calories

Calculate your calories intake  What are calories A calorie is a unit used to measure energy and heat. In nutrition and food science, it means the amount of energy, a body gets from the consumption of food. One needs calories to survive because without it the cells in a body will not get the amount of energy to perform various vital functions such as growth, metabolism, excretion, etc. Every person needs different calories based on their physical activities, weight, height, lifestyle, age, etc. It is important to know the right amount of calories to consume because excess and low calorie can cause serious damage to the body. Depending Factors? As said earlier, every person's calorie intake depends upon various factors such as Age: With the increase in age, there is a need for significantly less calorie intake as the muscle mass (which helps in body movements) starts to decrease with physical inactivity which also leads to less burning of energy. One has to maintain the proper amount of calorie intake with age. If not, then it will result in the body storing fat and eventual weight gain. Height and weight: The calorie consumption also depends upon the height. Tall people require more calories to function as compared to short people because they have larger organs and bigger bones so, more lean body mass (Total body weight-body fat weight).  Basal metabolic rate (the rate at which the body requires calories to perform basic functions such as breathing.) is determined by the lean body mass so it requires more energy and thus more calories. Weight also plays a significant role because a person with more weight may have larger organs, thus they will require more energy in its process and in moving their body. Gender: Generally, men have more height, weight, and muscle mass, (which burns more calories) than women so they have more calorie requirements. Lifestyle and physical activity: Calorie consumption largely depends on a person’s lifestyle and whether he/she is participating in physical activities or not. Regular exercise burns additional calories beyond what it requires for the basal metabolic rate. Procedure for knowing your intake. It is a simple 4- step process: First, you have to select the meal time. The options given are Breakfast, Lunch, Tea time, and Dinner. For the next step, you have to select a category and click ‘calculate’. The categories given are biscuits, slices of bread, egg dishes, and many more. For example, if you select the ‘bread’ category, a table will be opened up for you below. The table contains the following columns: Item name, Serving, calories per serving, fat grams per serving. There will be different data for each category. The options for the ‘bread’ category will be Indian Pau, Fruit bread, Brown bread, etc. Now you just have to fill the ‘number of servings you’ve taken against each food item you’ve consumed in the fourth column and hit submit. Then it will show you the total calorie consumption so far.