To manage to maintain a healthy weight under the Holidays it is more difficult. On a case-by-case basis, it is necessary to discuss with your doctor if there are pathologies. In general terms, so many calories come in with food, so many we should consume during the day. So it’s about finding the right balance between calories introduced and burned.
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Factors that can influence energy needs
First of all, we need to look at the basal requirement, represented by the amount of energy required for the maintenance of life, of the well-being of the body in conditions of rest. The values are greatest in childhood and progressively decrease with age.
Another fundamental requirement is that for thermoregulation. The body needs maintain a more or less stable temperature. To maintain this temperature, we consume energy which depends on many elements, from blood circulation, from subcutaneous fat, from clothing – the more we are covered when it is cold, the more the body will be protected. The most important parameter is the ambient temperature: the hotter it is, the less you eat. While in winter we tend to eat more.
We have real consumption for physical activity. In fact, the human body does not transform all the energy supplied by food into work. Energy expenditure for work varies greatly from person to person. For example, if you work in an office, your consumption is minimal.
There is also the needs for growth and maintenance. Until adolescence, the body needs to form new tissues and therefore needs more calories, then this trend stabilizes in the adult and after the age of 50-60 it decreases.
We consume to introduce food: in fact, the ingestion of food requires work. Finally, there are people with special needs. For example, pregnant and breastfeeding women, but be careful this does not mean that you should eat for two.
“Daily Health Pills” is the DiLei TakeCare podcast series, edited by Federico Mereta. In each episode we talk about prevention, cures and good habits.