What is your Daily Calorie Requirement

WHAT DETERMINES THE ENERGY DEMAND

I have bad news for you – there is no magic demand that would be correct for everybody, man or woman. Each of us needs a different amount of calories to function properly. It depends on age, gender, physique, and lifestyle. Did you know that the brain, although consituting only 2% of the whole body, consumes up to 20% of the energy produced?

Fortunately, there are formulas allowing us to calculate more or less accurately what is our own unique calorie requirement.
The more active we are, the more important it becomes to provide appropriate amount (and quality) of energy to our body. If we provide too little, our muscles will degenerate – the body, requiring power to operate, will start to eat itself, and It won’t begin from fat, oh no! It is much easier and pleasant to bite into sugar, and this is found in the muscles.

There exist nutritional standards, developed for groups of population of each country. In Poland, the first such standards were established in the 50s of the last century, and the most current ones come from 2012 (available on the website of the Institute of Food and Nutrition). Thanks to them, we can find labels on the products in stores, telling us what percentage of the daily demand for this or that vitamin/micronutrient a given product meets.

Unfortunately, as I have already mentioned – each of us is different and has different needs. If I fed on by the suggested general standards, I’d take on qeight in a blink of an eye and my fitness would nosedive. That’s why, let’s look at the labels, but keep in mind that these are only reference figures.

HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR DAILY CALORIE REQUIREMENT

There are different formulas for energy demand – some more sophisticated than the others. I will put here three different models so that everyone can find the appropriate for their needs.

1. THE SIMPLEST FORMULA

This formula requires only the knowledge of how much one weighs. If you do not want to do much counting, but would like to know how much can roughly your demenad be, this is a model for you.

BMR = weight(kg) x 24 (h)

Total Demand = BMR x Physical Activity Coefficient*

(Women= BMR x 0,9)

*Physical Activity Coefficient:
low activity = 1,2 (no exercise + sitting work)
average activity = 1,3 – 1,4 (exercises 3 times/week + sitting work)
high activity = 1,4 – 1,5 (Daily exercise + work on the move)
Very high activity = 1,6 – 1,8 (Daily intense exercise + physical work for most of the day)

2. HARRIS-BENEDICT FORMULA

Harris-Benedict formula requires a more details and is different for both genders.

For women:

BMR[kcal]= 665,09 + (9,56 x weight in kg) + (1,85 x height in cm) – (4,67 x age)

For men:

BMR[kcal]= 66,47 + (13,75 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) – (6,75 x age)

The result is multiplied by a Physical Activity Coefficient (developed for this formula) to obtain the Total Demand.

Very low activity = 1,2 (irregular or lack of exercise)
Low activity = 1,375 (exercises 1-3 times a week)
Medium activity = 1,55 (exercises 3-5 times a week)
High activity = 1,725 (exercises 6-7 times a week)
Very high activity = 1,9 (exercises 2 times a day and additional heavy workouts)

3. EXPANDED FORMULA

This formula is the most time-consuming, but by making use of really large amounts of data, it proves to be the most reliable. I highly recommend this formula if you practice a lot of sports and care about your health. Let’s look:

TDEE = BMR+TEA+TEF+NEAT

TDEE – Total Daily Energy Expenditure
BMR – Basal Metabolic Rage
TEA – Calories burnt during physical activities
EPOC – Excess Post-exercise oxygen consumption
TEF – Termic Effect of Food

Now let us put it to pieces, and in the end we will calculate on an example:

A/ BMR:

Men: BMR= (9.99 x weight (kg)) + (6.25 x height (cm)) – (4.92 x age) + 5
Women: BMR= (9.99 x weight (kg)) + (6.25 x height (cm)) – (4.92 x age) – 161

B/ TEA:

TEA= ((kcal from activities x (time x number of days))+EPOC)/7 (weekdays)

If you have a sports watch with heart rate monitor, you can get the exact number of calories burnet during the activity and substitute this number into the formula, rather than count it manually. If you do not have one, base on data below:

Strength training:
7 – 9 kcal per minute depending on the intensity
Aerobic training:
5 – 10 kcal per minute depending on the intensity
-light intensity – an additional 5 kcal
-low to middle intensity – an additional 35 kcal
-high intensity – an additional 180 kcal

EPOC – Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption: 4-7% of the total calorie requirement (depending on the nature of your work, choose a lower or higher%)

C/ TEF:

6-10% (BMR+TEA+NEAT)

We do not know NEAT yet, so we leave this point for now and come back to it in a moment.

D/ NEAT:

The remaining calories burned during normal life functioning

NEAT depends on the type of our physique and ranges between 200-900 calories. Choose one value, depending on whether you are ecto-, endo- or mezomorfic:

200-400 kcal – endomorph
400-500 kcal – mesomorph
700-900 kcal – ektomorph

WHAT NEXT?

In this way we learned what is our avarage daily calorie requirement. In my case it is 2566 kcal. This is a crucial piece information itself and for many this will be sufficient , but if you want to go a step further, this is an excellent starting point. The next steps could be:

• adjustment of diet to meet the correct ammounts of protein, carbohydrate and fat
• division of diet to the right ammount of meals (to maintain proper metabolism and efficient calories consumption)
• adjustment of diet to training and rest days
• establishing the composition of pre and post-workout meals
• etc.

I will cover these steps in more detail later on on the website. Meanwhile, grab your calculators and do your job counting!! :-)

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