Calorie Intake

The calorie requirement of an individual is the level of energy intake when the individual has the composition, size of the body and levels of physical activity in accordance with maintaining a good long-term health status.

Physical activity must be necessary from an economic point of view and desirable from a social point of view.

The supply of energy must counterbalance the amount of energy dissipated and the changes in energy deposited in the body in the form of fat or other.

One should be able to easily calculate the caloric requirement and the loss or gain of tissues which corresponds to a lower or higher energy supply than the need.

It is very difficult to do this calculation exactly. Indeed, predictive estimates are much less accurate and accurate for individuals than for populations and variations in energy consumption can be significant, even in apparently similar individuals.

Furthermore, some other factors must be taken into account. Not all the energy contained in the food is available. In general, the food composition tables refer to the energy available but, in some situations, there may be a discrepancy between the energy value of the food ingested and that of the nutrients actually absorbed.