This is one of the trickiest questions to answer but still, I would try my level best to write something that should make sense to different individuals.

There is one of my friends who has a concern about getting fat or get the feeling that she is getting fat if she takes heavy three meals a day. But if she increases the number of meals to five but keeps it light in each meal, her body congratulates her and thanks to her for keeping it better for her at the end of the day.

Food is Calorie

Listening to this concern, a thought came into my mind that how often we have heard this debate of three meals in a day are better or 5-6 meals are better?

Well, the answer is it doesn’t matter much. All that matters is whatever you eat is sufficient for your body or not? Of course, you need to give time to food to digest, which can be two hours, it can be three or it can be 4 or five as well, all depends on what you are eating and how is your metabolism.

In my previous blogs, I mentioned about the BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). The caloric amount required to simply survive is your BMR. A caloric requirement, for your heart to thump, for your brain to function properly and for your all organs to work efficiently.

So, we need to eat Calories, not the food (Of course take care of your tongue as well who likes to taste better food every now and then), that is the simplest way to put it across. A calorie is simply a measurement of energy and our body uses this energy to function.

Calorie Measurement

Now, this caloric requirement differs from individual to individual. And before we talk about how much we need, let’s see how much an individual burns if he or she is engaged in different lifestyles. To keep it simple for you all, the average daily calorie burn rate for a man between the ages of 31 and 50 is 2,200 to 2,400 if he’s sedentary; 2,400 to 2,600 if he’s moderately active; and 2,800 to 3,000 calories if he’s considered active. For sedentary women, also between the ages of 31 to 50, the average calorie burn is 1,800 per day; for moderately active women, it’s 2,000 calories; and for active women, it’s 2,200 calories per day.

Like I said before, these numbers would change as per the height, weight, and age of an individual, but these given figures would give you a fair idea that what is the range of calorie burn. These figures are based on a sample group of average men, who is 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighs 70 kg, and the average woman who is 5 feet, 4 inches tall, and 57 kg.

The goal leads to how much you need!

So once you know how much you burn, as per different lifestyles, you can easily make out how much you need to consume. This consumption is based on your Goal, whether you want to lose weight or gain. To lose or gain weight you need to create the Caloric Deficit and Caloric Surplus. More calories consumed than burnt are Caloric Surplus and Lesser calories consumed that burn is Caloric Deficit. One pound of weight is equal to 3500 calories. So to gain one pound of weight, you eat more 3500 calories, and to reduce, you would eat 3500 calories lesser than the actual requirement. This difference of 3500 calories can be achieved in a week or in a month, it all depends on how fast you want to achieve your goal.

Understand your body, your lifestyle, and then work on your goals. But just focus on good Calories (Food).