How many Calories Should I be Eating Daily? The Most Asked Question's Answer

If I asked anyone in the fitness industry or a person who just start going to gym, which is the most important thing to gain or lose weight?

Most of the person will say diet especially when it comes to weight loss. Right?

But in micro seconds they have another doubt how many calories should I eat to lose weight, maintain or gain weight?

This is the most asked question ever in the fitness industry, you probably heard it a lot.

So, in this article we're going to find out the answer of it and how you can get maximum benefit from it trough manual method and calculator method.

Because calculators aren't accurate always!

Before knowing how many calories you should eat to achieve your goal, you should know at least basic terms of nutrition.

In the end, I'll also give you 1500 to 2000 Kcal diet which is the best calorie deficit range if you want to lose weight as a bonus.

Well, most of the people know about this and if you know, you can skip this but if you're a beginner then stick with this section because it will be very useful for you in the future.

Basic of Nutrition: Calories, Protein, Carbohydrates and Fats

As I said, nutrition or diet is one of the most important thing if you want to lose weight. So you need to understand how all these diet works and what are the terms used it it.

1. Calories

The most basic terms in the nutrition which you can find in any diet. 

The definition of calories would be like: the unit used for measuring the amount of energy present in any food or meal.

The basic solution for losing or gaining weight is eat fewer calories than you burn to lose weight and vice versa.

2. Protein(The most favourite macro-nutrient)

Protein is one of the main macro-nutrient in your diet. No matter what is your goal, you should eat enough amount of protein everyday in your life in order to lose, maintain or gain weight.

If you do nothing and live sedentary life-style, you still need certain amount of protein in a day to work all of your organ properly.

Protein is made from amino acids, there are total 20 amino acids in one gram protein.

Amino acids can be divided further into three groups.

• Essential Amino acids
• Non-Essential Amino acids
• Conditional Amino acids 

There are 9 essential amino acids which are not made by the mode so we have to take it through supplements or foods.

Nonessential means that our bodies produce an amino acid, even if we do not get it from the food we eat.

Conditional amino acids are usually not essential, except in times of illness and stress.

Each gram of protein contains 4 calories. Protein makes up about 15 percent of a person’s body weight.

So, it is very important to have sufficient amount of protein in our diet.

In Fact, if you want to lose weight, protein should be your best friend because protein will help you to lose weight by suppressing your hunger.

Several studies shows that protein  helps people to reduce hunger and improved appetite, satiety and diet quality.

3. Carbohydrates

The most loved macro by the people who want to gain weight and the most hated macro by the people who want to lose weight.

Most of the people who want to lose weight fast than usual totally cut their carbs intake in their diet which is not good in terms of healthy weight loss regimen.

Carbohydrates is the essential source energy for our body. So, if you're following any extreme weight loss diet which contain calories less than 1400 then stop following it because it isn't good for your organs.

Like the protein, there are also two main type of carbohydrates: 

• Simple carbohydrates
• Complex carbohydrates

Now! you must be thinking which type of carb is better for weight loss or weight gain.

Well the short answer is both type of carbs is important for our body to supply energy as a fuel.

But, if you're following weight loss routine then try to add more food which contain complex carbohydrates not the simple carbs.

Consuming simple carb on a weight loss plan will stop you to achieving your goal because it contains more simple sugar, which burn fast.

So, you're more likely to feel hungry again soon.

1 gm Carbohydrates contain 4 calories, remember this number because you'll need it while making diet.

4. Fats

Fats will be your best friends, if you want to gain weight and vice versa.

However, good fats are also important to increase the testosterone level in your body which is the number one hormone for building muscle and losing weight.

There are two types of fats: Good Fats and Bad fats

Good fats are Monounsaturated, Polyunsaturated and Omega-3 fats, and the bad fats are saturated and trans fats.

If you're eating good fats then you won't increase fat in your body but if you're consuming bad fats then you ended up with high level of body fat.

This are the basic terms you should know before finding any diet related numbers, however, there are some other terms which are important while making diet, check out this site for the in-depth knowledge. 

How Many Calories I should Eat?

Before finding actual numbers, I want to let you know that you can find out your daily calorie intake for your goal through calculator which are available on the internet.

However, I'll always go with the manual method which I'll describe now because I feel it is more accurate way to find daily calorie requirement.

To find daily calorie requirement, you should know only age,gender, height, weight and your activity level.

There are main two steps for manual method to find daily calorie requirement.

Step 1 Find Basal Metabolic Rate

The step 1 is finding BMR (basal metabolic rate), this is the minimum number of calories you should eat if you're doing nothing for whole day.

You can find BMR using either the older Harris-Benedict equation or the newer Mifflin - St Jeor equation.

But most experts use the newer version of BMR equation that is Mifflin - St Jeor Equations. 

Here's the equation for men:

BMR In Imperial: (4.536 × weight in pounds) + (15.88 × height in inches) - (5 × age) + 5

BMR In Metric: (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) - (5 × age in years) + 5

Here's the equation for women

BMR In Imperial: (4.536 × weight in pounds) + (15.88 × height in inches) - (5 × age) - 161

BMR In Metric: (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) - (5 × age in years) - 161

That's a lot of numbers right? 

