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The number of calories that any one person should consume per day tends to vary greatly due to a number of different factors. A calorific intake that might make one person lose weight fast might make another person gain weight fairly quickly. So determining ho many calories you should personally consume is often a lot better then working from average statistics that some diets might recommend.

Some people due to genetics burn more calories then others and some people because for the type of work they might to etc will burn more as well. People with bigger muscles also burn more in general as bigger muscles need more oxygen and energy to keep them functioning than smaller ones, which is why exercise is the best way to lose weight rather then unsustainable dieting.

Another myth is that the BMI index should be used to help determine the right amount of calories you should have. However this in reality is ineffective as it is only a rough guide and not an individually accurate way to determine your body's needs. According to the BMI index for example someone who is heavily muscled such as a football player would be classed as obese, which is obviously wildly inaccurate.

As a general rule if you want to maintain your weight continue to eat what you are at the moment, which is fairly obvious, and if you want to simply gain weight, just eat more. Gaining weight as muscle of course is more difficult and requires a lot of exercise and usually an increased protein intake as well.

Losing weight tends to be a lot more difficult for most people than putting it on, however by reducing the amount of calories that you consume you can eventually lose as much weight as you want. The important thing to remember when dieting is that you don't take too much of the nutritional value of your foods away with the calories. This can usually be ensured by trading calorifically high foods in your diet for the light or diet versions of them.

As a general guide most sources will recommend around the 2000 calorie mark for men and around 1500 for women, provided you are going out to work and are burning an approximate number of calories as you go through your day. The best way however is to measure how many calories you burn each day for around a week to try to work out a rough average, and then try to match the figure you intake slightly higher or lower than this, dependent on what you are trying to do with your weight.

Working out your on intake of calories is harder then measuring how much you

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