make the right food choices. Determining how many calories you need to maintain your current weight gives you an excellent place to begin, whether you plan to maintain your weight, gain or lose weight. If you've recently reached your ideal weight, you'll need to know how many calories you need a day to keep the weight off.
Step 1
Multiply your current weight in pounds by 12 if you are a woman or by 14 if you are man; this gives you an estimate of the number of calories you need to maintain your current weight. For example, if you weigh 150 lbs. and you are a woman, you need 1,800 calories a day to maintain your current weight. If you are a man who weighs 200 lbs., you need 2,800 calories a day to maintain your current weight.
Step 2
Add the number of calories you burn to your total. The more active you are, the more calories you can eat every day while still maintaining your weight. Determine how many calories a day you burn during exercise, and add that number to the amount you determined above. For example, a 200 lb. man who exercises daily for sufficient length and intensity to burn 500 calories would need 3,300 calories to maintain his weight.
Step 3
Keep a food diary for a week, then determine the average amount of calories you are consuming each day. If you make no changes in your activity level, you should be able to continue to eat the same number of calories and maintain your weight.
Tips and Warnings
- If you wish to lose weight, decrease the number of calories you eat by about 500 per day.
- Do not lower your calorie intake below 1,000 calories daily, except under the direction and supervision of a physician. It is better to lose weight slowly and gradually than to restrict your calorie intake drastically.
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