As a part of your weight loss regimen, one must know how much calories he or she must need every day in order to stay energized. As we all know, people need to eat in order to have energy, which comes in the form of calories. Each day, whenever we work or do activities of some sort, these calories are being consumed by our body and are converted into energy. However, unused calories are then being stored into our bodies as fat. Needless to say, these fats, when accumulated in large quantities, can be somewhat difficult to burn out. So if you don’t want to accumulate fat but don’t want to run out of energy either, you must know the right amount of calories you must consume every day.
Measuring the Calories your Body Needs
Unless you undergo lots of body experiments, there’s no way for us to know how much calories our body consumes every day. However, we can estimate it by doing some math. By means of what we call Harris-Benedict Principle, you can them estimate or assess your BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate. Once you know your BMR, you can then do these things: Either you cut or lessen your calorie intake, increase your BMR by burning extra calories or combine both strategies and integrate it into your daily diet and exercise regimen.
To those who didn’t know, calculating BMR depends on the person who needs it. BMR measurements are affected by the person’s age, height, weight, sex and activities.
- Know the BMR Calculation Formula. For adult women, the BMR formula is 655 plus 4.35 times your weight in pounds plus 4.7 times height in inches subtracted by 4.7 times your age. If you’re a man, the BMR formula is 66 plus 6.23 times weight in pounds plus 12.7 times height in inches subtracted by 6.8 times your age.
- Multiply your BMR by your Activity Factor in order to determine your calorie needs. Once you get your calculated BMR, multiply it according to the kind of activity that you do every day. If you are sedentary or doing very little work, multiply it by 1.0 to 1.39. If you are somewhat active or doing less strenuous activities, multiply it by 1.4 to 1.59. If you are doing at least sixty minutes of moderate activity daily, multiply it by 1.6 to 1.89. And if you’re very active or your work involves heavy weightlifting like doing construction jobs, multiply your BMR by 1.9 to 2.5.
- Now that you know the number of calories to consume every day, decide for yourself what to do with the extra. Knowing the right number of calories is one thing. However, losing the excess is another matter and it depends on you what to do with it.