DAILY CALORIE CONSUMPTION USING ACTIVITY LEVELS

To calculate daily calorie needs, BMR value is multiplied by a value between 1.2 and 1.9 based on the persons activity level or active metabolic rate(AMR).

Sedentary = 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job,sitting,driving)
Lightly active = 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Modarately active = 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extra active = 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job i.e. a full time worker)

Since we know our physical activity level we can calculate our daily calorie rate.

                                Cal/day = BMR X AMR


Using previous BMR example from Harris-Benedict equation (i.e. Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wt in kg) + (1.8 X ht in cm) - (4.7 X age in years) & Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wt in kg) + (5 X ht in cm) - (6.8 X age in years)).
Let the women's BMR from prevoius example be 1511 cal,


Now if the womens activity level is Sedentary (1.2)i.e. no exercise,


                              Cal/day = BMR X 1.2
                                          
                                           = 1511 X 1.2

                                           = 1813 cal/day

Since the women has no exercise, her BMR is multiplied by 1.2, which gave her Cal/day should be 1813 cal.
If the womens activity level is moderately active (i.e. 1.55), then her Cal/day would have been 2342 cal. That means her intake should be 2342 cal/day and her calorie burn per day should be 831 cal (2342 - 1511 = 831). This is to maintain the weight. To loose weight, increase your activity level or burn your excess calories than you should be burning/taken.
Similarly your cal/day can be calculated using MD Mifflin and ST St Jeor equation(P(BMR) = (9.99m + 6.25h - 4.92a + s) cal/day where s is +5 for males and -161 for female).

Since all these equations give approximately the same calorie value, calculate your cal/day value using one of the equations and keep a track on your daily calorie intake. Let us think your goal calorie intake should be 1802 but your intake is 3000 cal. Donot directly reduce your cal intake from 3000 to 1802.

This is the wrong way of loosing the weight.Reduce the intake day by day.Weight yourself after a month and adjust your diet accordingly. If you think your loosing or gaining weight too fast, increase or decrease your calorie diet acordingly.

CALORIE OVERVIEW

First lets start with what a Calorie is. The calorie is commonly known as unit of food energy. Food energy is the amount of energy in food that is available through digestion. Most of them think loosing weight is reducing calorie intake and increasing physical activity. May be this is because not knowing exactly what a calorie is.
This blog is about learning how many calories to be taken and how many excess calories to burn each day.
Keep a track of your daily intake of Calories starting from breakfast to latenight snacks. Do not miss your
tiny-bitty snacks between because everything counts. Do this for a week and you will know how many less or more calories you had been consuming than the actual. For this you should be aware of how much amount of Calories should be taken per a day. This depends on your basal metabolic rate also known as BMR.
Next post will be about what a BMR is and how we calculate BMR. And also using Activity Levels.
Pls visit my 'BASAL METABOLIC RATE' and 'DAILY CALORIE CONSUMPTION USING ACTIVITY LEVELS' posts.