Calorie Counting
Why count calories?
It is the simplest way of monitoring your food intake!
To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume each day.
To gain weight you must consume more calories than you burn each day.
The most important aspect of calorie counting is knowing your Personal Total Daily energy expenditure (TDEE). This is the level where your calories burned will equal the number of calories consumed.
Use the Harris- Benefit formula to work out your Basic Metabolic rate and times it by your activity level.
- Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) – (6.8 x age in years)
- Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 x wt in kg) + (1.8 x ht in cm) – (4.7 x age in years)
Activity Factor
- Sedentary BMR x 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
- Lightly active BMR x 1.375 (little exercise/sports 1-3 days/week)
- Mod. active BMR x 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week)
- Very active BMR x 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/week)
- Extremely active BMR x 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job)
Now that you know your Daily Calorie needs you can adjust your calorie intake according to your goals.
- To keep your weight at its current level, remain at the same level.
- To lose weight create a calorie deficit by reducing your calories slightly and increasing your activity level.
- To gain weight slightly increase your calorie intake and perform resistance training to ensure you increase lean muscle.
It’s all too easy! The only trick is you must concentrate on eating the right foods in regular intervals to reach your target!
Simon Bungate | C2K PT Co-ordinator | 30 Sept 2008
