How Many Calories Should I Eat Per Day?

What Are Calories?

A calorie is a unit that measures energy. Calories are usually used to measure the energy content of foods and beverages. In order to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than your body burns each day. So, how many calories should I eat per day?

How To Tailor My Diet? It is known that in order to gain weight, more calories need to be entering your body than leaving it. Conversely, if more calories leave your body than enter it, then you lose weight. You can find some great and free online calculators here, these will help calculate your daily calorie need to reach your fitness goals.

That being said, just cutting calories without regards to the foods you eat is usually not a sustainable way to lose weight.

Although it works for some people, the majority of people end up hungry and eventually give up on their diet. For this reason, it is highly recommended to make a few other permanent changes to help you maintain a calorie deficit in the long term, without feeling starved. In addition, here is one evidence-based diet/lifestyle change that has been shown to help people lose weight in numerous studies:

How Many Calories Should I Eat? When it comes to losing weight, calories from protein is the king of nutrients. Eating more protein can cut your cravings by 60%, can increase the amount of calories you burn, and can reduce your appetite. b Studies show that protein both increases your metabolic rate and helps reduce appetite (1).

Because protein requires energy to metabolize, a high protein diet can increase calories burned by up to 80 to 100 calories per day (2).

Protein is also the most fulfilling nutrient, by far. One study showed that people who ate 30% of calories as protein automatically ate 441 fewer calories per day (3).

In other words, you can easily increase calories out and reduce calories in… just by adding protein to your diet. Reference high protein meal prep ideas to see how to add protein to your diet throughout the week!

Protein can also help fight cravings, which are the dieter’s worst enemy.

How Many Calories Should I Eat Per Day?

In one study, 25% of calories as protein reduced obsessive thoughts about food by 60% and cut the desire for late-night snacking by 50% (4).

If you want to lose weight, sustainably, with minimal effort, then consider making a permanent increase in your protein intake.

Not only will it help you lose, it will also prevent or at least significantly reduce weight regain, in case you ever decide to abandon your weight loss efforts (5).

Bottom Line: Increasing protein intake can boost metabolism, fight cravings and significantly reduce appetite. This can lead to automatic weight loss.

Your diet should be consistent with your goals, if you do not have time to grocery shop and meal prep, we suggest food delivery services like MealPro.