This cool site has a calculator which can compute your Body Mass Index (BMI) and Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) based on your height and weight. Based on your amount of activity, it can then calculate the optimum amount of daily caloric intake for you. Consuming below that amount of daily caloric intake means your diet is “calorie restricted”, i.e. less than the amount that you actually burn each day, thereby leading to gradual weight loss. Another site recommends consuming 500 calories/day less than the optimal in order to lose weight.
I used to never think about calories, yet out of curiosity and the desire to be ever more conscientious healthwise I decided to start computing my caloric intake, just to see what it was.
It turns out that my daily caloric intake is actually quite close to the optimum level. I do notice that my weight fluctuates very modestly +/- about 3-4 lb. Even at the gym, after an intense workout and a lot of sweating, I will notice a drop sometimes close to 2 lb. If I go to the jacuzzi and/or sauna and gulp a lot of water, I can actually see the weight come back up slightly. Quite interesting.
My weight has been more or less static for the past 25 years. I am noticing slight changes. I’m not sure if they are attributable to changing gender or age. More than likely some combination of the two. The major change is that I seem to need less calories, and my appetite is somewhat less ravenous than it was for many years.
One thing I have noticed is that the taste of foods, the enjoyment of them, seems to have skyrocketed. I don’t know why, but often the meals that I prepare are just absolutely mind-blowing – not just in terms of the flavor, which to me is still a kind of superficial thing, but in terms of the overall energy coming from the food. I wonder if the gender change may have something to do with this as maybe food taste and craving is related to hormones?
Anyhow, I just started a new “calorie journal”, a daily log of my caloric intake, yesterday. At the top of the journal I wrote down my weight, height, BMR, and BMI. Then I listed the 10 most common foods I eat and what their calorie count is.
Right away I learned some interesting things. I tend to love very large green salads and it turns out that the calorie count for mixed greens alone is very, very low. And I love to put a lot of olive oil on my salads and that is where the calories come it: about 120 calories per tablespoon. That’s still quite reasonable when you consider that you’re eating a huge salad and getting all that health benefit.
One cup of brown basmati rice is about 200 calories – a bit higher than I would have thought. That is not a negligible amount and I like to eat sometimes a couple of cups, with olive oil mixed in, plus a few nuts sprinkled in, plus sometimes sesame seeds and of course other vegetables added. But still, considering that this will be one of my main daily meals, the calorie count is still quite reasonable and the nutritional benefit is very high.
Because I really don’t eat that much processed food, it makes the calculation easier. I pretty much try to stick with the same themes of whole foods so I kind of know the ballpark of what I’m working with in terms of calories and nutritional value.
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