Common wisdom dictates that in order to lose weight you must consume fewer calories than you burn, but it can be tricky to figure out how many calories you actually burn in a day. It's important to learn the formula, since estimating only a few hundred calories wrong in one direction can put a dent in your weight loss or weight management strategies. If you're having a hard time losing weight, it's somewhere in the math.
Instructions
Instructions
1. Calculate your basal metabolic rate (the number of calories your body burns naturally without you doing anything extra.) The most common formula is the Harris-Benedict formula:
Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wt. in kg) + (5 X ht. 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)
2. Download an activity calorie chart. There are many charts available online to allow you to calculate your activity calorie burn. (See Resources section for a chart you can use.)
3. Weigh yourself. Take your weight and use the following formula to calculate your activity calories for the day:
(activity calorie burn information from activity calorie chart) x (your weight) x (number of minutes spent performing activity)
4. Add BMR to activity calories to calculate your true calorie burn for the day.
Tags: activity calorie, calculate your, calorie burn, your weight, activity calorie burn, activity calorie chart