Counting Calories and your Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR)

If you are wanting to lose weight, can counting calories help you to achieve your goal?

There really is no magic number of calories that everyone should eat every day to lose weight. Every person is an individual and while some people can lose weight while eating around 1,500 calories a day, other people can not. You can calculate your own personal caloric needs by using a some math.

To estimate how many calories you need to eat to maintain your weight you can use a simple formula called the Harris-Benedict principal. This allows you to assess your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). In order to lose weight, you will need to either reduce your caloric intake or burn extra calories to achieve a lower level than the results you get from the forumla.

Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy that your body needs to function. In general, we use about 60% of the calories we consume each day to perform basic bodily functions. Facors that influence your BMR are weight, height, age and sex.

The first step is to calculate your BMR using the following forumlas (only for adults):

Women:

655+(4.3 x your weight in pounds) + (4.7 x your height in inches) - (4.7 x your age in years)

Example if you are a 35 year old woman that is 5' 5" inches in height and weigh 170 pounds, your BMR would be: 655+(4.3x170)+(4.7x65)-(4.7x35)=655+731+305.5-164.5=1527

Men:

66+(6.3 x your weight in pounds) + (12.9 x your height in inches) - (6.8 x your age in years)

Example if you are a 35 year old man that is 5'5" inches in height and weigh 170 pounds, your BMR would be 66+(6.3x170)+(12.9x65)-(6.8x35)=66+1071+838.5-238=1737.5

The next step is to calculate your level of activity:

* If you don't exercise and sit around alot: take the BMR number from above times 20 percent

* If you are lightly active: BMR x 30 percent

* If you exercise most days a week: BMR x 40 percent

* If you are very active and exercise intensely every day: BMR x 50 percent

* If you are extra active (athletic training or hard labor): BMR x 60 percent

Example if you are the woman above and you are lightly active your calculated activity would be 1527x30 percent = 1527*.30=458.1

To get the final result of the formula for the number of calories you can eat every day and maintain your current weight you add the 1527 to the 458.1. (1527+458.1)=1958.1

So, if you are a 35 year old woman, that is 5'5" tall, weigh 170 pounds and are lightly active, you can eat 1958.1 calories every day and maintain your current weight.

In order to lose weight, you will need to take in fewer calories than this calculated result or increase your level of activity. As you lose weight, you can re-calculate the formula to asses your new BMR. For tips on how to regulate your calorie intake read more about calorie information.