Calculating Your Basal Metabolic Rate and Maintenance Calorie Needs

Knowing your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and the amount of calories you need daily can help you in maintaining a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI). Calculating this can help offer an estimate for the right amount of food to eat without having to starve your body with the nutrients you need. Below is a guide to calculating your basal metabolic rate and calorie intake.

What is your basal metabolic rate (BMR) and how to compute it?

Your BMR is the amount of energy or calories your body burns while you are at rest. When you are awake, you burn calories by doing daily activities such as walking, breathing or even thinking. BMR is said to be the primary way a human body utilises energy. Certain factors can increase your BMR, such as contracting a fever or experiencing a period of stress.

In order to calculate your BMR, you need to determine your total weight, height, and age. Below are the formulas for both genders.

Men: BMR = 66 + (13.8 X your weight in kg) + (5 X your height in cm) – (6.8 X your age in years)

Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X your weight in kg) + (1.8 X your height in cm) – (4.7 X your age in years)

Here is a sample computation of a 25 year old man who is 156.8 cm tall and weighs about 65.4 kg:

66 + (902.52) + (784) – (170) = 1582.52 calories

Therefore, the 25 year old man has a BMR of 1582.52 calories which he burns while sleeping.

Activities which increases your BMR

It is important to note that BMR is the amount of energy you expend daily. This doesn’t cover the activities you do for the rest of the day.

Your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is based on the type of work you do as well as the intensity of activities you are involved in.

• Sedentary (little to no exercise) = Your BMR  x  1.2
• Lightly active (light amount of exercise and activities) = Your BMR  x  1.375
• Moderately active (moderate amount of exercise and activities) = Your BMR  x  1.55
• Very active (Large amount of exercise and activities) = Your BMR  x  1.725
• Extremely active (Huge amount of exercise and activities) = Your BMR  x  1.9

To give some examples, sedentary people are often office workers who don’t do any exercise. Moderately active individuals are typically those who visit a gym to work out at least three times a week. Extremely active ones are usually athletes who train every day for a specific purpose.

Below is a sample computation of TDEE by using the BMR of the 25 year old man mentioned above. He is very active since he is a construction worker.

1582.52 calories x 1.725 = 2729.85 calories expended in a day.

Using your computed TDEE to maintain your caloric intake

Once you are able to compute your TDEE, you can now determine the amount of calories your body needs in one day. Another thing you need to determine is the nutritional value of the food you eat. This allows you to create your own daily menu. This can make you feel full without the risk of gaining weight.

Computing your TDEE and knowing the caloric content of the food you eat allows you to create an effective diet plan in order to maintain a healthy figure, so why not give it a go?

Author Bio:

Katherine Flowers felt inspired to preach about healthier lifestyles after purchasing treadmills online as a consultancy service. She hops on a treadmill from time to time herself in the hopes of enriching her fitness regimen.