I’m not sure why, but I always come back to this question: How much should I eat? I want to believe I’m supposed to eat as much as my body requires aka till I’m satisfied. However, I don’t always know when I’m satisfied or I think I have already eaten “too much” and I decide to be satisfied. Hence, I have started checking random days for my calorie intake. I’m really trying not to get sidetracked here but once again when I think I have eaten “too much”, my calorie intake is relative low.
So I have wondered, is there a number I could use as a goal to make sure I eat enough when in doubt?
Calorie calculators
I tested 6 calorie calculators from major health sources. Inserting the same numbers and activity levels with a goal to maintain current weight, of course. Only two calculators gave an exact number. However, I could look at these six numbers and have a nice range. I don’t want to write down numbers because these are based on data I inserted, but the difference from the lowest number to the highest was 409. I also calculated an average of the numbers.
Firstly, how helpful I thought. Secondly, how am I supposed to eat that many calories daily – stress. To my surprise, I actually think these calculators can give an indication as long as you have various numbers to compare to, although the numbers didn’t differentiate that much. It was easier than I thought to find a goal range and I realised I shouldn’t be looking for a round number.
Social Media
Social media and various influencers can tell you, well whatever they want. I still wanted to mention social media because I started searching for a nicely rounded number due to numbers I had seen on social media. Fitness influencers seem to have these perfect daily numbers like 1,400 or 1,600. I often look at what people eat in a day and compare to what I eat in a day. I check their portion sizes and calories that are displayed on the videos. Even so, it is impossible to know the reality behind their meals, activity levels, and lifestyle. Perhaps social media sounds like an easy and fast source, yet it should never be one. This is also reminder to myself, don’t go on social media and eat like your favorite influencer or take their advice.
Nutritionist
Lastly, I do want to mention I have received a meal plan/meal ideas from a nutritionist. Writing this post actually made me remember that. I went back to those documents and the daily calorie intake seems to be in line with those six calculators I used. Sometimes I wonder, why am I making this so hard for myself when I have meals listed in front of me – from a specialist…
Only you will know
These calculators can be useful, for many I believe, but only you will know how much you’re supposed to eat. Learning to listen to your body and finding peace with food. There are days when I don’t worry about food and I enjoy meals with friends, and those days I seem to also eat more and feel satisfied. On those days, counting calories would be the worst thing to do. It would be pointless. For days I feel lost or don’t want to eat, it wouldn’t hurt to check how much I have eaten because I know very well it certainly is not as much as recommended. When in doubt the easiest thing would be to follow meals listed by my nutritionist or consider these calorie recommendations.