Whether you gain or lose weight depends on how much you eat and how many calories you burn with your physical activities. If you have a sedentary lifestyle, your body requires fewer calories than someone who has an active lifestyle. For example, professional athletes must consume numerous calories throughout the day if they want to maintain their current weight. Before making any radical adjustments to your diet, consult your doctor or nutritionist to ensure that your body will get all the nutrients it needs.
Step 1
Use a weight scale to find your current weight. Low-end models might be inaccurate, so find a reliable scale you can trust. If you do not own one, ask your doctor or a fitness expert at a gym to help you find your exact weight.
Step 2
Multiply your body weight by 11 if you are male, or by 10 if you are female. The resulting number is your resting metabolic rate, or RMR. It is an estimate of how many calories your body burns when completely sedentary, according to the University of California, Los Angeles. In other words, if you consume this many calories during a day in which you perform no physical activity, you will maintain your current weight.
Step 3
Multiply your RMR by an activity factor to determine how many calories you burn when you perform your typical daily activities. UCLA provides a table of activity levels and their corresponding factors. For example, a low-activity lifestyle has an activity factor of 1.3 for both women and men. A moderate activity level, defined by UCLA as moderately intense exercise performed for about one hour a day, four to five times a week, results in an activity factor of 1.6 for women and 1.7 for men. At the top end of the scale, intense physical training performed for many hours each day results in an activity factor of 2.2 for women and 2.4 for men.
Step 4
Use your result to estimate your daily caloric needs. Your result is roughly how many calories you need to eat every day to maintain your current weight at your typical level of physical activity. In other words, if you eat fewer calories than your result indicates, or if you increase your activity level while eating exactly that number of calories, you will lose weight. If you eat more calories than your result indicates, or if you decrease your activity level while eating exactly that number of calories, you will gain weight.
Tips and Warnings
- If you have a target weight you want to reach, substitute that number for your current weight in the steps above. Your result will be the number of calories you need to eat at your current activity level in order to reach your target weight.
- UCLA notes that the numbers it provides are rough estimates. Body types and needs vary, so consult your doctor or a nutrition expert for specific recommendations suited to your physiology and lifestyle.
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