Valerie Johnston is a health and fitness writer located in East Texas. With ambitions of one day running a marathon, writing for Healthline.com ensures she keeps up-to-date on all of the latest health and fitness news.
can be challenging to understand nutrition when everyone gets lumped together as one massive group. For example, a physician will tell us that we need vitamins, minerals, fiber, nutrients, water, etc. The big “glitch” with this approach is simply that everyone is different. We are different genders, we are different ages, we have different conditions and needs, and this means that we have to consider nutrition on many levels.
When the subject is nutrition for women it can get even more complicated because women have such a diversity of varying nutritional needs throughout their lives. For instance, a pre-pubescent girl should have ample calcium to help fight off bone loss later in life. On the other hand, there is an entirely unique way of looking at nutrition for women who are pregnant.
Especially for Women
There are also different needs for things like calories when nutrition for women is the subject. For instance, there is a formula known as the BMR or basal metabolic rate. There is a single formula for women and one for men – and they are very different. Here is the one for women:
Adult female: 655 + (4.3 x weight in lbs.) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years).
When you do the math properly you are going to discover the number of calories you require on a daily basis in order to maintain your current weight. This is a number that assumes you are just sitting in a chair all day and not doing any sort of movement or exercise. When you do add the exercise, it means you will be coming in at a calorie deficit, or to put it plainly – losing weight!
Now, lots of ladies want to shed weight, but there are risks associated with being too thin just as there are for being overweight. This means you do want to maintain a healthy weight, and knowing your BMR is often a very simple way of doing that.
Apart from Calories
In addition to paying attention to calories, it is important to consider a woman’s need for specific minerals and vitamins too. For example, no discussion about nutrition for women can be considered complete without also discussing the need for calcium.
Because females tend to carry less bodily weight than men do, and to usually have smaller frames, they are at higher risk for things like osteporosis. The aging process also presents a period of time in a woman’s life known as menopause. This is when her reproductive stage of life ends, and is a time full of hormonal changes. During this period, the body of a woman can mismanage many processes, and one of the things that tend to happen often is bone loss because of calcium issues.
So, from a young age to a very old one, women need to be sure that they are getting adequate amounts of calcium in the diet. This means drinking milk, eating lots of green leafy vegetables, and snacking on cheese, nuts, and yogurt.
Consider too that women with low blood calcium tend to have higher cholesterol levels, and since heart disease is one of the top killers of women, it is imperative to be sure that the body has plenty of calcium.
Childbearing Demands
Because women are designed to bear children, they also have the need for higher levels of certain nutrients too. Where nutrition for women of their childbearing years is concerned, this means that iron and folic acid have to be given proper attention.
Not only will iron be required for a healthy pregnancy, but women who menstruate are at high risk for being iron deficient from blood loss. This can lead to anemia and other problems. Thus, a good supplement and healthy diet are key issues.
Nutrition for women is not a big mystery, but there are some “girls only” requirements that must never be ignored.