Calories oh calories

Not sure whether I ever bothered about the term 'calorie' before. Well I knew it's something to do with food energy. Now that it has become an all important word to me, I've taken the initiative to find out a bit more about it:

"To lose weight, all you need to do is create a calorie deficit. This can be achieved either, by reducing your calorie-intake below your maintenance level; or by keeping your calorie-intake static and increasing the number of calories you burn."

"Our calorie needs - meaning the number of daily calories we require to maintain our weight - depend on a number of factors.
Our age, gender, weight, height and exercise routine are the main variables in assessing calorie-needs.
But body composition is important, too. Because lean tissue (muscle) is more metabolically active than fat, the higher our body fat percentage, the fewer calories we require."

"Calorie Intake and Age
The principle reason for this age related weight gain is a decline in lean muscle mass due to inactivity and the aging process. This loss of lean muscle causes a slow down in our metabolic rate - the rate at which we burn calories. For example, between the ages of 30 and 70 muscle mass typically decreases by an average of about 30 per cent in most people."

"Age-Related Weight Gain
The above reduction in muscle mass typically leads to a weight gain of about 5 pounds per decade (men) or 3.5 pounds per decade (women). "

In short:
1. As we get older, the more difficult it is to lose weight, hence the need to not gain.
2. The two ways in losing weight are: a) reduce or maintain calorie-intake or, burn more calories by exercising.

I'll have to stick to my 1481 cals requirement daily or less. It helps to have found these informative websites:
http://www.calorie-counter.net/
http://www.michellebridges.com/