What’s The Right Amount of Food?
Learn to Listen
Dear Dad,
It sounds too obvious to write, but your body will tell you how much to eat if you’re willing to listen.
Food is energy and its purpose is to provide the amount of energy needed for your body to function. Each person has unique energy demands that will vary by age, gender, size, genetics, and activity level, among other individualized factors. Converting food to usable energy is called metabolism.
Your basal metabolic rate (“BMR”) corresponds to the amount of energy needed to maintain homeostasis while at rest. Meaning, if you laid in bed all day your basal metabolic rate would determine how many calories (food energy) your body needed to survive in a restful state—to keep the heart pumping, cells regenerating, etc. Basically, basal metabolic rate represents the base amount of calories needed to keep your body powered on.
Your active metabolic rate (“AMR”) corresponds to the amount of energy needed to cover the energy lost from any physical activity. It is obviously dependent on your activity level. Any activity, strenuous exercise or simply walking room-to room, will add to your AMR.
Your individual metabolism is comprised of (BMR) + (AMR) = daily calories required to maintain the same degree of bodily function therefore the same weight. For example, if someone’s average basal metabolic rate is = 1,500 calories and their average active metabolic rate = 500 calories then their average metabolic rate is 2,000 calories. Meaning, consuming 2,000 calories would keep this person in homeostasis. However, if s/he ate 1,200 calories on average it would risk health complications; if s/he ate 1,800 calories on average (cover their BMR but remain in a total deficit) weight will be lost over time; if s/he eats 2,000 calories weight will remain the same; if s/he eats 2,200 calories then weight will be gained over time. This over generalization is how we get the recommended daily intake of 2,000 calories. (Which is actually below the needs for most active people).
Click here, to use this calculator and get a rough estimate of your metabolic rate. Remember this is only a guide.
As you can see, the amount of food you actually need to eat depends on who you are and what you do. Your BMR does not vary much day to day, but is highly influenced by gender, age, body muscle/fat %, and other genetic factors. Keep in mind muscle cells use more energy than fat cells so staying lean will burn more calories at rest.
Active metabolic rate is much more elastic and will change day to day depending on your activity level. For instance, on Saturday I enjoy a long exercise session where I burn upwards of 1,000 calories in the session alone plus other movements during the day (comprising my active metabolism).
However, I use Sunday as a complete recovery day where my only physical activity is brisk walking and tinkering around the house.
The amount of food I need to eat on Saturday is drastically different than Sunday and my body tells me through hunger signals if I’m willing to listen.
Surrounding my long workouts on Saturday afternoon’s, evenings, and Sunday morning I tend to be VERY hungry. Therefore, I eat quite a lot of food. My body naturally signals hunger to ensure that I eat enough food to compensate for the energy deficit caused by the long training session. However, by Sunday afternoon I’ve eaten enough calories to bring me back to homeostasis and without any added activity my appetite levels off.
The data above comes from a watch that tracks my various bio-markers like heart rate, steps, and sleep. It is NOT scientifically precise but it does provide general predictions to help my awareness. Tracking when, and understanding why my hunger fluctuates helps me stay in tune with my body’s signals and teaches me to listen to it more intently.
The tricky part is when we let signals other than hunger—boredom, emotions, peer influence —dictate when and what we choose to eat. We get into further trouble by living in complete unawareness of how many calories we actually need or how many calories we actually eat. Depending on how active or inactive you are your needs will be quite different.
If you practice listening to your body’s signals you will learn the right amount of food that you should eat.
With Love,
JSR
