You may be surprised.
First, let’s talk about what it means to say you ~should~ be eating a certain number of calories per day.
That's referring to an ideal number of calories, based on a lot of different factors that are outlined below. There's no moral judgment attached to it, though. The number of calories anyone eats is a personal decision, and not at all a reflection of their intelligence or value as a human. You can and should do whatever you want with your body. This article is just meant to be a guide for people who may find it helpful in achieving certain goals.
It isn't for everyone, though. If you have a history of disordered eating, for example, you should work with your doctor to figure out what's best and healthiest for you to focus on when it comes to calories and nutrition and food. That might mean not thinking about calories at all. Again: It's personal.
FOX / Via wifflegif.com
OK. So if you do want to figure out how many calories you should eat, a good place to start is to determine your Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR.
"BMR is how many calories you're burning if you're lying in bed doing nothing, having eaten nothing for the last twelve hours," Dr. Michael Jensen, endocrinologist, professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic, and body weight regulation and obesity specialist, tells BuzzFeed Life. It's the minimum number of calories your body needs to simply ~exist~ — basically, to keep your organs running.
There are a few different ways to calculate BMR, but most experts use what's called the Mifflin-St. Jeor Equation, New York City-based Dietitian Brittany Kohn, MS, RD, tells BuzzFeed Life. This equation takes into account your sex, age, weight, and height. It's different for men and women.
CK
Here's the equation for men:
BMR = 10 x weight (in kilograms) + 6.25 x height (in centimeters) - 5 x age (in years) + 5
CK
And here's the equation for women:
BMR = 10 x weight (in kilograms) + 6.25 x height (in centimeters) - 5 x age (in years) - 161
CK