Maintaining a healthy body weight all comes down to balancing your calorie intake. You must take in as many calories each day as you burn. Your body is constantly burning calories throughout the day to perform its basic processes, such as breathing and digestion. Exercise also burns a significant number of calories, so the best way to determine how many calories you need each day to maintain your weight is to determine your basal metabolic rate, or BMR.
BMR
Your basal metabolic rate is a measure of how many calories your body needs each day to perform all of its basic functions. In other words, it's a measure of the number of calories your body needs each day if you were to lie in bed the entire day. It factors in your height, weight, age and gender. You can use a free online BMR calculator to quickly and easily determine your BMR score. However, since you probably don't lie in bed all-day every-day, other factors need to be considered.
Harris-Benedict Equation
After you've determined your BMR, you need to factor in how active you are on an average day. That's where the Harris-Benedict Equation comes into play. This formula was developed early in the 20th century as a way to estimate with relative accuracy a person's basal energy expenditure, or BEE. This is a complicated way of combining your BMR with your daily calories expended through day-to-day activities like exercise, walking and other physical activities.
Weight Maintenance
The number of calories you need each day to maintain your current weight can be determined by multiplying your BMR score by the Harris-Benedict Equation factor that most closely resembles your physical lifestyle. For instance, sedentary people who are not very active during the day would multiply their BMR score by 1.2 to determine their calorie target. Moderately active individuals who exercise three to five days per week multiply their BMR score by 1.55. If you work a physical job or work out intensely nearly every day of the week, multiply your BMR by 1.9 to get a relatively accurate depiction of how many calories you need to maintain your current bodyweight.
Foods
Although a calorie is a calorie whether it comes from a 200-calorie ice cream sundae or a 200-calorie bowl of vegetables, it's important to focus on the healthy calories. Nutritionally dense foods include whole grains, vegetables, fruit, low-fat dairy, lean cuts of meat and nuts, seeds and legumes. Avoid foods high in sugar, saturated fats, sodium and trans-fats. Choosing healthy calories will ensure you remain in good health while maintaining your body weight at the same time.
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