On numerous occasions, the Stand Up & Eat blog has shared data, videos, and other information that demonstrate our nation’s poor calorie literacy rate.  While the problems are legion, they lie mostly in three major areas:

1. The vast majority of people don’t know how many calories they should be eating.
2. Most people don’t have a clue about the calories that are in different foods and beverages. 
3. Very few people can state with precision the number of calories they burn each day in metabolism and in particular, via physical activity.  (Sorry, the “calories burned” feature on most exercise machines is not accurate!)

Not being calorie literate has undoubtedly contributed to people’s lack of balance between calories eaten and calories burned.  This calorie imbalance in turn has lead to the rapid rise in obesity rates. 

Data from the International Food Information Council’s (IFIC) recent food and health survey sheds a little light on the scope of our calorie literacy problem.  In the study, each participant was asked to estimate the number of calories that a person of their same age, gender, body size and physical activity level would need each day.  The good news is that only 29% of those surveyed where unable or unwilling to provide a daily calorie estimate of any sort.  In 2006, 43% didn’t give a daily calorie estimate.  So people just might be learning that calories do count.

Unfortunately, people still can’t count calories accurately.  The IFIC study results showed that while more people gave a calorie estimate in 2008 than in 2006, only 15% of survey participants were able to accurately estimate their daily calorie need.  The survey also showed that 42% underestimated and 14% overestimated their daily calorie needs.  This further elucidates the dire need for higher calorie literacy rates. 

But here’s an interesting paradox.  If nearly one-half of those surveyed underestimated their total daily calorie needs, why is overweight and obesity such a problem?  Simple.  We don’t pay close enough attention to how many calories we actually put into our mouths.  The daily total usually exceeds what we need and far exceeds the total calories that we think we should be eating. 

Check out the Stand Up & Eat calorie needs calculator to learn what is a good daily calorie level for you.  Also, the Healthy Eating blogs and Library have many ways to learn how to cut down your calorie intake without sacrificing good nutrition.