A balanced diet consists of consuming foods containing all the nutrients and the basic vitamins and minerals that are vital for our body. Green vegetables, fruits, cereals, milk and staple food items like rice, wheat and maize are highly essential to nourish your body and to have a good health.

Good eating habit involves reducing excessive calories and high fat intake. In order to figure out how much of calories are present in your daily food and what you should eat, you can research on the internet for the calorie content in the food items.

The recommended calorie levels in a day for men are 2500 calories and women are 2000 calories. However, during the third trimester of pregnancy, the recommended calorie levels for women also are 2500 calories in a single day. Children between 5 to 10 years should consume 1800 calories every day.

However, the government is considering reviewing the calorie levels again as the amount of physical activity on a daily basis for people have reduced to a large extent in the current days.

The daily calorie requirements for an individual is determined by the weight, muscle amount and activity levels of a person on an average day. Since calories are burnt during your activities, your weight matters a lot in determining the calorie intake. A heavier person requires more calories to remain active. Since muscle mass determines how many calories you burn in a day, it is taken into account while determining the recommended calories levels. Lastly, a person doing a lot of physical activity on a daily basis requires more calories as compared to a person doing desk jobs.

Nutritionists have come up with a formula for coming up with a personal daily calorie requirements which determines your Basal Metabolic Rate also called BMR. This gives the amount of calories that you use if you would be lying in bed the whole day. Then, depending on activity levels, you determine the type of active person you are and multiply your BMR with a predetermined rate to calculate your calorie intake.

If you are a sedentary person (with little or no exercise and very less physical activity throughout the day), you need to multiply your BMR with 120 to determine the number of calories. Light active persons spend most of their day on feet, for instance, in shop work, but do not exercise on a daily basis. In this case, you multiply BMR with 130 and get the recommended calorie levels. Moderately active people exercise for more than 3 days a week for a minimum of 30 minutes and in this case, BMR is multiplied by 140. Highly active people exercise 5 or more days in a week for about 30 minutes or more and for these individuals, BMR X 150 would determine the calorie levels required.

You can also get to know the amount of calories you burn by using HRM (also called Heart Rate Monitor). Machines at gym are also useful in determining the calorie burning levels.

Note that exercise includes gym workouts, brisk walking, cycling and other physically exerting activities carried out during the day.

Jason Ladock

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