Daily Caloric Needs

Some factors include your age, sex, metabolism, activity level, and body size affect your personal caloric needs. To get an idea of the total calories you should consume in your daily diet, multiply your current weight by 15 if you’re moderately active or by 13 if you aren’t. At about age 25 there is a decline in your caloric needs of about 2 percent for every 10 years. An adult guy has less body fat and about 10 to 20% more muscle than a woman of the same size and age. Because muscle burns more calories than fat does, a man’s calorie needs are generally about 5 - 10%  higher than a woman’s. A living body needs a minimum amount of calories to keep vital functions. Like breathing and keeping its heart beating.The metabolic rate(the amount of energy expended in a give period) that you inherit from your family in part determines the number of calories that your body needs to function. You cannot change this. Inherited metabolic diseases, specifically those that affect your thyroid, can cause you to burn calories very quickly or very slowly. So your genes are a huge factor. A malfunctioning thyroid gland can sabotage your best weight-loss efforts. When you are active, you burn calories, and if you burn more calories than you eat you will lose weight. The kind of exercise you choose, how long, and how intensely you do it determines exactly how many calories you burn.