How many calories should you consume?

Do you know how many calories you should be consuming?

The government guidelines say that men should consume 2000 calories per day while women should consume 1500 calories per day.

I’ll explain why this is wrong.

15 stone Joe is a builder and spends his day carrying heavy loads, moving around a lot, running up and down ladders and scaffolding etc before heading to the gym at night for 2 hours of hard training 5 days a week.

10 stone Jimmy works in an office and spends his day sat at a desk, staring at a computer before heading home to sit on the sofa and watch TV all night.

Both are men… does this mean that they should both be consuming the same amount of calories each day?

Or is there a big difference in how much energy each one is using on a daily basis?

Of course there is… and therefore, it means that Joe should be consuming more calories because of the amount of work he is doing.

I hope we are now in agreement that the 2000kcal for all men doesn’t work?

It’s exactly the same for ladies!

There are a number of ways to find out how many calories YOU as an individual should be consuming. None are 100% accurate. To get 100% it takes a hell of a lot of trial and error.

If you've read our previous blog 'Who should count calories and why' and you fall in to the category somebody who should, I'd begin by completing 'The Harris Benedict Equation' - you'll find this with a quick Google search. From here, you need to find out what you're currently consuming by tracking your calories for a couple of weeks.

From there you can begin bridging the gap, including a small calorie deficit or surplus depending on whether your looking for weight gain or weight loss.