How Many Calories Do You Burn Daily

How to figure out how many calories you burn each day

Now that we realize that calories are an important component in any weight loss or even in maintaining  a healthy weight it’s important to know how to calculate what you need in terms of caloric content each day in your diet. There are several ways to do this, one is figuring your BMR and activity level and using a formula. Another is just using charts and guidelines put out by the government or given to you by your doctor.

How many calories you need is a function of your body type, age, height, weight (or desired weight) activity level and gender. The BMR is a good indicator but it doesn’t take into consideration those who are super athletic and have a high muscle mass. But, if you don’t fit into that category likely you can do the BMR and activity level formula and come up with your caloric needs so that you can either lose weight to become your desired weight, or maintain your current weight.

The important thing is to be honest about your activity level, and realize that the numbers can be shocking. Most people eat far too many calories and if you’ve not gained a lot of weight yet, but you’re regularly ingesting too many calories, you will soon. We can be tempted to blame outside factors and health issues on weight gain but it’s really quite rare for most people. Unless you’re entering perimenopause, it’s likely you can lose weight just fine by sticking to a high nutrition, low calorie plan based on the BMR formulas. Of course, it’s important to get your overall health status confirmed by a doctor before embarking on any weight lose regime.

First write down your age, the weight you want to be,(lbs) and your height in inches. Now determine your activity level. If you don’t do any type of intentional exercise then you are considered to be sedentary or not active. If you walk at least 1.5 miles per day at a brisk pace, in addition to your job, this is considered to be moderately active. Be honest about your activity level and realize that if you’re not you’ll only have yourself to blame if you don’t reach your weight loss goals.

Now look at the BMR charts and equations on this page. Using the formula let’s figure the calorie requirements for a 5.5 inch woman who is 140 lbs and wishes to maintain that current weight. She is moderately active. From the charts we have the following formula.

BMR for women — BMR = (65.5 + (4.35 x weight in lbs) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years)) x 1.55 (activity quotient)

This woman, when figuring out the formula in its entirely, should eat no more than 1272 calories per day if she wishes to maintain her current weight. She can up her exercise levels, in order to increase her calorie intake, but for the most part, this is what she can eat each day to maintain her current weight.

To make it easier to stick to it is important to eat high water content and high fiber foods to stay full, get all the nutrients needed, and to not feel deprived.