Your healthy daily intake of calories depends on your body weight, activity level, age and gender. While the distribution of carbs, protein and fat for a healthy diet stays about the same, the amounts of each food type differs from person to person. By knowing your age, weight and activity levels you should be able to compute the right calorie intake to gain, maintain or lose weight depending on your personal goals.
Adult Intake
Men can eat about 13 calories for each pound of body weight daily. The University of Maryland Medical Center says that if a man exercises at least a half hour daily with brisk walking, swimming or cycling, men can take in 15 calories for each pound of body weight daily without gaining. Women can take in 10 calories for each pound of body weight if sedentary, but if you will exercise at least a half-hour daily, you can increase that number to 12 calories per pound daily.
Young Child's Intake
At ages 2 to 3, boys and girls should take in similar numbers of calories daily. MayoClinic.com says that 1,000 to 1,400 calories are about the right amounts for both genders. Those numbers should be distributed with about 5 to 20 percent of calories eaten as protein, which is about 13 g to 50 g at the 1,000 calories-per-day level. About half, or 45 percent to 65 percent of calorie intake should be in carbohydrates and 30 to 40 percent should come in fat to process fat-soluble vitamins K, D, A and D. Between ages 4 and 8, calorie-intake differences show up with recommended intake for girls between 1,200 and 1,800 calories and intake for boys at between 1,400 and 2,000 calories.
Preteen's Intake
By the time a child is 9 to 13 years old, the differences between gender intake has widened. MayoClinic.com states that 9 to 13-year-old girls should take in between 1,600 and 2,200 calories daily while boys of the same age should take in 1,800 to 2,600 calories daily. About half the daily calorie intake should be in carbs such as whole-grain foods and veggies and the other half of daily calories should be split between proteins and fat. Sedentary pre-teens should aim for the lower calorie amount while active and growing pre-teens should take in food at the higher level.
Teen Intake
Going into adulthood, teen calorie intake is likely at its highest. MayoClinic.com says that active, still growing girls between the ages of 14 and 18 should be eating about 2,400 calories daily. Active boys should eat even more calories, especially if they are still growing, with 3,200 calories recommended. Sedentary girls should only eat about 1,800 calories daily and sedentary boys should eat about 2,200 calories, with about half the calories in carbs, a quarter in fat and a quarter in proteins. Both genders of pre-teens and teens should also be getting about 1,300 mg of calcium daily for strong bones.
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