Understanding Calories And How Many Do We Need?

Calories become a familiar word heard, especially when you are on a diet. But the truth is that calories? Why do we need it and how many calories we need?

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Clinical nutrition specialist Samuel Oetoro said, the actual calorie is a unit of energy. So precisely, the body needs energy in units of calories. Energy needed by the body to perform its functions and activities.


"The energy obtained from food. Which is why every food has calories in varying amounts," said Samuel when contacted by the Admin.

Differences calories contained in the food determined from the nutritional value in it. Nutrients that contain the highest calories are fat, followed by carbohydrates and proteins.

"When compared to the size of a gram, fat contains nine calories, carbohydrates and protein are both four calories," said Samuel.

The deciding factor Caloric Intake
Calories a person needs varies depending on several factors, including age, weight, height, and activity. This is because these factors determine the amount of energy released by the body.

Samuel pointed out, for example, a healthy adult males usually requires intake of 2,000 calories per day. While as age increases, would be lower caloric needs.

"To determine the appropriate caloric needs for each individual, the calculations required by the experts. Nevertheless, the overall caloric requirements affected these factors," said a doctor who practiced at the Siloam Hospital.

So you can control the amount of calories in your diet to suit your needs. Read related articles: Counting calories for weight loss.

Samuel explains, calorie needs should be fulfilled in order to keep the normal body functions. However, if you have special needs, such as the wish to raise or lower the weight, the number of calories needed may be different.

To lose weight, one must eat less than caloric needs, contrary to the weight increase.

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