Whatever our sports objective is, learning our daily caloric expenditure is fundamental to achieving it. Once we know how to calculate our daily caloric expenditure, we will be able to know if we are following an adequate training and nutritional plan or if changes need to be made.
Learning how to calculate it is fundamental to develop personalised plans. These plans help us improve our performance.
A person who wants to lose weight does not have the same needs as a person who wants to gain muscle. But there are also other factors to consider. Hence the importance of customizing our planning as much as possible, so that it helps us achieve our goals in the best possible way and as quickly as possible.
How is the Basal Metabolic Index calculated?
There are several ways to calculate the daily caloric expenditure, today we will explain the most used.
Before calculating the daily caloric expenditure we have to calculate the consumption of our Basal Metabolism (MB). The MB is the calories that our body would consume during a day if we did nothing, if we were, for example, lying on the sofa all day.
We would only consume the calories needed to perform the vital functions to be alive, such as breathing, pumping the blood with the heart, etc.
There are several factors to take into account when calculating the MB: sex, age, weight, height … The amount of certain hormones or body temperature can also vary the MB.
One of the most used formulas to calculate the MB is the Harris-Benedict equation and it is the following one:
- Women: 655 + (9.6 x weight (Kg)) + (1.8 x height (cm)) – (4.7 x age)
- Men: 66 + (13.7 x weight (Kg)) + (5 x height (cm)) – (6.5 x age)
You must bear in mind that this formula is for people who have a body fat percentage of 15%.
If your percentage of fat is higher, you should reduce by 21 kcal for each extra percentile. If, on the other hand, your percentage of fat is lower, you should increase by 21 kcal for each percentile less.
How to calculate the caloric expenditure?
Now that we know our basal metabolism, we must calculate our daily caloric expenditure. To do this, we use another formula that Harris-Benedict also proposes, which distinguishes between people who do sport daily and those who do not do any physical activity:
- For people who do not do daily sports, the caloric expenditure = MB x 1.2
- For those who do sport between 1 and 3 times a week, caloric expenditure = MB x 1.375
- Those who do sport 3 to 5 times a week, their daily caloric expenditure = MB x 1.55
- If you train between 6 and 7 times a week, you should = MB x 1.725
- For those who train hard and also twice a day, they should use the formula = MB x 1.9
Once we have learned how to calculate our daily caloric expenditure, we will have to adjust our diet and training.
For those who want to lose weight, they should take in less calories than they consume daily. Therefore, they should know how many calories they get from each meal they eat and the calories they burn when they train. At the end of the day, the sum of the calories eaten should be less than the total calories consumed.
If your goal is to gain weight, you should do the opposite, taking in more calories per day than your body consumes in a day.