How Many Calories Should A Teenage Girl Eat A Day Calculator? Calories are a way of measuring the potential energy in foods. The more calories food has, the more fuel your body will have. If you’re eating a lot of foods that have high levels of calories, then you will gain weight. And since teenage girls need to be very careful about their weight, it’s very important for them to know how many calories they should eat per day.
Daily calorie calculator for teenagers
The daily calorie needs listed in Tables 1-3 are only rough estimates for 16-year-olds.
If you want a more precise estimate of your daily calorie need, you may use the calorie calculator below. It estimates your calorie needs, taking into account your age, sex, height, body weight, and physical activity level.
[Note on how to use the calculator: Since teenagers are actively growing, they shouldn’t select the “maintain weight” option under the “Goal” subsection of the calculator to estimate their daily calorie needs. Instead, they should select the “weight gain” option to obtain an accurate estimate of their daily calorie need.]
How many calories should a 16-year-old girl eat?
The DGA offers estimates of the daily calorie needs of a 16-year-old girl based on three physical activity levels:
| Physical Activity Level | Daily Calories |
| Sedentary | 1800 |
| Moderately Active | 2000 |
| Active | 2400 |
Table 1 (16-year-old girls): via 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA)
How many calories should a 16-year-old boy eat?
Below are the daily calorie needs of 16-year-old boys:
| Physical Activity Levels | Daily Calories |
| Sedentary | 2400 |
| Moderately Active | 2800 |
| Active | 3200 |
Table 2 (16-year-old boys): via 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA)
Teenaged boys need more calories than girls
The table below brings the data for 16-year-old boys and girls together so that you compare them at a glance. It shows that teenage boys need more calories than girls. It also shows that teenage boys and girls need more calories than their less active counterparts.
| Physical Activity Level | Male | Female |
| Sedentary | 2400 cal | 1800 cal |
| Moderately Active | 2800 cal | 2000 cal |
| Active | 3200 cal | 2400 cal |
Tabe 3 (16-year-olds): via 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA)
How to determine your physical activity level
If you are unsure how to rate your Physical Activity Level (PAL), the following information may help:
The 2020-2025 DGA defines a sedentary lifestyle as regularly involving only the “physical activity of independent living.”
Thus, you are likely sedentary if you spend much of your time reclining or sitting watching TV, reading books, listening to music, or playing video games.
The DGA also defines Moderately Active as a lifestyle that regularly involves physical activity equivalent to walking 1.5 miles to 3 miles daily at 3 miles to 4 miles per hour.
Thus, you are likely moderately active if you spend much of your time with friends, enjoying youthful activities, such as dating, dancing, partying, light gym activities, and recreational skateboarding.
Walking a short distance (less than or equal to a mile) to and from school daily rather than riding a bus may also be part of a moderately active lifestyle. Recreational trampoline excercise may also be part of a moderately active lifestyle.
Lastly, the DGA defines Active as a lifestyle that regularly involves physical activity equivalent to walking more than 3 miles per day at 3 to 4 miles per hour.
You likely live an active lifestyle if you are a student-athlete or regularly engage in sporting activities. High intensity sporting activities include competitive skateboarding, football, athletics, basketball, swimming, mountain bicycling, rowing, and strength training.
You may find that your lifestyle is a mix of two or all of the physical activity levels listed above, leaving you uncertain which physical activity category to choose.
However, it is not unusual for a teenager’s daily physical activity level to vary significantly. For instance, you may prefer staying indoors playing video games on Saturday but choose to join your friends on Sunday at the gym to work out, play basketball, tennis, or swim.
You have to decide which activity level represents your typically daytime lifestyle.
If you engage in sporting activity only occasionally but spend lots of time with friends at the beach engaged in light physical activity (such as dancing, partying, and playing beach ball), you are likely moderately active. But if you work out or do vigorous sporting activities at least thrice weekly, your lifestyle is likely active.
If you seldom go outdoors but spend a typical day watching TV or playing video games, you are most likely sedentary.
