Regardless of If you’re looking to gain lean muscle mass, lose body fat or just remain at your current physique to do so you need to understand how many calories your body needs in order to obtain this goal.
To do so is incredibly simple but as simple as it is very few people actually know how many calories there body requires on a day to day basis. To work this out we first need to work out our basal metabolic rate (BMR).
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)
BMR refers to the amount of calories your body expends while at rest, this means the amount of calories you’re body needs for vital functions without weight gain or weight loss if you were to sit still all day and not move.
This might not seem relevant as you won’t ever just sit still all day however it gives us a perfect starting point to factor in other aspects of day to day living to give a more accurate reading.
There is a simple formula for working out your BMR which factors in height, weight, age and gender and is proven to be quite accurate for establishing the amount of calories needed to maintain your current weight. However trial and error will always play a factor in establishing more accurate quantities based on each individual (this formula does not take into account lean body mass for example).
This simple formula is below in metric;
Metric BMR formula:
Women: BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kilos ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) - ( 6.8 x age in years )
This simple formulation will give you a base figure for the calories needed in order to maintain weight while at rest in order to get a more accurate measurement we have to factor in your activity level and to do this we use a second formula called the Harris Benedict Equation (HBE).
Harris Benedict Equation (HBE)
This formula takes your BMR and utilises varying levels of activity in order to obtain a more accurate reading these are shown below.
Multiply your BMR by the activity factor below:
1 - If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
2 - If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
3 - If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
4 - If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
5 - If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9
Once you know the number of calories needed to maintain your weight, you can then workout the number of calories you need to eat in order to gain or lose weight:
A general guideline to gain or lose roughly 1lb of bodyweight a week is to add on or take off 500 calories daily from your calculated daily requirements. This will allow you to add on weight at a good pace without adding excess fat and also when reducing the calories will allow you to lose weight at a good rate without losing muscle.
As with all aspects of training and nutrition you really need to be open to testing and workout exactly what works for you as an individual but the calculations above will give you a relatively accurate starting point in order to start your testing.
