17/03/2019 How Much Should I Eat?

| Information for Young Adults

How Much Should I Eat?

We hear so much about calories, nutrition labels, and dietary fads – it

leaves you wondering: how many calories should you eat in a day,
and of which food groups?

How many calories do I need?

Daily Recommendations

Understanding Portion Sizes

Tips for Eating Appropriate Portion Sizes

How many calories do I need?

The number of calories you need per day depends on a variety of
factors including your sex, height, weight, and activity level. To figure
out how many calories you need, try one of the many online
calculator to get an estimate:

Calorie Counter from the American Cancer Society.

Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) Calculator from the

U.S. Department of Agriculture: National Agricultural
Library.

This site provides a more detailed

calculation

Includes the number of calories (listed as

kcal) and specific nutrients you need.

Make your calories count. When thinking about calories, it's also
important to consider eating a balanced diet. This means that the
source of your calories should come from protein, carbohydrates, and
fats as well as fruits and vegetables.

Let's say you need 2,500 calories per day and you manage to get
2,500 calories from eating only peanut butter. Even though you're
getting the right number of total calories, your diet is unhealthy
because it's not balanced.

In general a balanced diet means:

50 percent of your calories per day come from

carbohydrates

30 to 35 percent of your calories per day come from fat

15 to 20 percent of your calories per day come from

protein.

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Daily Recommendations
Healthy diets follow the food guide recommendations from
ChooseMyPlate.gov.

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Fruit: Make half of your plate fruits and veggies at each meal:

Males and females ages 19 to 30: at least 2 cups/day.

Examples of one cup: 1 small apple, 1 large banana, 1

orange or pear, 8 strawberries.

Vegetables: Make half of your plate fruits and veggies at each meal:

Males ages 19 to 30: at least 3 cups/day.

Females ages 19 to 30: at least 2.5 cups of

vegetables/day.

Examples of one cup: 2 stalks of celery, 12 baby

carrots, 1 cup cooked spinach/leafy greens, or 2 cups
raw spinach/leafy green.

Grains: Make at least half of your grains whole grains every day:

Males ages 19 to 30: 8 ounce equivalents of grains/day.

Females ages 19 to 30: 6 ounce equivalents of

grains/day.

Examples of one ounce equivalent: 1 slice of bread; 1

cup of ready-to-eat cereal; or ½ cup of cooked rice,
cooked pasta, or cooked cereal

Dairy: Switch to 1 percent fat or fat-free dairy products:

Males and females 19 to 30: 3 cups of dairy/day.

Examples of 1 cup of dairy: 1 cup of milk or yogurt, ⅓

cup of shredded cheese, or 1.5 ounces of hard cheese
(about the size of 4 dice).

Protein foods: Go lean with protein:

Males 19 to 30: 6.5 ounce equivalents of protein/day.

Females 19 to 30: 5.5 ounce equivalents of protein/day

Examples of one ounce equivalent of protein: 1 egg; 1

ounce of meat, poultry, or fish; ¼ cup cooked beans; 1
tablespoon of peanut butter; ½ ounce of nuts or seeds;
2 tablespoons hummus; 1 sandwich slice of turkey.

How much is:

A small half chicken breast: 3 ounce

equivalents

1 can tuna: 3 to 4 ounce equivalents

A small, lean hamburger: 2 to 3 ounce

equivalents

1 cup bean or lentil soup: 2 ounce

equivalents

Good rule of thumb: 3 to 4 ounce

equivalents of protein is about the size of

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a deck of cards

Cut back on solid fats, added sugar, and salt (sodium):

A healthy diet does not require solid fat or added sugar.

Try to avoid foods containing solid fats such as
shortening, hydrogenated oil, and partially
hydrogenated oil in the ingredients label. Make sure that
you read the Nutritional label provided on most food
products.

Many people get too much salt (sodium) in their diet.

1,500 milligrams of sodium per day is considered
adequate for most people. Aim for less than 2,300
milligrams of sodium per day.

Most of our sodium intake comes from packaged foods,

not from the salt we add to season our plates.

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Understanding Portion Sizes
What counts as an appropriate portion size? This can be confusing,
partly because restaurants often serve huge portions that could feed
two people instead of just one. These huge portion sizes leave us
with a skewed perspective of how much food we should be eating.

To get a better understanding of portion sizes, try the following:

Measure the bowls, cups, and glasses you use

everyday to see how much they hold. Fill up your bowl
with cereal and pour it into a measuring cup. Does it
hold 1, 2, or 3 servings of cereal? (Be sure to also
check your cereal box to see how big one serving of
cereal is.) How about your favorite mug.

Measure a fixed amount of some foods and drinks to

see what they look like in your glasses and bowls. For
example, measure 1 cup of milk to see what 1 cup of
liquid looks like in your favorite glass.

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Tips for Eating Appropriate Portion Sizes
The best way to determine how big of a portion you should eat is to
listen to your body and the hunger signals it sends you.

Practice eating mindfully: paying attention to your food

and your hunger level.

Eat when you’re hungry and stop when you feel full,
even if there's still food on your plate. Don't feel the
need to clean your plate just because there’s still food
on it.

Serve yourself small portions to start with, and go back

for seconds only if you are still hungry.

Pay attention to when you're eating out of stress,

anxiety, or boredom and look for other ways to cope

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with these emotions.

When you eat out, be mindful of the large portion sizes

and try splitting a meal or taking half your meal home as
leftovers.

If you want to reduce your portion sizes, a good trick is

to use a smaller plate, bowl, or glass. One cup of food
on a small plate looks like more than the same cup of
food on a large plate. Also, research shows that people
who eat on smaller plates tend to eat less.

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Author:
Sonja Swenson,
public health education intern

Reviewed By: Nancy Brown, Ph.D.

Last Reviewed: July 2013

Resources:
Below are links PAMF accessed when
researching this topic. PAMF does not
sponsor or endorse any of these sites,
nor does PAMF guarantee the
accuracy of the information contained
on them.

Choose My Plate, Information on

having a balanced meal.

Nutrition for Everyone: Fruits &

Vegetables, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC).

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