Learning how to calculate your energy needs is pretty straight forward and there are plenty of online calculators that can help give you an estimate.
In fact, the NHS recommendation is approximately 2000 calories per day for females and 2500 for males.
That’s the easy part, but what does 2000 calories look like in terms of food and drink?
It’s one of the most important skills to learn, and can be adapted depending on whether your goals is to lose weight, gain muscle or to simply maintain your current weight.
This can be where people tend to stumble and working with a nutrition coach can help you get to grips with this.
Understand how much energy your body needs
Firstly, there are two terms I need to explain:
Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the amount of energy your body needs to function at rest so if you did nothing but lie in bed all day, your body would still be burning energy.
This is because you still require energy for breathing, digestion, and regulation of temperature etc.
Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) takes into consideration your BMR as well as your activity levels and exercise levels on top.
So it’s the total amount of calories you need to cover your total daily energy output.
When all of this has been factored in, this will give you an estimate of the amount of calories you need in order to maintain your current weight.
I use the word “estimate” because there is no way of knowing 100% what the exact amount is because energy is dynamic.
Energy balance can only really be tested over time through trial and error.
How to calculate your energy needs
There are plenty of online energy calculators to help you work this out.
When working with clients, I use the Harris Benedict equation. This takes into consideration, your age, sex, height, weight and exercise levels as well as the type of job you have (active or inactive).
I use the full calculation to get the most accurate result, but for the purpose of keeping things simple the following formula gives a reasonable correct figure:
Men: BMR = weight in lbs x 11
Women: BMR = weight in lbs x 10
Let’s base an example on a female who wants to maintain her current weight of 10 stones (140lbs) using the formula it would work out as follows:
140lbs x 10 = 1400
So, her BRM would be around 1400 calories per day. Remember this is what you need in order to function at rest, so next, we need to factor in her activity levels.
Again, there are more accurate methods I would use to calculate this, so to keep it simple, I would suggest choosing from the following:
- Light to no exercise = BMR x 1.2
- Light exercise (1-3 days per week) = BRM x 1.375
- Moderate exercise (3-5 days per week) = BMR x 1.55
- Heavy exercise = BMR x 1.725
- Very heavy exercise (twice per day, extra heavy workouts – BMR x 1.9
The majority of people are probably going to fall into the “light to no exercise” and “light exercise” categories.
Using the same example of 140lb female who does light exercise, would work out as follows:
1400 x 1.375 = 1925 calories
From this, we now know, that for this female to maintain her current weight of 10 stone (140lb) then she will need to be consuming roughly 1900 calories each day.
This is an estimate and will need to be adjusted by monitoring weight over time. A good rule to follow is to eat within 100kcal either way of that and fine-tune as needed.
Don’t forget that the type of job you have will also greatly influence this figure.
For example, if you have a desk job and are sat down for 40hrs per week, you will need less calories than a person with a more manual job, such as a postman or builder.
It’s easy to work out on paper but can be more difficult to put into practice unless you are accurately tracking your food and drink.
Working out your macros
Knowing your calorie balance also doesn’t give you the appropriate breakdown of your macronutrients (amount of carbohydrates, protein, and fat).
For example, if your goal is weight loss then you need to elevate your protein intake as losing muscle mass is much more of a concern when in a calorie deficit.
If you’d like to know exactly how much protein you need and the best sources click here.
Let me know what you think and leave a comment below to share your experiences.
