Today, people are more health conscious, and since food greatly impacts our health, we are also interested to know how much calories are contained in a certain portion of each food items we choose to eat. It’s just like watching our budget for our financial health, or being aware of, or sensitive to, what we do and what we fail to do for our fellowmen, for our spiritual health.
Calorie is the amount of energy in food/drink we ingest, and also the energy consumed or lost with any bodily activity. The more we eat, the more calories we absorbed into our body, and the more we exercise, the more we burn or lose calories. The balance in the calorie intake and output determines whether we maintain our current weight, lose weight, or gain pounds.
To find out how much one’s total calorie requirement (TCR) is, one must compute his/her ideal body weight (IBW). The Tannhauser Formula will give us the answer. IBW (in kg) = (Height in cm minus 100) less 10%. Example: If a person is 5 foot 2 inches, the height in centimeter is (62 inches x 2.54) or 157.48 cm. So, 157.48 minus 100 = 57.48. And 57.48 minus 10% (or 5.748) equals to 51.73 or about 52 kg is the IBW.
Now that we know the IBW, we must find out the level of physical activity of the person. Using the Krause Formula, the standard average calories burned are as follows: Sedentary, just sitting behind the desk, 30 calories; average housewife chores, 40; carpenter, 45. To find out the TCR, multiply the IBW with the physical activity, say, sedentary. So, TCR in this example will be 52 kg x 30, or 1560 calories per day. This energy is what is required to maintain the body weight, no loss, no gain.
In general, the average calorie requirement per day ranges between 1500 and 2000. Eating 500 calories more a day (in excess of the total calorie requirement) will make a person gain one pound in a week, and, conversely, eating 500 calories less than the TCR per day will reduce one pound from the person’s body weight in a week.
ref: dailyinquirer
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