PEPTIDE THERAPY | WEIGHTLOSS | ANTI-AGING | BETTER SEX
Calories Minicourse
A Bite-Sized Course on Calories
Do I really have to count calories?
When it comes to optimizing your health, calories are key. Calories convey how much energy comes from the foods and drinks you consume. Knowing how many calories you need and how many calories you are getting empowers you to reach your goals.
Counting calories does not have to be hard. Food labels as well as online databases provide the number of calories that common foods contain. Apps can help you track the calories you take in every day.
How many calories do I need?
Your body needs a certain number of calories to operate every day. Exactly how many calories you need depends on a lot factors including your age, energy spent, gender, height, and weight. Your goals like gaining, losing, or maintaining weight also
shape your calorie needs.
For more than 100 years, the Harris-Benedict equation has helped people compute their calorie needs. The most up-to-date equation is listed below, along with the related data needed to complete it.
BMR x activity level = calories needed to maintain weight
BMR stands for basal metabolic rate. Your BMR is the level of calories your body needs daily to operate when you are not performing any activity. To compute your BMR, use the formula below for your gender.
Female: 655.1 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years) = BMR
Male: 66 + (6.2 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) – (6.76 x age in years) = BMR
Some people are more active than others, and thus, require more calories. Below are activity levels you can use to complete the Harris-Benedict equation.
1.375 – lightly active (light exercise 1-3 days per week)
1.55 – moderately active (moderate exercise 3-5 days per week)
1.725 – very active (hard exercise 6-7 days per week)
1.9 – extra active (very hard exercise, training, or a physical job)
Example:
A 42-year-old female works at a computer Monday through Friday and takes brisk walks 4 days a week. She weighs 135 pounds and stands 5’8” tall. Her BMR is 1,365 calories, which was calculated as follows: 655.1 + (4.35 x 135) + (4.7 x 68) – (4.7 x 42). She needs to consume 2,116 calories a day (1,364 x 1.55) to stay at her current weight.
You can also use online calculators like the one found at ManyTools.org
How do I track my calories?
You can easily track your calories using resources like those offered at MyFitnessPal.com.
You can search the MyFitnessPal food database to find out how many calories are in certain foods and drinks.
Find out your food’s calories here
You can also see how many calories you burn doing different exercises.
Find out your calories burned here
1. Marcin A. How many calories do I burn in a day? Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercise/how-many-calories-do-i-burn-a-day.
2. MyFitnessPal. https://www.myfitnesspal.com/
Planning is essential for developing a healthy lifestyle. The Health Success Plans on the EverydayHealthHacker™ website serve as outlines that can be customized to meet your personal needs. The plans offer health benefits ranging from blood sugar regulation and weight loss to disease management and prevention.
The Health Success Plans will help you unlock your personal metabolism. The EverydayHealthHacker™ Learning Lab offers resources to help you compute the number of calories and macros you need. You can use apps like MyFitnessPal {link to myfitnesspal.com} and CarbManager {link to carbmanager.com} to track your calories and manage your intake of macros (i.e., good fats, proteins, and carbohydrates).
Choose the plan that best fits you. This will be a plan that is easy to follow, helps you feel better, and enables you to reach your goals. You can enjoy the journey while working toward greater clarity, energy, focus, and health.
A key to carrying out your plan is making small changes and better choices. For example, you may drink water instead of juice; choose green, leafy vegetables over starchy ones; eat only a few bites of carbohydrates (carbs) or a sweet treat; and replace breads with lettuce for sandwiches and wraps. Little by little, you can reach your goals and achieve health success.
Anti-inflammatory
The Anti-inflammatory Health Success Plan aims to reduce inflammation so your body can function optimally. Inflammation stems from a cascade of enzyme events in the body that cause free radicals to fire off and break down your natural immunity for warding off disease and infection. Inflammation underlies many illnesses including arthritis, heart disease, and neurological disorders.
Removing inflammation foods and drinks from your diet is essential for reducing inflammation. These include alcohol, dairy, refined carbohydrates, sugar, and tobacco. You may also benefit from avoiding or limiting corn, gluten, and nightshades such as peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes.
A 40/40/20 macro diet is a good starting point on the Anti-inflammatory Health Success Plan. This means 40% of your calories will come from good fats, 40% from protein, and 20% from carbs. This macro ratio can be adjusted as needed.
Keto
If losing weight and enhancing performance are your primary goals, the Keto Health Success Plan may be the best fit for you. This is a good plan to start with if you have a poor diet that consists of lots of fast food. This plan will help you reach your goal weight, and then you can adjust the plan to maintain your weight.
The standard keto diet consists of a 70/20/10 macro ratio: 70% healthy fats, 20% protein, and 10% carbs. Consuming high levels of fat, moderate amounts of protein, and very few carbs shifts the body into ketosis. This is a natural and healthy metabolic state in which the body burns fat instead of carbs for energy. The liver uses fatty acids to produce ketones that fuel the brain as well as the body.
For optimal results, you may supplement the keto diet with essential vitamins, exogenous ketones, medium chain triglycerides, and protein powders. Exogenous ketones typically contain beta hydroxybutyrate (BHB), one of the three ketones made by the body. Some benefits of BHB and the keto diet include improved cognition and brain health, longer life, loss of excess weight, reduced inflammation, and potential treatment and/or prevention of cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, insulin resistance, and neurodegenerative disorders.1,2