Why Knowing Your Recommended Daily Calorie Intake Is So Important.

Why is it important to know one's recommended daily calorie intake?
Knowing your total calorie gives you two important benefits. First, it
tells you how many calories you must have daily to maintain your present
weight. Second, if you know your recommended daily calories, you can
decrease your total calories by only 500 and you will lose a pound of
fat per week.



"We are what we eat"



Some people incorrectly think that they're making the right health
choices just because a magazine or their friends recommended something.
Is it actually healthy to trust such unconfirmed information? Let's take
a look. I think you'll be very surprised.



Let's take an avocado for example. It's very healthy for you if you have
a slice with a meal because it has good fats that will break down bad
fats. Some people read this and they forget that eating more than a
slice isn't actually good for you. If you eat an entire medium-sized
avocado, you're eating 4 grams of protein, 15 grams of carbohydrates,
and 31 grams of fat.



Now what do these numbers mean? Let's take a closer look at how this one
avocado would affect your overall recommended daily calorie intake.
There are four calories in each gram of protein, four calories in each
gram of carbohydrate, and nine calories in each gram of fat. You'll
notice that there are over twice as many calories from fat than there
are from proteins and carbohydrates. This cannot be a good thing.



If we add all the calories up from just one avocado, you get a total of
346 calories! Remember that even good fats get stored if you don't use
them up. Knowing your recommended daily calorie intake can be helpful
benefit in this situation.



Given that the average calories for females are 1400 per day, one
medium-sized avocado would be a quarter of your recommended daily
calorie intake. Now you see how things can get complicated and
misleading? So we need a better understanding of how much protein,
carbohydrates and fat we actually eat in order to have more control of
our daily calorie intake. This will give us better knowledge on how to
make better food choices so we all can achieve the optimal desired
weight that we all dream about achieving. One must definitely know their
recommended daily calorie intake then.



How does one calculate his or her recommended daily calorie intake?
First we have to calculate a person's resting metabolic rate.
Calculating this takes into account one's age, weight, and height. The
resting metabolic rate is the amount of energy in calories you burn
daily just by living. You find your recommended daily calorie intake by
taking your resting metabolic rate and factoring in digestion and your
other daily activities.



There is some state-of-the-art equipment available that can calculate
your calorie requirements. If you do not have access to this equipment
however, there are a number of formulas that you can use to calculate
your recommended daily calorie intake.