sentials have been selected, the number of calories per day is the final measure of the total amount of food needed.
Age, size, occupation, and sex all affect the total quantity of food we need, as well as the relative amounts of each kind of food material. The season of the year, the climate, the kind of clothing we wear, and whether we are indoors or out also have a material bearing upon the amount of food that is necessary to keep us fit for Wellville’s journey.
Obviously, the underweights and overweights not only must put emphasis on different items on the menu, but must eat different amounts. Thin persons need more food in proportion to their weights than fat ones. In order to lose weight, the body must be driven to consume its own fat.
To take care of the internal work of the body, breathing, heart-beating, digestion, involuntary pull of the muscles, and for the multiplied activities of the cells, each hour during the twenty-four we must have a certain number of calories as our basal requirement. The number of calories that must be added to this basal requirement for sound nutrition depends, as has been said, upon the facts of age, sex, activity, climate, and various other individual conditions.
For example, a man weighing about a hundred and fifty pounds, doing active muscular work, needs approximately 3400 calories each day. He will require 60 calories an hour throughout the entire twenty-four for[ 21 ]
