When trying to decide how many calories you want to consume each day, it is helpful to know first how many you burn throughout the day. If you sat around watching tv all day, you would still burn a large amount of calories just from breathing, your heart pumping, digesting food, and other metabolic functions. There is a formula that you can use to figure this amount. You can also google "basal metabolic rate calculator" for calculators that will do this for you. Here is the formula:
Women: 655+ (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years).
Men: 66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)
As an example, I am 150 pounds, 66 inches tall, and (almost) 39 years old. So my calculation would look like this:
66 + (6.3 x 150) + (12.9 x 66) - (6.8 x 39) =
66 + 945 + 851 - 265 =
1597
So I would burn about 1600 calories just by laying in bed all day!
Of course, none of us lay around all day...
So to modify this number for activity, simply pick a modifier to multiply by from the list below:
1.25 if you are lightly active
1.4 if you exercise almost every day
1.6 if you are a full time construction worker (sorry, operating a backhoe doesn't count) or a professional athlete (not an armchair quarterback).
So in my case again I would multiply 1600 x 1.4 = 2240.
If the math is stressing you, find an online calculator and just plug in your weight, height, and age. Good luck!
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