Determining how many calories you need

Calories (sometimes called kilocalories) measure the amount of energy available in the foods you eat. The number of calories you need every day depends on how old you are, how big you are, whether you’re male or female, how active you are, and whether you’re pregnant or nursing. When you get the right number of calories every day, you’ll be at a healthful weight. If you don’t eat enough calories, you’ll become underweight. And if you get too many, you’ll become overweight and possibly obese. Being overweight or obese increases your risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some cancers.You can go online and find calculators to help you estimate how many calories you need every day to maintain, gain, or lose weight. 

Check out www. bmi-calculator.net or www.nutritiondata.com for easy-to-use calculators. Or you can calculate your calorieneeds with two formulas. 

The first one calculates how many calories you need just to be awake and breathing. The second formula factors in your activity level:

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) Formula

Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 × weight in pounds) + (4.7 × height in inches)

– (4.7 × age in years)

Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 × weight in pounds) + (12.7 × height in inches) –

(6.8 × age in years)

Harris Benedict Formula

If you’re sedentary (little or no exercise): Calorie Calculation = BMR × 1.2

If you’re lightly active (light exercise/sports 1–3 days/week): Calorie

Calculation = BMR × 1.375

If you’re moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3–5 days/week):

Calorie Calculation = BMR × 1.55

If you’re very active (hard exercise/sports 6–7 days a week): Calorie

Calculation = BMR × 1.725

If you’re extra active (very hard exercise/sports and physical job or

double training): Calorie Calculation = BMR × 1.9

For example, a 35-year-old, moderately active woman who is 5'5" tall and

weighs 125 pounds has a BMR of 655 + (4.35 × 125) + (4.7 × 65) – (4.7 × 35), or

1,340 calories. Because she’s moderately active, we multiply 1,340 × 1.55 for

a grand total of 2,077, which is the number of calories she needs every day to

maintain her weight.

We include nutrition information for all our superfoods, including calorie

counts, so you’ll know how the superfoods fit into your daily intake of calories.

Most of our superfoods are low in calories, and the ones that are more

energy dense (higher in calories) are very rich in nutrients so you only need

to eat a little bit to reap their rewards.