Regularise your calorie intake
By Anup Deb Nath

A QUESTION that is asked by many people is how much should their ideal weight be for their height. Most books, fitness experts and many health club will give you a chart listing out the ideal weight for each height under both categories of men and women. Some will even go a step further and give you the ideal weight ratio under your body frame type of slim, medium and large, while some see if are an endomorph, ectomorph and mesomorph.

Ideally speaking there is no ideal weight for height and the best way is to evaluate yourself by looking at yourself in a mirror. If you can see bulges and fat you need to lose some fat and firm up as well. Another way is to pinch the skin with your fingers on the back of your thigh, waist, chin or arm. Gently pull the skin away from the muscle so that you are pulling only the fat and the skin. If when you pinch you manage to grip between 1/2 an inch and 1 inch, then your body fat level is most likely within the acceptable range. If you pinch less then 1/2 inch, then you maybe underweight. More than an inch could mean you have a higher level of body fat and you need to lose it. Of course there is no certain way to gauge how much overweight or for that matter underweight you are, or how much fat you have by even the pinch method.

An allied question to the one on weight is how many calories do we need in a day. This again tends to vary from person to person, with factors like age, activity level, your body size etc all playing an important part in determining the best amount for you. Again, there are charts which give you an average range of calories that are needed by people who are leading a moderately to slightly active life. A US recommended calorie chart is as follows:

Typical energy expenditure per person can also be gauged by calories you burn depending on your type of lifestyle. If you are largely inactive you will burn 12 calories per pound; lightly active with office work and a 20-minute walk burns 14 calories per pound; moderately active office goers who do 30 minutes of aerobic activity burn 20 calories per pound, while very active burn 25 calories per pound.

In order to calculate your daily calorie needs you should multiply your calories burned per pound by your current weight in pounds. The number you get is your daily calorie requirement for your lifestyle. To lose weight people cut back on the number of calories that they consume in a day. This is far more effective when it is combined with any form of exercise, which will help you to burn more calories.

There are some points that need to be noted regarding caloric intake.

lPeople who are physically more active need more calories.

lA lean muscular body needs more calories than a body of the same weight with less muscles and more fat.

lPeople who have a large body frame seem to need more calories than smaller-framed people, which is why men’s caloric needs are larger than women.

lPregnancy and breast-feeding increase a woman’s caloric requirements.

lThe older you get, the fewer the calories your body needs. This is due to the fact that the body’s metabolic rate slows down with age and, therefore, the burn-up of calories is less.

It is very important to remember not to restrict your calorie intake beyond a point as it can lead to nutrient loss to your body. In a diet with less than 1, 200 calories in the day it is difficult to give the body all the nutrients that it requires to be healthy and function well. A diet that goes below 800 calories can in fact be hazardous to the person’s health.

To find out many calories you are consuming you need to keep a record for about a week of what all you eat and each item’s calorie count and then total it up to a total calorie intake. When we say record what you eat and drink it means everything you eat and drink from the cups of tea and colas to your breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as the biscuit you sneaked in before dinner. The serving size will also effect the calorie count. Once you have totalled the daily calorie intake for a week, total it up and then divide it by 7. This will give you the average daily calorie intake for a regular week.

Once you know how many calories you are consuming and you can see from the chart how many calories you need, you will be able to judge how much over or under the acceptable limit you are.

Then you will be in a better position to find out by how much you need to curtail or increase your calories. In case the discrepancy is very large, it is better to try to increase the pace and your burn-up speed by adding in some form of exercise rather than cutting down on your diet in too drastic a manner.

This way it will be easier for you to reach your acceptable calorie count and not starve yourself either.

This feature was published on August 1, 1999