Calorie Recommendations
Although 1,600 calories is the minimum required for teen girls, active girls should consume additional. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010, sedentary teen girls between the ages of 13 and 18 need 1,600 to 1,800 calories per day, while active girls require 2,200 to 2,400 calories each day (Page 78). Older teens need more calories than younger teen girls; for example, an 18-year-old teenage girl should aim for 1,800 to 2,400 calories per day depending on her activity level. Teen athletes, especially those involved in endurance sports, may have calorie needs that exceed recommendations set by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Concerns
Eating too little can lead to weakness, headaches, dizziness and difficulty concentrating at school. If teen girls eat too few calories over a long period of time, it can also cause hormonal changes, weakened bones, menstrual irregularities, infertility, stunted growth and heart disease, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Consuming at least 1,600 calories each day can help prevent these health problems in teenage girls.
Diet Composition
Consuming the right type of calories will help a teen girl meet her daily nutrient requirements. For example, the Institute of Medicine encourages teens to consume 45 to 65 percent of their calories from carbohydrates, 10 to 30 percent from protein and 25 to 35 percent of their daily calories from fats. Healthy carbs include whole grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, milk and yogurt; high-protein foods include lean meats, poultry, seafood, eggs, dairy products, tofu, seitan, legumes, nuts and seeds; and healthy fats include vegetable oils, purified fish oils, olives, avocados, nuts and seeds.
Daily Calorie Calculator
The tool helps you estimate your DRI based on recommendations by the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences.
You don’t need to do the math yourself. You only need to enter your age, weight, height, and activity level to generate data that includes:
- Your Body Mass Index (BMI) (find out more about BMI below)
- Estimated daily calorie needs
- Recommended daily intake of carbs, protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals
[Note: BMI (Kg/m2) is = Weight in kg/(Height in meters)2 or (Weight in kg/Height in cm/Height in cm) x 10,000]
A sedentary lifestyle is unhealthy for 16-year-olds
we don’t advise teenagers to settle for a sedentary lifestyle because it is not healthy. If you concluded that your lifestyle is sedentary, we suggest that you try to raise your physical activity level to at least moderately active to improve your health status.
Your teenage years are a critical period when your body develops lean mass (muscles and bone tissues) that will help sustain your health through early and late adulthood. You reap lifelong health benefits from ensuring that you get sufficient daily exercise to develop strong muscles, bones, and cardiovascular fitness.
A 16-year-old who lives a predominantly sedentary lifestyle suffers a higher likelihood of becoming overweight or obese. While being overweight may not cause noticeable health problems while you are young, it increases the risk of early death due to heart diseases, diabetes, and cancer during early adulthood (20-40) and midlife (40-60).
However, health experts recommend that teenagers get at least 8 hours of sleep nightly.
Body Mass Index (BMI) calculator for teenagers
You may find out if your weight falls within the healthy range by following the steps listed below:
- Measure your weight on a bathroom scale (How to measure your height and weight)
- Calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) using this Child and Teen BMI calculator. The calculator prompts you to enter personal information, such as age, sex, height, and weight. It then generates a report that tells you whether you are:
- Underweight: Below the 5th percentile
- Healthy weight: 5th to less than 85th percentile
- Overweight: 85th to less than 95th percentile
- Obese: 95th percentile or greater
You may also use the percentile growth charts below to check whether you are within the healthy Body Mass Index (BMI) range:
BMI-for-age – Girls Growth Chart
A healthy BMI range for a 16-year-old girl, according to the “Girls Growth Chart,” would be 16.75 to less than 24.50.
Learn how to use the tools and charts provided by the CDC here.
If your BMI is below the minimum recommended, you are underweight (too thin) and need to gain weight.
If you are above the maximum recommended, you are overweight or obese and need to lose weight.
However, keep in mind that a high BMI is not always a reliable indicator of whether you are overweight.
The BMI may give misleading results for people who do strength training and have highly developed muscles.
List of best calorie counter apps
MyFitnessPal: You can get this app for free on Google Play and the App Store. You can also upgrade to paid membership to enjoy additional features.
Noom: Noom offers new users a free trial before paid service. The app is also available on Google Play and App Store.
Fatsecret: You can get this app on Google Play, App Store, and Apple Watch. You can also use Fatsecret’s free version or upgrade to paid membership.
This is not a comprehensive list of helpful calorie counter apps. There are many other high-quality apps you can find by searching online.