Maintaining a healthy weight and body fat percentage can prevent conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, as well as help you look and feel your best. Your weight and body fat percentage directly relate to your diet and exercise habits. Knowing the recommended caloric intake and best types of foods to eat for your body's needs can help you maintain a healthy body fat percentage and weight.
Body Fat
Your body fat percentage is the total weight of your body fat divided by your overall weight. Since you cannot easily weigh your body fat, there are different ways to estimate your amount of fat. One way to measure your body fat is by calculating your BMI, or Body Mass Index. BMI calculations use your height and weight to estimate how much body fat you have. The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute offers a BMI Calculator on its website. A healthy BMI range is between 18.5 and 24.9, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, NHLBI.
Caloric Intake
The foods you eat affect your body fat percentage. If you eat more calories than you burn each day or if you consume a lot of calories that come from fat, you will increase your body fat percentage. The amount of calories you need to consume each day to stay healthy and maintain a healthy weight and body fat percentage depends on your age, sex and activity level. In general, men burn more calories than women and teens and young adults burn more calories than seniors.
Calorie Guidelines
The USDA offers an interactive tool called the Daily Food Plan to help you calculate how many calories you need to eat each day based on your age, sex, height, weight and activity level. If you want to lose weight, use your goal weight to calculate your caloric needs. As a base guideline, the NHLBI recommends sedentary females between the ages of 31 and 50 consume 1,800 calories per day and active females in the same age group consume 2,200 calories per day. For males in the same age group, NHLBI advises sedentary men to consume 2,200 calories per day and active men to take in between 2,800 and 3,000 calories daily.
Caloric Content
It is important to consume calories from a variety of foods from all of the food groups, including grains, vegetables, fruit, protein and dairy sources. The Institute of Medicine advises that adults consume about 20 percent to 35 percent of their calories from fat, 45 percent to 65 percent from carbohydrates and 10 percent to 35 percent from protein. If you consume more calories from fat, you will increase your body fat percentage. Also take into consideration the type of fat you eat, as saturated fats and trans fats -- from animal products, fried foods and pre-packaged desserts and snacks -- are more likely to build up in your body and contribute to weight gain and an increased body fat percentage. Unsaturated fats -- from nuts, vegetable oils, fish and seeds -- on the other hand, can lower your cholesterol and help get rid of unhealthy fats in your arteries.
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