Valentine’s Day is the month of romantic, or sweet, events. Quite figuratively, February is the time where people who are in love celebrate by taking their significant other on a date, asking someone to be their girlfriend/boyfriend, or proposing for marriage. In the literal sense, it is called a sweet moment because one of the classic gifts people get their significant other during this time are chocolates or sweets. Women, for some reason, appreciate receiving this simple, but meaningful gift, because it represents the “sweetness” of the love month.

But are sweets always a good gift for Valentine’s? Not really. The problem is that they sometimes have too much calories. A calorie is a unit of energy necessary for our body’s cells to function. Just the right amount of calories is good, while too little or too much could lead to health complications like weight gain, heart problems, and diabetes, requiring you to need medicine for diabetes for possibly your whole life.

So how do you prevent your loved one from suffering from these devastating diseases? The answer lies in counting calories. You’ve got to know how many calories a certain meal has so you can balance your entire diet and live healthy. After all, one sure way you can show your love to someone on Valentine’s is to give the gift of health.

1, 2, 3 calories

Let me show you the formula on how to compute for the number of calories you specifically need per day according to certain requirements (height, age, and how much physical activity you engage in to name a few): First, a person’s basal metabolic rate (BMR, or the minimum amount of energy a person needs while at rest) needs to be computed:

For males, the formula is: BMR = 10×weight + 6.25×height - 5×age + 5

For females, the formula is: BMR = 10×weight + 6.25×height - 5×age – 161

Once the figure is determined, it needs to be multiplied with the factor of physical activity to calculate the right amount of calories a person needs per day. A 22-year old male who weighs 125 lbs., is 5’6, and engages in light physical activity needs 2,077 calories daily. You can compute the right amount of calories for you using the calculator found at Scientific Psychic.

If you’re the type who’s always on the go, you can download apps like Lose It, Calorie Counter by MyFitnessPal, and Fitness & Nutrition Tracking by DailyBurn.

Diet planning

Now that you’ve figured how many calories you need per day, you can budget that number by selecting foods that are low on caloric content. For snacks, hummus with pita and peas, a small cup of strawberries with two teaspoons of chocolate sauce, and a slice of apple spread with peanut butter are snacks that contain 150 calories or less. Just be sure not to eat too much of these yummy treats.

For meals, scrambled egg burritos for breakfast, taco rice salad for lunch, and tomato tart for dinner should do the trick. The combined caloric figure for all three clocks in at less than a thousand!

As much as possible, try to avoid too surplus portions of breakfast cereal, pasta, salad dressings, junk food, cheese, and Nutella. These foods have very high caloric content.

Now you know the truth about calories, remember to count the content of each of your loved one’s meal. There’s nothing like giving the gift of good health to your Valentine. If you have any more comments and suggestions, feel free to share them in the comments section below.