If you hit “no” when asked if you know what your body fat percentage is, then you used Mifflin St. In the calculator above, you’ve got the option of using one of two formulas to work out your BMR: It’s your base: it’s just the amount of calories you need to keep your organs functioning and it’s what you’d burn if you just lay in bed all day, not fidgeting, and not getting out of bed to pee. This refers to the amount of calories your body burns doing absolutely nothing. Alexander Raths/Shutterstock Your Basal Metabolic Rate That’s why we came up with this nifty calorie calculator that takes your basal metabolic rate - the amount of calories your body burns at rest - and combines it with the number of calories you burn when you go about your daily routines and workouts. Sure, you can guess at how much food you need, but hunger isn’t always a good indicator of energy requirements, and a cavalier approach to body composition will produce less than ideal goals: less muscle and more body fat than necessary. If your weight hasn’t changed, you’ve been eating the right amount of calories for your activity level. If your weight has changed, toggle the number as needed.

In other words, read this article, stick to your number, weigh yourself every day, and see how much your weight changes over a week or two. It’s a very good estimate, but because we all have slight differences with regard to how we metabolize food, how much energy we require to perform certain tasks, and so on, the intention of these (very highly regarded formulas) are to give you a place to start from. If you’re wondering how we took that information and turned it into an amount of energy you need, well, for starters you should know that this number is a rough estimate. Speak with your physician if you have any concerns. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. Very intense exercise: 2+ hours of elevated heart rate activity.Įditor’s note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it shouldn’t take the place of advice and/or supervision from a medical professional. Intense exercise: 45-120 minutes of elevated heart rate activity. Exercise: 15-30 minutes of elevated heart rate activity.

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