How many calories should I be eating per day?
No matter if you’re trying to lose weight, maintain weight or gain weight it’s important to know many calories you should be eating. To do this let’s start of by calculating as estimation of your maintenance calories - this is how many calories you could, on average, consume per day without either losing or gaining weight. For this you’ll need 3 things:
- Your Age
- Your Height (in cms)
- Your Weight (in kgs)
To measure your weight, weigh yourself in the morning as soon as you get up (just after a pee). Do this a few mornings in a row and take an average.
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
Firstly we need to calculate our BMR – this is the amount of calories (energy) our body needs just to function at rest. Think of this as the amount of energy our body would use if we slept for a whole 24 hrs! To calculate our BMR use the following formula;
Males: 66 + (13.7 x Weight) + (5 x Height) – (6.8 x Age)
Females: 655 + (9.6 x Weight) + (1.8 x Height) – (4.7 x Age)
As an example, let’s say I’m a 40 year old male, 188cms tall and weighing 95kgs. My BMR would be (remember our GCSE maths lol – do the brackets first!)
BMR = 66 + (13.7 x 95) + (5 x 188) – (6.8 x 40) = 2,035 kcals
Activity Factor
Next up we need to make an allowance for our activity levels – both how much we exercise but also how active we are in our everyday lives. This is going to be approximate but the following factors are used as standard:
- If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) = 1.2
- If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) = 1.375
- If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) = 1.55
- If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) = 1.725
- If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training daily) = 1.9
To calculate your approximate daily calorie expenditure, multiple your BMR and Activity Factor together.
Total Daily Calories = BMR x Activity Factor
Again using my example above, and let’s say I’m lightly active, my total daily calorie expenditure would be:
Total Daily Calories = 2,035 x 1.375 = 2,800 kcals
This is my calorie balance – which means if I ate on average 2,800 calories per day I would maintain my current weight.
Calorie Deficit
If you wanted to lose weight then you would need to reduce your calorie intake. A recommended calorie deficit is 500 calories per day (which if maintained, should help you lose 1lb of fat per week). So in my example that would reduce my calories to 2,300 per day.
Give it a go
Have a go at calculating your maintenance calories, and you may be pleasantly surprised that it’s way more than you think. As always, if any questions, or you need help in calculating, then please just reach out.