A Simple Way to Calculate Daily Calorie Needs

meals

Lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. That’s a solid goal to help you manage diabetes and keep your blood sugar levels in check.

So what’s the biggest contributor to weight management? A lot of people think it’s exercise. But it’s not. It’s your diet.

Here’s an example:

Eat a donut. In just a couple minutes, you’ll munch down 300+ calories.
Go for a walk. You’ll need to walk for about 60 minutes to burn the donut calories.

Get the picture? It’s a lot easier to manage your weight by paying attention to your food choices than trying to out-exercise a bad diet.

So how do you figure out how much you should eat?

Keep track of the amount of calories you eat.

Your body needs a specific amount of calories to perform basic functions. Eat more than this, and weight tends to go up.
Eat slightly less than this, and weight tends to go down.
Combine healthy eating with regular exercise, and you’ll still be able to enjoy foods you love and manage your weight.

A simple way to calculate daily calorie needs

There are lots of different ways to calculate your daily calorie needs to lose weight, maintain a healthy weight or even gain weight.

Here’s a simple way to calculate your daily calorie needs if you’re moderately active, according to Harvard University:

Calories to Maintain Your Weight = (Current Body Weight x 15)
Example: A 150-pound, moderately-active woman would need to eat about 2,250 calories per day to maintain her weight (maintenance level).

If you want to lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficit.

And there’s TWO ways you can do this…
1. Eat about 500 calories less than your maintenance level per day. That could be as easy as skipping the 1-2 donuts for something healthier. Consistently eating fewer calories than you need can help you lose 1 to 2 pounds a week safely.

2. Be more active. Exercise for 30 to 60 minutes per day will help you burn additional calories.

Looking for an easy way to keep track of calories? Every Diabetic-Friendly MagicKitchen.com meal includes calories per serving. Pick your favorites and enjoy.