How Many Calories Should I Eat in a Day?

The only way to know exactly how many calories you should consume is to get tested in a metabolic chamber, an elaborate setup found mostly in research labs and universities. This is far from necessary. Relatively simple formulas can estimate your caloric needs, like the Harris-Benedict equation (it's used in many of the online calculators, and you can find it at weight-loss-for-women-over-40.com/bmr-calorie-needs.htm). Plug your numbers into the equation.

However please be a little suspicious; this figure is based on an average basal metabolic rate. If your basal metabolism, which accounts for nearly 65 percent of all calories the body burns, is lower than normal, you need fewer calories; if it's higher, you require more.

Another approach is to keep a detailed food diary (nutritional log programs for computers and PDAs may be helpful). The idea is to count your food calories for, say, a week during which your weight is stable. Take the daily average, and that's the number of calories you should aim for.
I find that the bigger benefit of this is that you get a full picture of how much you eat. When I looked at my log I was alarmed and scared straight. I wrote down everything that went into mouth. It explained why I was having so much trouble losing weight :-0


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