There are hundreds and thousands of different diets in the world that range from high-fat Keto to plant-based vegan diet. The BetterMe app can offer you a customized meal plan based on your preference and goals. It can offer you numerous healthy recipes, but, whatever the content of your diet plan, your extra pounds will not disappear without a calorie deficit. To understand whether you are choosing the right calorie limit for yourself, you need to know the number of calories you burn daily. Calories Burned Calculator is a simple tool for calculating burned calories based on your gender, age, and exercise level.
How To Calculate Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure?
Total Energy Expenditure, or TEE, consists of 3 aspects: physical activity-related energy expenditure (PEE), which includes non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), and exercise activity thermogenesis). Another two components are your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and Diet-Induced Thermogenesis (DIT).
This may sound complicated, but don’t be scared – you won’t need to count all of these parameters to figure out how many calories you burn daily.
NEAT simply refers to the number of calories burned without exercising. For example, when you are sitting on the couch reading your favorite book, you burn 42 calories in half an hour if you weigh 155 pounds (70kg). Your body is spending energy even when it seems like you’re doing nothing because it needs the energy to maintain vital functions. NEAT and EAT make up about 30% of your TEE.
Fortunately, you don’t have to count the number of calories you burn for each activity throughout the day – that would be quite tedious. Instead, you only need two parameters: your BMR and your PAL, Physical Activity Level.
How To Calculate Your BMR?
To calculate your BMR, use the Mifflin St-Jeor equation, which is considered the most popular and accurate. Here’s how it goes:
- For women = 10 × your weight in kg + 6.25 × your height in cm – 5 × your age in years – 161
- For men = 10 × your weight in kg + 6.25 × your height in cm – 5 × your age in years + 5
Doesn’t look difficult, right? Now, let’s get back to calculating your TEE.
How to calculate your TEE?
The formula is very simple: you just need to multiply your BMR by your Physical Activity Level, or PAL.
-
TEE = your BMR × your PAL.
So, you already know how to calculate your BMR. Let’s clarify what PAL means and how to determine it. Fortunately, it’s even simpler than BMR – you just need to choose a number that refers to your physical activity level.
Physical Activity Levels
There are three physical activity levels:
Sedentary or light activity lifestyle
This lifestyle is typical for people who do not engage in regular physical activity at work or at home. You don’t walk long distances, and you don’t exercise regularly. You commute to work by car or bus, rather than walking or cycling, and your way to relax is lying on the couch scrolling through social media. If this sounds like you, use numbers between 1.40 and 1.69 to calculate your TEE.
Active or moderately active lifestyle
This lifestyle includes more daily physical activity, but still not too much. For example, if you are a construction worker, you spend more energy and are more physically active than an office worker simply because of the nature of your work. Plus, regular exercise also puts you in this category. You can walk or bike quite a lot. If you think this sounds like you, use the numbers 1.7 to 1.99 to calculate your TEE.
Vigorous or vigorously active lifestyle
This lifestyle applies to those who lead an extremely active lifestyle. For example, if you are a farmer who works with an ax for several hours a day and also spends several hours a day carrying heavy loads, you might be in this category. If you are an athlete or dancer who spends a lot of time training, you also belong to this category. If this is about you, use numbers between 2 and 2.4 when calculating your TEE.
Calculating TEE
So, now you can easily calculate your approximate TEE using your BMR and PAL.
For example, if you’re a 40-year-old woman, your weight is 70kg, your height is 165 cm, and you’re leading a moderately active lifestyle, here’s how many calories you’re burning every day.
10 × 70 + 6.25 × 165 – 5 × 40 – 161 = 1370 calories. That’s your BMR. Now multiply it by 1.7 and you get 2329 calories.
Consuming less than 2329 calories while maintaining the same lifestyle should trigger weight loss.
Keep in mind that you need to know your weight in kg and your height in cm. One inch equals 2.54 cm, so you need to multiply your height by 2.54 to get your height in cm. One pound equals 0.45 kg. To get your weight in kg, multiply your weight in pounds by 0.45.
Final thought
Calculating your approximate TEE is very simple, you just need two parameters – your BMR and your PAL. But once you’ve found out the number of calories you burn daily, you need to choose a balanced dietary plan to follow and the correct number of calories to satisfy all your nutritional needs. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, adult women need between 1600 and 2000 calories per day in order to support basic functions of the body, maintain the ability to resist diseases, and avoid any kinds of nutrient deficiencies. So, if you’re a woman from the example above, you can safely follow a diet within this range and lose weight. Following extremely low-calorie diets is not recommended since it is harmful and ineffective (your weight will come back).
You can skip the calorie counting and get down to dieting. How? With the help of the BetterMe app! It will count your caloric needs for you and provide you with a personalized diet and workout plan. You can read the terms of the subscription here.
