How to Monitor the Caloric Intake of the Disabled

Monitoring caloric intake requires recording and adding total calories consumed and comparing that figure against a target amount. This is difficult enough for yourself, but it can be especially challenging if you don't have control over what the other person eats. Depending on the disability, you may indeed have that control. Monitoring caloric intake assists in maintaining the disabled person's healthy body weight. If the disability forces a more sedimentary lifestyle, then monitoring diet is the only viable option for controlling weight gain. Monitoring also works to insure the disabled person consumes enough calories to keep from losing weight.

Instructions

• 1

  Calculate the number of calories the disabled person requires per day. It is recommended that this figure be prescribed by a doctor, but you can get a general idea by using an online calories-per-day calculator.

• 2

  Write down every food item the disabled person consumes, and then record the number of calories that each item possesses.

• 3

  Add all the calories at the end of the day to calculate the total number of calories consumed.

• 4

  Compare this figure against the target amount, i.e., the doctor recommended amount of calories per day. If the amount consumed is consistently greater than the target value, weight gain will likely occur. If the amount consumed is consistently less than the target value, weight loss will likely occur.

  There are 3,500 calories in one pound of body fat. Therefore, a gain or reduction of 3,500 calories will result in a gain or loss of one pound of body weight.