To maintain weight, you must burn as many calories as you eat. You don't have to track every calorie; with a nutritious diet and active lifestyle, you will naturally find your ideal weight.
Food Diaries
Keeping a detailed food diary helps you track the number of calories you typically consume in a day. From there, you can adjust your calorie consumption to match your expenditure.
Basal Metabolic Rate
Humans expend more than 1,000 calories a day for basic functions such as breathing, thinking, circulation and digestion. The number of daily calories it takes just to stay alive is called "basal metabolic rate" (BMR) or "resting metabolic rate" (RMR).
Harris-Benedict Principle
The Harris-Benedict Principle factors in an individual's age, sex, height and weight, then adjusts for activity level to calculate BMR.
Cunningham Equation
The Cunningham Equation uses lean body mass to calculate BMR, and factors in calories burned through exercise and non-exercise activity separately. This formula is less conservative than the Harris-Benedict principle and is appropriate for active individuals. (Follow the "Practical Sports Nutrition" link in the References section to see both formulas.)
Rounding
People consistently underestimate their calorie intake and overestimate activity level. Round down when estimating the calories you burn, and round up when calculating calories eaten.
Member Comments