How to calculate calories in homemade food. To maintain ideal body weight you must consume a balanced calorie intake. In theory, this might sound simple. However, regulating food intake in the environment of the modern lifestyle is quite complicated.
Calorie counting is one method that is commonly used for someone who is on a weight-maintaining program. If you don’t really understand how to count calories, the first step you can consider is knowing your daily energy needs.
This energy requirement is the number of calories you should eat each day. Once you know how many calories you need to maintain your weight, you will know how many calories you need to calculate.
Here is a detailed guide on how to calculate calories in homemade food.
Know What Calories Are
A calorie is a measure of energy, usually used to measure the energy content of food and drink. Technically, food calories are defined as the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1 degree Celsius.
You use the calories you eat and drink for important functions such as breathing and thinking, as well as daily activities such as walking, talking, and eating. Any excess calories you eat will be stored as fat.
If you consistently eat more food than your body burns, it will cause you to gain weight over time. For that, how to calculate daily food calories must be done correctly.
The Need to Calculate Food Calories
Many assume that calories are not that important and that doing calorie counting is a waste of time. But when it comes to weight loss programs, calories should and need to be taken into account. For that, you must understand the basics of how to calculate food calories.
This is a fact that has been proven repeatedly in scientific experiments called overfeeding studies. These studies asked people to deliberately overeat and then measure the impact on their weight and health.
All overfeeding studies have found that, when people eat more calories than they burn, they gain weight.
This simple fact means, by counting food calories and limiting daily intake, can be an effective way to prevent weight gain or lose weight.
Recommended Number of Calories
The number of calories you need depends on factors such as gender, age, body weight, and activity level.
For example, a 25-year-old male athlete will need more calories than a 70-year-old woman who does not exercise. For that, how to calculate food calories must be adjusted properly to daily needs.
If you are trying to lose weight, you should create a calorie deficit by eating less than your body burns. Use a calorie counter calculator app to determine how many calories to eat per day.
How to Calculate Daily Food Calories
The following are the steps and how to calculate daily food calories that you can follow.
This aims to make it easier for you to control your intake of calorie needs in order to maintain weight stability, or lose weight if you are on a diet program.
- Weigh your body weight in kilograms.
- Multiply your weight in kilograms by 0.9 if you are a woman or 1.0 if you are a man.
- Multiply again by 24.
- Next step multiply it by your “Lean Factor” from the table below.
This number is called the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). How many calories you would burn in a day if you were just lying on the couch all day and doing nothing can be found through this classification.
To find out how many calories you actually burn in a day, you need to multiply it by the Activity Converter.
- Multiply by the number in the Activity Modifier.
As you can see, how to calculate daily food calories is actually quite simple as long as you know your body fat percentage.
You can also use online gauges and calculator apps to estimate your body fat percentage.
Frequent Calorie Count Errors
The main mistake that is often made by counting food calories is exaggerating the level of daily activity.
Even though a person lives a very active lifestyle and exercises almost every day, he or she still uses the “Light Activity” multiplier because most of the activities are spent at the computer.
The higher multiplier is for people who use their body almost continuously throughout the day, such as construction workers, pro athletes, etc.
If you are quite fit and active, you can use the “Light” or “Very Light” multiplier. Especially if you are just starting the program, use the “Very Light” multiplier only.
Now that you know how to calculate calories in homemade food. The next step is to decide whether you want to lose or gain weight.
If you are trying to lose weight, it is recommended that you consume about 400-500 calories less than you burn each day.
This will result in a weight loss of about 1 lb. per week, which is a very healthy and sustainable rate.