If you want to find accurate numbers, you should find out manually. Don't be Lazy!

Once you find out your BMR, now it's time to find step 2.

Step 2 Find Total Daily Energy Expenditure

If you do any type of activity and going gym at the same time, you have to find out your daily requirement calories form this.

So, How can We find TDEE?

Finding TDEE is much easier than finding BMR so, don't worry about it!

TDEE = BMR * Your Activity Level

Now you may be think what is the activity level and how can I find it?

There are a fix number based on your activity level so you don't need to do any calculation to find out your activity level.

• sedentary (little or no exercise) = BMR x 1.2
• lightly active (light exercise/sports 1–3 days/week) = BMR x 1.375
• moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3–5 days/week) = BMR x 1.55
• very active (hard exercise/sports 6–7 days a week) = BMR x 1.725
• extra active (very hard exercise/sports and physical job or 2x training) = BMR x 1.9

Now You know your activity level then just do the simple math, multiply your BMR which you found above with your activity level.

The number you got after the calculation is the maintenance calories, you should need to live healthy life style or maintain your weight based on your activity level. 

How many Calories Should I be Eat to Lose weight?

Now your goal is losing weight, you should eat less than your maintenance calories right?

Well, everyone knows this! but how many calories you should eat less?

You can cut a fix amount of calories from your diet or a percentage of calories from the diet.

For Instance, if your TDEE is 2359 calories then you should cut either 250 to 400 calories from that for the one week and see how much weight you lose.

If you made any progress then stick to it for 6 to 8 weeks and You'll see certain amount weight loss difference.

But what if you haven't lose any weight according to the calories you reduced?

If you haven't seen any weight loss difference in the first week, try to eat less calories than first week.

So, if you're eating 1947 calories than again reduce 200 or 300 calories from it.

This is the best way to find your daily calories requirement for weight loss because no calculator on the internet can tell the exact amount of calories you need to lose weight.

You can also cut a fix percentage of daily calories from your diet like 15, 20 or 25%. 

Make sure you don't go too far in daily calorie because if you take less 1400 calories in order to lose weight fast, you will damage your organ functions in the long term.

How many Calories Should I be Eat to Gain weight?

Now, if you want to gain weight, you can applied same technique, I explained earlier in the weight loss.

Just increase your daily calorie intake by 300 - 400 calories or a fix percentage. If you didn't see any results at the end of the week, increase the daily calorie intake again for the next week.

If you're a skinny or have Ectomorph type body, make sure you increase your calorie intake by 500 or more calories.

Because it is very difficult for Ectomorph type people to gain weight.

Example of Daily Calorie Requirement for Weight Loss

Let's take an example of John, his weight is 78 kg, height is 170 cm, activity level is moderate and he is 24 years old.

So what's the BMR, TDEE And Daily calorie requirement for John to lose weight.

BMR(Metric): 1727.5 Kcal

TDEE: BMR * 1.55 = 2677 Kcal

If john want to lose 8 kg weight, he has to cut certain amount of calories based on goal. So, here we take 500 calories as an Example.

Daily Calorie: TDEE - Calories need to lose weight = 2677-500 = 2177 K Cal

Now John has to make diet according to this calories in order to lose weight, if he hasn't seen any changes in diet. He will again cut some calories from the 2177 calories.

These days, most people don't want to do even this simple calculations but let me show the TDEE I got from the calculators available online.

Calculator 1: 2376

Calculator 2: 2678 

Calculator 3: 2668

You can see that only one calculator result is exact to our results. So make sure you calculate yourself and don't rely on the online calculators.

Because sometimes results of these calculators varies so much than actual results and you'll have no result for your hard work.

There are many different ways to calculate this, you can find them on the internet. This is just one way to do it.

If you're still being lazy then below is the calculator, you can find out your daily calorie requirement from that. However, remember that not all the calculator are accurate.

BMR Calculator provided by calculators.tech

BONUS (FREE DIET PLANS)

Now, I assume you find your daily requirement calories for your goal but what about meal plan.

Most people can find this easily but stuck at making meals according to their calories.

That's why Check out below link for 1500 and 2000 Kcal diet plan which is best for you if you're doing weight loss and weight gain.

If your calorie intake is between this range don't worry make some own changes in the meals with the help of cronometer and myfitnesspal application.

In this application, you won't find any meals but you will know which meals contain how many calories. so, you don't eat more than you needed.

Weight Loss Diet Plans

Diet Plan for 1500 Kcal Link
Diet Plan for 2000 Kcal Link

Weight Gain Diet Plans

Diet Plan for 2200 Kcal Link

Diet Plan for 2500 Kcal Link

Final Thoughts

I hope, After reading this comprehensive article on how many calories you should eat to achieve your desire goal, you will able to find the accurate amount of calories you need for weight loss, maintenance and weight gain.

If you still have any doubt about it and want help with making diet, let me know in the comment section below.

If you know any calculators which show accurate result every time then also let me know in the comments.