SUMMARY

ENERGY

Your total energy requirements depend primarily on your resting metabolic rate (RMR) and how much energy your burn during physical activities.

Most people expend 2,000–3,000 kcal daily, whereas athletes can burn two to five times as much in a single day.

Although difficult to assess accurately, estimates of your energy needs can help ensure that you’re not chronically underconsuming energy.

Over the long run, consuming energy below your body’s needs increases your chances of experiencing several gut symptoms (bloating, premature or excessive fullness, nausea, stomach pain, and constipation).

Severe energy restriction may induce these symptoms by impairing stomach emptying, reducing gut motility, and prolonging gut transit time.

Athletes who require large energy intakes (more than 4,000 kcal per day) can sometimes experience gut discomfort if they try to meet 100 percent of their needs by eating foods that have low-energy densities; they may benefit from periodically eating more energy-dense foods like oils, nuts, seeds, sports recovery beverages, and higher-fat dairy products.